UPDATE: Oct. 9, 2024, 11:00 a.m. EDT This story has been updated with current pricing and availability.
LIVE BLOG: Get the latest news on October Prime Day 2024
Amazon is home to good MacBook deals year-round (more so than any other kind of laptop), but its selection sees especially deep discounts during certain sitewide savings events. This time, it's Prime Big Deal Days, the retailer's members-only "October Prime Day" sale on Oct. 8 and 9, which has brought dramatic price drops across Apple's lineup ahead of a possible M4 refresh.
With Prime Big Deal Days underway, things have gone as expected: Amazon has discounted most MacBooks across the M2 and M3 generations, and two of our favorite models are currently sitting at record-low prices. That would be the M2 MacBook Air and the M3 MacBook Pro; we think they're the best budget MacBook and the best MacBook for video editing, respectively.
These are early deals that didn't go down once the event actually started, but that doesn't mean they're the absolute best MacBook deals you'll find this week. We'll be keeping an eye on them over the next few days while closely monitoring competing deals at other retailers. (For its part, Best Buy will be running a 48-Hour Flash Sale during Prime Big Deal Days.)
Read on for a closer look at the best early October Prime Day deals on MacBooks. Note: Deals marked with a 🔥 have dropped to an all-time low price.
Read Mashable's full review of the 13-inch Apple MacBook Air (M2).
The 13-inch MacBook Air from mid-2022 is a Mashable Choice Award winner that combines "[rock]-solid battery life" with "a keyboard that’s to die for, and enough horsepower to handle everyday tasks with ease," wrote tech and games reporter Alex Perry. It's our current favorite "budget" MacBook, and it's now cheaper than ever before.
You can snag the base configuration with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage for $749, or $250 off its $999 MSRP. If it sells out on Amazon, check Best Buy: It was matching the deal at the time of writing.
Apple MacBook Air, 13-inch (M3, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD) — $849 $1,099 (save $250)
Apple MacBook Air, 15-inch (M3, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD) — $1,044 $1,299 (save $255)
Read Mashable's full review of the 14-inch Apple MacBook Pro (M3).
The latest 14-inch MacBook Pro features an M3 chip that supports hardware-accelerated ray tracing for rendering lifelike lighting, plus a bright 120Hz mini-LED display, tons of ports (including an SDXC card slot), and a battery that lasted over 16 hours per charge in our testing. It's another Mashable Choice Award winner.
All configurations of the 14-inch M3 Pro are now on sale at all-time lows on Amazon (including the base model, which is now just $1,299). However, we're partial to the bumped-up version with 16GB of memory and 1TB of SSD storage: That extra RAM is necessary if you're going to be using it for multitasking and/or creative work. Normally $1,999, it's now just $1,698 — a 15% savings.
Apple MacBook Pro, 14-inch (M3, 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $1,299 $1,599 (save $300)
Apple MacBook Pro, 14-inch (M3 Pro, 18GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $1,799 $1,999 (save $200)
Apple MacBook Pro, 16-inch (M3 Max, 36GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $2,999 $3,499 (save $500)
Apple MacBook Pro, 16-inch (M3 Max, 48GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $3,499 $3,999 (save $500)
