Black Friday 2021: What Mac deals can we hope to see?

Black Friday is no longer just the biggest shopping day of the year—it’s the biggest shopping event of the season. It starts on November 26 this year, and to make sure you get the best deals, you need to do a little bit of research. Here’s what you can do to make sure you don’t miss out on a good deal on Apple products.

Current Mac deals

The deals on Macs don’t just start on Black Friday. You can find discounts offered by Amazon in the $50 to $100 range. You usually won’t see any cut cuts that are deeper than that. Here are the best deals we’ve found:

MacBook

M1 MacBook Air (8GB of RAM, 256GB SSD) in Silver: $899 ($100 off) (Amazon)

13-inch M1 MacBook Pro (8GB of RAM, 512GB SSD) in Space Gray: $1,349 ($150 off) (Amazon)

16-inch M1 Pro MacBook Pro (10-core CPU, 16-core GPU, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD) in Silver or Space Gray: $2,649 ($50 off) (Amazon)

iMac

24-inch M1 iMac (8‑core CPU, 7‑core GPU, 8GB RAM, 256GB) in Blue: $1,260 ($40 off) (Amazon)

27-inch iMac (all models): ($100 off) (Amazon)

Mac mini

M1 Mac mini (8GB RAM, 256GB SSD): $649 ($50 off) (Amazon)

Black Friday Mac deals from Apple

Apple usually has a four-day holiday shopping event during Black Friday weekend, with gift cards offered instead of actual discounts. Last year, Apple offered $150 gift cards on the iMac and 16-inch MacBook Pro—both of which Macs featured Intel processors. Apple now has a series of Macs running its own processors, and while you probably won’t see any deals on the newer MacBooks, the older M1 machines could possibly be included.

Black Friday Mac deals from Amazon

Chances are we won’t see any deals on the just-launched 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro laptops. We could see deals on the M1 Macs (MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro, Mac mini, and 24-inch iMac). The M1 made its debut a year ago, so it seems like the timing is right for deals. If you’re willing to get a Mac with an Intel CPU, you could see bigger markdowns from the regular price.

Black Friday Mac deals from Best Buy

Best Buy currently sells the M1 MacBook Air and 13-inch M1 MacBook Pro for $100 less than the regular price. We could see that price come down a bit more for Black Friday, but if you can’t wait, you can take advantage of Best Buy’s “Black Friday Prices Guaranteed” plan, where the retailer will refund the difference if the price goes lower. Best Buy also does offers such as six months of free Apple Music or other free trials into Apple services.

Black Friday Mac deals from Costco

Costco is currently offering $150 off the 13-inch M1 MacBook Pro (8-core CPU, 8-core GPU, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD). This is the base model that’s usually priced at $1,299. They are also selling the 13-inch M1 MacBook Pro with a 512GB SSD for $200 less than the regular price.

The M1 Mac mini (8-core CPU, 8-core GPU,  8GB RAM, 512GB SSD) that is regularly priced at $899 is at Costco for $750, a $149 savings.

Costco also sells the M1 MacBook Air, the 14-inch MacBook Pro, and the 16-inch MacBook Pro, but the savings is just $50 off the regular price.

Other Black Friday Mac deals

B&H Photo often offers $100 to $150 off the standard configurations of the 13-inch M1 MacBook Pro. Walmart also has regular Mac sales, though Target does not sell Macs.