The best MacBook Prime Day deals live blog

Good morning, my dear fellow passengers on this wild and unpredictable ride that is the build-up to Prime Day. This is your co-pilot speaking, Tech Reviews Editor Erlingur.

I’ve been looking at Prime Day deals available ahead of the day, and so far my eye is mostly taken by things that aren’t actually on Amazon, as competing retailers get more competitive during this event. I’ve put myself in no-holds-barred dream mode and found the most outrageously equipped MacBook Pro currently discounted, which is a 16.2-inch, M1 Max monster with 64GB of RAM, a 4TB SSD and a 32-core GPU to edit an entire MCU movie on (or, you know, almost).

It normally retails at B&H Photo for $4,899, but is a whopping $1,600 off right now, so can be had for “only” $3,299 currently.

I think, I don’t have that kind of cash on hand, but if you’re running a medium-sized movie studio, this is a significant budget saver…

OK, so after a few minutes of searching, we have to report that things have gone quiet on the internet when it comes to cracking MacBook deals. The discounts we’ve already reported on seem to be alive, but nothing new, either on the new or older models. This is quite normal – the calm before the storm. However, we’re continuing to search because we’ve found some enticing deals being released just before the official start of Amazon Prime Day on July 11.

So, long story short: my pick of the current MacBook offerings is the 13-inch MacBook Pro, 2022, with M2 chip, down from $1,299 for $1,099 over at Amazon.

To round things out for today, we’re just going to compare these MacBook Pro prices below with the best deals we’re seeing on this year’s M2 Pro/Max MacBook Pros. These are currently the top of Apple’s laptops and they already have some reasonable discounts. But compare those prices to those of the 2021 models below, and you’ll see differences of about $500.

That’s it for today, but we’ll be back tomorrow with live updates on all the best Prime Day MacBook deals, so join us.

Adding even more complexity to the challenge of choosing the best MacBook, you have the fact that the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros are ‘more Pro’ than the 13-inch MacBook Pros (eg the 2021 M1 Pro/ The Max MacBook Pro 14 and 16 are more powerful than the 2022 M2 MacBook Pro 13 despite having older chips, because they come with the ‘Pro’ or ‘Max’ versions of the M1 chip, which have further improvements especially for handling video.

If you need the power of these high-end devices, going for a 2021 model over the new 2023 generations could be a good money-saver, depending on what specs you want. Generally, the bigger the spec, the bigger the saving, with massive $800 discounts on the top-of-the-range setups.

Perhaps the most complicated task MacBook buyers have ever faced is trying to figure out the differences between last year’s 13-inch MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro. They’re a similar size with similar quality displays, both powered by Apple’s own M2 chip and virtually the same price when configured with the same specs (see our full comparison).

All in all, we were quite confused as to why Apple launched such similar laptops within a few months of each other. Things get even more complicated when it comes to Prime Day MacBook deals, which can sometimes mean the Pro costs less than the Air.

In our own testing and actual use of the two laptops, we’ve found that the MacBook Pro 13 offers slightly better performance for tasks that involve heavy lifting (think 3D or video rendering, color grading in Davinci Resolve, etc.), and the battery can last up to a few hours longer, while the M2 Air is a thinner device and has a better webcam and speakers and an extra charging port. If any of these factors are very important to you, it can help you make your decision, otherwise it comes down to which one is the best deal on the specs you need.

On which note, here are the best Prime Day MacBook deals on each right now. Oddly enough, I’d personally go for the one that’s actually the worst deal in terms of the size of the savings – Air 16GB, 512GB at Adorama. A comfortable amount of memory and storage, and the Pro with these specs would cost you £1,699 since there are no agreements regarding

• MacBook Pro 13 M2 8 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD $1,499 $1,299 at Amazon
• MacBook Pro 13 M2 8 GB RAM, 256 GB SSD $1,299 $1,099 at Amazon
• MacBook Air 13 M2 8 GB RAM, 256 GB SSD: $1,199 $1,099 at Adorama
• MacBook Air 13 M2 16 GB RAM, 256 GB SSD: $1,399.95 $1,299.96 at Amazon
• MacBook Air 13 M2 16 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD: $1,499 $1,449 at Adorama

But if you want the latest of the new, those in the UK can get the latest MacBook Air M2 from £1,399 now DKK 1,279.97. This savings has been around since June 23rd, which is pretty surprising considering this laptop was only released on June 13th!

It’s a real curveball of a laptop as it takes the Air up to 15 inches instead of the usual 13 inch screen. That might make it a little more difficult to fit into a bag, but for some the extra space will be very welcome, and the laptop is insanely thin and light for a 15-incher.

Going for a refurbished MacBook is a great way to save some extra cash. Many sites have a variety of certified refurbished or refurbished MacBooks on offer, and one of our all-time favorites has a decent deal on Amazon right now. You can get 2020 MacBook Air M1 256GB SSD Refurbished in ‘Excellent Condition’ for $704 at Amazon , which is $295 off the full price of a new model. While it’s on sale for $869 on Amazon right now, we’ve seen the price of a new one drop to $799 in the past, so it could drop in the next few days. If you’re set on a new one, keep your eyes peeled for more discount if the price isn’t low enough for you.

Figuring out whether a deal is worth it is a balance between checking the price history and the context of the model against recent new releases and the chips included. So, for example, the 2021 MacBook Pro is subject to some pretty big discounts at the moment – especially for those with more serious specs. Professional users, you’re going to want to look at this – and it’s getting technical.

B&H Photo currently has a deal on the 14-inch MacBook Pro M1 Max (10-core) with 2TB SSD and 32-core GPU, which is about as serious as it gets for the 2021 lineup. MSRP was $4,099 at the time of release, and it’s down to $2,699 – a savings of $1,400. If you don’t mind not having the M2 chip, this machine is likely to do everything you need it to do (unless you’re a super-mega-power user, in which case you might want look at the M2 equivalent – ​​around $4,000 but for a 38-core GPU).

B&H Photo also has a serious deal on a slightly smaller (slightly, we said) hardcore machine, you can save $800 on the 1TB version with 16GB of RAM, bringing it from $2,699 to $1,899 – a full $1000 less than the M2 equivalent (which is currently $200 off at Amazonif you are fully committed to the latest model).

This year’s addition to the MacBook Air lineup – the M2 15-inch model – is currently at an all-time low on Amazon. It’s not a new discount, we’ve seen it hit this price twice before in its short life, but it’s still one a nice $100 off both the 256GB and 512GB models. We’re hoping for better things, but it’s useful info to give context to your Prime Day shopping experience.

If you’re in the UK, you’ll see some savings on the MacBook Pro 2023 range across a few retailers right now. One of these deals is on the MacBook Pro (M2 Pro, 2023) 14 inch (10-core CPU and 16-core GPU, 512 Gb SSD) in silver.

Both Very and Amazon have reduced this by four percent right now – bringing it down from £2,149 to £1,979.97 (this is at Amazon). This appears to be a manufacturer discount rather than anything Prime-related, and we’d love to think it’ll get more of a price cut (in May it dropped to £1,933), but we can never guarantee anything, and it’s still money off – so we’ll leave it up to you to decide if you want to roll the dice.

And we’re off! Of course, we still have over a day until the official Prime Day event starts. But we’re already seeing some small savings popping up—so we’re here to tell you all about them and to provide some context about these deals and the ones coming your way on Prime Day Proper.

So far my favorite deal $120 off the latest MacBook Air M2 (13-inch variant released in 2022) at B&H Photo, bringing it down from $1,099 to $979. First released last year, the MacBook Air was supercharged with an M2 chip. This is the cheapest this model is currently on sale for – and it’s only $10 more than the lowest we’ve ever seen it sell for. This bodes well for deals over the next few days, but if you’re desperate for one right now, we’re already rating this deal.