Apple’s most affordable current-gen Macs are up to $200 off right now, deals from $499

$200 off/Mac

It’s back again, the best value in the current-generation Mac lineup and if you’re looking to upgrade your workstation setup without spending a fortune, the M4 Mac mini is your best option. Amazon is currently offering the most affordable Mac in the current lineup at $100 off. 

There are still some $200 price drops on the M4 MacBook Air – the next most affordable model in the lineup – for folks looking to go portable, and it’s hard not to recommend the Air in that case of course. It is, in fact, the first laptop I would recommend to literally anyone. But if you’re looking for at-home workstation upgrade without breaking the bank, you can land the base M4 Mac mini that runs the same OS at $300 less than the deal price on the MacBook Air:

• M4 MacBook Air from $799 (Reg. $999+)
• M4 Mac mini from $499 (Reg. $599+)

There’s clearly not a whole lot of comparison between these two – one is of course a laptop you can take just about anywhere, anytime and that might very well be worth the additional spend for some folks. But when it comes to upgrading to a current-generation Mac at the lowest possible price, the Mac mini was already it and it is now once again on sale to kick-off the New Year. 

I upgraded to the M4 Mac mini from an older iteration last year and have been all the way stoked about it. You’re getting Apple’s latest and greatest on the software front by way of an ultra-compact and ultra-affordable (at least by Apple’s standards) piece of hardware. While for some the 256GB of storage on the base model leaves more than a few GB to be desired, these low capacity machines are also a great way to save some cash – the next tier up will run you an additional $160 right now – and you can always throw some external storage into the mix anyway:

• M4 Mac mini 16GB/256GB $499 (Reg. $599)
• M4 Mac mini 16GB/512GB $690 (Reg. $799)
• M4 Mac mini 24GB/512GB $890 (Reg. $999)

Now, I certainly wouldn’t blame anyone for opting to grab one of the upgraded machines that are also on sale right now – I went for the 24GB model that is currently $110 off right now – and they are still well under the price of a comparably-spec’d MacBook Air, but there’s no denying the value in a Mac mini at $499 shipped to your front door.