The rumors that the affordable MacBook Air is actually not new, and I’m not happy about that
If last year’s rumors of a new, more affordable MacBook got you excited, then we have some bad news, as it looks like it could have referred to the MacBook Air (2020, M1) which got a new price cut to $699.
So instead of getting a brand new type of MacBook with a price that could challenge the best Chromebooks on the market as some rumors suggested, the reality seems to be that it’s actually a four-year-old MacBook with a cheaper – but still not exactly budget – price tag. Worse still, it seems it’s only available at Walmart – which will annoy anyone like me who lives outside the US.
The M1 MacBook Air was first launched in 2020 and was officially discontinued by Apple this month with the launch of the latest MacBook Air models. However, Walmart sells the M1 MacBook Air at a better-than-Black Friday price of $699. At this price you would think that these are refurbished MacBooks, but that does not seem to be the case. Before its discontinuation, the M1 MacBook Air normally sold for $999.
According to MacRumors, these are brand new devices and appear to be “new inventory”. So while Apple may no longer sell the M1 MacBook Air from its own store, it may still be producing new units for sale elsewhere. It appears that the cheaper new MacBook Air is reportedly not ‘new’ in the way we had hoped, but is just a discount on a popular, albeit older, MacBook, which is a bit disappointing.
Disappointed is an understatement.
While this is good news for people who have been eager to buy a MacBook but remain skeptical due to the price, it’s quite disappointing to hear that we’re not getting a real new, cheaper alternative – especially for those of us outside the US who can’t easily shopping at walmart.
I’ve been saving up to buy myself a new MacBook Air for a while now, and I have to admit, I was incredibly excited to hear that Apple would try to enter the affordable laptop market and take it on against Google’s budget Chromebooks. Don’t get me wrong: some of the best Chromebooks on the market today can handle heavy workloads and do most of what you’d expect from a MacBook, but as someone deeply integrated into the Apple ecosystem it wouldn’t make sense are for me to buy one.
The 2020 MacBook Air still holds up today, and its M1 chip is more than capable of keeping up with everyday tasks, but just because it’s already four years old doesn’t mean you’re going to spend money on an older machine that is. not exactly future-proof. If last year’s rumors were indeed about the M1 MacBook Air, I can’t be too upset (well, I am), but I do hope that one day we’ll get a newcheaper alternative to the M3 MacBook Air.