Rick Broida, CNET's Cheapskate emeritus, is a big fan of refurbs, particularly Apple's - which are often as good as new. It's worth keeping an eye out, however, because you can lock in substantial savings, up to $200. Refurb inventory changes rapidly so you may not always see an M1 MacBook Air or Pro listed. Want to go the refurbished route? You can now find refurbished M1 MacBooks on Apple's Certified Refurbished Mac page. The models sold on Amazon and other retailers are fixed configurations.
While Amazon and Best Buy have the best prices at the moment, one benefit to paying full price and buying from Apple is you can customize the machine and add more RAM or a higher-capacity SSD. For smaller budgets, the MacBook Air starts at $999 and the 13-inch MacBook Pro starts at $1,299 when buying from Apple directly. The new 14-inch MacBook Pro starts at $1,999, and the new 16-inch MacBook Pro starts at $2,499. We'll keep our eyes on the prices for all of Apple's current MacBook models and keep this page updated with any notable drops and deals, so be sure to check back.
And Apple's least expensive laptop, the MacBook Air, is marked down $50 at Amazon. The 13-inch Pro lacks the M1 Pro processor of its bigger Pro siblings, but its M1 chip is a big step up from the previous Intel-based MacBook Pro.
The other deal worth checking out is the 13-inch MacBook Pro from 2020 with a 512GB SSD, which is selling for $199 less than Apple's price at Best Buy. It's selling for $250 less than you'd purchased it directly from Apple. The biggest discount right now is at Amazon for the 14-inch MacBook Pro with a roomy 1TB SSD. Introduced last October, these newest MacBook Pros have been selling at or near full price with the occasional and short-lived price break. Based on Apple's new M1 Pro chip, the 14-inch MacBook Pro and its larger 16-inch Pro sibling are Apple's biggest and most powerful MacBooks.