Now that Apple has announced its new MacBook Air, we’re starting to see deals that make the 12-inch MacBook more competitive. Amazon is the latest to offer such a deal — and it’s for today only, courtesy of the its Black Friday deals page. The internet retailer is offering a certified refurbished MacBook for $400 less than the cost of a new one.
For $899, you’re getting a device with a 1.2GHz dual-core 7th-Generation Kaby Lake Intel Core M3 processor, a 256GB solid-state drive, and 8GB of memory. Amazon’s discount applies to all colors, so you can pick up the 12-inch laptop in space gray, silver, rose gold, or gold. The MacBook deal is part of Amazon’s early Black Friday promotions.
Amazon’s deal represents a sizable savings, but, as we mentioned, the unit you’re getting is refurbished, not a new one, and Amazon only offers a limited warranty on the laptop.
“The condition of these units are Manufacturer Certified Refurbished by Apple,” Amazon said in its MacBook listing. “These units are not eligible for Apple Care and do not come with an Apple Warranty.” Amazon does offer a 30-day return policy, however, but a restocking fee may apply.
Given widely reported keyboard woes plaguing Apple’s MacBook and earlier generations of the MacBook Pro since the company switched to the butterfly key designs, the warranty may be an important consideration for potential buyers. Apple has since redesigned the keyboard to mitigate problems with sticky keys, but the keyboard is only available on the latest models of the MacBook Pro and the MacBook Air, not the MacBook.
In addition to the warranty, another consideration that potential buyers looking to hop on this deal should make is that the MacBook ships with just a uniport USB-C port. This means that you won’t be able to connect another peripheral while the charging the laptop, unless you’re willing to carry a hub. Apple’s other laptops, including the newly announced MacBook Air, ships with at least two USB-C ports for added convenience, allowing users to use one port for charging and the second for connecting peripherals like a storage drive or monitor. Additionally, the USB-C port on the MacBook doesn’t support the faster Thunderbolt 3 specifications.
If you’re looking at picking up the MacBook, be sure to check out our review and laptop buying guide. If you’re not set on MacOS, there should be plenty of deals on Windows laptops as the holiday shopping season approaches.
