Walmart is selling the M1 MacBook Air for just $700

M1 MacBook Air drops to its lowest price ever thanks to a Walmart sale. You can pick one up for just $700, which is $50 cheaper than the previous minimum and a whopping $300 off the original price. If you’re looking for an entry-level Apple laptop, this is a very good option.

Devindra Hardawar/Engadget

The M1 Air is now more than three years old and a full two generations behind the newly released M3-equipped laptops. While it’s getting a little long in the tooth, the M1 chip is still no slouch, so this MacBook Air is very capable. It’s a solid machine that excels at basic everyday computing tasks like streaming content and web browsing. It will even handle light video editing and music production. We called it “faster than most PCs” in our official 2020 review.

It doesn’t track exactly anymore (progress march and all), but the M1 Air has a lovely Retina display and no fan noise to speak of, in addition to an excellent keyboard and trackpad. Battery life is great, lasting over 16 hours before you need to hit the plug. That’s just an hour or two shorter than the new M3 MacBook Air computers.

The Apple Silicon chips are pretty impressive, but the M1 will struggle when you move beyond everyday computing tasks and into the worlds of serious video editing and AAA gaming. Also, the M1 laptop still has that wedge-shaped design, while newer models feature a uniformly flat design. Some people really prefer wedges, but I’m not one of them.

This is the base standard M1 Air with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage. The 720p webcam won’t win any awards for visual clarity, but it’ll get the job done. It’s not the most preferred computer for the future, as Apple recently discontinued it, but it also costs $700. The M3 MacBook Air starts at $1,100 and the M2 starts at $1,000.

Best buy is offering the M1 Air on sale even cheaper, at $650. This is a great deal, but it appears to be location specific. The retailer also offers open box models.

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