Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Deals

Back-to-School MacBook Deals 2020: MacBook Air and MacBook Pro

Jacob Silver
By

The fall may be uncertain for students, but one fact remains constant: When you head back to school, you’ll need a laptop. It’s the simplest and most efficient way to do schoolwork, or any work, on-the-go — even if you’re working from home. The top of the pile, in the laptop world, are Apple’s MacBook and MacBook Pro. You tend to pay a premium, but that money is an investment in things like reliability, design, connectivity, and efficiency. That extra money goes a long way, but you can pay less of it than ever with our MacBook deals. And, while you’re gearing up for whatever the fall will bring us, we’re offering special back-to-school MacBook deals, with some of the best offers on the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro that we’ve ever seen. Check out these top-of-the-line Apple laptops today.

Today’s Best Back-to-School MacBook Deals

  • 13-inch MacBook Air (8GB RAM, 256GB SSD) — $899, was $999
  • 13-inch MacBook Pro (8GB RAM, 256GB SSD) — $1200, was $1400
  • 13-inch MacBook Pro (8GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $1700, was $1900
  • 16-inch MacBook Pro (16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $2099, was $2399
  • 16-inch MacBook Pro (16GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $2500, was $2800

How To Choose A New MacBook

Once you begin looking at MacBooks, the decision really falls between two poles: the MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro. Each has very specific, and occasionally nuanced, uses. Let’s dive in.

The MacBook air is the cheapest of all the Apple laptops, especially when you factor in student discounts. Most of that price cut is the result of less power, and less speed, which aren’t important factors for a lot of students, until they are. If your work involves a great deal of video editing, music processing, or 3D modeling — anything that requires giant applications working with large files on a regular basis — consider the MacBook Pro. If you need a laptop to do everyday schoolwork — papers, presentations — as well as watch Netflix and talk to your friends and family, a MacBook Air will do just fine. They’re both incredibly light and portable, with the Air having a slight edge, but only by 0.3 pounds.

Related

Side by side, when we look at the machines, there isn’t a huge difference. Both the 2020 versions sport the Magic Keyboard, a far more comfortable and easy-to-use keyboard than the previous butterfly version that used to frustrate Mac users. They both look amazing, too, in terms of what you see on the screen. The MacBook Air has slimmed down its bezels, and added Retina display, making it comparable to the Pro visually, although the MacBook Pro does have a brighter screen (and better speakers). The 2020 version of the MacBook Air also has True Tone, which accounts for ambient light when adjusting the color on the display. If you’re a committed gamer, you might recognize some difference in the MacBook Air’s Intel Iris card versus the MacBook Pro’s Intel Iris 645 (the most expensive versions boast an AMD Radeon Pro 5300M), but for the rest of us it won’t matter.

Related

The real difference is in power and speed. The MacBook Air is powered by a 1.2-GHz 10th Gen Core i7 processor. This is more than enough engine for basic computing, but, again, if you’re working a great deal with video, or larger programs — especially multitasking — you’re going to want something more powerful. The MacBook Pro begins with a 1.4-GHz 8th-gen Intel Core i5 and goes all the way up to a 2.6-GHz 9th-gen Core i7 (on the most expensive models), which is as fast as these laptops get.

Finally, there’s the issue of storage. Consider how much you’ll need. Again, if you’re just keeping papers, presentations and photos on your laptop, you’ll be fine with what comes in the box. It’s when you get into many-GB video files, and other large files, and that you need to start worrying, and looking at the MacBook Pro. Simultaneously, figure out what cloud system you’ll be using; that can help you determine how much storage you will actually need on the machine.

Something both MacBooks have in spades is reliability. MacBooks tend to break down less than PCs (a nightmare for students), they contract fewer viruses, are a harder target for spam and malware and are a breeze to upgrade. If you want a (great looking) workhorse, this is your laptop. When it comes to deciding between the MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro, it’s really a question of how much power and speed you require — those factors should guide your decision.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Jacob Silver
Jacob Silver
An avid cook, boxer, reader, and binger of Netflix (and Hulu, HBO Max, Amazon and more) Jacob Silver writes deals posts about…
Best refurbished MacBook deals: Get a MacBook Air for $140 and more
A stack of MacBooks is pictured from the top down.

If you’re in the market for one of the best laptops it’s worth turning your attention toward Apple’s MacBook lineup, and if you’re looking for some savings it can be helpful to shop MacBook deals. Due to the popularity of Apple’s MacBooks they don’t often see significant discounts, but a good way to land some impressive MacBook deals is by shopping refurbished. Most refurbished MacBooks are backed by warranties and decent return windows, allowing you to shop refurbished MacBooks with the confidence you might have when shopping for a brand new one. We’ve tracked down what we feel are the best refurbished MacBook deals currently taking place, so feel free to start shopping for a refurbished MacBook with some savings.
MacBook Air 11.6-inch (2015) -- from $140

Once the latest MacBook Air but now eight years old and still competent, the MacBook Air 11.6-inch (2015) is a great starting point for anyone new to macOS or who just needs something financially on par with a Chromebook. It's a refurbished model but it comes with a one-year warranty so there's peace of mind here. It won't run the latest macOS unfortunately, but its Intel Core i5 processor, 4GB of memory and 128GB of SSD storage helps you perform the basics. It still has all the style of a MacBook so we're thinking this could be a good entry point as your child's first MacBook or if you want a project.

Read more
Best laptop deals: Save on the Dell XPS 14, MacBook Pro 16 and more
The Dell XPS 14 on a white table with the screen open.

There's no shortage of laptop deals online, so narrowing down your choices will be an overwhelming task. Fortunately, we're here to help you out as we've gathered our favorite bargains on some of the best laptops below. These include offers on hardware from the best laptop brands like HP, Lenovo, Microsoft, Apple, and Dell, with discounts that will let you pocket hundreds of dollars in savings. Read on to figure out what your next laptop should be, and to learn other important things that you need to know before making your decision.

Today's best laptop deals
HP Chromebook 14a -- $200, was $310

Read more
Best student laptop deals: Laptops for college from $215
online web browser game list

Whether in high school or college, the costs of being a student can add up quickly. A laptop is pretty much a necessity these days, and options among the best laptops don’t often come with discounted prices. Shopping the best laptop deals is a good idea, but we’ve also rounded up some laptop deals with students more specifically in mind. The laptops you’ll find here — for the most part — will hold their own with the best budget laptops, and offer a wide range of hardware configurations and price points. And while you may want to consult our laptop buying guide for more specifics, reading onward you’ll find along with the best student laptop deals a little information on which may be the best choice for you.
HP Laptop 14 -- $215, was $269

The HP Laptop 14 is a popular choice among students because of its entry level price point. It's specs aren't going to blow anyone away, but they're good value for the price and are plenty to get the job done. This build of the HP Laptop 14 has 8GB of RAM and a quad-core Intel Celeron processor. It does check in with just 64GB of storage space -- this may not be enough for some users, but if you aren't planning on loading your laptop up with media this is one that will accompany you well around campus.

Read more