There’s only one Apple MacBook deal I would snag before Prime Day

Amazon Prime Day is set for July 8 to 11, and as Mashable’s resident laptop expert, I’m tasked with hunting down the best Apple MacBook deals. My job is going to be really easy this year: Amazon has been busy discounting the M4 series pretty much since launch.

That said, I’m currently recommending that most shoppers wait to buy a MacBook until we get a little closer to Prime Day’s start time. Every single Air and Pro model is on sale on Amazon right now, yes, but none of their current prices are matching their previous all-time lows. Put another way: I know we can do even better.

The one exception here is the base configuration of the 13-inch M4 MacBook Air, which is marked down to just $849 as of late June. That’s a really great price that I feel comfortable endorsing even though this model has technically been cheaper once before. (The Starlight colorway briefly fell to $829 on June 20.) With incredible performance, open-lid support for two displays, and an upgraded 12MP webcam, the M4 MacBook Air is realistically a steal at its standard MSRP of $999. Amazon’s decision to slash that by an extra $150 mere months after its release is kind of mind-boggling to me.

I also want to mention that Amazon only carries the M4 series nowadays. (You might encounter listings for older models, but they come from third-party sellers you should avoid.) If you want a good deal on an M2- or M3-era MacBook, check Best Buy, which is having a “Black Friday in July” sale the same week as Prime Day. I’ll also be monitoring its prices closely during that event in case it one-ups Amazon’s M4 Prime Day offers.

The best early Prime Day MacBook deal

Why we like it

Read Mashable’s full review of the M4 Apple MacBook Air.

Mashable’s Stan Schroeder called the latest MacBook Air “the best-buy Apple laptop, period,” praising its quiet oomph, upgraded camera, “great” battery life, and extremely reasonable starting price (which, again, Amazon has reduced by 15%). In his view, its only flaws are a “low number of ports and the fact that the display’s refresh rate only goes to 60Hz.” The base model sports 16GB of memory and 256GB of SSD storage.

Amazon’s $849 deal has applied to several different colorways over the past couple weeks. At the time of writing, the Starlight and Midnight variants were both that cheap (with the latter getting some help from an on-page coupon).

More MacBook Air deals

• Apple MacBook Air, 13-inch (M4, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $1,049 $1,199 (save $150)

• Apple MacBook Air, 15-inch (M4, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD) — $1,049 $1,199 (save $150)

• Apple MacBook Air, 13-inch (M4, 24GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $1,249 $1,399 (save $150)

• Apple MacBook Air, 15-inch (M4, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $1,249 $1,399 (save $150)

• Apple MacBook Air, 15-inch (M4, 24GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $1,449 $1,599 (save $150)

MacBook Pro deals

• Apple MacBook Pro, 14-inch (M4, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $1,449 $1,599 (save $150)

• Apple MacBook Pro, 14-inch (M4, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $1,599 $1,799 (save $200)

• Apple MacBook Pro, 14-inch (M4, 24GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $1,759 $1,999 (save $240)

• Apple MacBook Pro, 14-inch (M4 Pro, 24GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $1,779 $1,999 (save $220)

• Apple MacBook Pro, 16-inch (M4 Pro, 24GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $2,249 $2,499 (save $250)

• Apple MacBook Pro, 16-inch (M4 Pro, 48GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $2,599 $2,899 (save $300)

• Apple MacBook Pro, 14-inch (M4 Max, 36GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $2,879 $3,199 (save $320)

• Apple MacBook Pro, 16-inch (M4 Max, 36GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $3,149 $3,499 (save $350)

• Apple MacBook Pro, 16-inch (M4 Max, 48GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $3,599 $3,999 (save $400)