When Black Friday rolls around, it’s an excellent opportunity to snag a laptop at a bargain, but with so many options, finding the perfect one can be overwhelming. If you’re in the market for a machine with substantial memory—whether you’re an editor, designer, or content creator—you might want to check out these two stellar choices.
I’ve got a soft spot for HP’s Envy x360 16 ever since I took the older version for a spin a few years back. It’s a solid, budget-friendly option for everyday use. Normally priced at $1,349.99, this laptop has seen a hefty Black Friday markdown at Best Buy to just $899.99. For that price, you’re getting a Core Ultra 7 155H CPU, a whopping 32GB of LPDDR5-6400MHz RAM, and a 2TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD.
If you’re after a higher-res display and a bit more oomph in the CPU and GPU departments, Lenovo’s Yoga Pro 9i 16 is also catching eyes this season. Best Buy has knocked its price down from $1,699.99 to $1,299.99. These laptops are ideal if you’ve been grappling with memory constraints.
Now, let’s delve into why the HP Envy x360 16 is such a darling, even at its standard price tag. Every Black Friday, we’re bombarded with laptop deals left and right. The tricky part, though, is navigating through options that, at first glance, look great but are actually barebones with minimal RAM and storage. What I’ve managed to do here is sift through the fluff to bring you the gems.
The Envy x360 16 is a newer model following the 15-inch Envy I reviewed back in 2021. I was seriously impressed with what HP delivered at its price point, and the Envy lineup just keeps getting better. It’s a sleek, premium-feeling laptop, bringing all the flexibility of a convertible.
You’ll enjoy its comfy and precise keyboard and touchpad, vibrant top-firing speakers, and an array of current ports including Thunderbolt 4 and HDMI 2.1.
Inside, this version runs on Intel’s Core Ultra 7 155H CPU and features an NPU for AI processes, making it an “AI PC,” albeit not packing the juice for Windows 11’s Copilot+ tools. What sets it apart in this deal is its incredible memory and storage offering: 32GB of LPDDR5-6400MHz AND a 2TB SSD. While the RAM is fixed, feel free to enhance the SSD later.
With laptop memory upgrades becoming rarer, getting 32GB right out of the box is a boon for power users indulging in RAM-heavy tasks or multitasking on the regular. These days, 16GB just doesn’t cut it for serious photo editing and web surfing.
Thanks to a $450 discount at Best Buy, you can bag the Envy x360 16 for just $899.99. Even HP itself might have difficulty matching that deal.
On the flip side, if the Envy x360’s display isn’t up to your standards, let’s consider the Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i as an alternative. While the x360 offers a 1920×1200 resolution, touch support, and 300 nits brightness, the Yoga Pro 9i ups the ante with a 3200×2000 resolution and other enhancements.
Though not a convertible, the Yoga Pro 9i is superior in numerous other ways. It boasts a number pad, an enormous touchpad, and similar port offerings with Thunderbolt 4 and HDMI 2.1. Under its hood, it ramps up performance with an Intel Core Ultra 9 185H CPU and a discrete NVIDIA RTX 4050 GPU, compared to Envy’s integrated Intel graphics.
The RAM here is swifter at 32GB LPDDR5x-7467MHz. Storage-wise, it’s halved at 1TB, but like the Envy, you can expand it post-purchase. The display is where it really shines, with a brilliant 3200×2000 resolution, matching 165Hz refresh rate, 400 nits brightness, and touch feature, alongside Dolby Vision and 100% sRGB and DCI-P3 color support. Creators are going to be delighted with this one.
For $1,299.99 at Best Buy, you’re getting a seriously powerful machine with the Yoga Pro 9i. Yes, it’s $400 more compared to the Envy x360 16, but when you tally up those extras, it justifies the difference.
