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Amazon is selling the M2 MacBook Air 13″ model with 16GB RAM for just $749.99, taking $250 off the $999 retail price from Apple. Like many great Amazon deals, they tend to shift quickly, so if you’ve been thinking of getting a 16GB model MacBook Air now might be the time. To get the deal ... Read More

Apple's 1TB M4 MacBook Pro 14-inch is eligible for a material early Black Friday discount at Amazon, along with savings on the 2024 Mac mini M4 and a record low price on the 13-inch MacBook Air 16GB.

In what is the steepest price drop we've seen on the 14-inch M4 / 16GB RAM / 1TB SSD spec, Amazon has shaved $145 off MSRP when you order the laptop in the Silver colorway.


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The lowest prices of the year are here well before Black Friday, with MacBook Air models with 16GB RAM dropping to as low as $749.99.

Amazon's aggressive early Black Friday deals on current MacBook Air models deliver rock-bottom pricing on specs that include 16GB unified memory.

Buy from $749.99


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As of Nov. 12, Apple’s 2024 MacBook Air with the new M3 chip is $200 off at Amazon, priced at $899.

It's rare that you'll find discounts on Apple products through the company's own retail channels, but other storefronts are often happy to slash prices on such wares. You can find early Black Friday deals on a bunch of Apple products, including MacBooks. The M3 MacBook Air with 16GB of RAM has dropped to its lowest price to date at Amazon. The laptop will run you $899, which is $200 off the list price.

This is a 13-inch MacBook Air with 256GB of storage. Other configurations with more storage space are on sale too. One with 8GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD is $300 off at $999, though we'd recommend having at least 16GB of memory. It's not possible to upgrade the RAM in an Apple Silicon MacBook, but you can always add external storage if need be.

To that end, you can snag a 13-inch M3 MBA with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of built-in storage for $1,099. If a model with 24GB and the same SSD is what you're looking for, you can snap one up for $1,299. Both are $200 off.

Apple just released its first M4-powered Macs, but it has yet to slot the latest chip into the MacBook Air. To that end, we reckon the 13-inch M3 MacBook Air is the best laptop for most people. It's our pick for the best laptop for college students too.

The 13-inch MBA's blend of power and portability makes it a potent choice and we gave it a score of 90 in our review. It delivers fast performance and has a killer display. The design is sleek and sturdy and it sounds great thanks to a quad-speaker array. We like the trackpad and keyboard as well, while the upgrade to Wi-Fi 6E connectivity is a definite plus. Our main quibble is that the USB-C ports are on the same side of the unit as the one for the charger — having even one USB-C on the right side would be handy. But that's a minor complaint about an otherwise excellent laptop.

Check out all of the latest Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals here.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/the-m3-macbook-air-with-16gb-of-ram-is-on-sale-for-899-ahead-of-black-friday-154922025.html?src=rss

Prices start at $699 for Apple Silicon 'M1' based Mac Mini, $999 for Macbook Air, and $1299 for the 13-Inch MacBook Pro.

The original sleek and slim notebook is geared up with more power in 2022

A slim entrant to the Apple Silicon lineup 

Powerful, portable, and long-lasting battery, perfect for productivity on the go

Apple recently updated the 13-inch MacBook Pro, and the $1,299 base model remains a popular alternative to the $999 MacBook Air. To help with your buying decision, read our comparison of the notebooks below.


The differences between the base 13-inch MacBook Pro and the MacBook Air are quite nuanced, with each notebook possessing some unique features.

What's the Same

• 13-inch Retina display with 227 pixels per inch and True Tone support


• Magic Keyboard with reliable scissor switch design


• Force Touch trackpad


• 2 × Thunderbolt 3 ports


• 3.5mm headphone jack


• 256GB of SSD storage standard, configurable up to 2TB


• Touch ID


• T2 security chip


• 720p webcam


• 802.11ac Wi-Fi, also known as Wi-Fi 5


• Bluetooth 5.0


• Three-microphone array with directional beamforming


• Dolby Atmos surround sound

Advantages of Base 13-Inch MacBook Pro

• The display supports the P3 wide color gamut for more vibrant and lifelike colors


• The display is brighter at up to 500 nits vs. 400 nits on MacBook Air


• Touch Bar


• Slightly better sounding speakers

Advantages of MacBook Air

• Up to 11 hours of battery life vs. 10 hours on base 13-inch MacBook Pro


• Weighs slightly less at 2.8 pounds vs. 3.1 pounds for base 13-inch MacBook Pro


• Faster RAM: 3733MHz LPDDR4X vs. 2133MHz LPDDR3 for base 13-inch MacBook Pro


• 6K display support vs. 5K on base 13-inch MacBook Pro

Unlike the MacBook Pro, the MacBook Air also has a gold color option.

Performance

Generally speaking, the MacBook Air remains best suited for lightweight day-to-day tasks like web browsing and creating spreadsheets, while the MacBook Pro is better equipped to handle more intensive tasks like rendering large video files. This is not only because the MacBook Pro has faster processors than the Air, but also because it has a more advanced thermal design for dissipating heat inside the computer.

While the MacBook Air has been updated with Intel's latest 10th-generation processors, the base 13-inch MacBook Pro continues to use older 8th-generation processors. However, the Air uses lower-wattage Y-series chips with lower clock speeds, so the Pro still has faster overall performance, as confirmed by benchmarks.

Geekbench 5 scores for the latest 13-inch MacBook Pro and MacBook Air configurations:

• MacBook Air / 1.1GHz dual-core Core i3: 1,002 single-core and 1,998 multi-core


• MacBook Air / 1.1GHz quad-core Core i5: 1,055 single-core and 2,645 multi-core


• MacBook Air / 1.2GHz quad-core Core i7: 1,102 single-core and 2,843 multi-core


• MacBook Pro / 1.4GHz quad-core Core i5: 927 single-core and 3,822 multi-core


• MacBook Pro / 1.7GHz quad-core Core i7: 1,036 single-core and 3,909 multi-core

Takeaways:

• The base model 13-inch MacBook Pro for $1,299 has up to 91 percent faster multi-core performance than the base model MacBook Air for $999


• If considering the MacBook Air, upgrading to the quad-core Core i5 option is well worth the extra $100, as it is up to 32 percent faster than the base model and more closely rivals the base 13-inch MacBook Pro

Geekbench 5 scores are calibrated against a baseline score of 1,000, which is the score of an Intel Core i3-8100. Higher scores are better, with double the score indicating double the performance. Compare with other Mac benchmarks here.

Bottom Line

If you value portability and up to an extra hour of battery life, and are willing to sacrifice some performance, the MacBook Air is a relatively good value. Just remember to consider spending an extra $100 on the quad-core Core i5 processor option, as the $999 base model is equipped with a particularly sluggish dual-core processor.

For more intensive tasks, the 13-inch MacBook Pro's faster processors and more advanced thermal design will allow you to push the limits more without the fans running obnoxiously. You'll also get the Touch Bar, a brighter and more vibrant display, and slightly better sounding speakers with high dynamic range.
This article, "Base 13-Inch MacBook Pro vs. MacBook Air" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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