The other decision is between MacBook Pro or MacBook Air. It’s not as easy a decision as you might think. The Pros can be configured to much higher specs, but there’s a less of a difference between starting configurations.
All Pros have superior screens, including a max peak brightness of 1600 nits. That will be a decider if you work with HDR content. And if you go for an M4 Pro or Max-chipped version, you’ll see the difference in how it smoothly it handles video.
As for the Airs, the advantages are a lower price and portability – particular with the 13-inch MacBook Air, which is great laptop for travel and commuting. We’ve not yet got round to updating our MacBook Pro vs MacBook Air comparison to account for the M4 models, but it outlines some general considerations.
Of course, the other thing you have to decide is which MacBook to go for. If you’re looking for a MacBook Pro, you’re likely to be torn between Amazon’s early deals on the brand-new M4 models or a bigger deal on last year’s M3 models. The M3 MacBook Pros are hardly old. They were released just over a year ago, and they remain more than powerful enough to handle most creative workflows.
One thing to note though is that if you’re looking at the entry-level configuration, it’s not just a difference between an M3 vs M4 chip. The M4 MacBook Pros start with 16GB of memory. While the M3 14-inch laptop is now just $1,199 at Amazon compared to $1,399 for the M4 version, it has just 8GB of RAM. The jump to 16GB in the M4 model should make a notable difference for anyone running video editing software or working in lots of tabs or layers.
You may be wondering when to buy a Black Friday MacBook deals. Is it best to grab the deals on offer today or to hold out a while longer to see if prices fall further? After all, Black Friday itself is still over a week away.
As we note in our article on when’s the best time to buy a MacBook, it can help to consider just how big MacBook deals tend to get. This will give you an idea of whether it’s realistic for a price to fall and more.
For example, Amazon’s deals on the new M4 MacBook Pros that we highlight above are already better than the discounts we saw on the M3 MacBook Pros in the weeks soon after their launch. That makes me doubt that these deals will get any better, so I’d recommend buying now.
On the other hand, some of the MacBook Airs have been cheaper than the prices available today. The 2022 M2 MacBook Air 13 (pictured right) is priced at $799 at Amazon at the moment – a decent $200 discount. But it was reduced to $749 at both Amazon and Best Buy fairly recently. I expect it will fall to that price again as we approach Black Friday itself.
UK readers might also want to consider other options, though. While we’re big fans of Apple’s laptops, Amazon UK has some great early Black Friday laptop deals on some very capable Windows alternatives, including a couple that can easily outpower Macs, like the mighty MSI Stealth 16 AI laptop with no less than the best GPU in history, the Nvidia RTX 4090. It’s still massively expensive, but there’s now over £1,700 off, which makes it cheaper than the highest-spec configurations of the new MacBook Pros.
Check out our roundup of the best deals.
It’s not unheard of for Amazon US to drop deals on new MacBooks soon after launch, but in ten years of tracking prices I’ve rarely seen a significant saving in the UK in the first month. But for once, UK readers don’t need to miss out! Right now Amazon UK has £149 off the new M4 MacBook Pro 14 and £219.03 of the new M4-Pro chipped MacBook Pro 16
- MacBook Pro 14 (M4, 2024:
£1,599£1,449.97 at Amazon UK - MacBook Pro 16 (M4, 2024):
£1,599£1,449.97 at Amazon UK
Surely the most surprising early Black Friday MacBook deals are Amazon’s discounts on the brand-new M4 MacBook Pros, and they just got better! Amazon already had $200 off the entry-level M4 MacBook Pro 14 – reduced from $1,599 to $1,399. Now it also has $250 off the M4 Pro MacBook Pro 16. That includes the extra $49.01 off if you click the box to apply the coupon before checkout.
- MacBook Pro 14 (M4, 2024):
$1,599$1,399 at Amazon US - MacBook Pro 16 (M4 Pro, 2024):
$2,499$2,249.99 at Amazon US
It’s hard to know if a deal is really worth buying, because the prices are fluctuating all the time. We use a clever price comparison tool to check price history, called The Camelizer. It tracks prices on Amazon so you can see if a product has been lower before. If it has fallen lower, it’s likely it will become lower again over Black Friday and then it’s worth waiting to buy.
It only works on Amazon unfortunately, but to be honest that is where we tend to see the lowest prices.
So far I’m impressed by the deals on the new MacBook Pro line, as well as some MacBook Air deals. Stay tuned with us to find out which model would be best for you, how powerful you should go, and how you can save the most money possible. All sounds good, right?
For starters, see our how to choose a MacBook post for everything you need to know about, well, MacBook choosing.
Happy Wednesday AND happy MacBook deal hunting day! We will be searching for the standout deals you need to know. I’m Georgia, and I’ve been doing this for six years now, so you’re in very good hands indeed.