The M1 MacBook Air 2020 is just $849 at Micro Center, but not for long

News
By Bill Thomas
published

The best laptop deal on Prime Day isn't even at Amazon

MacBook Air M1 on a Blue Background
(Image credit: Apple)

The new MacBook Air (M1, 2020) is one of the best laptops around right now, especially at its $999 price, but what if you could get it for cheaper? Right now at Micro Center, you can get a pretty huge deal on the MacBook Air, and it's better than anything Amazon Prime Day has to offer.

Right now, you can get the new MacBook Air for just $849 at Micro Center, which cuts the price down a whopping $150 from its $999 list price. But the catch is that you have to go pick up the laptop yourself – if you're lucky enough to live near a Micro Center in the US. 

MacBook Air M1 (2020, Gold, 256GB): $999 $849 at Micro Center Save $150 -

<a href="https://www.microcenter.com/product/631514/apple-macbook-air-mgn93ll-a-m1-late-2020-133-laptop-computer-silver?storeid=115" data-link-merchant="microcenter.com"" target="_blank">MacBook Air M1 (2020, Gold, 256GB): $999 $849 at Micro Center
Save $150 - To pardon a pun, the gold standard of Apple's M1 MacBook line here, you get the much improved keyboard, a 13-inch Retina Display and a 17-hour battery that can handle most tasks. It's a surprisingly powerful workhorse that will constantly surprise you in how it will manage tasks and gaming all at once.

View Deal

The MacBook Air manages to use the same processor as the 13-inch MacBook Pro and the new 24-inch iMac, but just tuned down a bit. But in our testing, we've never been able to really tell the difference between the 3 computers, which makes the MacBook Air an excellent value – you're basically getting MacBook Pro performance for less. 

This deal won't last long, though. Our local Brooklyn and Flushing stores in New York only had 4 units each, and we imagine they'll sell pretty quickly. If you live near a Micro Center, you're going to want to jump on this deal now.

We've also included some deals on the M1 MacBook Pro and Mac mini, if those are more your flavor. 

MacBook Pro M1 (2020, 256GB): $1,299 $1099 at Amazon Save $200 -

MacBook Pro M1 (2020, 256GB): <a href="https://target.georiot.com/Proxy.ashx?tsid=8428&GR_URL=https%3A%2F%2Famazon.com%2F2020-Apple-Mini-512GB-Storage%2Fdp%2FB08N5P7TLW%3Ftag%3Dhawk-future-20%26ascsubtag%3Dhawk-custom-tracking-20" data-link-merchant="Amazon US"" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">$1,299 $1099 at Amazon
Save $200 - The first MacBook Pro to go M1, here you get an 8-core CPU with up to 17 hours of battery life, with a 13-inch screen to boot and macOS Big Sur ready to go. The main difference between this and the MacBook Air M1, is the presence of a fan for any crucial 4K video editing, alongside the TouchBar, which replaced the function key row for a strip of OLED functions.

View Deal
Mac mini M1 (2020, 8GB, 512GB SSD): $899 $799 at Amazon Save $100 -

Mac mini M1 (2020, 8GB, 512GB SSD): <a href="https://target.georiot.com/Proxy.ashx?tsid=8428&GR_URL=https%3A%2F%2Famazon.com%2F2020-Apple-Mini-512GB-Storage%2Fdp%2FB08N5P7TLW%3Ftag%3Dhawk-future-20%26ascsubtag%3Dhawk-custom-tracking-20" data-link-merchant="Amazon US"" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">$899 $799 at Amazon
Save $100 - The first desktop M1 Mac to arrive, think of this as the equivalent of the MacBook Air. A powerful machine that can handle 4K video in Final Cut Pro, or run a game through the Mac App Store with ease, even with 8GB of RAM.

View Deal

More MacBook Air deals

If you're not in the US, or if you weren't fast enough to get this MacBook Air deal, don't worry. We included our price comparison tool down below so you can get a good deal no matter where you are. 

Bill Thomas
Bill Thomas

Bill Thomas (Twitter) is TechRadar's computing editor. They are fat, queer and extremely online. Computers are the devil, but they just happen to be a satanist. If you need to know anything about computing components, PC gaming or the best laptop on the market, don't be afraid to drop them a line on Twitter or through email.