Is There A Better Time Of Year To Buy A New Laptop?
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The internet era has, for several reasons, created a far savvier average consumer than in the preceding decades. The most obvious reason is, of course, that comparison shopping is easier than it's ever been. On top of that, there's a whole genre of websites devoted to hunting for the best deals, with electronics often being their primary focus.
Among the most popular items on deal sites are notebook/laptop computers of all kinds, whether they run Windows, macOS, or ChromeOS. Not every deal is the best possible one, though, and if you're not on a strict timeline, it may be best to wait for the times of year most likely to have the best deals.
When do those times come? It depends on exactly what you're looking for. The best deals on MacBooks may not come at the same time as the best deals on Chromebooks or the best value Windows notebooks. So let's break down when the best times to buy are and why.
Traditional big shopping and sale days
This is the most obvious answer — buy a new laptop at the same time that everything else you want to buy has the best deals. As with TVs, Instant Pots, game consoles, and much more, the best laptop deals are often part of Thanksgiving-adjacent promotions like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Cyber Week. The same can be said for Prime Day, Amazon's in-house major shopping event that the e-commerce giant holds every July.
Though the term "Black Friday" is generally understood to be referring to the idea of the overwhelming post-Thanksgiving sales driving retailers' ledgers "into the black," as in profitability, Dictionary.com notes that meaning started in the 1980s. Instead, the original intent behind the name was to denote the potential chaos of the day, with many retailer workers choosing to call in sick instead of dealing with the crowds.
However it came to be, some of the laptop discounts that SlashGear found last year were pretty significant, like a MacBook Pro for 20% off, a Microsoft Surface Pro 8 for 33% off, and, most impressively, a Gigabyte G5 MD gaming laptop for 45% off. Cyber Monday added more gaming laptop deals three days later, as well. In general, it's probably the likeliest time of the year to find MacBooks of all stripes below Apple's strictly-controlled retail prices.
2023's Prime Day, meanwhile, brought the base M1 MacBook Air down from $999.99 to $749.99, although that deal has continued to stick around past the special event.
After Apple releases a new line of MacBooks
Apple's new product release cycles are predictable enough that they can be used to determine the optimal time to purchase a Mac. More commonly, this is used to figure out how long you should wait to buy a new computer so you can get the latest and greatest model as soon as it comes out. However, that same data can be used to determine when might be a good time to get an older model, as well, as the announcements and releases of new models tend to bring price drops to the older ones. And not only does this apply to new MacBooks, but it also has a noticeable effect on one of the most underrated parts of the Apple empire: The company's "Certified Refurbished" store.
What makes Apple's refurbs stand out above most other refurbished laptops is that they have the same warranty as new — complete with AppleCare options — on top of including free shipping and free returns. Though occasionally, deals like Amazon's aforementioned deep discount on the base M1 MacBook Air might beat the refurbished prices, the deals really shine with returns of custom configurations. Supplies are limited and constantly changing, so it's best to keep a close eye on the refurb store if you're in the market for a MacBook that isn't so new as to be unlikely to have been returned.
Back-to-school sales
Computers definitely qualify as back-to-school items these days, even if they're considerably more expensive than just about any other school supplies. Naturally, this extends back-to-school sales to laptops. This article is being written right in the middle of back-to-school season, so there are some current examples to be cited. The back-to-school shopping season could very well be the reason why Amazon has continued its 25% discount on the base M1 MacBook Air, for starters.
That model's follow-up, meanwhile, the base 13-inch M2 MacBook Air, is currently $999 — $100 off retail — at B&H Photo. The base M2 MacBook Pro is $1,099 — $200 off retail — at both B&H and Best Buy. Even the newest MacBooks introduced this summer have significant discounts available, with the base 15-inch MacBook Air available at $70 less — for $1,229 — at B&H and Amazon, the 14-inch MacBook Pro offered for $200 less than its usual $1,999 at B&H and Best Buy, and the 16-inch MacBook Pro discounted between $200 to $250 at all three of the aforementioned resellers.
To put those discounts into perspective, Apple's own student/education store pricing is more expensive than these authorized resellers' back-to-school sale prices in most cases.