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3 Jul 2025

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Lenovo’s budget-friendly RTX 4060 laptop is an extra $300 off today
Finding the right gaming laptop can be difficult with so many options out there and so many factors to consider. And if price is a priority for you, it’s even harder—you want a good processor, enough RAM, and maybe even a dedicated graphics card, all without burning a hole in your wallet. Fortunately, here’s a deal you can jump on: the Lenovo LOQ 15IRX9 is only $800 at B&H right now (was $1,100). This laptop has a pretty standard 15.6-inch IPS display with 1080p resolution, but the 144Hz refresh rate is great for gaming—and you’ll be gaming well on this machine thanks to the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 dedicated graphics card. Sure, it’s not the newest or the best you can get, but it’ll let you take advantage of new tech like DLSS without breaking the bank. Given the price, you can’t really complain. What else do you get? An Intel Core i5 CPU (not bad, not great), 16GB of DDR5 RAM (adequate), 512GB of SSD storage (also adequate). This combo is enough to handle Windows 11, your work apps, your Chrome tabs, and your games without falling apart. The RAM and SSD are user-upgradeable in case you want to add more power. Other features include HDMI, USB-C video, three fast USB-A, 3.5mm headset jack, Gigabit LAN, and built-in Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2. The Lenovo LOQ 15IRX9 has always been quite affordable, but it’s even more enticing now that it’s only $800 at B&H. Snap to it and add this one to your cart before the deal vanishes into thin air! Save $300 on this affordable RTX-powered gaming laptopBuy now from B&H

Windows 11 killed WordPad, but Notepad is absorbing its formatting skills
For years, Notepad has existed as a bare-bones text editor. No longer. Microsoft keeps adding to it, including a new update that includes capabilities that you might have expected in another Windows application, WordPad. In May, Microsoft said in this blog post that it was adding “lightweight formatting” in Notepad, including Markdown input and file support, but also bold and italic fonts, bullet and numbered lists, and even hyperlinks, which would all be accessible via a new toolbar. According to Windows Latest, these features are now rolling out to all users outside the Windows Insider Program. Microsoft says the new features won’t gobble up resources or impact Notepad’s performance. Two things seem to be going on here. In late 2023, Microsoft killed off WordPad, the rich text editor that served as a poor man’s alternative to Microsoft Word. (There’s a way to bring WordPad back, but you’d need access to an older version of Windows where WordPad still exists.) Traditionally, Notepad has been the Windows answer to a lightweight text editor that coders can use or write in, although more sophisticated alternatives like vim exist. It seems Microsoft is adding more features to try and help those users, while moving towards a WordPad replacement. Microsoft, meanwhile, is bringing the Edit app to Windows as well. Edit is an open-source app that was basically designed as a command-line interface (or CLI) and Microsoft specifically referenced how obtuse vim was to use when announcing it. Either way, by beefing up Notepad—heck, even with Copilot!—and adding the Edit option as well, Windows is offering a number of lightweight CLI and text-editing interfaces without bloating the operating system even further. Editor’s note: This article was originally published on May 30 when the feature was announced, and updated when the new Notepad capabilities went live.

Best early Prime Day deals on SSDs and storage
Summer means leisure time, and what better way to spend it than upgrading your PC setup? If you’re eager to jump on SSD and storage deals now, you’re in luck—even though Amazon Prime Day doesn’t officially begin until next week, you can already score solid discounts on storage. Shopping now can be a smart move, too, given the potential for further uncertainty around prices. Tariff rates are set to change once again on July 9, which could increase costs in the second part of the year. The bargains you catch between now and the end of the Prime Day sale period (July 8-11) could be the best you’ll find for a while. Read on for the best SSD and storage bargains, and also check out our Amazon Prime Day 2025 deals hub for great sales in other tech categories. Want to know the best drives out there? Have a look at our top picks for the best SSDs of 2025 and the best external drives of 2025. Best early Prime Day 2025 deals on internal SSDs 2.5-inch SATA SSDs Teamgroup T-Force Vulcan Z, 1TB – $48 (26% off) TeamGroup T-Force Vulcan Z, 2TB – $87 (14% off) Teamgroup’s Vulcan Z line is a solid choice for expanding storage affordably. That’s especially true if you’re looking to store games, photos, and other files–these benefit from faster read/write times, but don’t usually need premium speeds. M.2 NVMe SSDs Crucial P3 Plus, 500GB Gen 4 – $40 (10% off) Crucial P310, 1TB Gen 4 – $60 (20% off) Samsung 990 Evo, 1TB Gen 4 – $70 (5% off) Nextorage NEM-PAB2TB/N, 2TB Gen 4 – $120 (52% off on Newegg) WD Black SN770M, 2TB Gen 4 (Steam Deck compatible) – $180 (30% off) SSD prices have largely held steady since last fall—a good thing given spring 2025’s fiscal volatility. So while the best prices now don’t match historical all-time lows, these are good prices on well-regarded drives. Best early Prime Day 2025 deals on external storage Samsung T7, 2TB USB 3.2 Gen 2 portable SSD – $150 (44% off) Crucial X10 Pro, 4TB USB 3.2 Gen 2 portable SSD – $272 (11% off) External storage sales haven’t started heating up just yet. But if you need faster external SSDs, a couple of deals already stand out—like the 2TB version of Samsung’s popular, fast T7, which is close to its all-time low price. SSD & storage deals FAQ 1. Why aren’t SSDs as cheap as they once were? The balance between demand and supply has shifted—with fewer drives on the market, prices drifted up over 2024. (Black Friday 2023 marked the end of a golden era.) The deals picked for this roundup may not always match those incredible 2023 prices, but they do hit a low for the period since the cost increases. 2. Do brands matter for SSDs and storage? Yes, but only to a point. Major manufacturers are generally reliable—think Samsung, Crucial, Western Digital (aka WD), SK Hynix, Corsair, Kingston, and even newer players like TeamGroup and Solidigm. Outside of that, you may be playing a bit fast and loose with your data’s longevity. However, everyone has that one horror story about a hard-disk drive that failed, and why they’ll never use, say, WD or Crucial again. That’s less commonly a manufacturing error, and more so a matter of luck. No drive is guaranteed to meet its life expectancy, which is why you should perform regular backups. 3. Is an SSD better than a HDD? SSDs are faster and take less room in a PC than a hard-disk drive (HDD), which gives them a strong edge. If you only have one storage drive in your PC, it should ideally be an SSD so you get faster boot times and quicker access to your files. A HDD as your primary drive will feel much slower. But HDDs still have their advantages. First, they’re much cheaper. The going price of a 2TB HDD is about the same as the sale price for a 1TB SSD. You also can get them in higher capacities than SSDs. If you work with huge files, you can pick up an 18TB or 20TB HDD (and as mentioned, since HDD cost less, you’ll spend as much or even less as a 4TB SSD). If you need secondary storage and you don’t need it to be fast, HDDs are a fantastic option. 4. How do I know if an SSD deal is good? Here’s the guideline we use for picking deals: First, it should be for an SSD that performs well (or in select cases, performs well for its MSRP), and is a reasonable price when not on sale. The discount should also be significant for that particular model. Ex: For SSDs that almost never go on sale, a reduction of $5 to $10 is already hefty. For others, that might be closer to $20 to $30. In other words, expect to pick up high-performing drives at an all-time low (or very close to that) during a Prime Day sale. Ignore the options that don’t meet this criteria. 5. Will tariffs affect SSD and storage prices? Possibly. As of this article’s publishing, the Trump administration intends to reinstate high tariffs on goods from many countries, which could impact SSDs. If implemented, costs could increase in the second part of 2025. The smartest strategy is to buy now if you know you need the upgrade soon, especially on any discounted drives that you like.