Latest news with #M1MacBookAir
CNET
5 days ago
- Business
- CNET
Put Apple's 13-Inch M1 MacBook Air on Your Desk for Just $599
You may be eyeing Apple's latest M4 MacBook Air, but you don't have to buy the newest model to get a great laptop. Instead, consider picking up the M1 MacBook Air, a model that ushered in the new era of Apple M-series chips in 2020. It has a gorgeous 13-inch display, a fast chip and a great keyboard. The best part? You can now get the device for just $599 at Walmart. That's $50 off the normal asking price. For more deals, explore our roundup of the best Prime Day deals and the best Prime Day deals on Apple products. And this deal isn't exclusive to Walmart Plus subscribers, it's open to everyone. Just add it to your cart and check out. The discount is available across all three colors, but we can't predict how long Walmart's MacBook Air stock will last. Hey, did you know? CNET Deals texts are free, easy and save you money. The M1 MacBook Air has an Apple M1 chip, which includes an eight-core CPU and a seven-core GPU. That chip is backed up by 8GB of RAM and a fast 256GB solid-state drive. And the thing you spend your time looking at, the 13.3-inch display, promises sharp text and vibrant colors, with a resolution of 2,560x1,600 pixels. This MacBook Air is silent because it lacks a fan and sports a long-lasting battery that can run for up to 18 hours between charges. Factor in support for Apple's latest MacOS software updates and tight integration with other Apple hardware, like the iPhone and iPad, and this extremely capable laptop is hard to beat at this price. It also makes a great option for teens or college students who want to be in the Apple ecosystem but don't want to spend the big bucks on the M4 models. Don't worry if this deal isn't for you, though. Feel free to peruse our other top laptop deals and check back often since we'll be updating these pages throughout this event. Best Prime Day Laptops Deals It's never too early to start shopping for an upgrade to your laptop, and our favorite Prime Day laptop deals are guaranteed to save you time and money. Check out the best savings here. See Now Why this deal matters The M1 MacBook Air is the best MacBook you can get on a budget. It marked the beginning of a new era for Apple, delivering significant performance and efficiency gains over its Intel-powered MacBooks. Although we've seen newer chips from Apple, the M1 is still powerful. It also has a thin, light and fan-less design and offers solid battery life. At under $600, it's difficult to find a laptop that will tick as many of the right boxes as this one.
Forbes
12-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Apple's Subtle Push To Sell You A New MacBook Pro
Apple CEO Tim Cook looks away from a display of redesigned MacBook Air laptops (Photo by Justin ...) How do you sell a laptop like the MacBook Pro to consumers? There's a clear argument for high-end content creators and developers to look at the Apple SIlicon Pro and Ultra. Yet the consumer-focused MacBook Pro has to deal with the increased challenge of the MacBook Air. When the Mac platform ran on Intel silicon, it was easier to create a gap. The difference in performance from the lower-end to the higher-end chipsets in each generation ensured that the cheaper MacBook Air models with the low-end silicon offered far less performance than the more expensive, higher-priced silicon in the MacBook Pro models. Apple had separation built in, thanks to having Intel inside. The move to Apple Silicon allowed Tim Cook and his team to offer. Debuting in late 2020, the M1-powered MacBook Air offered benchmarking numbers that saw the processor offering x2 and x3 beneficial increases over the early 2020 Intel model. Yet the difference between the M1 MacBook Air and M1 MacBook Pro was around fifteen to twenty percent; a value that the average consumer would have a hard time spotting, especially as the M1 MacBook Air offered such a leap over equivalent intel-powered laptops. In time, Apple would offer Pro and Ultra variants of the chipsets for professional users that would increase the performance, but the rubicon had been passed. The entry-level MacBook was now more than powerful enough for the average consumer. As the years passed, Apple Silicon improved, and more consumers entered a product buying cycle, Apple faced a problem. If the entry-level machine in 2020 was good enough and steadily improved over four years, how can we upsell consumers from the $999 base to the more expensive and profitable machines? Apple's answer is not to use performance as a differentiator. Instead, the differentiator is time. While the M1 MacBook Air and M1 MacBook Pro launched simultaneously (alongside the Mac Mini), subsequent generations have seen Apple split the schedules by releasing the Pro laptops later than the Air laptop. We're now in the situation where the M4 MacBook Air has been launched almost a year after the M4 chipset was released. There's a slight wrinkle in Apple launching the M4 in the 'don't call it a tablet' iPad Pro with the MacBook Pro five months after that and the MacBook Air six months after that. While the base MacBook Pro and MacBook Air specs are similar—although that fifteen percent gap remains—the appeal of Apple has been built on owning the latest models. Be it fashion, fear of missing out, or frustration that there are no more options on sale in the Apple Store, consumers are being pulled towards the 'Pro' badged hardware. The Intel days were easier to understand. The numbers were clear; this laptop is better than that laptop. Today, the levers are more emotional thanks to a higher performance bar. The message of this laptop being better than that laptop is far more subtle but makes for a more straightforward upsell. It's hard to beat 'that's last year's model', even if they are all of the same generation. Now read the latest MacBook Pro, iPhone and iOS headlines in Forbes' weekly Apple news digest...
Forbes
28-03-2025
- Forbes
Apple Loop: iPhone 17 Design Leaks, Apple's Gaming Problem, MacBook Air Special Offers
Taking a look back at this week's news and headlines from Apple, including WWDC dates, iPhone 17 Pro design leaks, Apple's foldable iPhone, MacBook Air special offer, AirPods Pro Max upgrades, solving Apple Arcade's visibility problem, and massive clean energy investment. Apple Loop is here to remind you of a few of the many discussions around Apple in the last seven days. You can also read my weekly digest of Android news here on Forbes. Apple has announced the dates for this year's Worldwide Developer Conference. The annual get-together, split between physical and online events, will occur the week of June 9, 2025. Tim Cook and his team will have lots to show off and demonstrate, but no doubt the key attraction will be how he positions the weak and late generative AI offering that is Apple Intelligence: "Available for free to all developers, WWDC25 will spotlight the latest advancements in Apple software. As part of Apple's ongoing commitment to supporting developers, the conference will provide them with unique access to Apple experts, as well as insight into new tools, frameworks, and features." (Apple Newsroom). Following a leak of the CAD files, Maijin Bu has a closer look at the designs of the iPhone 17 family through the use of 3D printing. The different depths are clearly on show, with very little to tell the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max apart: The USB-C ports at the base of each phone can be seen on all the models. Apple has been considering going 'portless' for some time, and the fashionably thin iPhone 17 Air would have offered the perfect justification to launch such a phone. Alas, Apple's opportunity to innovate here has been passed over. (Maijin Bu). Another iPhone is in the wings, although it's unlikely to arrive in September. This is the foldable iPhone, and some more details on the manufacturing of the all-important hinge have been revealed this week. It is now expected to use metallic glass, which you'll see branded as 'liquid glass': "Unlike traditional metals that have a regular, repeating crystalline atomic structure, metallic glass features a disordered arrangement of atoms that is more resistant to bending, deformation, and denting. Achieved through rapid cooling techniques, its unique structure is 2.5x harder than titanium alloy. It also features a smooth, glossy finish that makes it aesthetically similar to stainless steel." (MacRumors). The launch of the M4 MacBook Air saw Apple clear out the portfolio of all other models. As a result, the totemic $999 price point is held by one of the M4 laptops. Curiously, this isn't the cheapest new MacBook Air out there… Apple has continued its deal with Walmart to offer 2020's M1 MacBook Air: "With the recent M4 MacBook Air launch, Walmart's offer has been updated. While the specs remain low—this is still the 8/256 option on the M1 MacBook Air—the sticker price has dropped to $649. The lowest-priced MacBook Air Apple currently offers is through its refurbished store. That's an M3 MacBook Air with 16 GB of memory and 256 GB of storage for $759." (Forbes). Apple has pre-announced an update to the AirPods Max, which should offer advantages for those looking to use the wireless headphones in production. Reducing latency and switching to lossless audio will smooth out the experience… although it does prove that sometimes you can't beat a cable: "Lossless audio and ultra-low latency audio enable music creators to fully utilise AirPods Max throughout their entire professional workflow on Logic Pro and other music creation apps. Using the USB-C cable, AirPods Max will become the only headphones that enable musicians to both create and mix in Personalised Spatial Audio with head tracking.1 By delivering lossless, high-resolution digital audio with low latency, artists can seamlessly record and mix with AirPods Max without compromising fidelity." (Apple Pressroom). What should Apple do with Apple Arcade? While Apple TV+ gets all the plaudits—even with its significant paper loss—the all-you-can-eat gaming service remains tucked away in the portfolio, gathering little attention from gamers, developers and apparently Apple management. Chris Brandrick has a proposal: "Discoverability is the key barrier for me. I'd suggest ripping Arcade out of the App Store and giving it its own dedicated app — if TV can have its own why not Arcade? You could roll the Game Center stuff in too and have a one-stop destination for pushing great new releases in front of a ton of eyeballs. Apple's own Game Pass." (Overkill). As part of its drive to go carbon neutral across its entire business, Apple has announced a near $100 million investment in Chinese clean energy, especially to provide this through its supply chain: "The investment will go towards the second phase of the China Clean Energy Fund, which aims to add approximately 550,000 megawatt-hours of wind and solar capacity to China's grid each year, according to Apple. The first phase added more than a gigawatt of new wind and solar projects across the country, the company said." (Apple China via MacRumors). Apple Loop brings you seven days worth of highlights every weekend here on Forbes. Don't forget to follow me so you don't miss any coverage in the future. Last week's Apple Loop can be read here, or this week's edition of Loop's sister column, Android Circuit, is also available on Forbes.
Forbes
22-03-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Apple's Stealthy Move Reveals Stunning MacBook Air Deal
Apple's recent launch of the M4 MacBook Air not only introduced the macOS consumer laptop to the Apple Silicon M4 chipset, but also brought the entry-level price down to $999. For those looking for a better deal, Apple has one.. you just need to ask Walmart. The Apple Store page for the MacBook Air only features models equipped with the latest M4 chips; the other options have been removed from sale and put out to pasture. Except… Alongside last year's launch of the M3-powered MacBook Air, the company continued manufacturing new M1 MacBook Air units. Rather than sell them through the Apple Store, they instead went on sale at Walmart. These were the lowest specs of MacBook Air possible, 2020's Apple Silicon M1 chipset, 256 GB of storage and 8 GB of RAM. Why Walmart and not Apple? Many suspect that the price tag was the reason. At a consumer-friendly $699, this was the cheapest new MacBook Air, bar none. Given that Apple has been steadfast at keeping the lowest list price at $999 on its website and rarely mentions the $100 educational discount, having a MacBook for $699 would strip away much of the allure of luxury it has built up. With the recent M4 MacBook Air launch, Walmart's offer has been updated. While the specs remain low—this is still the 8/256 option on the M1 MacBook Air—the sticker price has dropped to $649. The lowest-priced MacBook Air Apple currently offers is through its refurbished store. That's an M3 MacBook Air with 16 GB of memory and 256 GB of storage for $759. Last year, the M1 Air was probably the best-performing laptop at the $699 mark if you could put up with the quirks of macOS and be happy to walk into Apple's private ecosystem. One year later, the competition has caught up, and a $50 discount may not be enough to stay ahead of the specs/price balance. However, it's clear that the stealthy relationship between Walmart and Apple has been successful and will continue into 2025. Now read the latest MacBook Air, iPhone and iPad headlines in Forbes' weekly Apple Loop news digest...
