The best back-to-school laptop of 2025 is cheaper than ever, $650 off a monster RX 9070 XT gaming PC and more — Power Picks

We’re back with a bang. Today’s power picks are significant, as you can get $200 off my favorite budget laptop (a great back-to-school buy), a beasty AMD RX 9070 XT gaming PC for $650 off, 35% off one of the best gaming mice you can buy, and much more!

But first, I need to warn you about something in my first of a (hopefully) not long-running segment — bad deals watch.

Bad deals watch — don’t buy this 🚫

So I’ve seen certain tech sites covering this Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3 deal for 74% off. It’s a big number to brag about that does get you on Google News, but there are so many red flags that make this a do not buy.

• 40GB DDR5 RAM!? The IdeaPad Slim 3 has never shipped with this, and if you look further down the specs, you see it labeled as SO-DIMM (something totally different)
• Ships from EliteComputer: A quick look at the storefront reviews shows a lot of 5-star reviews that look a little suspicious, while a look at the 1-star reviews reveal a little more about the origin of the brand and how there’s non-existent customer service after buying it.
• No U.S. reviews: The international reviews that are available (mostly originating from Saudi Arabia) look either bot farmed or, given the age of them, are a review of a different product that was on this same page, which the retailer has switched out.

But I’ve found something that is so much better — cheaper, more powerful and brand new with an actual warranty. It’s a great get for back to school or for all your productivity needs.

Oh, and those power picks I found on Friday? Yeah, they’re still available! That means you can still bad $700 off the MSI Aegis gaming PC with RTX 5070 power, and $200 off the M4 MacBook Pro.

But for now, let’s get into today’s top deals.

Show me today’s best deals

• Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x (Snapdragon X): was $749 now $549 @ Best Buy
• Skytech Azure Gaming PC (RX 9070 XT): was $2,499 now $1,849 @ Newegg
• Razer Basilisk V3 Pro wireless gaming mouse: was $159 now $103 @ Amazon
• MSI Inspire GeForce RTX 5070 Ti: was $929 now $789 @ Newegg
• Razer BlackShark V2 HyperSpeed wireless gaming headset: was $129 now $94 @ Amazon

Today’s power picks

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Jason brings a decade of tech and gaming journalism experience to his role as a Managing Editor of Computing at Tom’s Guide. He has previously written for Laptop Mag, Tom’s Hardware, Kotaku, Stuff and BBC Science Focus. In his spare time, you’ll find Jason looking for good dogs to pet or thinking about eating pizza if he isn’t already.