Apple's M2 MacBook Air is just $749 for Black Friday - and I can't find a better laptop deal

Black Friday is just a few days away, but Apple has already started marking down its laptops to previously unseen prices. Right now, the M2 Apple MacBook Air is on sale for just $749 at Amazon. That's 25% off the total price and the lowest price we've seen for this laptop since it was released in 2022. 

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With new Apple products recently launched and the holiday season on the horizon, it's no surprise we're seeing such competitive sales, but this one deserves particular mention. Just note that this deal applies to the 13.6-inch laptop in Midnight or Space Gray, and for the configuration with 8GB of RAM and 256GB SSD. 

Two years later, 2022's version of the lightweight powerhouse is still a solid machine, with competitive specs that compete with much newer laptops on the market. In fact, this laptop was ZDNET's product of the year when it was released in 2022, punching well above its weight in terms of performance and quickly becoming a favorite for professionals looking for power and portability.

The 13.6-inch M2 MacBook Air has an 8- and 10-core GPU and an impressive 18-hour battery life. The 8GB or 16GB of RAM can also be paired with up to 1TB of storage to future-proof the machine with additional storage. 

Apple's MacBook Air series is also perhaps one of the most popular ultraportable laptop families among consumers (and our pick for best overall ultraportable). It set an entirely new bar for performance with the introduction of Apple's Silicon chips in 2020 and has only improved since then. If you're looking for a secondary laptop you can take with you for travel or on the go, it doesn't get much lighter than the MacBook Air.

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Apple released its M3 MacBook Air lineup only nine months after the 15-inch M2 version was first announced in June 2023, marking what is likely to be a rapid succession of upgrades in the industry as a whole within the next few years.

All of this means that now is a great time to spring for a new MacBook Air. Thinner yet with a larger screen than previous versions, the 2022 13.6-inch M2 also comes with a vibrant screen with up to 500 nits of brightness and a 60Hz refresh rate, a 1080p FaceTime webcam, two USB-C Thunderbolt ports, and the coveted 3.5mm headphone jack. 

Also: The best Black Friday laptop deals

AI-powered laptops are the future, and right now, manufacturers are putting their attention into developing cutting-edge tech that harnesses these capabilities into new machines.

But the reality is that most people don't need top-of-the-line AI integration just yet. Day-to-day workflows are still reliant on powerful, reliable laptops that can tackle whatever you throw at it, and the M2 MacBook Air is a machine that fulfills that need, while being light as air.