Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Which MacBook should you buy on Cyber Monday 2021?

Cyber Monday is a great time to buy a new MacBook, assuming you can snag one of the best Cyber Monday MacBook deals. You’ll certainly find various MacBooks models among the best Cyber Monday deals, including on the MacBook Air and the new MacBook Pros.

Apart from just MacBooks, perusing the best Cyber Monday laptop deals is also a good idea to see what else is on offer outside the world of MacBooks.

  • View MacBook Cyber Monday Deals at Amazon

  • View MacBook Cyber Monday Deals at Best Buy

  • View MacBook Cyber Monday Deals at Walmart

Recommended Videos

Which MacBook should you buy on Cyber Monday?

Macbook Air
Riley Young/Digital Trends

There are four major MacBooks right now. From cheapest to most expensive, they are: The MacBook Air, MacBook Pro 13-inch, MacBook Pro 14-inch, and MacBook Pro 16-inch. The one that most people should buy is the first, the MacBook Air.

MacBook Air

Don’t be fooled by the price or the name. Now that it’s powered by Apple’s M1 chip, it’s plenty powerful for the average person. Outside of gaming and heavy creative applications, this laptop can handle just about anything — all without making a peep. Because the MacBook Air is entirely fanless, you never have to deal with the fan noise.

When buying a MacBook Air, though, you’ll need to be careful. There have been a number of models in the past few years, and only the current M1 model is worth your money. Previous Intel-powered MacBook Airs were lacking in performance by comparison.

  • View MacBook Cyber Monday Deals at Amazon

  • View MacBook Cyber Monday Deals at Best Buy

  • View MacBook Cyber Monday Deals at Walmart

MacBook Pro

The 2021 MacBook Pro with the lid open on a white table.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

If you need something a bit more powerful, the new MacBook Pros are a fantastic option. Whether you choose the 14-inch or 16-inch MacBook Pro, you’re getting an immensely powerful laptop with a gorgeous XDR screen and many more ports. It’s easily the best MacBook Pro I’ve tested since 2015.

But be honest: If you don’t really need the power of the MacBook Pro, you’re probably better off with the MacBook Air since it’s less than half the price.

Either way, don’t be tempted by deep discounts on the 13-inch MacBook Pro. Despite having the M1, this model sits in an awkward middle ground, offering comparable performance to the MacBook Air despite being more expensive.

  • View MacBook Pro Cyber Monday Deals at Amazon

  • View MacBook Cyber Monday Deals at Best Buy

  • View MacBook Pro Cyber Monday Deals at Walmart

Luke Larsen
Luke Larsen is the Senior Editor of Computing, managing all content covering laptops, monitors, PC hardware, Macs, and more.
Why you should buy a MacBook Air instead of a MacBook Pro
The MacBook Air on a table in front of a window.

The MacBook Air has officially caught up. Now with the M3 on board, the MacBook Air has gained the benefits of the new chip, which was previously available just on the MacBook Pro and iMac.

Choosing between the M3 15-inch MacBook Air and the 14-inch MacBook Pro is tough, and requires an in-depth look at differences in ports, displays, speakers, and more. It's a legitimately hard decision to make.

Read more
I needed to buy a new MacBook. Here’s why I bought a power bank instead
Baseus Blade 2 65W power bank for laptops kept on a green couch.

I rely on a 13-inch MacBook Pro from 2020 for most of my work. Despite its age and being a base variant model, it continues to stack up well against my expectations for all these years.

Since MacBooks are known for longevity, the fact that my MacBook Pro still holds up well a few years later shouldn't sound surprising. However, the first signs of aging recently arrived in the form of a warning about the battery's plummeting health. I was already dreading the idea of having to replace what was otherwise a perfectly good laptop.

Read more
The MacBook Air M3 has one change that fixes its biggest flaw
The screen of the MacBook Air M2.

With surprisingly little fanfare — no spring event this time — Apple has dropped an update to the MacBook Air a bit sooner than expected. The incredibly thin MacBook Air 13- and 15-inch models both received updates to the Apple Silicon M3 chipsets, but that's not all.

There's one surprising new feature in the mix that could make a big difference in purchasing decisions: support for multiple monitors with the display closed. As this was the major complaint of the previous MacBook Air, this change is a pretty big deal. While it still supports only a total of two screens, it's a positive change for those that want to connect to two large, external monitors for work.

Read more