Watch out for these common cut corners laptop manufacturers like to make when shopping for deals

Shopping smart almost always involves looking around for the lowest prices for any given model. If the same 2025 HP Envy x360 15 model is available for $200 less from one retailer versus another, for example, then most shoppers are likely going to go with the less expensive retailer. Unfortunately, it's not uncommon for laptop makers to quietly change a few aspects of the cheaper configuration to reach those attractive "sale" prices.

The biggest difference we frequently see when reviewing laptops sent by manufacturers versus laptops purchased from retailers on sale is the color coverage of the display. Models on sale are sometimes equipped with lower-end panels covering well under 100% sRGB versus the same model retailing for much more. Wide color coverage is often advertised but not often listed in the specifications on retailer websites and so this silent downgrade can be easy to miss. The aforementioned HP Envy x360 15 is a perfect example as the model retails for $1000 at Sam's Club and $1250 directly from HP, but Sam's Club doesn't mention that its cheaper system is using a lower-end panel without full sRGB colors.

The second biggest downgrade involves shipping with single-channel RAM instead of dual-channel. This is another trick that's easy to miss as most retailer websites only advertise the total RAM and not the mode they are running on. RAM performance heavily impacts integrated graphics performance and so even a casual gaming experience can be greatly hindered if playing on a system running on single-channel memory. This should fortunately become less common on newer Intel laptops as there is no single-channel option on most Lunar Lake models, but single-channel 8 GB or 16 GB RAM can still be found on many laptop deals ranging from multimedia to gaming machines. You'll want to look extra closely at the specifications before clicking the purchase button on any popular deals.