This week's 12 best laptop deals in the US and the UK — my top picks from Lenovo, Apple, Microsoft, Asus, and Acer

I've finished my weekly search across the web for all of the best laptop deals available right now, and I've whittled it down to 12 top picks in the US and the UK.

Whether you want a super-cheap option, a great value budget machine, or a performance powerhouse, there should be an ideal laptop for you right here — with several choices that would work well for work, school, college, or home use.

If I had to pick one, then this Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x at Best Buy for $549.99 (was $849.99) is my top recommendation in the US.

It's a powerful and modern machine with a super-efficient Snapdragon CPU that ensures great performance and exceptional battery life.

For the UK, I'd go with this Lenovo IdeaPad Chromebook at Argos for £269 (was £399).

It's definitely a more entry-level choice, but it offers a surprising amount of power for the price, including 8GB of RAM, so it can more comfortably handle everyday jobs and light work.

Those are just two of the best laptop deals I've found this week that I think are worth the cash.

Have a browse through all of my top picks below for more.

US laptop deals IdeaPad Slim 3 Chromebook: was $529 now $299 Display - 14 inches Processor - MediaTek Kompanio 540 RAM - 8GB Storage - 128GB Here's a fairly basic and well-priced Chromebook that comes with a welcome bump up to 8GB of RAM to help boost performance.

It's still best-suited to general use because of the entry-level processor and limited storage space, but it's up to the job of web browsing, light work, writing documents, and streaming media.

Plus, you get the superior battery life of up to 18 hours with this Chromebook, compared to similarly priced Windows machines.

View Deal Display - 15.3 inches Processor - Intel Core 3 RAM - 8GB Storage - 128GB This Lenovo Chromebook Plus is great value for money if you need a basic everyday device but don't want to compromise too heavily on performance like you would with a sub-$200 laptop.

An Intel Core 3 processor and 8GB of RAM are a decent pairing with the lightweight ChromeOS, so it's capable of general tasks and light use, such as web browsing, sending emails, word processing and watching videos.

Just be aware that it's missing some advanced features of a Windows machine and has limited storage, but benefits include better performance with cheaper components and excellent battery life.