Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Deals

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Apple MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Dell XPS 13 discounted for Memorial Day

Timothy Taylor
By

Memorial Day sales have officially begun and among the many retailers that are offering countless products on the cheap are Best Buy and Dell. Three of the best laptops you can currently buy — the Dell XPS 13 and Apple’s latest MacBook Air and MacBook Pro — are all on sale with as much as $900 off. We advise you act fast, though, as they’re selling like hot cakes.

Dell XPS 13 – $715, was $1019

The Dell XPS 13 is one attractive Ultrabook. Its anodized aluminum chassis comes in Alpine White, Rose Gold, or Platinum Silver (all stunning), with a faint pearlescent sheen to it. The Dell logo sits solitary yet triumphant in the center of the lid. Although it has long been derided as the “nosecam” because of its unfortunate placement at the bottom of the screen, the webcam has now migrated to its rightful place at the top center. It also happens to be the tiniest webcam we’ve ever seen, although it can still take a decent picture. What’s more, the webcam is compatible with Windows Hello so you can log in with just your face. Outlining the screen is what Dell calls the InfinityEdge bezel, and it is beautifully scant and modern. With dimensions of 11.9 x 7.8 x 0.5 inches, this 2.7-pound laptop is super portable and would be the perfect partner of mobile professionals.

This laptop’s 13-inch FHD 1,920 x 1,080 non-touch display (the 4K touchscreen version will set you back by $300, and is a power hog) bursts with sumptuous colors, deep contrasts, and an incredible amount of detail. It also gets astonishingly bright, averaging 375 nits. Just like the display, the side-firing speakers are excellent. They can easily fill a medium-sized room with clear and rich sound, although the bass lacks punch, a clear compromise in exchange for its slimness.

Related

Another fine feature of the XPS 13 is its backlit keyboard. This remains one of its greatest strengths, with a firm and tactile bottoming action. Finicky typists should be warned that the layout is still on the small side but with a typing experience this comfortable, who cares? Keeping up is the wonderfully responsive touchpad that boasts full Windows Precision Touchpad support.

Armed with an 8th-gen Intel Core i3 processor and 4GB of RAM, this laptop provides incredibly smooth and lightning-fast performance without any hint of lag. And with its 128GB PCIe SSD, transferring files is far from sluggish. However, its Intel UHD 620 Graphics GPU isn’t equipped to process graphically taxing games such as Battlefield V and Destiny 2. It will perform much better with older titles with less demanding graphics. In terms of battery life, as we’ve mentioned, we recommend you skip the 4K touchscreen model if you want the most endurance. In our continuous web surfing test, this unit was able to last over 12 hours.

The Dell XPS 13 is thin, fast, and long-lasting, making it our favorite ultraportable thus far. And now that the nosecam, the one thing that marred the previous model, has finally met its demise, it’s practically perfect. Get it for $715 – a huge $304 less than its normal retail price of $1019 – on Dell’s official website.

13-inch Macbook Air – $950, was $1000

The MacBook Air is now thinner and lighter than ever, yet still possesses the same power and solid build quality typical of Apple devices. The latest version of the MacBook Air normally retails for $1,000, but right now you can purchase it at Best Buy for $950 – a cool $50 off.

The latest version of the MacBook Air looks almost exactly like the previous one, with a few significant hardware and software upgrades. The older version is outfitted with a single Thunderbolt 2 port and two USB 3 ports; the latest one has two Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) ports instead. Although both models have a 13-inch Retina screen, the newer MacBook Air’s display is made better thanks to Apple’s True Tone technology. The screen now has the power to adapt to your environment’s ambient light to make images appear more natural, with accurate colors that aren’t oversaturated.

Working alongside an Intel i3 processor, this MacBook Air has 8GB of RAM and 256 GB of internal memory. It proved speedy and performed well when tasked with normal daily workflow, like streaming videos, working in Photoshop, word processing, and web browsing. We did, however, notice a bit of a slowdown when we had multiple browsers, apps, and programs open simultaneously, but not enough to raise concern. Its performance is like that of a Chromebook, except with Mac apps.

A couple of significant upgrades of the MacBook Air are its Magic Keyboard and Touch ID. The Magic Keyboard is responsive, clicky, and features a full millimeter of travel. It’s a delight to type on, quite reminiscent of the much-beloved MacBooks sold prior to the 2016 MacBook Pro redesign that introduced the butterfly switch keyboards. The Touch ID fingerprint sensor, on the other hand, is located on the top right of the function row, and doubles as a power button. It works extremely well, although we think Face login, which works so well on iOS devices, needs to be brought to Mac. Finally, the MacBook Air can last up to nine and a half hours with light web browsing, 10 hours with continuous video playback, and three hours when using heavier applications.

If you’re determined to buy a MacBook but don’t want to shell out too much money, then the MacBook Air is for you. It’s a well-rounded portable laptop that boasts a solid performance and premium build quality. Get the latest version of the MacBook Air for $950 at Best Buy.

15-inch Macbook Pro – $2900, was $3800

The 15-inch MacBook Pro looks almost exactly like its 2017 and 2016 predecessors, save for one significant hardware upgrade: The keyboard. One of the things we disliked about the older model was its low-travel keyboard, which left users feeling like they were typing on a block of wood. Thankfully, Apple has addressed this issue. The keys now have a softer feel and they’re no longer obnoxiously loud. Overall, typing has become a more pleasurable experience.

As usual, the MacBook Pro offers industry-leading display and sound. The 15-inch screen is a thing of beauty, with Apple’s 16:10 aspect ratio (most laptop screens are 3:2) providing more vertical space for a fuller view of your work. Colors are extremely accurate, black levels are great, and images look completely natural, which makes this a great laptop for photographers and creative professionals. In fact, the MacBook Pro is our choice for the best laptop for photo editing. The same goes for its up-firing stereo speakers, which offer an incredibly loud room-filling sound that retains the richness of spoken words and the subtleties of music.

Unfortunately, the MacBook Pro still lacks ports. There are four Thunderbolt 3 ports and a headphone jack. This decision may be forward-thinking as more and more peripheral devices are being outfitted with USB-C, but the lack of an SD card slot is odd since this is being marketed to creatives.

The MacBook Pro now boasts even more power courtesy of its Intel core i9 processor. With a jump up to eight cores, we saw a huge boost in performance. The improvement is also down to Apple’s MacBook Pro software patch which fixed a throttling issue. You can open multiple heavy programs like Photoshop and Final Cut Pro X simultaneously and operation will remain glitch-free.

This MacBook Pro includes the Touch Bar (units that don’t have this feature tend to be cheaper) but it’s honestly not very useful. It’s great to look at, and that’s about it. Yes, it provides a quick way to scroll through lists and can also be useful if you’d like to scroll through a video, but it is limited by its size. The miniature content previews it displays are helpful but are so small that it’s often hard to tell tabs apart, even with just three or four open. Opening even more tabs renders each of them impossible to tap. Sadly, it’s just not very integral to the MacBook experience.

Finally, this laptop’s battery life is decent. Apple claims it can last for 10 hours on a single charge, and we saw close to that in our high-definition video loop test. Web browsing was decidedly less impressive at eight hours. These numbers aren’t terrible, but we’ve seen better.

The MacBook Pro is the most powerful MacBook yet and has been future-proofed through its port selection. It comes at a high cost, but if it’s peerless performance you’re after, it won’t disappoint. Get the latest version for a huge $900 off at Best Buy. Instead of its usual hefty price of $3800, get it for $2900.

Visit our Deals hub for more MacBook deals and laptop deals and other awesome discounts.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Dell XPS 13 flash deal sees the laptop drop under $1,000
Person sitting and holding Dell XPS 13 laptop on their lap.

If you’re looking for an all-purpose laptop, whether for school or for professional use, Dell currently has its XPS 13 laptop discounted to just $949. This is a pretty impressive discount of $150 from the popular laptop’s regular price of $1,099. While this isn’t the touch screen model of the Dell XPS 13 laptop, it does have some impressive specs as built for this deal, and provides the performance and portability you typically find in more expensive laptops. Free shipping is included with your purchase.

Why you should buy the Dell XPS 13 laptop
The Dell XPS laptop lineup spans several different screen sizes, making it an extremely popular laptop option for just about anyone. In the Dell XPS 13, Dell is offering a 13-inch model that manages great portability without sacrificing power. As built for this deal, the XPS has a 10-core Intel i7 processor with Intel Iris Xe graphics and 16GB of RAM. These combine to create a snappy, responsive experience that will suit users all the way up to creative professionals. And like all of the best laptops, this XPS 13 provides more than enough power for most users. It also has a 512GB solid state drive that provides plenty of super fast storage for all of your favorite software and apps.

Read more
$250 discount drops this popular Dell 2-in-1 laptop to just $550
Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1 7420 front angled view with keyboard folded under and showing display.

The Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1 laptop, a popular device because it can adapt to various situations for work or school, is currently on sale from Dell at $250 off. That means you'll only have to pay $550 instead of its original price of $800, but you'll need to make the purchase as soon as possible. This is one of the best 2-in-1 laptop deals that you can shop right now, so we don't expect it to last long.

Why you should buy the Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1 laptop
The Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1 laptop, as explained by our laptop buying guide, falls under the convertible category. From a closed position, you can open the device as a laptop, or fold the 14-inch Full HD+ touchscreen all the way back behind the keyboard to make it a tablet. This is possible through the 360-degree hinges that attach the display to its body, which will also let the device prop itself up in tent mode or hide the keyboard facing down in stand mode. It's up to you how and when you use these forms, but they all make video calls and online meetings possible with the 2-in-1 laptop's Full HD webcam with temporal noise reduction hardware and dual microphones with AI that reduces background noise.

Read more
All-in-One PC deal knocks $650 off Lenovo’s answer to the iMac
yoga aio 7 amd deal lenovo march 2023 desktop pc

If you're looking for an all-in-one desktop, but Apple's iMac is just way too expensive (or you just love PCs), take a look at the Lenogo Yoga AIO 7 AMD. It's a powerful desktop computer with a built-in screen, exactly like the iMac. Better yet, it's currently one of the best desktop deals out there with a $650 discount. That's right, this awesome AIO is only $1,350 for a limited time. Grab it before it's gone.

Why You Should Buy the Lenovo Yoga AIO 7 AMD Desktop PC
You'd be forgiven for thinking Apple was the only company to deliver an excellent AIO or all-in-one desktop. In fact, just take a peek at our list of the best all-in-one desktop computers and you'll notice quite a few brands on there, Lenovo included. Lenovo's Yoga AIO 7 AMD is an excellent desktop worth mentioning, as well, with plenty of power under the hood.

Read more