The best back to school deal of the summer knocks MacBook Air M1 to $749

MacBook Air M1 deal
(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

Heads up: This could be one of the best MacBook deals of all time. The Editor's Choice MacBook Air just hit its lowest price ever.

Currently, Best Buy has the Apple MacBook Air M1 (256GB) on sale for $849.99. Students who sign up for Best Buy's free student newsletter will save an extra $100 for a final price of $749.99. That's the lowest price we've ever seen for this laptop and one of the best Apple deals of all time. (An edu e-mail is required for the Best Buy student deals newsletter). 

MacBook Air M1 deal

MacBook Air (M1): was $999 now $749 @ Best Buy

MacBook Air (M1): <a href="https://shop-links.co/link?skuId=5721600&publisher_slug=future&exclusive=1&u1=hawk-custom-tracking&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bestbuy.com%2Fsite%2Fmacbook-air-13-3-laptop-apple-m1-chip-8gb-memory-256gb-ssd-latest-model-space-gray%2F5721600.p%3FskuId%3D5721600&article_name=hawk-article-name&article_url=hawk-article-url" data-link-merchant="bestbuy.com"" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">was $999 now $749 @ Best Buy
The new MacBook Air offers fantastic performance thanks to its new Apple Silicon. The new M1 CPU also helped it reach over 14 hours on our battery test. For a limited time, Best Buy has it on sale for $849.99. However, students can sign up for Best Buy's <a href="https://shop-links.co/link?id=pcmcat276200050000&publisher_slug=future&exclusive=1&u1=hawk-custom-tracking&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bestbuy.com%2Fsite%2Fback-to-school%2Fcollege-student-deals%2Fpcmcat276200050000.c%3Fid%3Dpcmcat276200050000&article_name=hawk-article-name&article_url=hawk-article-url" data-link-merchant="bestbuy.com"" data-link-merchant="bestbuy.com"" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">free student newsletter to receive a promo code that drops the price further to $749.99. It features a 13.3-inch Retina display, Apple M1 CPU, 8GB of RAM, and a 256GB SSD. The <a href="https://shop-links.co/link?skuId=6418598&publisher_slug=future&exclusive=1&u1=hawk-custom-tracking&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bestbuy.com%2Fsite%2Fmacbook-air-13-3-laptop-apple-m1-chip-8gb-memory-512gb-ssd-latest-model-silver%2F6418598.p%3FskuId%3D6418598&article_name=hawk-article-name&article_url=hawk-article-url" data-link-merchant="bestbuy.com"" data-link-merchant="bestbuy.com"" data-link-merchant="bestbuy.com"" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">512GB model is also on sale for $1,099 or $999 with the student discount. 

MacBook Air (M1): was $999 now $849 @ Amazon

MacBook Air (M1): <a href="https://target.georiot.com/Proxy.ashx?tsid=45724&GR_URL=https%3A%2F%2Famazon.com%2Fdp%2FB08N5LNQCX%3Ftag%3Dhawk-future-20%26ascsubtag%3Dhawk-custom-tracking-20" data-link-merchant="Amazon US"" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">was $999 now $849 @ Amazon
Don't have an edu e-mail address? Amazon has the 256GB MacBook Air on sale for $899, which is $149 off. Meanwhile, the 512GB model is also <a href="https://target.georiot.com/Proxy.ashx?tsid=45724&GR_URL=https%3A%2F%2Famazon.com%2Fdp%2FB08N5LFLC3%3Ftag%3Dhawk-future-20%26ascsubtag%3Dhawk-custom-tracking-20" data-link-merchant="Amazon US"" data-link-merchant="Amazon US"" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">on sale for $1,099, which is $149 under the Apple Store's direct price. 

The new MacBook Air features a 13-inch 2,560 x 1600-pixel Retina display, 8GB of RAM, Apple's 8-core M1 CPU, and a 256GB SSD. Despite being the base configuration, this MacBook packs the same CPU as the pricier MacBook Pro M1 and offers enough horsepower for just about anything you throw its way.

In our MacBook Air M1 review, we gave this model a near-perfect score for its outstanding performance, comfortable keyboard design, high-resolution webcam, and surprisingly strong battery life. The Air scored 5,962 on the Geekbench 5.1 (Intel) multicore test, which was practically in a dead-heat with the 5,925 from the M1 MacBook Pro. It also soundly beat the 5,084 from the ZenBook 13 and the 5,319 from the XPS 13 (both tested with the Intel Core i7-1165G7 CPU and 16GB of RAM), on the comparable Geekbench 5.2 test. 

Make sure to follow our best back to school laptop deals coverage for more sales. 

Louis Ramirez

As deals editor at Tom’s Guide, Louis is constantly looking for ways to avoid paying full price for the latest gadgets. 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. 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.