Price Increase at Apple: Where to Get a Macbook Cheap

Note: We have used affiliate links in this article, marked with "*". If you make a purchase through these links, t3n.de receives a commission.

A current Macbook Air at Apple now costs €1,399 instead of €1,199. This is not an isolated case. The company has raised prices for all its Macs. As an official reason, Apple cites the increased costs of labor and SSD storage. Good news for those looking for a new device: Just because Apple has raised prices doesn’t mean that online retailers will immediately follow suit. Current devices are often still significantly cheaper in established shops – even if the price curve is already moving upwards again.

Macbook Air with M4 Under €800

Instead of targeting the very latest devices, it can be worthwhile to consider the predecessor models. While the Macbook Air with M5 has already climbed back over the €1,000 mark in online retail, you can currently get the predecessor for a bargain price of €799 at Mediamarkt and Saturn. Over the past three months, the Apple laptop has been significantly discounted. On average, the price was €819. The two electronics retailers are below that.

You don’t have to worry that the M4 might be too slow for your work. In established benchmark comparisons, the M5 is indeed a bit faster than its predecessor, but not by a huge margin. If you mainly edit photos, write texts, and occasionally cut a video, you can get by without the latest chip. The bottleneck when purchasing is more likely to be the storage. While Apple has equipped the M5 Air in the base version with an upgrade to 512 gigabytes, the predecessor remains somewhat limited with 256 gigabytes. An external SSD can provide a solution. Additionally, you shouldn’t be too picky about the color. Only the champagne-white variant (“Polar Star”) is discounted.

• Apple Macbook Air (M4) at MediaMarkt*
• Apple Macbook Air (M4) at Saturn*

Macbook Neo

One tier below the Macbook Air is the Macbook Neo. An M-chip is not used here. Instead, Apple installs the A18 Pro from the iPhone 16 Pro. It also comes with only eight gigabytes of RAM and 256 gigabytes of SSD storage. With this configuration, the Apple laptop is not for power users. However, if you mainly have office tasks to complete or need the device for school or university, you won’t notice much of the limitation.

Currently, the base version is available for about €599 on Amazon. Apple, on the other hand, has raised the price by €100 to €799. During Prime Day, the Neo was available for less. At €599, Amazon hits the average price of the past three months quite accurately. Again, it depends on the color. The device is cheapest in pink.