It’s easy to underestimate the power of an OLED panel when it comes to portable devices like laptops. They can offer a big boost to usability and the quality of the visuals, and they’re also becoming more affordable as time goes on. The best OLED laptops can still cost a fair bit of money, which is why we do what we can to find all of the best deals and discounts out there.
How does an OLED panel achieve this goodness? A quick primer: The pixels in an OLED display can be completely turned off, which means the panel can produce absolute blacks and contrast ratios superior to an LCD screen (where the liquid crystal can only block some of the light). Even an LCD with local dimming can’t match an OLED’s ability to turn individual pixels on and off. OLED displays also offer a wide color range because primary colors can hit higher saturations that let the display produce more colors. Higher saturation levels lead to more vibrant colors, and with more colors on its palette, an OLED panel can create more accurate colors.
Another advantage? OLED displays feature thinner layers than LCDs and don’t require a backlight, which allows for thinner and lighter laptop designs.
Read more: Best Laptop Deals at Amazon, Best Buy and Newegg
You might reasonably think that an OLED is more energy-efficient than an LCD because it doesn’t need to power a backlight and can turn individual pixels completely off. We have found that OLED displays tend to hurt battery life. They do offer decent battery life; you just can’t expect to get a longer runtime from an OLED laptop in addition to the higher image quality.
With a basic understanding of the advantages of an OLED laptop, let’s take a look at the best deals right now. I’ve included mainstream laptops that have approachable prices, along with high-powered laptops that are currently selling at a discount and a Chromebook. Yes, you can get an inexpensive Chromebook with an OLED display. The prices and discounts are valid at the time of this writing, and I’ll update this story as sales expire and new deals emerge.
Now onto clearance. This Samsung Galaxy two-in-one touchscreen laptop has a big discount and some great specs to sport. For well under $1,400 you get an Intel i7 13th-gen processor, a 16-inch screen, 16GB of RAM, 19-hour battery life, a 1TB SSD and an Intel Iris Xe graphics card.
Lenovo’s Slim Pro 7 is one of the more affordable premium options on the market right now, especially with this discount. It has a 14-inch 90Hz display with a resolution of 2,560×1,600 pixels and is powered by an AMD Ryzen 7 7000 series. Inside, there’s 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD, so there should be plenty of power to get you through your daily tasks and some extras.
This configuration of the XPS 16 is a serious challenger to your average MacBook. It comes with a very powerful Intel Core Ultra 9 processor, one of the best on the market, as well as an RTX 4060, which is a midrange GPU. If that wasn’t enough, the 16.3-inch screen runs at a 3,840×2,400-pixel resolution, and Dell even throws in 32GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. Overall, this is probably one of the most versatile laptops out there with an OLED panel.
The Razer Blade 16 is an incredibly powerful gaming laptop with a beautiful OLED screen, an Intel i9 processor, 32GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD and an Nvidia RTX 4080. This thing will keep you gaming on very high settings for a few years to come, and they’ll all look incredible on the screen.
The HP Spectre is a great laptop for people who mostly want versatility from their new device. The touchscreen and geared hinge mean that you can easily use this in a wide range of ways and at different angles, and that makes it great for streaming, work and study.