Walmart Sells M1 MacBook Air for $699
In a press release, Walmart writes:
Walmart will begin selling MacBook Air with the M1 chip – continuing to deliver premium quality and unmatched affordability for customers. MacBook Air features amazing performance and a long battery life in its thin and light design. This is the first time customers can purchase a Mac directly from Walmart. The MacBook Air with the M1 chip is now available on Walmart.com and will soon be available in select Walmart stores for only $699.
Despite Apple’s advances with the M2 and M3 chips, the M1 MacBook Air remains all many people will ever need. It’s brilliant of Walmart and Apple to make it available for just $699, especially given that Apple no longer sells that model. I wonder if the Walmart deal is exclusive or if other discount retailers like Costco will negotiate similar agreements.
The 13-inch M1 MacBook Air available from Walmart has 8 GB of memory and 256 GB of storage, which is on the low side but appropriate for the price. No upgrade options are available, but customers can choose from silver, space gray, or gold.
At that price I am super tempted, and my local WalMart has it for sale.
Definitely interesting for people who don’t need much power and/or storage capacity.
Best Buy has it for $649.00:
EDIT: Looks like it’s open box only at the moment.
I’d be tempted to pick one up for my partner, if only they’d make a 16GB Ram version available.
Definitely don’t underestimate its power or capability, especially compared to its successors or other branded laptops. Ditto for the battery life. I have one bought new when it debuted and still love it to death. Interesting that many reviews on YouTube still put it above the M2 and M3…there’s a reason. I can’t stand that they got rid of the wedge shape on newer models and also don’t even put the “MacBook Air” name under the screen! Ok, niggles, but they are important to me!!
For basic usage, it’s not a bad price.
For comparison, Dell has a couple of “quick ship” discounts on XPS 13 laptops with 12th generation processors that fit similar niches in the laptop market.
An i5 unit with 8 GB RAM and 256 SSD is going for $599, and an i7 unit with 16 GB RAM and 512 GB SSD is going for $799. Depending on the benchmarks, they’re in the same ballpark performance-wise, with some advantage to the M1. Battery life will be better on the M1, but the XPS weighs a little less.
Overall, with the 8/256 M1 right in between the two XPS variants, it’s competitive. For business use, I’d probably go with the i7 XPS, but for casual home use, I’d probably go with the M1.
That said, I wonder if it might not make more sense to look at a $699 M1 Air as an alternative to various iPad models!