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Best Buy Selling M1 MacBook Air for $650, a New All-Time Low Price

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Best Buy is selling the 13-inch M1 MacBook Air for $649.99, which is the lowest price that we've seen to date on the machine. Best Buy's price drop comes just hours after Walmart started selling the M1 MacBook Air for $699.

M1-MacBook-Air-Deals-Feature-Warm.jpg
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Just after Apple announced the new 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air models, Best Buy started selling the M1 MacBook Air for $750, so the price has come down $100 in the last 10 days. The model that Best Buy has for $649.99 is the entry-level version with 8GB Unified Memory, an 8-core CPU, a 7-core GPU, and a 256GB SSD.



Apple discontinued the M1 MacBook Air on March 4, which is why we're seeing such low prices on remaining inventory. The M1 MacBook Air first came out in 2020, so it is four years old at this point, but the Apple silicon chip is still more than adequate for day-to-day tasks. $649 is a great price for those who want to get an Apple silicon Mac while also saving some cash.

As the M1 MacBook Air is no longer being manufactured, available supply is likely to dry up soon. For deals on other Macs, make sure to check out our dedicated Deals Roundup, which we updated regularly.

Article Link: Best Buy Selling M1 MacBook Air for $650, a New All-Time Low Price
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2024/03/15/best-buy-macbook-air-all-time-low/
Honest question: if you had a like new 2020 Intel i5 four thunderbolt ports MacBook Pro model 16/512GB, would you replace it with an Apple silicon model today? I am offered $725 for it today.

I love absolutely everything about it (especially its loudspeakers - its replacement must have equally good speakers if not better)…

…except 1) how hot it runs, 2) how terrible the webcam is, and 3) the sluggish 60hz screen now that I’ve gotten spoiled by 120hz.
 
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If you actually click the link, you can't even get one. It says Shop Open Box for all 3 colors. Which I guess means it is still available at a lower price for used but new in box doesn't seem to be available in stores or online, at least in my neck of the woods.
 
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MuckrakerJG said:
If you actually click the link, you can't even get one. It says Shop Open Box for all 3 colors. Which I guess means it is still available at a lower price for used but new in box doesn't seem to be available in stores or online, at least in my neck of the woods.
Click to expand...
Costco has the same price as BB but no inventory. :-(
 
stealthytolkien said:
Honest question: if you had a like new 2020 Intel i5 four thunderbolt ports MacBook Pro model 16/512GB, would you replace it with an Apple silicon model today? I am offered $725 for it today.

I love absolutely everything about it (especially its loudspeakers - its replacement must have equally good speakers if not better)…

…except 1) how hot it runs, 2) how terrible the webcam is, and 3) the sluggish 60hz screen now that I’ve gotten spoiled by 120hz.
Click to expand...
I went from a 13" 2018 i5 MBP to a 14" M1 Pro MBP and the difference is night and day. Even under heavy load, like playing games in Parallels/Windows on ARM, the laptop gets warm and the fans come on but it's never hot and loud like the 2018 model was. It's insanely fast and the speakers sound even better than the last unit's.

That being said I replaced the 2018 because I under-specced it when I bought it; I needed more RAM and more storage. If your unit still runs great despite those annoyances you have then keep it and save up for a solid upgrade to an M4 or M5 model.
 
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Gruber says Walmart’s deal, at least, is not excess stock and Apple is continuing to manufacture it exclusively for them. They never sold it to begin with so it wouldn’t make sense for them to just start with leftovers, and per Gruber, Cook keeps stock as low as possible so there wouldn’t even be much to give them.

My guess is Best Buy’s price is actually a stock-clearing move; it wouldn’t make sense for them to undercut Walmart if they had a similar deal with Apple and it was going to be a continuing thing.
 
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Great general purpose computer for the money. There can't be much in the Windows space at this price that comes even close to what you get with an M1 Air with it's build quality and feature set.

I hope Apple is watching - MacOS market share is under 20% and if we could get to a circa $500 MacBook option I'd bet that would change. A lot of people don't buy them because they are perceived as expensive.
 
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They should keep the M1 MBA around. Make it retail for 699 at MSRP. And allow the BestBuy's and Walmarts to promo it on their own dime. It would be a great answer and tremendous value prop to most of the sub $1000 Windows/Chromebooks and chew up market share of the low end.
 
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MuckrakerJG said:
If you actually click the link, you can't even get one. It says Shop Open Box for all 3 colors. Which I guess means it is still available at a lower price for used but new in box doesn't seem to be available in stores or online, at least in my neck of the woods.
Click to expand...
Open box is new just means it could’ve been used a display etc. should still
Have full benefits if a new one
 
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tonywalker23 said:
stealthytolkien, When I started grad school in 2019, I had a 2018 MacBook Pro (forget the specs). Apple gave me I think 750 trade in and it made the m1 Air $12 a month for 12 months on Apple Card. I thought what do I have to lose. Was blown away.
Click to expand...
Same. I bought 2019 16" MBP 64GB RAM 1TB SSD and thought Apple Silicon was going to be a gimmick. Amazing to watch my base M1 MBA beat it just booting up alone.
 
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ZiBart said:
They should keep the M1 MBA around. Make it retail for 699 at MSRP. And allow the BestBuy's and Walmarts to promo it on their own dime. It would be a great answer and tremendous value prop to most of the sub $1000 Windows/Chromebooks and chew up market share of the low end.
Click to expand...
They should make a Macbook SE and sell it permanently for $750 - $799 using the old M1 chassis but with an M2 chip instead.
 
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stealthytolkien said:
Honest question: if you had a like new 2020 Intel i5 four thunderbolt ports MacBook Pro model 16/512GB, would you replace it with an Apple silicon model today? I am offered $725 for it today.
Click to expand...

If you're asking if you should consider swapping your 2020 Intel for this MBA? I don't know much about how the speakers compare, you can live without 4 ports, and you don't mind losing half of your storage, it's an attractive swap. The 8GB M1 Air will do no worse than your 16GB Intel MBP and the battery will barely break a sweat in the process.

I ran an 8GB 13" M1 MBP against a 32GB 2019 i7 Vega20 and the M1 more than held its own.
 
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I wonder if Walmart selling Macbook Air's at a very reduced price is some sort of pilot test for a cheaper MacBook under 1000, I think that Apple really wants to target the education market with these prices. I would love a Macbook SE with the older design, current M series chip at the time of launch, for around $599-699.
 
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stealthytolkien said:
Honest question: if you had a like new 2020 Intel i5 four thunderbolt ports MacBook Pro model 16/512GB, would you replace it with an Apple silicon model today? I am offered $725 for it today.

I love absolutely everything about it (especially its loudspeakers - its replacement must have equally good speakers if not better)…

…except 1) how hot it runs, 2) how terrible the webcam is, and 3) the sluggish 60hz screen now that I’ve gotten spoiled by 120hz.
Click to expand...
M series Macs are a magnitude better. Under no circumstances should anyone buy an Intel Mac.
 
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I ordered from Walmart as soon as I saw an article about it earlier on another news site. This will be my first MacBook in years and I bought it mainly to toy around with iOS development before spending big money on a MacBook Pro. My household has been a Linux only household for years other then my kids gaming laptop so I normally use Thinkpad's.
 
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