There’s no denying that Black Friday is a great time to buy a laptop, but with so many discounted PCs it’s hard to find the right one. I know that a big chunk of memory is important for many users — editors, designers, creators, etc. — which is why these two laptops caught my eye.
HP’s Envy x360 16 has been a favorite of mine ever since I reviewed an older model a couple of years ago, and it’s an everyday affordable PC. However, Black Friday at Best Buy has dropped the regular $1,349.99 price to $899.99 for a model with Core Ultra 7 155H CPU, 32GB of LPDDR5-6400MHz RAM, and a 2TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD.
Need a higher-res display and extra power in the CPU and GPU departments? Lenovo’s Yoga Pro 9i 16 has dropped from $1,699.99 to $1,299.99 at Best Buy. If you’re having memory problems, these laptops are the solution.
🔥The hottest Black Friday deals🔥
Why I love HP’s Envy x360 16 even when it’s at full price
Black Friday is all about shoving as many deals as possible in front of our faces, especially when it comes to laptops. One common pitfall I often see involves PCs with the minimum amount of RAM and storage discounted to look like impressive deals. That’s what I’ve filtered out with these two deals.
More early Black Friday deals
HP’s Envy x360 16 is a successor to the 15-inch Envy model I reviewed in 2021. At the time I came away very impressed with what HP was offering for the price, and the Envy lineup has only improved in the last few years. It’s a laptop that feels every bit as premium as HP’s flagship laptops, and it brings the versatility of a convertible in tow.
The keyboard and touchpad are comfortable and accurate, the top-firing speakers provide clear audio no matter how you’re using the PC, and there’s a modern selection of ports, including Thunderbolt 4 and HDMI 2.1.
The model highlighted here is powered by Intel’s Core Ultra 7 155H CPU, complete with a Neural Processing Unit (NPU) for AI tasks. That classifies it as an AI PC, though it lacks the power to handle Copilot+ tools in Windows 11.
Memory and storage are the laptop’s strong points, at least for the discounted configuration. You get 32GB of LPDDR5-6400MHz RAM, as well as a 2TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD. The RAM is soldered, but the SSD can be upgraded further after purchase.
Considering memory upgrades in laptops are becoming evermore rare, a PC with 32GB from the factory will suit power users who regularly use RAM-intensive apps or who are into heavy multitasking. I often find that 16GB is no longer enough to handle photo editing and heavy web browsing.
The Envy x360 16 is riding a $450 discount at Best Buy, bringing it down to $899.99. Not even HP can beat that price.
🍁More great Black Friday deals🦃
- Best Buy: Big savings on video games, accessories, and more
- Walmart: Early savings on practically everything
- Target: Live deals on a huge range of products
- Dell: Top deals on laptops, gaming PCs, accessories, and more
- HP: Save big on laptops, desktops, accessories, and more
- Lenovo: Doorbuster deals on all Lenovo PCs, monitors, accessories, and more
- Newegg: Save on PC gaming accessories, components, and more
- Razer: Take advantage of free shipping for a limited time
- Samsung: Holiday deals on laptops, TVs, phones, and more are live
- Amazon: Constantly rotating sales on everything you can imagine
Why recommend the Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i as an alternative?
The main drawback to the Envy x360 that will affect some is the display. The 1920×1200 (FHD+) resolution, touch functionality, and 300 nits brightness will suit the average user, but some tasks demand a higher resolution. That’s where the Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 (Gen 9) steps in.
Despite the Yoga name, it’s not a convertible PC, so if you’d like to sometimes use your laptop like a tablet I’d stick with the Envy x360. It’s an upgrade in almost every other way. There’s a number pad attached to the keyboard, the touchpad is massive, and you still get top-firing speakers. Ports are similar to the Envy x360, with Thunderbolt 4, HDMI 2.1, and multiple USB-A.
Performance hardware and display are the standout ingredients. It’s built around a more powerful Intel Core Ultra 9 185H CPU (classifying it as an AI PC), and it adds a discrete NVIDIA RTX 4050 Laptop GPU instead of relying solely on integrated Intel graphics.
The 32GB of LPDDR5x-7467MHz RAM is faster, but you get half as much storage with a 1TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD. At least you can upgrade the storage after purchase. Turning to the display, it jumps up to a crisp 3200×2000 resolution, with a 165Hz refresh rate, 400 nits brightness, and touch functionality. It even has Dolby Vision support with 100% sRGB and DCI-P3 color. Creators are going to love this laptop.
Best Buy has the best price going for the Yoga Pro 9i 16, dropping the regular $1,699.99 price down to $1,299.99. You’ll spend $400 more compared to the Envy x360 16, but the extra features easily make up the difference.
