Apple Inc.'s M1 MacBook Air is now up for grabs at the lowest prices ever thanks to competition between Walmart Inc. and Best Buy Co Inc.
What Happened: Walmart announced the sale of the base model M1 MacBook Air online and in select stores. This marks the first time Walmart is directly selling Macs.
See Also: Qualcomm Is About To Make Cheap Android Phones Better Than Ever With New Snapdragon 8S Gen 3 Chipset
Walmart’s Executive Vice President of Merchandising, Julie Barber, stated, “Our mission at Walmart is to help customers save money so they can live better – it's not an either/or proposition. The very heart of that mission is the belief that customers should not have to sacrifice quality because of price.”
Walmart is currently offering the 13-inch M1 MacBook Air at $699.
Best Buy quickly responded to this by dropping the price to $649 and undercutting Walmart.
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The 13-inch MacBook Air with M1 chip has 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. Although Apple has unveiled the M3-powered MacBook Air now, the M1 MacBook Air at these prices is still a good deal.
Why It Matters: Apple recently unveiled its latest MacBook Air models, powered by the advanced M3 chip, promising enhanced performance and extended battery life. The M3 chip is said to be 60% faster than the M1 chip and up to 13 times faster than the fastest Intel-based MacBook Air.
Apple’s reshuffling of its MacBook lineup last week saw the introduction of the M3 MacBook Air, starting at $1099, and a drop in the price of the M2 MacBook Air to $999.
As part of these changes, Apple also stopped selling the M1 MacBook Air, which had previously been available for $999.
The M3-powered MacBook Air has also been under scrutiny for its heat levels, with a stress test revealing surprising results. However, the higher temperatures have not had a significant impact on the overall performance of the M3 MacBook Air.
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