Hunting for a Prime Day deal on the MacBook Neo? You probably won’t find one

At $599, the MacBook Neo is Apple’s most affordable laptop, but if you’re like me, you could be hoping that it goes on sale during Amazon Prime Day so you can save a few more bucks and feel proud of yourself for the savings. So far, the best prices we’ve seen only knock off around $10, which isn’t even enough to get an Apple Polishing Cloth.

Unfortunately, it’s unlikely that we will see a deeper discount. Amazon’s MacBook Neo Prime Day discount is the same $10 off the MSRP, and based on Apple’s pricing methodology for its laptops, there doesn’t appear to be very little leeway for the Neo to get a further price cut. Apple already offers the Neo for $100 off through its Education Store, and it’s unlikely Amazon will match or beat that.

Apple’s standard education discount is $100 off the Air and M5 Pro models, and $150-$200 off higher-end models. Amazon usually matches or beats that discount for major sale events, so you can get a good deal of money off on laptops during Prime Day and Black Friday. However, as products get cheaper, the discounts usually do too. For example, the iPad Air, which starts at the same $599 as the MacBook Neo, only gets a $50 discount through the Education Store.

With the Neo, Apple isn’t just offering $100 off. It’s advertising that price as one of its main selling points. To then have Amazon undercut that value kind of undermines the whole point of the Neo student-centric appeal.

If you’re not dead-set on the Neo, there are plenty of Prime Day deals to be found with the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, laptops with higher prices that offer more room for a discount. For example, the 13-inch M5 MacBook Air is $949, which is $150 off the MSRP. The 14-inch M5 MacBook Pro is $1,549, which is also $150 off. Those are all very good deals on the latest models.

If you see MacBook Airs or MacBook Pros with even steeper price cuts on Amazon, look at the product description carefully–it’s likely an older model. Amazon also has a lot of these sorts of “deals” on older devices, and it could be a way to get a good laptop at a lower price. An M3 Air is still a good laptop, and I wouldn’t discourage anyone from getting one, but you need to make sure you’re getting what you want.

For example, this MacBook Air has been on and off available for $799, but it’s a 2024 model with an old M3 chip. You might be wondering, is the older $799 M3 MacBook Air a better deal than a $699 MacBook Neo?

It’s not an easy answer. The M3 Air is actually a tad slower in single-core performance than the MacBook Neo–that includes most everyday tasks, such as internet access, writing, email, spreadsheets, etc. But the M3 Air is noticeably faster in multi-core performance, so it’s a better Mac for, say, content production. You get more ports and a slightly bigger screen, but fewer color options. But the biggest issue is its price placement, somewhat awkwardly in the middle between the $699 Neo and the $949 Air.

Amazon discounts on Airs aren’t all that uncommon—the M4 Air was as low as $749 during Black Friday last year. And if Amazon is selling M3 MacBook Airs for $799, there’s not much of an incentive for Apple to cut the price of the wildly popular Neo.

Considering that a recent report said that Apple will be raising prices soon, now is a good time to invest in a new MacBook Neo, Air, or Pro. The Amazon Prime Day prices could end up being the best discounts we’ll see in a while, even if it’s just $10 off.

Get all the info you need for Amazon Prime day with our guides:

Apple 15-inch MacBook Air (M5, 2026)

Price When Reviewed:

$1299

Apple 14-inch MacBook Pro (M5 Pro, 2026)

Price When Reviewed:

$2,199

Apple 14-inch MacBook Pro (M5 Max, 2026)

Price When Reviewed:

$3,599

Apple 16-inch MacBook Pro (M5 Pro, 2026)

Price When Reviewed:

$2,699