This Black Friday Deal Makes the M4 MacBook Air Cheaper Than Ever

Black Friday sales officially start Friday, November 28, and run through Cyber Monday, December 1, and Lifehacker is sharing the best sales based on product reviews, comparisons, and price-tracking tools before it’s over. 

• Follow our live blog to stay up-to-date on the best sales we find.

• Browse our editors’ picks for a curated list of our favorite sales on laptops, fitness tech, appliances, and more.

• Subscribe to our shopping newsletter, Add to Cart, for the best sales sent to your inbox.

• Sales are accurate at the time of publication, but prices and inventory are always subject to change. 

If you’re in the market for a laptop, you have no shortage of choices. But unless you need something with exceptionally powerful hardware or are operating on a very tight budget, I’m here to end your search right now: You should buy the M4 MacBook Air, especially while it’s on sale for $749 before Black Friday.

Apple’s latest MacBook Air is, without a doubt in my mind, the best laptop for most people—at least for people who don’t need to run Windows. This is an entry-level machine, but it doesn’t feel like it: The laptop comes with Apple’s M4 chip, which was until very recently the company’s newest hardware. (That being said, there is no M5 MacBook Air yet, so this is still the best Air on the market.) Apple’s M-series is excellent: In fact, the M1 MacBook Air is still a great machine five years after its release. You kind of can’t go wrong with any M-series MacBook at this time, though the newer the hardware, the better the performance—a perk to this M4 Air.

But M4 is almost an afterthought for me compared to this machine’s 16GB of RAM. For years, Apple only included 8GB of RAM with its base model machines. That was enough for smaller, simpler tasks, but once you started trying to do too much at once, you ran into problems. 8GB of RAM doesn’t go as far as it used to, so the fact that this machine doubles that memory without impacting the price is a major win. That said, this configuration does come with 256GB of storage, which could pose a problem for anyone who stores large files on their computers.

My favorite thing about the M4, however? The price. When Apple released this machine back in March, I was impressed by how much value one could get for $999. In fact, it convinced me to move on from recommending the M2 MacBook Air, even when the latter was on sale. But despite how new it is, the M4 MacBook Air has also seen discounts this year. Now, ahead of Black Friday, the machine is $250 cheaper at Amazon and Best Buy than at Apple. That’s simply a fantastic deal.

Should you buy an older MacBook for less?

Of course, there are other, cheaper MacBooks out there. You can save another $50 and opt for the M2 MacBook Air, which also has 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. And if you don’t need your machine to be brand-new, you can find refurbished M1 MacBook Airs for under $500. Any of these laptops will work great in 2025, but there are drawbacks: The M1 only has 8GB of RAM and it retains Apple’s older MacBook Air design. The M2 MacBook Air looks identical to its M4 counterpart, but it is three years old. By spending the extra $50 on the newer Air, you may eke another two to three years of software updates out of your machine—not to mention the immediate performance gains from the new chip.

How long do Black Friday deals really last?

Black Friday sales officially begin Friday, Nov. 28, 2025, and run throughout “Cyber Week,” the five-day period that runs from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday, Dec. 1, 2025. But Black Friday and Cyber Monday dates have expanded as retailers compete for customers. We expect sales to wind down by Dec. 3, 2025.

Does Apple do Black Friday?

Yes, Apple participates in Black Friday, though you may want to compare their sales with other retailers like Best Buy and Walmart. Apple is offering an exclusive $250 gift card for eligible purchases, but so far, the best Black Friday sale on an Apple product is the M4 MacBook on sale for cheaper than ever.

What stores have the best sales on Black Friday?

Nowadays, both large retailers and small businesses compete for Black Friday shoppers, so you can expect practically every store to run sales through Monday, Dec. 1, 2025. The “best” sales depend on your needs, but in general, the biggest discounts tend to come from larger retailers who can afford lower prices: think places like Amazon, Walmart, Target, Best Buy, and Home Depot. You can find all the best sales from major retailers on our live blog.