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The weekend’s best deals: MacBook Pros, “buy 2, get 1 free” sales, and more

 1 year ago
source link: https://arstechnica.com/staff/2022/06/the-weekends-best-deals-macbook-pros-buy-2-get-1-free-sales-and-more/
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Dealmaster —

The weekend’s best deals: MacBook Pros, “buy 2, get 1 free” sales, and more

Dealmaster also has discounts on 4K streamers, noise-canceling headphones, and GPUs (kind of).

Ars Staff - 6/18/2022, 3:08 PM

The weekend’s best deals: MacBook Pros, “buy 2, get 1 free” sales, and more
Ars Technica

It's the weekend, which means the time has come for another Dealmaster. Our latest roundup of the best tech deals from around the web includes a couple of discounts on Apple's 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros, with the former down to $1,799 at Amazon and Best Buy and the latter available for $2,299 at the same retailers.

Both laptops are still expensive, clearly, but each offer represents a $200 drop from Apple's MSRP and a roughly $130-150 drop from the notebooks' usual street prices online. Both deals are only $50 more than the lowest prices we've tracked, too. These discounts apply to the 512GB versions of the laptops, but if you need more storage space, the 1TB variants of each model are currently $200 off MSRP as well.

We gave this MacBook Pro a glowing review when it launched last October, calling it "the best laptop you can buy" for heavier-duty tasks like software development and content creation. The M1 Pro chip found in these discounted models is still a powerful and efficient performer—though, of the options below, the 16-inch version carries a couple more CPU and GPU cores—and the battery life on each laptop is still exceptional, typically lasting around 12-15 hours per charge. These notebooks are on the heavier side (3.5 lbs. for the 14-inch, 4.7 lbs. for the 16-inch), and the iPhone-inspired "notch" above each display may not sit right with everyone. But generally speaking, each device has a premium feel, with a reliable keyboard and trackpad underneath a bright and accurate Mini LED display. For a modern Apple laptop, the port selection here is relatively diverse as well, covering three Thunderbolt ports, an HDMI port, and an SD card slot.

It's worth noting that Apple recently launched a refresh to its 13-inch MacBook Pro that includes the company's new M2 chip. We should have more details soon on how that model's performance compares to the more expensive Pros on sale today, but we do know that it will still carry Apple's older design language, with fewer ports, a more traditional LED display, a lower-resolution 720p webcam, and the inability to drive more than one external display at a time. The new notebook may still be a solid device anyway, but if you need features like those or just prefer having more screen real estate, the 14- and 16-inch Pros should continue to be more luxurious options. They should remain faster, too. All that said, if you just want a laptop for more casual tasks, the more affordable MacBook Air is still far and away the best Apple laptop for most, and its forthcoming refresh with the M2 chip is likely to solidify that.

Besides MacBooks, our deals roundup also includes a couple of "buy two, get one free" sales at Amazon and Target that cover a wide range of books, movies, games, and toys. If you add three eligible items to your cart, the discount will apply to the least-expensive product you picked. As we've seen in past versions of sales like these, many of the qualifying products here aren't exactly winners. Still, this could be a particularly good opportunity to save on a few video games if you're willing to buy in bulk, with newer titles like Elden Ring, LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, Triangle Strategy, and others included in the sales.

We've also got a couple of relatively reasonable prices on recommended graphics cards, with versions of AMD's Radeon RX 6700 XT and Nvidia's GeForce RTX 3070 available for $480 and $580, respectively. As noted on Ars earlier this week, GPUs have broadly started to fall back toward their MSRPs after months of heavy pandemic- and crypto-fueled price inflation. We've been keeping an eye on the market and are still hesitant to call either of these offers outright "deals"—the RX 6700 XT originally launched at $480, while the 3070 had an MSRP of $500. With prices still trending downward and new Nvidia GPUs reportedly nearing release, most people who aren't in a rush should continue to hold out. But for those who must have a solid GPU for 1440p gaming today, offers like the two above should be a bit easier to stomach.

Beyond that, we've dug up discounts on the iPad Mini and Apple TV 4K, Google's Chromecast, Wacom drawing tablets, the newly Ars-approved game Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge, a handful of noise-canceling headphones we like, and much more. You can have a look at our full curated list below.

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Featured deals of the day

The 6th-generation <a href=Apple iPad mini." />
Andrew Cunningham

Electronics deals

Compared to the <a href=newer WH-1000XM5, Sony's WH-1000XM4 isn't quite as comfortable and has a more bass-heavy sound by default. The older headphones can fold up for easier storage, though, and they still deliver excellent active noise cancellation. At this cheaper deal price, they remain a strong value." />
Enlarge / Compared to the newer WH-1000XM5, Sony's WH-1000XM4 isn't quite as comfortable and has a more bass-heavy sound by default. The older headphones can fold up for easier storage, though, and they still deliver excellent active noise cancellation. At this cheaper deal price, they remain a strong value.
Jeff Dunn

The Fitbit Versa 3 is a fitness-focused wearable we recommend in our <a href=guide to the best smartwatches." />
Enlarge / The Fitbit Versa 3 is a fitness-focused wearable we recommend in our guide to the best smartwatches.
Fitbit

The display on the <a href=2021 14-inch MacBook Pro." />
Samuel Axon

Laptop and desktop PC deals

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The UI of the Google Chromecast with Google TV, our top <a href=recommendation for a 4K streamer under $50." />
Enlarge / The UI of the Google Chromecast with Google TV, our top recommendation for a 4K streamer under $50.
Corey Gaskin

TV and home entertainment deals

Microsoft's Xbox Series X has finally started to stay in stock for an extended stretch of time. Sadly, we haven't seen the same with Sony's PlayStation 5.
Enlarge / Microsoft's Xbox Series X has finally started to stay in stock for an extended stretch of time. Sadly, we haven't seen the same with Sony's PlayStation 5.

Gaming deals

Its not hugely discounted, but the 2D beat-'em-up <em>Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge </em>only just launched this week. Our <a href=glowing review called it a "must-play arcade throwback," and the game is especially accommodating to co-op play. Note that it comes included with Xbox Game Pass, though." />
Enlarge / Its not hugely discounted, but the 2D beat-'em-up Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge only just launched this week. Our glowing review called it a "must-play arcade throwback," and the game is especially accommodating to co-op play. Note that it comes included with Xbox Game Pass, though.
Dotemu / Tribute Games

Video game deals

We named <em>Psychonauts 2</em> our <a href=Game of the Year for 2021." />
Enlarge / We named Psychonauts 2 our Game of the Year for 2021.

The latest Apple Pencil stylus. The first-gen model <a href=is made for the base iPad and various older models, while this second-gen version is compatible with newer iPad Pros and iPad Airs, as well as the latest iPad Mini." />
Enlarge / The latest Apple Pencil stylus. The first-gen model is made for the base iPad and various older models, while this second-gen version is compatible with newer iPad Pros and iPad Airs, as well as the latest iPad Mini.

Accessories and miscellaneous deals


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