MacBooks Just Got Pricier. These Prime Day Deals Should Help.

Every product was carefully curated by an Esquire editor. We may earn a commission from these links. Here’s how we test products and why you should trust us.Apple2 min readIf there’s one product line where the recent price hikes hit Apple the hardest, it’s the MacBook. Rising RAM and storage costs have pushed laptop prices up across the board, so any amount off a MacBook is worth paying attention to. Ahead of Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days (akin to a fall version of Prime Day), we’re keeping close tabs on Apple’s laptop lineup.The MacBook Air packs Apple’s M5 chip into a fanless, 2.7-pound frame that handles heavy multitasking and light video editing without breaking a sweat. Base storage doubled to 512GB this year—a great upgrade for storing more apps, photos, and files—and the 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display is sharp and vivid. You also get a 12MP Center Stage camera that’s great on video calls, Wi-Fi 7 for fast downloads, and up to 18 hours of battery, enough for a busy workday and then some. It won’t replace a MacBook Pro for serious creative work or gaming, but for school, business, and general use, it’s the one to get. Want a bigger screen? The 15-inch Air is also on sale right now.Step up to the MacBook Pro and you get a 14.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR display with 120Hz ProMotion, up to 24 hours of battery, three Thunderbolt 4 ports, HDMI, an SD card slot, and 1TB of storage. Why go Pro over the Air? The GPU is fast, which makes a difference when editing video, working with high-res photos, or gaming, and the XDR screen is significantly brighter. If your daily workload has started becoming too much for the Air to handle, this is where you should look next. And if you want the most powerful model possible, you can save up to $500 on the 16-inch configuration.The MacBook Neo is Apple’s most affordable laptop, even with the recent price hike from $599 to $699. Although this model’s not technically on sale (yet), it’s still an easy recommendation for anyone looking for their first Mac. It runs on Apple’s A18 Pro chip and is surprisingly quick for browsing, sending email, and streaming video. The 13-inch Liquid Retina display looks great for the price, and the battery lasts a solid 16 hours. It also comes in four fun colors, with the yellow-green citrus being a fan-favorite.There are some trade-offs with going with Apple’s budget model, including storage that starts at 256GB, just 8GB of RAM, and no keyboard backlight. You also only get two USB-C ports, so getting a USB-C hub is a must if you plan to connect a lot of accessories. Spending an extra $100 gets you a Neo with 512GB of storage and a Touch ID sensor for quick unlocking. For students or anyone who mostly sends emails and browses the web, the Neo is hard to beat.