The best early-day deals on Asus laptops, desktops and more

No matter what your brand may be, it’s smart to take advantage of Amazon’s twice-yearly Prime Day sales events, and Asus is no exception. The Taiwanese megalith has a massive product reach, but on the consumer side, they’re best known for PC hardware. We’ve scoured their current listings to discover five of the earliest deals available right now, with updates coming when Big Deal Prime Days begin and throughout the event.

Asus makes solid laptops at a range of price points, and the Vivobook is the best choice for people who want a big screen and good functionality without a lot of weight. We reviewed a slightly different setup and had plenty of praise for it, saying it was “slightly faster than most of its similarly priced competitors and features an above-average selection of ports and decent battery life.” With a $200 discount, it gets even more competitive. The hardware noise here is exceptional for a laptop in this price range, with an Intel Core i7-1255U processor, a whopping 40GB of memory and a 2TB SSD.

In our review of the Strix Scope II, we said that this sleek and stylish unit “takes a place among the highest-end enthusiast gaming consoles” thanks to its compact frame that manages to contain a full-size keyboard in 96 % of size, exceptional battery life and hot-swappable switches that give you unparalleled customization. The metal top plate gives it real weight and durability, while the two-stroke PBT keycaps are responsive and wobble-free. The addition of a lubricated key stabilizer makes it even smoother to use. This is a real gem of a keyboard that’s 11% off right now.

What to expect during Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days event

If space is a concern or style isn’t, keep a mini PC in mind when you’re shopping for a desktop. These compact units use high-end components and excellent connectivity within a simple and compact form factor. We gave the NUC 14 Pro an “Excellent” rating in our review, calling it “a serious alternative to a traditional productivity PC” thanks to its Intel Meteor Lake CPU and space for multiple internal drives. This configuration comes with an Intel Core i7 processor, 32GB of DDR5 RAM, and a 1TB SSD, all with Windows 11 Pro.

Feel like your internet speed is lagging? Sure, you can hop on the phone with your ISP and increase your bandwidth, but a more affordable and effective way to improve your home’s efficiency is to switch to a mesh Wi-Fi network. Instead of pumping signal to all your devices from one router, these systems use multiple nodes that intelligently balance the load for optimal speed and stability. In our review of the Asus ZenWiFi 6E, we said that “it delivered very good all-time and signal performance in our tests, was easy to install, and comes with free lifetime anti-malware and parental control tools ” and awarded a coveted Editor’s Choice Award. This two-unit system covers up to 5,500 square feet and is on sale for 21% off.

Gaming machines are definitely a big part of Asus’ portfolio with their Republic of Gamers sub-brand, and we regularly rate both desktops and laptops highly. They’re definitely not for the casual, with aggressive styling and even more aggressive pricing, but a $500 price cut on a portable powerhouse is nothing to sneeze at. We reviewed the ROG Strix Scar 18 and said it was “built to be one of the most powerful gaming laptops the planet has seen to date,” with an Intel Core i9-13980HX processor, 32GB of RAM, a GeForce RTX 4090 GPU, and a 2TB internal SSD. It’s heavy and eye-catching, but it’ll use all your favorites with ease and the screen looks great.

Want to save even more money on hot hardware? Head to our deals page for all the top discounts.

About K. Thor Jensen

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K. Thor Jensen is a writer and cartoonist living in the Pacific Northwest. He has contributed to dozens of prestigious media outlets, including PCMag, Tested, Clickhole, and Newsweek. His second graphic novel, New storieswas published in 2017.

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