I use M3 MacBook Air every day and this $844 Black Friday deal is the best I've ever seen for a MacBook Air

On any given day I might jump between a 16-inch M1 MacBook Pro, an old intel-based 27-inch iMac, and the newly redesigned 2024 Mac Mini, which I recently reviewed. But my preferred Mac is the M3 MacBook Air. So I was thrilled to see that this year Amazon is running the best Black Friday deal I can ever remember on a MacBook Air — in fact, it’s the biggest discount I’ve ever seen on a new MacBook Air.

Amazon is selling the 2024 M3 MacBook Air for $844, a 23% discount off the $1,099 retail price. Apple essentially never puts its laptops on sale. At best, you can get a 10% educational discount and get this model for $999. If you’re lucky, you might be able to catch an older model at a 10-20% discount from a third-party seller like Amazon or Best Buy. 

Also: The best Black Friday deals live now

So this price is nearly unprecedented for a current MacBook Air model. With that in mind, I’d recommend snatching up this deal if you’ve been seriously considering an M3 MacBook Air. 

There’s also a hidden factor that makes this an even better deal than it looks like on paper. That $1,099 price tag is slightly deceiving. When Apple launched the first M4 Macs in October, it also quietly upgraded the base models of both the M3 MacBook Air and the M2 MacBook Air from 8GB of RAM to 16GB — without increasing the price. So that means that the configuration of the M3 MacBook Air you can now buy for $844 would have actually cost you $1,299 just a couple months ago. 

Also: Best Black Friday Apple deals

All in all, this M3 MacBook Air is a terrific machine. In fact, I’m writing this article from it right now. It weighs 2.7 pounds and is less than a half an inch thick — and the dimensions are only slightly bigger than a sheet of 8.5 x 11 inch paper. So you barely even notice it when you slip it into a bag or backpack.

And for all its svelteness, it also packs a ton of power. Ever since the M1 Apple Silicon chips arrived, these MacBook Air models have felt snappier and just as powerful as the old Intel-based MacBook Pros. In fact, there are a lot of people who used to need a MacBook Pro for things like basic photo-editing and other forms of multimedia and work-based tasks that can now easily get away with using a MacBook Air. That’s especially been true since the M2 MacBook Air arrived in 2022 and it’s even more true with the M3 version. Because of these machines, the number of people who need a MacBook Pro has shrunk considerably in the last couple years.

Also: Best Black Friday laptop deals

The only drawback to this $844 configuration is that it only comes with 256GB of storage and it would cost you $200 to upgrade to 512GB. However, I have the 512GB version and I’ve been using the M3 MacBook Air for over six months and I still have 366GB of unused space. If you’re worried about having extra storage space you could always carry a fast external drive like this 2TB Seagate drive that’s on sale for $65 (19% off) for Black Friday.

Amazon also has the M2 MacBook Air on sale for $729, which is a great deal for someone with a little bit lighter computing needs. Either way, there’s never been a better Black Friday for buying a MacBook Air.