Looks like Officeworks is first to the party with reasonable discount on 16GB variants of the Macbook Airs. This is for 16GB Unified RAM and 256GB storage.
JB Hi Fi also seems to have the same pricing.
M3 8/256 for $1517 and M3 16/512GB is also available for $1817, but the value isn't as good as the base M2 model.
Where do you get gift cards from?
Either Woolworths/Coles promotions for extra points that people equate for real money, even though you have to spend them at the retailer. Macquarie used to be good but don't seem to sell them now.
How does Apple price beat work? Do they just match the price to whatever price online?
From my experience, they'll at most go to 10% matching, they won't discount further (so they probably won't fully match this price)
Hope to see M2 prices going down more
Hope they'll have another Apple OW clearance sale. I am still using the iPad Pro M1 2Tb they sold for cheap last time
How cheap is cheap?
They were selling it for 40% less than other retailers who still had it in stock. Can't compare it with Apple as they stopped selling M1s iPad when M2 Pro was out
Costco have it for 1299.99 just got this price beat with officeworks :)
https://www.costco.com.au/Computers/Laptops/Apple-MacBooks/M…
$1234.99
To also add M3 16/256GB is 1499.99 at costco so $1,424.99 with OW price beat
Generally speaking do you need proof of costco membership to price match with them?
no do it over the phone
Same here.
Can you then use ultimate GC to pay for it?
No as long as the product is online you can price beat. I did it recently in store
Great find!
Why would I buy this over a Microsoft Surface?
Genuine responses only.
It makes more sense if you’re in the Apple ecosystem. Continuity camera, iPhone mirroring, iPad screen extension, airdrop, air pods sharing, iPad apps, internet sharing etc are all major use cases for me
Because Apple has optimized MacOS to run smoothly on its own ARM architecture (AArch64). It’s just too seamless that even x86 MacOS apps are emulated well and fast with Rosetta 2. Low power consumption is a bonus as well.
Probably the only reason you’ll be getting the Surface is if you’re going to game. Windows has the better game stack for now, but this advantage also fizzles if you’re gaming using an Intel iGPU.
My only dip into the mac ecosystem was 2012 with a MBP - Strangely enough I feel like I need to give MacOS another try or it could just be the general mediocrity quality of deals posted and the inertia from black friday sales fomo.
I would more than likely boot mint off it and I know I'd never end up with any other apple devices. Convince me this is the time to jump ship.
may be the life you can extract out of a macbook without any considerable drop in performance?
A current surface with a snapdragon? A more mature ARM based platform
An older surface with intel/AMD? an ARM based platform. It's no joke how much of a difference it makes for mobile computing.
This is the most valid response! Stay away from ARM unless you know for a fact it's supporting what you'll use it for.
It is up to you and your use case.
If you already familiar with Microsoft environment, you may not need this. But overall, the new Apple microchip since M1 beat Intel and AMD in term of power and efficiency.
If you are designer, video editor, or programmer, you'll find it necessary to migrate from Windows to macOS.
But if you use android, not working in the creative industry, and didn't have other apple products, Surface will be better option in term of price.
Battery life and overall device life I would say.
All depends on app compatibility and OS requirements
you could buy the 4 year old m1 and it would probably outlast a brand new Surface pro without any considerable drop in performance
M2/16/256 is the exact same config Linus uses sometimes to release the Linux kernel :)
https://www.zdnet.com/article/linus-torvalds-talks-rust-on-l…
damn wish the 512 was a bit more reasonable in the pricing :( …. was waiting for a sale on one for my daughter who was saving up and i have kept her waiting until the 16gb models became somewhat reasonable but that's a huge jump for 256gig extra .. frikin apple
are you me?? Exact thoughts mate. Waiting for M3/16/512 and its still $100 more than the previous deal. However, can smell some discounts in the air. Believe there will be some in the coming days for this model. Patiently waiting.
Price match at Apple and use gift cards for an extra 10% off
Here's the apple product link: https://www.apple.com/au/shop/buy-mac/macbook-air/13-inch-m2