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The MacBook Most People Should Buy Is $200 Off Ahead of Black Friday

Wired •
November 12, 2026 • 02:33 AM
• By Luke Larsen
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The holiday is still two weeks out, but this MacBook Air discount may be the must-buy laptop deal of the season.

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Well ahead of Black Friday, the MacBook Air is already $200 off , bringing down the price of the 13-inch model with an M5 chip, 16 GB of RAM, and 512 GB of storage to $1,099.

This is the lowest price the MacBook Air has been at since June, when Apple permanently hiked prices across its entire Mac lineup . Amazon frequently sells this MacBook Air for $1,149, but this even lower price is usually reserved for big sales events—the last being in October during Prime Day. And now it's back.

I probably don't need to expound too much on what makes the M5 MacBook Air such a fantastic, do-it-all laptop. It's extremely well-built, the performance and battery life are both top-notch, and it's still one of the thinnest laptops you can buy. There's a reason it tops my list of laptop recommendations —even after having tested dozens of new models this year.

Unlike the MacBook Neo, which makes compromises on memory and performance to achieve its low price, the MacBook Air does nearly everything right. And while a MacBook Pro may tempt you—whether the new M6 model or one of the more powerful touchscreen OLED models—most people won't actually feel the difference in performance. Unless content creation, media, or game development is a full-time gig for you, I think you'll be surprised by just how much the M5 MacBook Air can handle.

The only real question is what size is right for you. The 13-inch model plays to the strengths of the MacBook Air—offering an extremely portable laptop at a reasonable price without sacrificing performance. If you would appreciate a larger screen (and don’t plan to travel with the device as much), you might prefer the 15-inch model , which is also $200 off its retail price, currently selling for $1,299. Aside from the larger screen, the only other difference is a much more robust six-speaker audio system.

Either way, now remains a really good time to buy a MacBook Air. While prices were certainly lower in the first half of 2026, we’re still probably many months out from the inevitable M6 refresh. I don’t claim to have any insider knowledge, but based on pricing history, I can’t see these laptops coming down any lower in price over the next few months.

For more early Black Friday deals , make sure to check out the discounts we've been watching on some of our favorite products.

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