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If there’s one Apple product line where the recent price hikes hit the hardest, it’s the MacBook. Rising RAM and storage costs have pushed laptop prices up across the board, which makes scoring a new MacBook on sale all the more mission critical.
While we expect the deepest discounts on Apple tech to come once Black Friday sales start to ramp up early next month, plenty of models are quietly on sale on Amazon right now if you can’t wait that long. In fact, a handful of these laptops are cheaper than they were during October Prime Day a couple weeks ago.
Of course, not all MacBooks were created equal. While the standard MacBook Air is great for most, those who are planning on running hardcore software might be benefit from a beefed-up MacBook Pro (at 20 percent off, it’s the steepest deal right now). And if budget is your primary concern, we’re of the opinion that the MacBook Neo is a worthy buy, even at full price.
MacBook Air
Now 12% Off
The MacBook Air packs Apple’s M5 chip into a fanless, 2.7-pound frame that handles heavy multitasking and light video editing without breaking a sweat. Base storage doubled to 512 GB this year—a great upgrade for storing more apps, photos, and files—and the 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display is sharp and vivid. You also get a 12 MP Center Stage camera that’s great on video calls, WiFi 7 for fast downloads, and up to 18 hours of battery, enough for a busy workday and then some. It won’t replace a MacBook Pro for serious creative work or gaming, but for school, business, and general use, it’s the one to get.
MacBook Pro
Now 8% Off
Step up to the MacBook Pro and you get a 14.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR display with 120Hz ProMotion, up to 24 hours of battery, three Thunderbolt 4 ports, HDMI, an SD card slot, and up to 2 TB of storage. Why go Pro over the Air? The GPU is fast, which makes a difference when editing video, working with high-res photos, or gaming, and the XDR screen is significantly brighter. If your daily workload has started becoming too much for the Air to handle, this is where you should look next. If you want the biggest, most powerful model possible, souped-up MacBook Pros are up to $900 off.
MacBook Neo
The MacBook Neo is Apple’s most affordable laptop, even with the recent price hike from $599 to $699. Although this model is not technically on sale (we’re holding out hope for a Black Friday deal), it’s still an easy recommendation for anyone looking for their first Mac. It runs on Apple’s A18 Pro chip and is surprisingly quick for browsing, sending email, and streaming video. The 13-inch Liquid Retina display looks great for the price, and the battery lasts a solid 16 hours. It also comes in four fun colors, with the yellow-green citrus being a fan favorite.
There are some trade-offs with going with Apple’s budget model, including storage that starts at 256 GB, just 8 GB of RAM, and no keyboard backlight. You also get only two USB-C ports, so getting a USB-C hub is a must if you plan to connect a lot of accessories. Spending an extra $100 gets you a Neo with 512 GB of storage and a Touch ID sensor for quick unlocking. For students or anyone who mostly sends emails and browses the Web, the Neo is hard to beat.
