What is it with Apple and deals on fresh devices in recent years? The MacBook Air M4 has only been out since March 12, 2025, and as of right now, you can pick it up at quite a good price.
Apple already dropped the base price of the M3 by $100 to match the M4’s $1,000 price tag. Now with another 15 percent off, there’s no real reason to wait for a better deal than this, because one better than this isn’t likely to land anytime soon.
a worthy laptop for most people
Comparing the MacBook Air M4 against its pricier sibling, the MacBook Pro M4 with the base-level M4 chip (not the M4 Pro or M4 Max chip), I weighed up the similarities and differences and declared the Air M4 the winner.
It’s simply the better value, offering performance nearly as good in a more compact package at a more compact price. The performance benchmark scores of the MacBook Air M4 (54,806) and MacBook Pro M4 (57,596) are really quite close. The Pro won’t be much faster than the Air.
As I wrote in that comparison piece, “The Air M4 wins this battle for most folks… Buy one if you aren’t a professional who needs to squeeze every last drop of performance out of your laptop for crazy-intensive tasks, but who still wants a fast, compact laptop with the trademarked Apple slickness.”
This deal is even better than the “deal” retailers were offering on last year’s model, the MacBook Air M3, earlier this month. Those were going for $900 “on sale.” It was a crap sale when you could get an Air M4 for $1,000. Now it’s looking especially poor next to today’s sale, where the M4, better in every way, is only $850.
If you want the discount, you’ll have to head to Amazon or B&H Photo Video. Apple itself is still selling them for the full $999 retail price, so you have to ask yourself how much the Apple Store experience is worth it to you. To me? Not $150 more, that’s for sure.
The post Apple’s MacBook Air M4 Is on Surprise Sale for $850 appeared first on VICE.
