Amazon Takes $200 Off M2 MacBook Air, Get it for Just $799

[dannyyankou]

There's no requirement that the iPhone have a contract/service fee (beyond the 1 month needed to get the discounted price) either if you don't need a mobile wireless connection. Just connect it to Wi-Fi (at home, work, library, Starbucks, etc) as you would the MacBook.

Right, I’m just responding to the price comparison though. In order to get the price savings on the 16e you linked to, you essentially need to sign up for a contract with Total Wireless and stay with them for 12 months to get the bill credits.

Which isn’t really that great of a deal when you do the math. You need to sign up for their $60/month plan, so after buying the iPhone for $299 and bill credits, it works out to $839.

Comparatively, you can buy the phone outright and use Total’s BYOD promotion to get their 5G unlimited plan for $25/month. The price comes out to about $899.

So the “free” iPhone 16e deal is only saving you about $60. And I’m not sure I would commit to a full year with a carrier just to save $60, especially if I’ve never been a customer of their’s before.

 

[CausticSoda]

I have an M1 MBA with 16GB/512GB that I bought as a refurb for $800 in 2021. I actually prefer the charger to be USB-C rather than Apple's proprietary charger. I'll save my money and hold on to my MBA M1 for a long while, I believe.

That's a very good point about the charger! I will add that to my long list of reasons to keep my M1 MBA for as long as possible.

Edit - just seen the other comments about USB-C charging. My list is still long enough though.

 

[Student of Life]

Micro Center has the M3 MacBook Air at the same price-

Apple MacBook Air 13" MRXV3LL/A (early 2024) 13.6" Laptop Computer - Midnight; Apple M3 8-Core CPU; 8GB Unified - Micro Center

Get it now! Lean. Mean. M3 machine. MacBook Air sails through work and play - and the M3 chip brings even greater capabilities to the worlds most popular laptop. With up to 18 hours of battery life, you can take the superportable MacBook Air anywhere and blaze through whatever youre into.

www.microcenter.com

This is an 8gb 256 m3

The Amazon deal is
16gb 256 m2

 

[dannyyankou]

This is an 8gb 256 m3

The Amazon deal is
16gb 256 m2

Fair point, I didn’t notice that. But I’m not sure I would buy an M2 MacBook now since it’s going to be 3 generations behind in about 7 months.

I would spend the extra $100 to get the M3 with 16gb of memory at PC Richard and Son-

Apple - MacBook Air 13-inch Apple M3 chip Built for Apple Intelligence - 16GB Memory - 256GB SSD - Midnight | P.C. Richard & Son

Buy the Apple MC8K4LL-A MacBooks at P.C. Richard & Son. Shop now for the guaranteed lowest prices on MacBooks from Apple.

www.pcrichard.com

 

[sw1tcher]

Right, I’m just responding to the price comparison though. In order to get the price savings on the 16e you linked to, you essentially need to sign up for a contract with Total Wireless and stay with them for 12 months to get the bill credits.

No, you do not. You obviously don't know how the deal works or didn't read carefully.

You only need to pay for 1 month of the Platinum plan to get the instant $300.00 savings.

If, and only if, you stay with Straight Talk for a full 12 months you will get an additional discount of $300 on top of the original $300 discount.

If you do not pay for a 2nd month of service, your out-of-pocket cost will only be $359.99 or $364.99, plus any applicable taxes and fees, as I explained here and here.

Which isn’t really that great of a deal when you do the math. You need to sign up for their $60/month plan, so after buying the iPhone for $299 and bill credits, it works out to $839.

Comparatively, you can buy the phone outright and use Total’s BYOD promotion to get their 5G unlimited plan for $25/month. The price comes out to about $899.

So the “free” iPhone 16e deal is only saving you about $60. And I’m not sure I would commit to a full year with a carrier just to save $60, especially if I’ve never been a customer of their’s before.

You're doing the math wrong. The price is either:

(A) $599.99 (for iPhone 16e) + $65 (for 1 month of Platinum Unlimted service plan) - $300.00 discount = $364.99 + any taxes and fees

OR

(B) $599.99 (for iPhone 16e) + $60 (for 1 month of Platinum Unlimted service plan with $5.00 auto pay discount) - $300.00 discount = $359.99 + any taxes and fees


Here's a screen shot showing the $300.00 instant discount with only 1 month of Platinum Unlimited plan.

 

[UltimaKilo]

Micro Center has the M3 MacBook Air at the same price-

Apple MacBook Air 13" MRXV3LL/A (early 2024) 13.6" Laptop Computer - Midnight; Apple M3 8-Core CPU; 8GB Unified - Micro Center

Get it now! Lean. Mean. M3 machine. MacBook Air sails through work and play - and the M3 chip brings even greater capabilities to the worlds most popular laptop. With up to 18 hours of battery life, you can take the superportable MacBook Air anywhere and blaze through whatever youre into.

www.microcenter.com

Even this is difficult to justify, but given the leap between the M2 and M4, I'm not sure why someone would opt for the M2 right now.

 

[dannyyankou]

No, you do not. You obviously don't know how the deal works or didn't read carefully.

You only need to pay for 1 month of the Platinum plan to get the instant $300.00 savings.

If, and only if, you stay with Straight Talk for a full 12 months you will get an additional discount of $300 on top of the original $300 discount.

If you do not pay for a 2nd month of service, your out-of-pocket cost will only be $359.99 or $364.99, plus any applicable taxes and fees, as I explained here.

Oh I get what you’re saying. In that case though, Boost has a deal on the iPhone 15 where you get it for $299 when you sign up for their unlimited premium plan for $60/month. I believe there isn’t a commitment as long as you don’t finance it.

So that would come out to about the same price. If you don’t care about Apple Intelligence, that might be a better buy. Brighter screen and better camera capabilities, plus MagSafe.

And no ultra wideband chip, which would be a dealbreaker for me since I use AirTags a lot. No precision finding.

 

[sw1tcher]

Oh I get what you’re saying. In that case though, Boost has a deal on the iPhone 15 where you get it for $299 when you sign up for their unlimited premium plan for $60/month. I believe there isn’t a commitment as long as you don’t finance it.

So that would come out to about the same price. If you don’t care about Apple Intelligence, that might be a better buy. Brighter screen and better camera capabilities, plus MagSafe.

And no ultra wideband chip, which would be a dealbreaker for me since I use AirTags a lot. No precision finding.

You finally got it. Yes, it's the same deal with Boost Mobile and iPhone 15 for $299.

The only issue is if you want to have mobile phone service at some point down the road. For the iPhone 16e from Straight Talk, it will automatically unlock at 60 days with only that 1 month of service you already paid for. Then you can use it with any service provider.

The drawback with Boost Mobile is you need to have 12 months of consecutive mobile service to be eligible to have any phone unlocked. So you're basically stuck with Boost until then.

 

[mathiasinthe314]

delete. Already addressed

 

[Howard2k]

Looks like the M3 there is the 8GB RAM version and Amazon’s M2 has 16GB of RAM. Decisions. Decisions.

16GB.

Even if Apple Intelligence is pretty weak today and you opt not to use it: 1) It's going to improve and you might change your mind, and 2) with 16GB being the current base standard we're going to see app developers look to leverage that, I have to imagine.

The 8GB M3 will have a faster processor and faster storage, but I think that extra memory is going to become important.

 

[segfaultdotorg]

It should be half off considering it’s two generations behind.

 

[dannyyankou]

You finally got it.

Ok…

 

[antonrg]

I've had the M2 MBAir since launch and it is the best computer I have ever owned - fast, capable, slim and beautiful.

Feels brand new even after 2.5 years of daily use.

My wife has the 14" M3 MBP and it is a freaking brick compared to the Air.

Heavier yes, but far better screen, better speakers and ports that are necessary for those who buy these computers with purpose. MBA is a good machine, but it doesn’t compare to a MBP

 

[wanha]

Heavier yes, but far better screen, better speakers and ports that are necessary for those who buy these computers with purpose. MBA is a good machine, but it doesn’t compare to a MBP

I agree, it's ultimately about the value of the total package in relation to the use case.

 

[Velli]

Dumping stock

If you can wait, I'd continue to do so with the M4 MBAs coming any time now

I’m willing to bet money M4 Air will start at 1199.-. Inflation prices kick in when new models launch. 799.- for an M2 16GB is a pretty good deal. On the other hand, I’m also willing to bet it will still be available after M4 launch, so you can wait and the reassess.

 

[MacBH928]

$0.644/gram for the MacBook Air
$3.524/gram for the iPhone 16E.

Since we're in the land of silly comparisons 😀

why silly?

a smartphone that can run instagram and imessage with 6.1 screen

OR

a full fledged computer with 13inch screen, 16hr battery usage, M2 processor, that you can use for personal or business?

the only advantage of the iphone is the camera.

 

[MacBH928]

You mean around $500 more

how is it $500 more? 16E is $699 (256GB), the M2 MBA is $799 (256GB) . paying in installment does it make it less expensive.

 

[Howard2k]

why silly?

a smartphone that can run instagram and imessage with 6.1 screen

OR

a full fledged computer with 13inch screen, 16hr battery usage, M2 processor, that you can use for personal or business?

the only advantage of the iphone is the camera.

Because they're materially different devices. One is a smartphone, one is a laptop.

 

[MacBH928]

Because they're materially different devices. One is a smartphone, one is a laptop.

one is "budget" phone and one is a business machine. The point is the difference in pricing between high value product and low(er) value product. For example you can not say its silly to compare a $1000 pen to a $1000 laptop , because the laptop is higher value and does so much more for same price.