The best MacBook for every student–and how to get the best price
6 min read
When it comes to buying a MacBook for school, students are usually in a situation where personal budgets are tight and money needs to be spent wisely. It’s not enough to say that students need the right amount of processing power for the work at hand–students also need to get a good deal and a machine that will last for many years.
Finding a good deal is a chore, but we’re here to help. Our automatically-updated price comparison tool helps to make sure you’re getting the best deal and on top of that, we hand-pick deals we think you should look at. What follows below are our MacBook recommendations for students, along with the top deals. Beyond that, we offer tips and information you should know about shopping as a student, so you can save money. Read on, or click the links in the Table of Contents to skip to the section you’re interested in.
Read our guide for the best Macs for students if you’re interested in a desktop or laptop computer.
Best MacBook Air deals right now
Here are some of the best deals we are seeing right now.
Best U.S. MacBook Air deals for students
- Walmart, 13-inch Macbook Air (M1, 256GB SSD): $649 ($350 off, MSRP was $999)
- Amazon, 13-inch MacBook Air (M2, 256GB SSD): $889 ($100 off, MSRP, $999)
- Amazon: 13-inch MacBook Air (M4, 256GB SSD): $999 ($100 off MSRP, $1,099)
Best U.K. MacBook Air deals for students
- KRCS, 13-inch MacBook Air, M3 (10-core GPU, 16GB RAM, 512GB) £1,424 (£75 off, RRP £1,499)
- KRCS, 15-inch MacBook Air, M3 (10-core GPU, 256GB) £1,234 (£65 off, RRP £1,299)
- KRCS, 15-inch MacBook Air, M3 (10-core GPU, 16GB RAM, 512GB) £1,614 (£85 off, RRP £1,699)
For more deals take a look at the best MacBook Air deals this month.
Best MacBook Pro deals right now
Here are some of the best deals we are seeing right now.
Best U.S. MacBook Pro deals for students
- Amazon, 14-inch MacBook Pro (M3, 8-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 512GB): $1,399 ($200 off, MSRP $1,599)
- Amazon, 14-inch MacBook Pro (M3 Pro, 12-core GPU, 18-core GPU, 1TB): $2,200 ($199 off, MSRP $2,399)
- Amazon, 16-inch MacBook Pro (M3 Pro, 12‑core CPU, 18‑core GPU, 512GB): $2,349 ($150 off, MSRP $2,499)
Best U.K. MacBook Pro deals for students
- Amazon, 14-inch MacBook Pro (M3 Pro, 10-core GPU, 14-core GPU, 512GB): £1,540 (£159 off, MSRP £1,699)
- Amazon, 14-inch MacBook Pro with M3 (8-core CPU, 10-core GPU), 8GB RAM, 1TB SSD: £1,700 (£199 off, MSRP £1,899)
- Amazon, 14-inch MacBook Pro with M3 Pro (11-core CPU, 14-core GPU), 18GB RAM, 512GB SSD: £1,880 (£219 off, MSRP £2,099)
- Amazon, 14-inch MacBook Pro with M3 Pro (12-core CPU, 18-core GPU), 18GB RAM, 1TB SSD: £2,230 (£269 off, MSRP £2,499)
For up-to-date deals see: Best MacBook Pro deals this month.
Best MacBook for high school: M2 MacBook Air
The MacBook Air is Apple’s most popular laptop, and for good reason–it’s an excellent combination of processing power, portability, and price. Its M-series processor handles every task–writing papers, presentations, internet research, and even video and audio editing. And when your homework is done, kick back with an Apple TV show or escape with a video game. The best part is you can get one for less than $1,000.
The M2 MacBook Air has a 13.3-inch Retina display, and inside its 2.7-pound (1.24-kilogram) body is an M2 processor with 8 CPU cores, 8 GPU cores, 8GB of memory, and a 256GB SSD. It has Wi-Fi built in for connecting to the internet, and two Thunderbolt/USB-C ports for connecting devices. And if you check Amazon or Best Buy, you can usually find it for $900 or lower.
Best MacBook for college: M3 MacBook Air
In college, you’re taking a step up in your studies, so you need to step up your laptop with Apple’s M3 MacBook Air. It handles everything the M2 MacBook Air does, but its M3 processor is about 20 percent faster–you’ll appreciate the faster speed when you’re putting together complex presentations and videos. The display is also a little bigger and brighter.
The $1,099 13-inch M3 MacBook Air has a 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display, and it has an M3 processor with 8 CPU cores, 8 GPU cores, 8GB of memory, and a 256GB SSD. It weighs 2.7 pounds (1.24 kilograms), comes with Wi-Fi, and has two Thunderbolt/USB-C ports.
Best for MacBook for graduate work: 14-inch M3 Pro MacBook Pro
Apple’s 14-inch MacBook Pro comes with an M3 Pro processor, which is 18 percent faster than the M3 in the MacBook Air. If you’re going into a field that involves a lot of data crunching–multimedia and the arts, engineering, or computer science, just to name a few–you’ll need a MacBook that can minimize the amount of time you’ll spend waiting to process data. The M3 Pro MacBook Pro is made for that.
The $1,999 14-inch MacBook Pro has an M3 Pro with 11 CPU cores, 14 GPU cores, 18GB of memory, and a 512GB SSD. It has a Liquid Retina XDR display, three Thunderbolt/USB-C ports, an HDMI port, and an SDXC card slot.
How to use Apple’s Education Store
For college students, teachers, faculty, and homeschool teachers of all grades, Apple offers discount pricing in its Education Store. The discounts range from $100/£100 to $200/£200, depending on the MacBook model. You can visit the Education Store in your country by clicking one of the links below.
- U.S. Apple Education Store
- U.K. Apple Education Store
- Canada Education Store
- Australia Education Store
Students need to show proof of school registration to shop at the Apple Education Store. U.K. students need to register with UNiDAYS. We have a separate article with details on how to get an Apple student discount at Apple’s Education Store.
Other ways to find MacBook deals
The Apple Education Store discount is nice, but you’ll often find the same kind of markdown from third-party retailers. You can use our price comparison tool to see what retailers are offering, and we also hand-select deals in the section at the top of this page.
Here are a few other ways to get a good price on a MacBook.
Buy a refurbished MacBook. Apple’s Certified Refurbished Store often has good prices on laptops that are both current and past models. Refurbished products are fully reconditioned and are like new–out of the box, you can’t tell the difference between a refurbished and a new MacBook. The price savings can be good–more than the Education Store discount. The only catch is that your choices are limited to what’s in stock, which changes often.
Buy an older model. With Apple’s M-series chips, the MacBook’s performance has reached new heights–to a point where a lot of users aren’t anywhere near pushing the limit. Apple is currently on the M3 series of chips, which generally offers about 20 percent more performance than the previous M2 series. But that M2 series (or even the M1) is certainly no slouch, offering a significant boost over the Intel CPUs they replaced.
The M2 MacBook Pro is not only worthy of your consideration performance-wise, but it also comes at attractive prices that are often much lower than those in the Education Store. For example, the 12-inch M2 MacBook Pro that was originally priced at $1,299 can be found online for $999.
