An e-retailer by the name of Blutek is cutting $199 off the price of the entry-level MacBook Air right now, and is selling the laptop for $699.99 via eBay. This reduction may be a move designed to clear inventory space ahead of a new MacBook Air launch later this year, or in early 2015.
Unlike Best Buy, which currently cuts prices on a selection of MacBooks and iMacs, the discount from Blutek only applies to the new low-end MacBook Air, which is selling for $899 from Apple’s online store. However, Best Buy’s discount comes via a coupon code which you can only obtain by providing a student (.edu) email address. On the other hand, Best Buy, via the coupon code, sells the same MacBook Air for $50 less.
Until a few minutes ago, this same deal was offered on eBay via Newegg. Though Blutek certainly doesn’t have the household name status that Newegg does, they do have a 99.3 percent positive feedback rating.
The 2014 11.6-inch MacBook Air features 1366×768 display resolution, a 1.4GHz Intel Core i5 CPU with a Turbo Boost clock of 2.7GHz, 4GB of RAM, a 128GB SSD, and Intel HD Graphics 5000. This is a member of Apple’s refreshed lineup of MacBook Airs, which the company introduced in late April.
However, it’s worth noting that, according to some tests, the 2014 MacBook Air’s SSDs are significantly slower than the SSDs found in the 2013 models. On the other hand, we doubt that this performance hit will be felt by most MacBook Air users in day to day use.
It’s unclear to us when this promotion expires, so if you’re in the market for a new laptop or desktop, you should get in on this ASAP. The eBay page says that a limited number of these MacBook Air laptops are available. Note that shipping is free.
