As Part of Prime Day in October, You Can Get a MacBook Air at the Price It Was Before the RAM Crisis.
If you’d bought one of the MacBook Airs with the M5 processor at launch , the base model would have cost you $1,099. Then the memory crisis hit the price, and suddenly the same model jumped $200 without any new features or changes. The MacBook Air, which for years started at $999 and jumped to $1,099 with the M5 processor (and at least with more memory), now starts at $1,299. If you need more memory or want to upgrade to the 15-inch model, it will cost you more.
These prices are simply pushing buyers toward Apple’s cheaper MacBook Neo. That’s not necessarily a bad thing: the Neo has most of the features people look for in an Apple laptop and costs about half as much as the MacBook Air. But they’re not identical devices. Users who choose the Neo over the Air are missing out on a larger, higher-quality display; a processor designed for macOS; a backlit keyboard; and MagSafe charging, to name just a few. These are all great features, but it’s hard to justify the extra $600. But what if you could save $200? Then these benefits would make the upgrade a little more worthwhile.
As part of its October Prime Day sale, Amazon is offering a great deal on the 13-inch MacBook Air M5, slashing the price by $200 off Apple’s new, more powerful MSRP, bringing the price down to… well, the M5’s launch price. If you were kicking yourself for not picking up one of these computers between March and June, now’s your chance to turn back the clock.
This MacBook Air features a 13.6-inch display (Apple calls it a “13-inch” for marketing purposes) with a 2560 x 1664-pixel resolution and a peak brightness of 500 nits. It’s powered by the M5 chip, which, according to Geekbench, outperforms the A18 Pro in the MacBook Neo by nearly 22% in single-core tests and 134% in multi-core tests. That extra $400 isn’t just an “Apple tax”; you’ll notice a real performance boost for the money. You also get a 12-megapixel Center Stage camera for video conferencing and FaceTime calls, Touch ID built into the keyboard, and support for MagSafe charging—though you can also charge the device via either of the two USB 4 ports.
It’s important to note that this model comes with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. This should be more than enough for most users, but Amazon is also offering discounts on both the 1TB storage model ($1,399 instead of $1,599) and the 1TB storage and 24GB RAM model ($1,599 instead of $1,799). But again, the base configuration will be fine for most people. And for $1,099, it’s a fantastic deal.