If you’re in the market for a new Apple laptop, let us make it just a little easier for you. We hunted down the best cheap MacBook deals going on right now.
Among most people today (especially younger techies who may not remember the Mac and PC wars), Apple is best-known for its highly successful iPhone — after all, Steve Jobs effectively pioneered the smartphone as we know it with the iPhone’s debut in 2007. The company originally built itself upon its excellent computers, however, despite eventually losing the larger market battle to Windows. Nonetheless, the venerable Mac retains a large core of dedicated fans, many of whom are professionals who favor OS X computers for their unrivaled reliability and excellent software.
Like most Apple gear, MacBooks can cost a premium, but with some luck and a little patience, deal-savvy Mac-lovers can save hundreds by taking the time to sniff out those hard-to-find Apple discounts. If you’re in the market for a new Mac laptop, let us make your work a little easier: We already hunted down the best cheap MacBook deals going on right now from various retailers.
The classic MacBook is the standard-bearer of Apple’s laptop lineup, and although the Air may still be the lightweight champion, the noticeably slimmed-down 12-inch MacBook is a great choice for anyone looking for a compact work computer. The MacBook first came onto the scene in 2006, replacing the iBook, but was discontinued in 2012 before Apple thankfully brought it back in 2015.
It’s seen a hardware refresh every year since then, meaning you’ve now got three recent model years to choose from. They all run on great hardware, although the 2017 15-inch MacBook boasts the newer seventh-generation Kaby Lake i5 and i7 processors and intel HD Graphics. If you want to save some more cash and aren’t picky about having the latest stuff under the hood, however, then opting for one of the slightly older (but still brand new) models is your best bet for scoring an entry-level MacBook for cheap.
$600 Used
$759 Newegg Refurbished
$929 Apple Refurbished
$879 Newegg Refurbished
$949 Apple Refurbished
$1,099 Apple Refurbished
$1,249 from Amazon
$1,287 from Newegg
The MacBook Pro launched alongside the standard MacBook in 2006, representing – as you probably guessed from its name – a slightly more high-end option with more powerful hardware. All recent Pros also boast Apple’s latest super-crisp high-resolution Retina displays. Paired with this extra screen real estate is an impressive battery life, making the MacBook Pro the perfect machine for professionals who are regularly on the go.
The 2015,2016, and 2017 MacBook Pro notebooks all feature snappy i5 and i7 Intel processors, with the latest models released last year running on the newer Kaby Lake CPU architecture. Also worth mentioning is that the newer 2016 and 2017 13-inch Pros are almost identical in size and weight to the original MacBook Air. If you’re looking to score a cheap MacBook Pro, you’ve got quite a few options depending on year and screen size, so you can find the best deal going right now for various makes and models:
$792 Used
$792 from Ebay
$528 Amazon Refurbished
$679 Refurbished
$1,400 from Amazon
$450 Refurbished
$1,299 from Apple
$649 Refurbished
$1,699 Apple Refurbished
$1,859 from Amazon
$1,859 from B&H
$1,529 Apple Refurbished
$2,399 from Apple
True to its name, the Apple MacBook Air represents Apple’s lightest and thinnest line of laptop computers. With the release of the new 2016 13-inch MacBook Pro (which is almost identical in its dimensions to the first Air) and no Air update announced that year, it almost looked as; if Apple’s slimline notebook was going the way of the iPod. Thankfully, the company surprised us with a newer, more powerful MacBook Air in 2017, confirming that its super-slim laptop had not yet been totally abandoned — at least for the moment.
Since recent MacBook Air models both feature 13-inch displays and Apple skipped over it in 2016, you have two versions to choose from: The 2015 and 2017 releases. Both are pretty much identical in size, with the 2015 refresh boasting improved battery life over its predecessors and the 2017 Air coming loaded with the latest Kaby Lake Intel processors and twice as much standard RAM.
$559 Used
$807 on Amazon
$710 Newegg Refurbished
$649 Refurbished
$849 Apple Refurbished
$859 from Ebay
$879 Bundle on Amazon
In 2016,Apple released an upgraded MacBook Pro alongside the standard Pro. This newer model featured the long-awaited Touch Bar, a slim LED touch screen that takes the place of the function keys and is purpose-built for navigating OS X and its software. It’s the kind of hardware innovation Apple built its reputation on, solving a problem we didn’t even know we had.
The MacBook Pro with Touch Bar still offers the boosted hardware and vibrant Retina displays of the Pro lineup, although you’ve got a smaller handful of models to choose from as this laptop has only been available since 2016 (with one update since then). If you want Apple’s top-of-the-line notebook, then the MacBook Pro with Touch Bar is the one to get, and we’ve smoked out the best up-to-date deals available right now:
$1,949 from Amazon
$2,599 from Amazon
Looking for more great discounts on Apple hardware and other electronics? Our curated deals page has everything you need.
