Apple’s new 15-inch MacBook Air is now $49 off at Amazon

Apple has announced its latest laptop, the 15-inch MacBook Air, this Monday during the brand’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference — and there’s already at least one retailer offering a nearly $50 discount on pre-orders. Apple has set the retail price at $1,299, but Amazon currently lists it for $1,249.99. You won’t see big red markdown numbers or really any indication that it’s on sale, other than the fact that it’s cheaper than at any other retailer. Discount applies to 256GB storage configuration in Silver or Midnight. The larger, 512GB versions are also $49 off, but only in Starlight or Space Gray colors.

Amazon has a history of promoting discounts that are small but notable (hey, $50 is $50) on new and desirable products in the hopes that you’ll buy your new device from its site before the competition. Apple’s announcement came after months of speculation that the company would release a laptop with a screen big enough for serious productivity without making people gravitate towards the extra cost (and potentially excess processing power) of the Pro model laptops.

Our deputy editor Cherlin Lowe was on hand at WWDC and had a chance to get his hands on the latest MacBook. She was impressed by how light and thin it is at only 3.3 pounds and less than half an inch thick. She reported that the Liquid Retina display is rich, vibrant and sharp. The display of its processing power seems fast enough – that’s not surprising since it has the same M2 chip as the 13-inch MacBook Air, which performs remarkably well. But we’ll need to send a unit out for testing before we can properly rate it.

Meanwhile, here’s what the new 15-inch MacBook Air offers: a 15.3-inch Liquid Retina display, a 1080p camera, and a promised 18-hour battery life. The M2 chip in the base model has an 8-core CPU and 10-core GPU, instead of the optional 8-core GPU you get with the 13-inch version. It has the same 8GB of RAM as the smaller model (which can be configured up to 24GB) and the same storage options, 256GB or 512GB (both can be configured up to a 2TB SSD). The MBA 15 unfortunately didn’t add any additional ports — you’ll still only have two Thunderbolt 4 ports with a MagSafe power plug and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

When you pre-order now, your new MacBook Air should be delivered next week.

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