Cheaper than Black Friday! MacBook Air with 16GB of RAM now $250 off

A hand holding the MacBook Air 15-inch laptop
(Image credit: Future)

I bought a new Mac for the first time in years this Black Friday. I purchased the 15-inch MacBook Air M2 and I love it. If you're looking for a new Mac, the MacBook Air I bought is back on sale at the same sale price I purchased it. Even better, the rarely discounted 16GB of RAM is also on sale. 

For a limited time, you can get the 15-inch MacBook Air M2 on sale for $1,049 at Best Buy. That's $250 off and one of the best MacBook deals I've seen. Yes, it briefly hit $999 last month, but that deal was limited to paying My Best Buy members only. By comparison, today's deal is available to anyone. Even better, you can get the rarely discounted 16GB RAM model for $1,449 at Best Buy. This 16GB model wasn't on sale when I purchased my MacBook Air, but I heartily recommend it because it'll help future-proof your laptop (and you can never go wrong with more RAM). 

MacBook Air 15 (M2/256GB): was $1,299 now $1,049 @ Best Buy
$250 off! Price check: $1,049 @ Amazon | $1,099 @ B&H Photo

MacBook Air 15 (M2/256GB): was $1,299 now $1,049 @ Best Buy
$250 off!
The MacBook Air 15-inch M2 is arguably the best 15-inch laptop on the market for the money. It packs a gorgeous Liquid Retina display (2880 x 1864), Apple's M2 CPU w/ 8-core GPU, 8GB of RAM, 256GB SSD, and a better six-speaker sound system than you'll find on the 13-inch model. In our MacBook Air M2 review, we called the Editor's Choice laptop an unbeatable combo of stellar performance, long-lasting battery life, and sleek design.
Price check: $1,049 @ Amazon | $1,099 @ B&H Photo

MacBook Air 15 (M2/16GB/512GB): was $1,699 now $1,449 @ Best Buy
$250 off! Price check: $1,449 @ Amazon | $1,499 @ B&H Photo

MacBook Air 15 (M2/16GB/512GB): was $1,699 now $1,449 @ Best Buy
$250 off!
My machine is plenty fast, but if you want to future-proof your laptop, I highly recommend upgrading to 16GB of RAM. This upgraded model also bumps your storage to 512GB. It's one of the very few times I've seen  the 16GB RAM model on sale.
Price check: $1,449 @ Amazon | $1,499 @ B&H Photo

The Mac I've been using for day-to-day work is my late 2015 iMac 27-inch 5K running on a Core i5 CPU with 16GB of RAM. As expected, the MacBook Air with M2 blows it out of the water. This is the first machine I own with Apple silicon and the first thing I noticed was how fast it boots up. I never complained about my iMac being slow, but the M2 takes things to another level. 

I can have over 20 Firefox tabs open, stream a 4K YouTube video, and edit a picture with not so much as a hiccup on my Mac. It's no surprise it ranks as one of the best laptops on the market right now. 

In our MacBook Air M2 review, we called the Editor's Choice laptop the best 15-inch laptop you can buy. It even earned a spot on our best MacBooks lists for offering a near-perfect mix of performance, display quality, portability, and battery life.  On Geekbench 5, which measures overall CPU performance, the MacBook Air 15-inch notched a single-core score of 1,908 and 8,932 on the multi-core test. Outpacing the bulk of Windows laptops, the MacBook Air M2 effortlessly handles everyday tasks like browsing the web and streaming video. While it may not match the raw speed and power of the MacBook Pro M2, we're confident that, for most people, the MacBook Air M2 is more than capable of serving your needs.  

Its stellar battery life is also not to be overlooked. We got nearly 15 hours of battery life out of our unit on a single charge. It suffers from the same shortcomings as the 13-inch MacBook Air — namely a minimal number of ports and support for just one external monitor. 

But even with those few drawbacks, the MacBook Air M2 is still a top-tier laptop, and it's a steal at this price. My one regret, I do wish I would've gotten the model with 16GB of RAM. That would have helped future-proof my laptop a little more. While it wasn't on sale when I bought my MacBook Air, it is on sale now and I totally recommend it if you can afford to spend the extra money. 

Louis Ramirez

As deals editor-in-chief at Tom’s Guide, Louis is constantly looking for ways to avoid paying full price for the latest gadgets, appliances, and apparel. With over 10 years of deals-hunting experience, Louis price checks against multiple retailers and searches high and low for the best deals to bring readers. He's also always on the look out for the best coupon codes to use when shopping. A born-and-bred New Yorker, Louis is also an avid swimmer and marathoner. His work has appeared on Gizmodo, CNET, and Time Out New York.