Best Buy Apple Laptop
Through Upgrade+, customers can apply for financing to purchase a new Mac laptop with affordable payments spread across 36 months before deciding if they want to upgrade to a newer device in month 37.1 For example, Upgrade+ allows customers to finance a Mac laptop from $19.99/month1 for 36 months and the $280.35 final payment is due in month 37. Based on an original price of $999.99.
best buy apple laptop
The latest Mac lineup of laptops, powered by Apple silicon, takes performance, power efficiency, battery life, and capabilities to new heights. MacBook Air provides power and portability with its thin and light design, incredible performance, Retina display, and up to 18 hours of battery life. For more demanding workflows, MacBook Pro delivers even more breakthrough performance, graphics and machine learning capabilities, along with a Liquid Retina XDR display, 1080p camera and advanced audio and connectivity.
The best MacBook for each person will differ, but there's a great option for virtually anyone in Apple's laptop lineup in 2023. Apple's ARM-based M1 chip kicked off a new era for MacBooks in 2020 and it hasn't taken its foot off the accelerator. Apple's in-house SoC brought massive performance and battery life improvements to the entire MacBook range.
Now joined by the M1 Pro, M1 Max, M2, M2 Pro, and M2 Max, Apple has you covered regardless of your needs. The M2 MacBook Air and Pro are among the best laptops available today and the latest 16-inch and 14-inch MacBook Pro models are once again setting a high bar for creator laptops early in 2023.
One category that Apple won't be competing in any time soon is our laptops under $500, so prepare to spend at least $800 for even the most affordable MacBook, but if you can make your peace with that pricing these are all outstanding laptops.
The MacBook Air M1 remains the best MacBook for most people. What about the MacBook Air M2? It's a fantastic laptop that we'll cover next on this list, but the reality is that for the majority of users the upgrades aren't necessary and Apple is keeping it around in order to maintain that sub-$1,000 starting price. Best of all you can often find it for $899 or less.
The performance still outclasses every comparably priced thin-and-light Windows laptop and it manages to deliver 14 hours and 41 minutes of battery life in our testing. For any typical computing tasks, the MacBook Air M1 is more than equal to the challenge and will outlast most competitors too.
As long as you don't mind the older design, the MacBook Air M1 remains one of the best laptop deals even when it's not discounted and should draw strong consideration from anyone considering a new MacBook.
And despite cramming so much power into such a slim and sleek chassis, the Pro lasted for an almost unbelievable 18 hours and 20 minutes on our battery test, which simulates real-world testing. That was enough to land it atop our list of laptops with the best battery life.
The M2 does more than improve speeds and endurance. With a yet again improved image processing unit, the webcam (sadly, still 720p) is better than before and since it runs on Apple's ARM-based architecture, iPad and iPhone apps are available on Mac. Yep, you can run all your favorite iOS games and apps on your laptop.
Starting at $2,499 for the M2 Pro model and $3,099 for the M2 Max model, the 16-inch MacBook Pro isn't for everyone. However, if you are a creative professional or someone that just wants the biggest and best without concern over cost this absolutely belongs on your short list.
While I still would recommend a gaming laptop with a discrete GPU for those that want the best overall gaming experience, but 16-inch MacBook Pro is finally at least competing in this realm enough that casual gamers will be happy.
We use a Klein K10 colorimeter to detect the brightness and DCI-P3 color gamut of a laptop's display. For performance benchmarking, we run the laptop through a gauntlet of benchmarks, including Geekbench 5.4 and 3DMark professional graphics tests.
To determine real-world performance, we task the laptop to convert a 4K video to 1080p resolution and to duplicate a 25GB multimedia file. Our real-world graphics tests include Assasin's Creed Valhalla, Far Cry New Dawn, Sid Meier's Civilization VI: Gathering Storm and Shadow of the Tomb Raider with 1080p or higher resolution when the display supports it.
"MacBook Air is a good laptop however for the price is not worth it, laptop has dents and scratches and the worse part is that the battery needs maintenance which is that needs to be replace disappointed for a $539 dollars laptop"
Founded in 1976, Apple is one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer electronics, with instantly recognizable products like the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and MacBook. Apple has a small laptop lineup compared to other brands like Dell, HP, Lenovo, and ASUS, as they only make premium productivity-focused laptops. However, MacBooks are consistently among the most well-built and premium laptops you can find. Since Apple started making laptops with their in-house SoC, the M1, MacBooks are among the best for performance and battery life.
The best Apple laptop we've tested is the Apple MacBook Pro 14 (2021), the smaller of the two 'Pro' laptops with Apple's new design, Mini-LED display, and in-house SoC. The display produces deep blacks, gets incredibly bright, and covers the entire DCI P3 color space, making it suitable for viewing and producing HDR content. Its factory calibration is superb, so you likely won't need to calibrate before doing color work. It's also a ProMotion display, meaning it can dynamically adjust the refresh rate up to 120Hz to make motion smoother or lower it to extend battery life.
If you only perform light tasks like text processing, web browsing, and video playback, get the Apple MacBook Air 13 (2022) instead, one of the best MacBook Airs Apple has ever made and the successor to the very popular Apple MacBook Air 13 (M1, 2020). This new model sports a new design with thinner bezels, a better 1080p webcam (up from 720p), and a faster M2 SoC with media engines to handle more demanding tasks like video editing. The display is incredibly sharp and gets brighter, enough for use outdoors in broad daylight. You get a spacious keyboard with full-size function keys and, believe it or not, an even larger touchpad than its predecessor.
If you're a little put off by the Apple MacBook Air 13 (2022)'s price, there's good news: you can still buy the older Apple MacBook Air 13 (M1, 2020). It's one of the best MacBook Airs Apple has produced and the first to have an Apple-made chip inside. Although this is our budget pick, it's only considered 'budget' in Apple's laptop lineup because it's the most affordable. There's nothing 'budget' about this laptop. It feels as premium as the picks above, so you're still getting an exceptionally well-built device that provides a great user experience. Compared to the newer M2 MacBook Air, most of the tradeoffs are pretty minor, like the design, webcam, and SoC, so unless there's a feature you want on the newer model, this is a great alternative that'll save you a good chunk of cash.
Dell and Apple are very different in their approach to laptops, as Dell makes a significantly larger number of models for various uses and price segments, while Apple only makes premium productivity laptops. Dell's high-end productivity laptops are often compared to Apple laptops in build quality and user experience, but unlike Apple, which uses their in-house ARM-based SoC, Dell still uses x86 chips from Intel in their laptops.
Microsoft and Apple are very similar in some ways but also very different. Both companies only make productivity laptops and are in control of the hardware and software, as they also created the operating system. However, Microsoft tends to have more budget models and experiments with other form factors like 2-in-1 tablets, while Apple only makes clamshell laptops with no touch input. Both companies are among the best when it comes to build quality.
Apple is one of the best laptop makers in the world. MacBooks usually feel premium and exceptionally well-built, and they have among the best performance and battery life. As Apple also makes the operating system, MacBooks also have a level of integration with other Apple products that's hard to find on devices from other manufacturers. However, MacBooks are generally expensive and aren't as ideal for gaming.
If you're looking for a productivity laptop, Apple MacBooks are among the best available options, whether you're already in the Apple ecosystem or not. They feel incredibly well-built, have long battery life, and provide a premium user experience. However, if you want more versatility, like a 2-in-1 convertible or a laptop with wider game compatibility, you're better off with a Chromebook or a Windows device.
Apple makes two types of laptop, the MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro. Within those two categories of Mac are a wide range of capabilities, the gap between the entry-level MacBook Air and the high-end 16in MacBook Pro is vast, but even within the MacBook Pro category you will find huge differences. We have more information on the differences between the MacBook Air and Pro in another article.
One consideration to make when shopping for a MacBook is how recently Apple updated the laptop and whether it is likely to be updating it again soon. Here is a quick look at when the laptops Apple is selling were released.
There are two types of Mac laptop, but a grand total of 11 MacBooks to choose from, including three MacBook Air models and eight MacBook Pro models sold as standard, and many more combinations if you factor in all the build-to-order options. However, it really breaks down to four laptops: the MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro, 14-inch MacBook Pro and 16-inch MacBook Pro. 041b061a72