Every Christmas I see these ‘laptop deals’ pop up on Amazon – please don’t buy them, these deals are much better
Are you looking for a new laptop for your loved ones this holiday season? As Christmas approaches, there will be numerous holiday laptop deals available, making it challenging to navigate through all the sales and find the right device. While some of the best laptop deals will offer significant price reductions, it's important to be careful as not every deal is reliable and deserves a spot on our 'nice list'.
Imagine: you are browsing through the online jungle of offers and suddenly you come across this unheard of brand with amazing discounts. Tempting, right? Well, here's the catch: not every deal out there is as real as it seems.
Too good to be true?
While browsing Amazon's laptops page, you might come across a laptop brand known as SGIN, which offers some impressive discounts on pretty decent devices. For example, there's a 17.3-inch laptop with 24GB of RAM, 1024GB of SSD storage and a Celeron N5095A processor, currently 49% off, reduced from £899.99 to £459.99. If you're approaching this deal, go buy one without much of a computer background or are just looking for a laptop that looks good at a low price, you might be quite tempted by it, but don't be swayed just by the numbers on the discount tickets.
It could be a staggering price, from a brand called 'SGIN' that you've never heard of. You'll find several SGIN laptops with a fairly random collection of specs that are 58% and even 71% off their “original price.” It's like finding a hidden treasure, but you have to make sure it's not fool's gold!
I wouldn't recommend giving the brand a chance, no matter how good the deal seems. I only see these laptops popping up around sales season (Black Friday to Christmas), but they seem to disappear once the sale is done. If you're looking for good but cheap laptops, there are many deals on Amazon right now from brands you know and trust that match or even beat SGIN's discounts.
Don't worry: there are still plenty of offers
Of course, I'm not trying to put you off your Christmas shopping. If you're not sure where to start, our gift guide to the best laptop deals will help you find a deal to suit every budget. And if you want a little more information about each product before making a purchase, that page is your best bet.
I'll go into more detail about why you should be careful of suspect laptop brands on Amazon, but if you're looking for a laptop, should buy, here are my favorite deals right now – specifically the ones around the 'sale price' of the SGIN laptops, except, you know… actually worth buying.
The brands to avoid
If you're planning to drop a big chunk of change on a new device for you or your loved one, you want your laptop to be worth it and have a long lifespan. When I was younger, my family used to cut back on school laptops and invest in brands no one had ever heard of, and every year we had to spend more money on another laptop.
Geviar and GEO Computers are two other laptop brands that pop up when you browse Amazon for deals, and they follow the same pattern as SGIN's deals: deep discounts, suspiciously identical laptop images, and of course, bad reviews. Upon further investigation, it turns out that SGIN is actually just a brand name owned by a Chinese manufacturer called Shenzhen Oraako Electronic Technology – and that there are other brands like Bmax and KUU pulling the same stunts in different regions.
If you try to search for the official websites of Geviar or SGIN you will get a long list of sales links and then several YouTube videos of people urging you not to buy these laptops from Amazon!
Youtuber Dayo Aworunse I actually bought one of SGIN's laptops, and the unpacking process is… as you'd expect. There is actually grease from someone else's hand on the laptop that Aworunse unpacks, indicating that the laptop is being used by someone else before it is delivered.
The comments on the video above Dayo Aworunse they all reflect the same sentiment of 'don't buy', with some users commenting that Amazon should do more to rid the site of these 'scammers'. So be careful this holiday season: don't give anyone a dud gift!
More Christmas sales
- Amazon: up to 65% off technology and gifts
- Adidas: up to 60% discount on outlet clothing, shoes, clothing
- AO: up to 40% discount on vacuum cleaners, appliances and technology
- Argos: up to 70% discount on toys, Christmas decorations and technology
- Boots: half-price gift sets, gift vouchers and fragrances
- B&V: cheap christmas trees, lights, decor, wreaths
- Car Phone Warehouse: 120GB data for £12 per month
- Curries: up to 40% discount on TVs, air fryers, laptops and more
- Cotswolds outside: up to 50% discount on Patagonia, Rab, North Face
- Debenhams: up to 70% discount on home, fashion, gift sets
- Disney: up to 60% discount on Christmas sweaters, toys, decorations
- Ecopper: up to 40% discount on laptops, desktops and components
- John Lewis: £300 off TVs, Apple and Christmas decorations
- Jessops: up to £1,000 off Sony, Canon, Nikon and Fujifilm
- O2: up to £600 off iPhone, Samsung and Google
- Samsung: up to £600 off TVs, phones and appliances
- Shark: up to €100 discount on the best-selling vacuum cleaners
- Terribly: discounts on technology, appliances, furniture and beauty
- Vodafone: Six-month half-price SIM cards from £11.50