Best MacBook deal: The 15-inch Air is $250 off

Save $250: You can still save 21% on a MacBook ahead of Christmas. As of 2022, the 15-inch Apple MacBook Air (M4, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD) is on sale at Amazon and Best Buy for $949, down from its full price of $1,199.

We may be just three days out from Christmas, but your window of opportunity to grab a great tech gift on sale hasn't closed just yet.

Both Amazon and Best Buy marked down the 15-inch M4 Apple MacBook Air with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage to just $949 as of Dec. 22. (The latter store does have a countdown on the product page showing that the deal will end come Dec. 23). At the time of writing, the deal applies to all four available colorways.

Mashable's laptop expert Haley Henschel deemed the 15-inch Air the best MacBook for most people in her MacBook guide. Why? Even at full price, the value is near unbeatable. (Mashable Senior Editor and longtime Apple review Stan Schroeder agrees, titling his review of the M4 Air "A really good deal").

That's mostly thanks to the M4 chip, which as Henschel writes, "effectively closed the gap between Apple's MacBook Air and Pro series." The fanless model will likely get hot to the touch when handling especially heavy workloads, but it certainly has the power to do it. The 15-inch display is also useful from a productivity standpoint, but not so huge as to become obtrusive — overall, the Air stays true to it's name, remaining an ultraportable laptop.

When you do decide to hunker down in one place, your display options get even better, with this laptop providing open-lid support for two external displays. The only major con? The port selection is rather limited, with just two Thunderbolt/USB-C ports, one MagSafe 3 charging port, and a headphone jack. Still, it's an incredible value at full price, and an even better one at $250 off. (Note: this laptop does go on sale frequently, but $949 remains its lowest price ever).

Prime members can likely get this laptop in time for Christmas, while Best Buy also offers same-day pickup (pending your local stores' availability).