Don’t Get Suckered by Black Friday Laptop Deals. Just Get the MacBook Air (2025)

Don’t give in to greed. It’s Black Friday, you’re in the market for a new MacBook, and you may be wondering if you should buy the new M5 MacBook Pro. Buying the latest release of a tech product is usually good advice, especially if you’re looking for the best Black Friday MacBook deals. Theoretically, this ensures you get the best performance and features, and hopefully means you won’t have to replace it for many years.

But in this case, you probably shouldn’t do that.

This may be a surprise to me, especially since my evaluation of the M5 MacBook Pro was quite positive. There’s a lot to like about it. The performance of the M5 is a solid step up from the M4, especially in the GPU department. The stuff that hasn’t changed is still really high quality, including the mini-LED display, excellent speakers, and the iconic design. It’s been more than four years since many of these features changed, but the MacBook Pro remains competitive in almost every aspect. Despite launching just a month ago, it’s also discounted by $200 for Black Friday.

The problem is this particular MacBook Pro’s position in the lineup. The base 14-inch MacBook Pro is the only Mac in the lineup where you can currently get the M5. It’s a shame, because I see it as the most distinctive MacBook in the lineup. The MacBook Air is the laptop most people should buy, while the M4 Pro or M4 Max MacBook Pro is the laptop serious creative professionals need to speed up their workflow.

The base 14-inch MacBook Pro has a brighter display and more ports, but performance and battery life are more or less on par with the MacBook Air. Apple knows people will be buying the MacBook Air this holiday season, especially at the selling price of $749. So, bringing the M5 exclusively to the 14-inch MacBook Pro seems like an easy way to boost sales on an otherwise ignored laptop in the lineup. I’m speculating on Apple’s strategy here, but this is my best read.

According to the latest reports, it will take at least a few more months for the M5 to arrive in other MacBooks, but that timing is not guaranteed. Here’s the truth: Most people should still only buy the M4 MacBook Air. This may be the best laptop ever sold at that price. Or, if you want the larger 15-inch model, you can get it for $949. That extra $200 gets you more screen real estate (without sacrificing sharpness) and better speakers.

If you are looking for more performance then you should definitely not buy the M5 MacBook Pro. The M4 Pro MacBook Pro is still a significant step up in performance over the M5 (and currently has a retail price of $250 less). Meanwhile, you’ll have to pay an extra $200 to upgrade from a 15-inch MacBook Air to an M5 MacBook Pro — even if the performance isn’t much different. And yes, only if you configure them with the same amount of storage.

That’s not to say there aren’t any advantages to the Pro vs. Air. But these are quality-of-life changes, not performance-based. A brighter, HDR-capable screen and more ports are the two primary differences, and it’s really only people whose work depends on those differences who should buy the M5 MacBook Pro. For example, I know a lot of people who balk at the idea of ​​having a laptop without an SD card slot. Fair enough. But with improved external display support on the M4 MacBook Air, which can now support up to two 4K monitors, the number of people buying the M5 MacBook Pro has dropped over the past year.

So, don’t be fooled by the “Pro” branding. The MacBook Air is the MacBook most people should buy for Black Friday this year.

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