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Apple’s M1 MacBook Air for $799 is still easy to recommend

Apple’s M1 MacBook Air for $799 is still easy to recommend

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This late 2020 laptop is aging well thanks to its speedy M1 chip and long-lasting battery life. In today’s mix of deals, we also have huge price cuts on refurbished LG C2 OLEDs at Woot.

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The 2020 M1 MacBook Air sitting on a desk with a long-exposure light effect happening in the background.
Even though it came out in late 2020, the $799 MacBook Air should still satisfy a lot of people.
Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Even though Apple’s M1 MacBook Air laptop is well over two years old, we still highly recommend it, especially when stores like Best Buy knock its price down to $799.99 ($200 off its original price that Apple still sells it for). You probably won’t find a faster, more compact, and better-designed machine for that amount of money. Despite being on the lowest rung and the oldest of Apple’s M1 and M2 silicon, don’t count it out. In our review, we came away impressed with its fast performance in most tasks and surprisingly long battery life. That was November 2020, but we still think you’ll be impressed now. Read our review.

This is far from the first time that this deal has appeared (truthfully, I’ve lost count), but if you’re in the market for a MacBook that needs to be lightweight, semi-affordable, and fast, this might be the right fit for you. It’s possible that power users may need more than its 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, but this configuration should be enough for most people doing everyday stuff like multitasking in a browser.

The MacBook Air is the most impressive laptop I’ve used in years
$800

The 2020 MacBook Air is Apple’s entry-level laptop, which comes outfitted with the company’s M1 chip in one of three different colors (silver, space gray, and gold).

If you’re willing to take a chance on a pricey piece of refurbished tech, Woot is selling a range of sizes of LG’s C2 OLED 4K TVs, starting with the 42-inch model priced at $659.99 ($240 off the currently discounted new price) and going up to the 77-inch model that costs $2,129 (sells for $2,500 new). These are very good prices considering these are LG’s latest soon-to-be-outdated OLED TVs that are packed with great features and tough-to-beat performance. Read our review.

However, you aren’t alone if you’re a little concerned about refurbished TVs. Woot is backing these units with a 90-day limited warranty, and Woot staff says that the refurbishment was performed by a third-party company, not Amazon or LG. Though, for more assurance, you can head over to Amazon to purchase an Asurion protection plan.

LG C2 OLED (42-inch)

$140036% off
$897

The LG C2 is available in a 42-inch configuration and is both lighter and brighter than its last-gen predecessor, the C1. It also boasts a “dark room” setting to reduce eyestrain as well as the ability to log in to different user profiles.

You can still get a huge discount on digital copies of God of War Ragnarök for the PlayStation 5, as CDKeys is selling it for just $47.99. Considering that you’d have to pay $69.99 to get the game via Sony’s PlayStation Store, this is a great deal. You’ll receive a code to your email that you’ll need to activate via your PS5. If you haven’t played the 2018 God of War title, check that out first to get a handle on its surprisingly good mythological tale.

My colleague Ash Parrish loved this sequel, and I did, too. The gameplay might be similar, but Ragnarök offers larger landscapes and more collectibles, if that’s your thing.

Screenshot from God of War Ragnarök featuring Kratos gently touching the face of his teenage son, Atreus
$20

While Ragnarök’s third-person action gameplay feels similar to its predecessor, its story is far more ambitious. As Kratos wishes to bury his past, he’s trying to convince his young son, Atreus, not to follow a tempting path at discovering his godhood and defying prophecy. Read our review.

A few more deals before you sign off

  • Meta’s pricey Quest Pro has dropped in price to $1,099.99 ($400 off) for one week only at Amazon. That’s still very expensive, and while the Quest Pro has gotten a bit better since launch thanks to updates, it’s probably not worth it for most people since you can get a great VR experience with the $399 Quest 2. But we thought we’d share this price cut anyway since $400 off might be good for anyone who was already considering taking the plunge. Read our review.
  • Speaking of the Quest 2, if you’re in the market for one, you may want to hold off buying one for the next couple of days. Meta just announced that headsets purchased from February 5th through June 3rd will be eligible to get two free games: Golf Plus and Space Pirate Trainer DX. You’ll need to activate those games within two weeks of buying the headset.
  • Sony’s LinkBuds S noise-canceling wireless earbuds are down to $148 at Amazon (normally $199.99). This isn’t the lowest price we’ve seen — the $128 sale last occurred on Black Friday — but this is a nice price if you need a set of good-sounding, comfortable earbuds that are very lightweight. Here’s our review.