If you’re looking to pick up a new laptop before the summer comes to an end, the best Labor Day sales for you have already arrived. Considering Labor Day usually coincides with many summer and back-to-school sales, right now is actually one of the best times of the year to find savings on premium laptops, 2-in-1s, tablets, and Chromebooks. Retailers like Dell, Lenovo, and HP have already dropped the full force of their sales with discounts on XPS 13 and Spectre x360 laptop deals leading the charge. If you’re looking for a solid Microsoft device, however, Amazon’s Labor Day sale is offering price cuts on the Surface Pro 6 and Surface Laptop 2.
The Microsoft Surface Pro 6 is one of our favorite 2-in-1 laptop/tablet hybrids due to its compact design, processing power, and high-performing features. One complaint we did have was the Surface Pro 6’s ability as a stand-alone tablet, but if you pair it sturdy keyboard of the Surface type cover, you won’t need to worry about that. This tenacious 2-in-1 boasts a sleek design, with a 12.3-inch, 2736 x 1824 PixelSense 10-point touchscreen, and rear- and front-facing cameras measuring 8.0 and 5.0 megapixels, respectively. Integrated microphones and stereo speakers provide a laptop-like audio experience in a tablet-sized package.
On the inside, the Microsoft Surface Pro 6 is powered by the venerable 8th Gen Intel Quad Core processors, with Windows 10 as its operating system, offering a higher level of flexibility than its Apple MacBook or Android counterparts. With 8GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD, you get all the storage and performance users have come to expect from Microsoft’s Surface line of laptops and tablets. The four-cell lithium-ion battery enables 13.5 hours per charge, so the perfectly portable Surface Pro 6 is unlikely to power down on you when you’re on the go.
Considering how much laptop hardware has slimmed down over the past few years, it’s no surprise that ultrabooks like the Microsoft Surface Laptop 2 are quickly becoming the future of portable PCs. The MacBook Air was one of the first to jump on this trend, but Apple is no longer the only game in town, and the Surface Laptop 2 is a solid alternative for all those Windows users out there. It has all the excellent build quality that we love about the Microsoft Surface series, right down to its beautiful 3:2 display, premium materials, 8th-gen Intel Core CPU, and generous battery life.
The Surface Laptop’s keyboard is especially great. This is particularly noteworthy as poor keyboards are a regular problem with these lightweight laptops. A $200 discount knocks the Microsoft Surface Laptop 2 down to just $799 on Amazon right now, letting you score the Platinum grey model with 8GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD for $200 off.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.
I've spent a good amount of time digging into the spec sheet of the new M6 MacBook Pro (14-inch), and for all intents and purposes, this is a classic Apple "chip and connectivity" refresh. It's not a full redesign. The chassis, Liquid Retina XDR panel, speakers, ports, and battery, all of them carry over unchanged.
However, the M6 brings more cores, stronger on-device AI, higher memory bandwidth on the larger configs, and modern wireless. Here’s the practical rundown of what actually improved, and whether those gains are worth your money.
Two new highly requested iCloud plugins just got added to ChatGPT, giving people who rely on Apple’s Mail and Calendar services a way to search emails, check appointments, and manage their schedules directly through the chatbot.
The integration is rolling out to all ChatGPT plans, including the free tier. You can access it on the web, desktop, and iOS.