This Early Black Friday Sale Makes the M4 MacBook Air Cheaper Than Ever.
If you’re looking for a laptop, you’re spoiled for choice. But if you don’t need a device with exceptionally powerful hardware or are on a very tight budget, I’m here to end your search right now: you should buy the MacBook Air M4 , especially while it’s on sale for $749 before Black Friday.
Apple’s newest MacBook Air is, without a doubt, the best laptop for most people, in my opinion—at least for those who don’t need to use Windows. It’s an entry-level machine, but it feels completely different: it’s powered by Apple’s M4 chip, which until recently was the company’s latest hardware. (That said, the M5-equipped MacBook Air hasn’t arrived yet, so it’s still the best Air on the market.) Apple’s M series is excellent: the M1 MacBook Air is still a great computer five years after its release. It’s practically impossible to go wrong with any M-series MacBook these days, though the newer the hardware, the better the performance—a point of difference for the M4 Air.
But the M4 is almost a piece of cake to me compared to this device’s 16GB of RAM. For years, Apple only equipped base models with 8GB of RAM. That was enough for small, simple tasks, but problems arose as soon as you started trying to do too much at once. 8GB of RAM isn’t as efficient as it once was, so the fact that this computer doubles that capacity without compromising the price is a significant advantage. However, this configuration comes with 256GB of storage, which could be a problem for those who store large files on their computers.
But what I love most about the M4 is the price. When Apple released it in March , I was impressed by how much you could get for $999. It even convinced me to hold off on recommending the M2 MacBook Air, even when it was on sale. But despite its newness, the M4 MacBook Air has been discounted this year, too . Now, ahead of Black Friday, it’s $250 cheaper than Apple on Amazon and Best Buy. That’s a fantastic deal.
Is it worth buying an older MacBook at a lower price?
Of course, there are other, cheaper MacBooks. You can save another $50 and opt for the M2 MacBook Air, which also has 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. And if you don’t need your machine to be brand new, you can find refurbished M1 MacBook Airs for under $500 . Either of these laptops will work perfectly well into 2025, but there are drawbacks: the M1 only has 8GB of RAM and retains Apple’s older MacBook Air design. The M2 MacBook Air looks identical to its M4 counterpart, but it’s three years old. By spending an extra $50 on a new Air, you can save another two to three years of software updates, not to mention the immediate performance boost thanks to the new chip.