(Credit: PCMag/Amazon)
When I reviewed Apple's latest 13-inch MacBook Air a few months back, it was again worthy of our Editors' Choice award. I lauded the company's $100 price cut to $999, and the increase in key capacities like memory. While many of my fellow editors and analysts are Windows die-hards, the MacBook Air is my personal best laptop overall.
Now available for just $849 during Amazon Prime Day, the newest MacBook Air is a surprisingly aggressive deal from Apple. That price makes it one of the best deals in laptops, period, regardless of operating system. For a time, at least, it looks like an "Apple Tax" break.
(Don’t miss out on any of the savings. Keep an eye on our roundup of the Best Prime Day 2025 Deals.)
When this laptop debuted, Apple would have easily earned its Editors’ Choice honor with its new $999 base price alone, but combining it with a bump from 8GB to 16GB of starting memory made it a lock-in. This latest iteration of the MacBook Air design is already so refined that seemingly small changes such as these make a significant difference, generationally speaking.
Recommended by Our Editors
As a singular system, the MacBook Air leaves almost nothing to be desired for me. The only areas in which I could consider the MacBook Air flawed are in what it's missing compared to Windows-based laptops of a similar price. Those key missing features include a few more ports and an OLED screen. (The MacBook Air has a gorgeous screen, but it still can't hold a candle to an OLED.)
On the flip side, those OLED-based Windows laptops rarely, if ever, come with the same level or breadth of free productivity software that Macs do. They'll also be hard-pressed to deliver better typing and videoconferencing experiences at this price.
Given its size and fanless design, the M4 MacBook Air is also capable of some rather intense tasks. These include media editing, locally run AI models, and even computer gaming. Gaming isn't one of its strengths, but that's expected, and Apple's image resolution upscaling and frame-generation techniques are improving rapidly.
As shocked as I am by this deal, I don't see the MacBook Air price getting any lower than this during the holiday shopping rush, especially with the M1 MacBook Air still at just $649 at Walmart. Whether you're ready to learn the ins and outs of macOS for such a steal of a price, or have coveted a MacBook for a long time, this is an excellent time to jump in.