This Is Probably Your Last Chance to Buy a Cheap MacBook for a While

Apple warned us. The company called price increases on its products “inevitable” just a couple of weeks ago. On Thursday afternoon, they became official on Apple's website.

Its flashy new MacBook Neo is up $100, now at $699. Meanwhile, the MacBook Air gets a $200 price hike, now starting at $1,299. That still gets you a meaty configuration, with 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage, but it hurts coming just a few months after the refresh of this laptop.

The MacBook Pro's increase is the most substantial. It's up nearly $400 with a starting price of $1,999, which is a 20 percent increase. That comes with twice the storage of the MacBook Air, but remember: it uses the same M5 chip under the hood. There hasn't been such a wide price gap between the Pro and Air models in many years.

But there's a bright spot in all the doom and gloom. The announcement landed right in the middle of Amazon Prime Day (which is now four days), and there are a few discounts that are now looking even more tantalizing. As of now, you can still buy the 13-inch MacBook Air for $949 on sale, which is now $350 off the price Apple is selling it for. Even the $590 MacBook Neo is looking mighty attractive now that it's $110 off the full price.

The craziest deal, though, is on the base MacBook Pro. It's not even marked as on sale on Amazon, but at $1,549, it's $450 off Apple's price. I don't suggest you automatically buy this for the savings alone, but if you already had your eye on this model, now's the time.

I should mention that MacBooks aren't the only products being affected by Apple's price increases. While iPhones haven't been affected yet, iMacs and Mac Studios have gone up in price, as well as the entire iPad lineup. Here are the new prices:

• Base iPad: $449 (up from $349)
• iPad mini: $599 (up from $499)
• iPad Air (11-inch): $749 (up from $599)
• iPad Air (13-inch): $949 (up from $749)
• iPad Pro (11-inch): $1,199 (up from $999)
• iPad Pro (13-inch): $1,499 (up from $1,299)

Similar to the MacBook, there are few really solid iPad deals to counteract these price increases. The base iPad is $299 on Amazon right now, while the iPad mini is $500.

The context for all these higher prices is the component shortage that has been rocking the tech industry through most of this year.

In line with the rest of the economy, memory manufacturers have moved to fully supporting AI data centers, leaving the consumer tech market scrambling for access to chips. It was originally presumed that Apple, which produces devices in very high volumes, might have enough sway there to force memory manufacturers to play ball. But clearly even Apple eventually had to succumb to the skyrocketing prices.

We don't know how long these deals will stick around. Amazon typically sells some Apple products for slightly less than what they cost at Apple’s retail website. But it's possible that corresponding price spikes could come to these Amazon listings in the near future as well. It's also possible that they may stick around for a bit longer. Either way, Amazon prices will eventually adjust to match Apple’s.