Amazon Takes $150 Off Every M5 MacBook Air, Starting at $949

It's really incredible to think about the margins on the MBA when they get spec'd up.

(obviously the current pricing realities have changed that a bit, but still).

A base MBA 13" M5 (16/512/10c/10c) at $1200 MSRP can get to $2700!!! when loaded up (32gb/4tb/10c/10c)

It's the same "everything" other than RAM & SSD and the cost more than doubles.

The component speccing is quite clearly where all the juicy margin for Apple lives.

It's very conflicting as a user who does care a bit about value, in that you get HAMMERED when you try to resell or trade in anything other than base spec models.

The flip side of that is you can score an amazing deal if you’re willing to buy lightly used.

I find with laptops for personal home use, I never need the latest and greatest. Buying one generation old is totally fine, and well worth it for the savings.

I'm amazed by these continual deals, given our current moment.

Are all these configs unattractive?
Everyone just hanging on to what they have?

I don't understand.

Perhaps the Air demand is evaporating into the Neo or folks bumping up to the Pros?

The 15" MBA, of course, being its own animal.

It's the same here 10% off of every config across all the Air and Pro models...not that I'm complaining. I can't imagine they'll be discounted much more, and I wouldn't put it past Apple increasing prices of existing models, or removing base options as soon as next month.

Some very good deals. Not planning to get one as I am very satisfied with my 15" M4. Unfortunately these deals are not available in my country.

The problem is the 'Neo". Why spend $1,000 and an Air when the Neo does the job for $500? For the vast majority of users the just don't need the Air. In fact, you can write emails, browse the web, and watch YouTube in a 2017 Intel-based Mac just fine. The discount is because they need to move inventory.

For the 13" I get it for sure, the 15" much less so.

The Neo screen is even smaller than the 13" MBA, which makes it a true non starter for me. I'm not the mainstream though and I very much take your point.

It's very conflicting as a user who does care a bit about value, in that you get HAMMERED when you try to resell or trade in anything other than base spec models.

With base models moving up to 16GB of ram for most of the Macs, plus the growth in online storage (which most people end up paying for anyway) and even the bump of in the base storage, I struggle to see why the average user should buy anything but the base model of these computers by now. You get nothing for resale or trade in value for the money you spend bumping up specs these days. Just get the base models and use until they get obsolete, then repeat

The flip side of that is you can score an amazing deal if you’re willing to buy lightly used.

I find with laptops for personal home use, I never need the latest and greatest. Buying one generation old is totally fine, and well worth it for the savings.

Completely agree with you!

I've done a full blown exploration of the M5's (some buys, returns and resales) and I'm currently on the hunt for a good deal on an M4 15" MBA, for value, but also because I'd like to stay on Sequoia for awhile I've decided.

This is while typing on my 2015" 15" MBP on Sequoia again.
It's still stunningly capable for general use (with the NVMe upgrade I did).