The M4 MacBook Air is a steal at £849 but it’s not really a Prime Day deal

When is a Prime Day deal not a Prime Day deal? When it’s an M4 13.8in MacBook Air sold for £849 at an apparent discount of £150. Boom boom. Okay, so I’m not going to be killing it at the Edinburgh Fringe with this sort of material but it’s a pertinent point.

This is the question I have to ask myself countless times a day when I’m covering an Amazon sale; and it’s the question you should be asking yourself, too. Because many of the so-called amazing deals you see are actually a bit of confidence trick.

Many so-called deals fall apart once you look at the price history and it becomes apparent that the new shiny price isn’t actually that much lower than the product you’re looking at has been sold at before.

This Prime Day “deal” on the M4 MacBook Air is a case in point. The price of £849 looks tempting. It’s £150 less than the pricer Apple is asking for it on its website, and for such a new machine – it was launched back in March – this looks like a hefty discount. Actually, it turns out it is, but bear with me.

I remember a month or two ago, checking the price for the M4 MacBook Air and being amazed it was – wait for it – only £849. It was such a great deal I remebered it when a colleague who was buying a new laptop asked for a recommendation. I checked the Amazon page again and, yes, it was still £849, and I remember going back to check it again at least a week afterwards. The price? Yep, still £849.

So forgive me when I am not blown away by this particular Prime Day dal.

But wait – don’t go! This is still a great price

Don’t let that put you off, however. Despite the fact that this is is a bit of Prime Day spin, this is still a very good price for the 13in M4 MacBook Air; it’s our favourite laptop right now, by the way, and for good reason.

It’s fast, beautifully made, has a brilliant screen, keyboard and touchpad. The speakers are awsome, battery life is brilliant and it runs completely silently as there’s no fan inside. It is not particularly brilliant at gaming and the 256GB SSD is on the small side – but in every other respect, there’s no better laptop you can buy for £849.

If fact, I’d go so far as to say if this is your budget and gaming isn’t a priority, you shouldn’t be looking at anything else. The 13in M4 MacBook Air is the best laptop around and the price is fantastically reasonable. Just don’t call it a Prime Day deal.

Written By

Jonathan Bray

Head of reviews at Expert Reviews, Jon has been testing and writing about products since before most of you were born (well, only if you were born after 1996). In that time he’s tested and reviewed hundreds of laptops, PCs, smartphones, vacuum cleaners, coffee machines, doorbells, cameras and more. He’s worked on websites since the early days of tech, writing game reviews for AOL and hardware reviews for PC Pro, Computer Buyer and other print publications. He’s also had work published in Trusted Reviews, Computing Which? and The Observer. And yet, even after so many years in the industry, there’s still nothing more he loves than getting to grips with a new product and putting it through its paces.

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