It’s almost officially summertime and you know what that means, right? It means that the back-to-school shopping season is right around the corner. If you’re looking to get a head start and want to give an Arm-based system with long battery life a whirl, you can check out the first wave of Microsoft Copilot+ PCs powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite and Snapdragon X Plus platforms, or snag a sweet deal on a discounted MacBook Air or MacBook Pro powered by Apple’s custom M3 processor.
Speaking to the latter, you can find the 2024 13.6-inch MacBook Air with an M3 chip inside on sale for $899 at Amazon (save $200). That’s the latest version of Apple’s custom silicon that’s available within its MacBook range, as the recently-introduced M4 chip is, for the time being, exclusive to the company’s 7th generation iPad Pro.
The M3 is still a very capable chip. Here you’re looking at the variant with an 8-core CPU, 10-core GPU, and 16-core NPU (neural processing unit) for AI chores. Other features of this M3 MacBook Air include 8GB of unified memory, 256GB of solid state drive (SSD) storage, backlit keyboard, 1080p FaceTime HD camera, and up to 18 hours of battery life.
If you need more RAM and storage, the 13.6-inch M3 MacBook Air with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage is on sale for $1,329 at Amazon (save $170).
You can also find the M3 MacBook Pro selling for an all-time low, with discounted prices starting at $1,399 at Amazon (save $200). That gets you the 14.2-inch model with an M3 chip wielding 8 CPU cores, 10 GPU cores, and 16 NPU cores. Other specs include 8GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, 1080p FaceTime HD camera, and an array of ports that include two Thunderbolt / USB 4 ports, an HDMI output, a 3.55mm headphone jack, a MagSafe 3 port, and an SDXC card slot.
Apple actually released the M3 MacBook Pro towards the end of 2023 and we’ve seen it drop to this price on occasion. However, this matches its all-time low price, and is the cheapest it’s been since around the middle of February.
Here are some more Apple products that are on sale…
- M3 13.6-inch MacBook Air (8GB RAM, 512GB SSD): $1,129 (save $170)
- M3 15-inch MacBook Air (8GB RAM, 256GB SSD): $1,129 (save $170)
- M3 15-inch MacBook Air (8GB RAM, 512GB SSD): $1,329 (save $170)
- M3 15-inch MacBook Air (16GB RAM, 512GB SSD): $1,489 (save $210)
- AirPods (2nd Generation): $79.99 (save $49.01)
- AirPods (3rd Generation): $139.99 (save $29.01)
- AirPods Pro (2nd Generation): $189.99 (save $59.01)
- AirPods Max Wireless Over-Ear Headphones: $449 (save $100)
- Apple Watch Series 9 (GPS + Cellular, 41mm): $399 (save $100)
- Apple Watch Series 9 (GPS, 41mm): $299 (save $100)
- iPad (9th Generation, A13 Bionic): $369 (save $110)
- M3 16.2-inch MacBook Pro (18GB RAM, 512GB SSD): $2,199 (save $300)