Deals: Apple's M1 13-Inch MacBook Pro Hits Record Low of $1,249.99 ($249 Off)

[MacRumors]

Today we're tracking a new all-time low price on the M1 13-inch MacBook Pro (512GB SSD), now priced at $1,249.99, down from $1,499.00. This sale is available in Silver and Space Gray, with quicker delivery available in the Silver color option (currently estimated for around April 22).

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

Shoppers should note that this sale price won't be seen until you hit the checkout screen and Amazon applies an automatic coupon worth $50. With this coupon, Amazon is providing a new best-ever price on this version of the 13-inch MacBook Pro, and no other retailer is currently matching.

Note: You won't see the deal price until checkout.​

M1 13-inch MacBook Pro (512GB SSD) for $1,249.99 ($249 OFF)​

Although the 13-inch MacBook Pro is now the oldest notebook that Apple sells, this model is still a good option for anyone who wants to join the MacBook Pro family but not spend the $1,999.00 entry price required of the 14-inch MacBook Pro models. As of writing, only the 512GB SSD 13-inch model is on sale.

If you're on the hunt for more discounts, be sure to visit our Apple Deals roundup where we recap the best Apple-related bargains of the past week.

Article Link: Deals: Apple's M1 13-Inch MacBook Pro Hits Record Low of $1,249.99 ($249 Off)

 

[Hkfan45]

Should be sub $1k at this point. Why buy this thing now for a small discount?

 

[ilikewhey]

almost 1300 for 8gb of ram ?

 

[Hkfan45]

Sucker born every minute.

 

[IIGS User]

almost 1300 for 8gb of ram ?

I have a 2018 MBP that has 8 GB of RAM.

That's a 4 year old computer.

I had to pony up and buy my own RAM to bring my 10yr old work desktop up to 8 GB Just so the Win10 box I'm saddled with at work is at least useable when more than one program and a web page is open.

 

[EugW]

I wonder if the retailers are trying to predict a new MacBook Air release for June.

Or maybe this odd duck 13" MBP just isn't selling all that well. I'm not sure how good the MBA trackpad is, but I'm guessing it's similar to the MBP trackpad now, and otherwise for most of the population the 13" MBA is a much better value than the 13" MBP.

I also wonder if the MBA update coming 'soon' will be M1 or M2, and if the 13" MBP will even exist after 2022.

 

[reyesmac]

Its all good when these products are new but when they have been around long enough to be refreshed you really start to see how the anemic base amounts of ram and drive space really are what turns you off from buying them. If Apple could put 10gb or 12gb of ram in it they would just to throw people a bone but not really. But since the next jump is to 16gb, something actually useful, they want to reserver that for their higher paying customers. Until sales tank or they find a way to jack up the price by $300 they won't be bumping up the specs. I wouldnt be surprised if they next prosumer laptops come with 16gb standard, are more expensive, and Apple will continue to sell the low end with 8gb of ram as standard but lower the price by $100.

 

[thormarketing]

I'd consider it over the Macbook Air if it came with 16GB, even with the giant price bump over a MBA.

 

[thormarketing]

I program on a 8GB MBA and it holds up most of the time. Occasionally Visual Studio Code will freeze and crash.

 

[EugW]

Its all good when these products are new but when they have been around long enough to be refreshed you really start to see how the anemic base amounts of ram and drive space really are what turns you off from buying them. If Apple could put 10gb or 12gb of ram in it they would just to throw people a bone but not really. But since the next jump is to 16gb, something actually useful, they want to reserver that for their higher paying customers. Until sales tank or they find a way to jack up the price by $300 they won't be bumping up the specs. I wouldnt be surprised if they next prosumer laptops come with 16gb standard, are more expensive, and Apple will continue to sell the low end with 8gb of ram as standard but lower the price by $100.

Well, it really depends on what you use it for. For my work desktop, since last year I've been using an ancient 2014 Mac mini with only 8 GB RAM (which I bought über cheap off eBay) as a stopgap after I ran into issues with my old 2007 Mac Pro, and it's been fine for my business type usage. I may run AppleTV+ and/or Safari YouTube, other Safari tabs, Pages, Messages, Apple Music, and Citrix VPN, plus a few other small apps. I sometimes throw Photos into the mix as well. I do have compressed memory and occasional small swaps, but memory pressure is green.

Last year I also bought my daughter a 2015 MacBook Pro with 8 GB and bought my wife a 2017 MacBook Air with 8 GB and they've also been totally fine. No complaints at all.

All three of these machines are running Monterey 12.3.

Personally, I don't think it makes sense at the lower end to start at 16 GB even in 2022 for the entry-level 13" MacBook Pro. 8 GB minimum is fine for those with lighter workloads, but those with moderate or heavier workloads and those who keep their machines a long time would be better suited with 16+ GB of course.

I will say that my replacement M2 / M1 Pro Mac mini will have 16 GB, but that's partially because I plan on keeping the thing for as long as possible (>5 years) and because I may also start doing some minor video editing on it too.

 

[jeffpeng]

The MBP13 M1 is a much better device than people give it credit for. If it is worth the premium to the MBA M1 kinda lies with if you value better speakers, microphones, track pad, bigger battery and a brighter screen at 300 dollars. And if the touch bar is actually something you want. That being said: anything 8G should be hard pass if at the same time it has the "Pro" label.

I also wonder if the MBA update coming 'soon' will be M1 or M2, and if the 13" MBP will even exist after 2022.

Pretty sure that "soon" is November, and pretty sure it'll be M2. I don't see Apple refreshing the design with a two year old SoC, as they would catch all kinds of flag for that, and they know that.

And also pretty sure the MBP13 is going to be discontinued before the end of the year, probably November when we'll get the aforementioned M2 MacBook (Air?), and I'd bet we won't see it return now the Pro domain is properly filled with a device deserving the name.

Apple has sorta understood that port-starved designs don't sit well with the "Pro" audience, and that the same audience is not particularly interested in the thinnest devices possible. So thin, light, fan- and portless for students and lightweight user types, thick(-ish), big SoCs with big fans and a lot of ports for the "Pro" crowd. The MBP13 doesn't fit either bill.

Plus apparently the "Pro" crowd hates the touch-bar with a passion, and it's basically discontinued anyways. If the touch bar had any life left in it there would have been a touchbar Magic Keyboard option for the Mac Studio since they now have the hardware to do that. There is not.

 

[EugW]

The MBP13 M1 is a much better device than people give it credit for. If it is worth the premium to the MBA M1 kinda lies with if you value better speakers, microphones, track pad, bigger battery and a brighter screen at 300 dollars. And if the touch bar is actually something you want. That being said: anything 8G should be hard pass if at the same time it has the "Pro" label.


Pretty sure that "soon" is November, and pretty sure it'll be M2. I don't see Apple refreshing the design with a two year old SoC, as they would catch all kinds of flag for that, and they know that.

And also pretty sure the MBP13 is going to be discontinued before the end of the year, probably November when we'll get the aforementioned M2 MacBook (Air?), and I'd bet we won't see it return now the Pro domain is properly filled with a device deserving the name.

Apple has sorta understood that port-starved designs don't sit well with the "Pro" audience, and that the same audience is not particularly interested in the thinnest devices possible. So thin, light, fan- and portless for students and lightweight user types, thick(-ish), big SoCs with big fans and a lot of ports for the "Pro" crowd. The MBP13 doesn't fit either bill.

Plus apparently the "Pro" crowd hates the touch-bar with a passion, and it's basically discontinued anyways. If the touch bar had any life left in it there would have been a touchbar Magic Keyboard option for the Mac Studio since they now have the hardware to do that. There is not.

If they truly want to keep the 13” MBP as the entry level MBP, I think it makes more sense to give it a better SoC than the MBA. One way to do this would be to have M2 in the MBP with a 32 GB memory option and M1 in the MBA limited to 16 GB.

Sure Apple would get a bit of flak from nerds for retaining M1 in the MBA, but they’d get over it, and 90% of consumers wouldn’t actually care, esp. if it came with a form factor update.

BTW, it seems a lot of devs had been getting the 13” M1 MBA over the 13” M1 MBP, judging by reports here and elsewhere on the net. They often would spend the money saved on extra memory.

 

[Bug-Creator]

I wonder if the retailers are trying to predict a new MacBook Air release for June.

I wonder when people will just accept that discounts of this scale have always been a thing once the HW gets over 1 year regardless of any updates coming in soon.....

 

[uller6]

Plus apparently the "Pro" crowd hates the touch-bar with a passion, and it's basically discontinued anyways. If the touch bar had any life left in it there would have been a touchbar Magic Keyboard option for the Mac Studio since they now have the hardware to do that. There is not.

I wish Apple would sell a Touch Bar keyboard! But I'm in a very small minority.

 

[jeffpeng]

I wish Apple would sell a Touch Bar keyboard! But I'm in a very small minority.

You and me both. ?

 

[jeffpeng]

If they truly want to keep the 13” MBP as the entry level MBP, I think it makes more sense to give it a better SoC than the MBA. One way to do this would be to have M2 in the MBP with a 32 GB memory option and M1 in the MBA limited to 16 GB.

Sure Apple would get a bit of flak from nerds for retaining M1 in the MBA, but they’d get over it, and 90% of consumers wouldn’t actually care, esp. if it came with a form factor update.

BTW, it seems a lot of devs had been getting the 13” M1 MBA over the 13” M1 MBP, judging by reports here and elsewhere on the net. They often would spend the money saved on extra memory.

They probably could make the M1 Pro work in the 13" chassis. Not the Max, but the Pro, at least if it's the 6+2/14 version. That would probably fly not too bad if they get rid of the touch bar, sell it with a standard IPS panel and give it 4 USB-C ports, even if one is just Power/USB3. They don't even have to change the chassis design for that as it would resemble the old intel 13" MBP. For 1600 bucks with 16/512 starter config this would sell pretty well, I'd say.

People would still complain about no MagSafe, no SD-Card and those "huge" bezels, but well, you gotta compromise somewhere, and if you wanted that you'd have to get the 14".

But... nah, I don't think Apple will diversify their lineup this much. I guess the only reason the 13" MBP M1 exists was to give the "Pro" crowd something when the M1 came out, and now that they have their MBP14/16s they really don't "need" anything else. As much as I would like it ... nah, not gonna happen. The 13" MBP is dead.

 

[Pugly]

This 2 port MBP has had such a weird journey...

It started out as a MBA alternative without a touchbar. Then it lacked the quadcore of the 4 port MBP... then it got a quadcore and a touchbar and was a pretty good value. It was easily a better computer than the MBA at the time. But now with the M1 the Air is the better value, and this 2 port MBP seems a bit redundant.

It really confuses the lineup, since the 14" MBP is what Apple really wanted the 4 port 13" MBP to be, but couldn't with Intel's CPUs. It's a substitute for a MBA that Apple's kept around after reintroducing the MBA...

It's a good deal if you like the touchbar.
Though a deal with this Mac means you ignore the MBA, and you can put the price difference into ram and ssd. And if you want to spend money for a much better computer you can wait and get the base 14" MBP on sale.

 

[grassfeeder]

Not a bad deal IMHO. In reality, very few users of this are super users or even higher-end users. This spec will be just fine for who its intended for. Those who mainly work off of web-based platforms and shuffle a million emails a day. Its not for the programers or graphics guys.

 

[EugW]

I wonder when people will just accept that discounts of this scale have always been a thing once the HW gets over 1 year regardless of any updates coming in soon.....

Nah. In Canada, Best Buy would regularly discount iPads a month or so before expected major Apple events. If nothing was released, they'd raise the prices back up and keep them there until holiday season. Or occasionally they'd lower the price for a sale, but not to the same amount they would before events. I got a iPad Air 2 for 20% in 2015 off that way shortly before a predicted iPad release, but no such release ever happened.

Dunno if it's the same in the US.

 

[Bug-Creator]

In Canada, Best Buy would regularly discount iPads a month or so before expected major Apple events. If nothing was released, they'd raise the prices back up and keep them there until holiday season.

Who says this isn't just a case like that (as in the prices going back to "normal" soon).

The reality is, with 1.5 years on it's back, the Air below and the 14" above this MBnotP makes little sense and I don't expect it to be flying off the shelves.
And still it only goes a little further than the usual sales for base config Macs that get 10% often within days of release.

None of this say anything about how long Apple will keep this config around nor wether it will just be dropped, see a minimal spec bump or get a proper replacement.

 

[EugW]

Who says this isn't just a case like that (as in the prices going back to "normal" soon).

This is what I'm saying. If they have excess stock, they would clear out before any possible releases with a sale (if Apple allows them to do so that is). Then they can raise prices again and if nothing is released that's fine, because they don't have excess stock anymore.

It's different in Canada since I'm just basing it on Best Buy Canada's practice I've seen in the past. The timing really fell in line with rumoured Apple releases. They'd have small discounts during the year, but often just before a rumoured release, they'd have a big discount. Amazon.ca did not sell Macs in Canada until relatively recently so I can't use them as a gauge.

 

[ArielnHouston]

You and me both. ?

I always liked it too...Emojis front and center ?

 

[startergo]

Occasionally Visual Studio Code will freeze and crash

Are you running it through rosetta?

 

[erikkfi]

I’m looking to spend about this much on a laptop for someone as a gift but I won’t force them to contend with two USB-C ports as the only input. The wait continues.

 

[EugW]

I’m looking to spend about this much on a laptop for someone as a gift but I won’t force them to contend with two USB-C ports as the only input. The wait continues.

What do they need the extra ports for? Just curious. For me with a Mac laptop, I found 1 USB-C limiting and annoying, but having 2 would have been fine. However, that's just me, with my personal usage habits.