Best Office Depot and Office Max Black Friday Laptop Deals

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Office Depot and OfficeMax have a handful of compelling, low-cost laptop deals planned for Black Friday.

According to the joint holiday ad issued by the retailers, which merged in 2013, they feature brands such as Dell, HP, and Lenovo.

None of the models featured here is especially high-end, but they’ll do a good job if you’re more inclined to browse Facebook than edit photos using software such as Adobe Lightroom.

Unlike other retailers, Office Depot and OfficeMax will not stagger the deals using different start times, making it a little easier to plot out your day.

The deals kick off online at 12:01 a.m. EST Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 28) and begin in brick-and-mortar stores at 8 a.m. on Black Friday (Nov. 29). Most of the deals are available online and off, so feel free to pick the option that's most convenient for you.

Below is a curated list of the retailers' best Black Friday laptop deals (arranged from least to most expensive).

11.6-Inch HP Chromebook
The deal: $100 at Office Depot/OfficeMax
That sales price is about $100 less than this Chromebook usually sells for. We haven’t tested the model, but based on the specs (an Intel Celeron processor, 4GB of memory, and 16GB of flash storage) and the performance of other HP Chromebooks in our labs, it should be adequate for light tasks like browsing the web and editing text documents. But don't expect to do anything more ambitious than that.

15.6-Inch HP laptop
The deal: $330 at Office Depot/OfficeMax

This is a traditional laptop that usually goes for $550. While we haven’t tested it, similar HP laptops have generally done well in our ratings. The model has an Intel Core i3 processor, 8GB of memory, and 256GB of solid state storage, making this well-suited to most everyday tasks like browsing the web and working with office productivity apps. For more labor-intensive jobs (say, photo editing or gaming), an Intel Core i5 processor is the better option.

15.6-Inch Lenovo IdeaPad S145
The deal: $350 at Office Depot/OfficeMax
This laptop generally sells for a little more than $500. It’s relatively inexpensive, in part because it uses a processor from AMD instead of Intel. (After making inroads on gaming desktop computers, AMD is inching its way into laptops now.) The laptop's specs—including a Ryzen 5 processor (roughly similar to an Intel Core i5), 8GB of memory, and 256GB of solid state storage—permit it to handle everyday tasks with ease; you might not want to use it to edit high-res video, however. We tested a model with slightly higher specs (including an Intel Core i7 processor) and had no major complaints.

15.6-Inch Lenovo IdeaPad S340
The deal: $450 at Office Depot/OfficeMax
This laptop from Lenovo usually goes for nearly $800, making this one of the better deals offered by Office Depot/OfficeMax. Packed with power, the model features an Intel Core i7 processor, 8GB of memory, and 256GB of solid state storage. That means you can do just about anything with this laptop, with the exception of graphics-heavy gaming and hard-core video editing, because there’s no dedicated graphics card. We tested a similar model (with a slower Core i3 processor) and had no major complaints.

14-Inch Dell Inspiron
The deal: $400 at Office Depot/OfficeMax
That's about $100 in savings for this laptop. It's a 2-in-1 convertible, which means you can bend the keyboard behind the touchscreen display and hold the unit like a tablet. The model has modest specs: an Intel Core i3 processor, 4GB of memory, and 128GB of solid state storage. But as long as your computing needs aren’t too fancy—some Facebook here, some Microsoft Word there—it will do the trick. We tested a similar model (with a much more powerful Core i7 processor) and found no big issues. 



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