The Amazon Big Spring Sale is well underway, and if you’re anything like me you’ve spent the last couple of days scouring the site for some great deals. You’ve likely then, again like me, found that there aren’t all that many tempting offers on the tech that you want, instead being presented with sales on T-shirts and home appliances. It’s light on the tech savings that have made Amazon’s seasonal discounts so alluring in the first place — all well and good if you’re looking to spruce up your wardrobe, but we want headphones, we want smart home devices, we want MacBooks.
There are some deals worth looking at — I’ve already talked about the best 10 from the scraps on offer — but you’ll actually find some much better deals if you look over at Amazon’s competitors, who seem to be more up for a price war than Bezos’s store at the moment.
And that’s what I’ve done. I’ve searched through all the major alternative retailers to Amazon and found some incredible deals that you should be looking at instead of wasting your time scouring Amazon’s sale.
MacBook Pro
- MacBook Pro M3 Pro |
$1,999$1,799 at B&H Photo
If you head over to B&H Photo at the moment, you’ll find some great deals on MacBooks. Our pick of the bunch is $200 off the M3 Pro model, for a wicked saving on one of the best MacBooks that you can get. It’s not just that specific model that gets a discount, however — you can spec up a MacBook to get just the right machine for you, and still make a saving.
While we’d recommend the M3 model for most people, those with more demanding workloads might want to pack their MacBooks with more powerful internals. The best bit? At the moment, B&H Photo has money off the laptops when you customize to your chosen specifications, so it doesn’t matter whether you’re buying the base model, or one with 7 million gigabytes of RAM or an SSD with enough space to fit the whole internet. The discounts do change slightly with different specs, so watch the discount while you build your MacBook.
MacBook Pros aren’t even in stock on Amazon at the moment, so you’re not going to save money on one at all, Big Spring Sale or no Big Spring Sale. There are similar discounts at Best Buy, although we prefer the configurator at B&H Photo.
LG C3 OLED
- LG C3 OLED 77-inch |
$2,699$2,299 at Best Buy
There’s no better way to watch the best movies on Apple TV Plus than with a massive, OLED TV — and this one is considered among the best TVs you can buy. This enormous 77-inch TV is made by LG (which, it turns out, makes most of the OLED panels that go into other manufacturers' TVs, for your interesting Fact of the Day), and comes with a feature list that would make a TV salesman blush.
It runs on LG's proprietary OS, and lets you hook up an Apple TV 4K box with the HDMI ports at the back. 120Hz refresh rate means that your games are going to look super smooth and slick, whether playing on a high-end console or one of the best Apple Arcade games, while the 4K resolution is crisp and clear for some stunning movie nights. The OLED panel allows for some incredible black levels, and while it might not be as bright as some of the LCD or Mini LED options available, few other screens offer as luxurious a viewing experience.
$400 off is nothing to sniff at either, and while it’s a similar price at Amazon, you’ll get free installation in your home with Best Buy — no need to worry about mounting it on the wall or dropping its enormous 77-inch display.
MacBook Air M1
- MacBook Air M1 | $899 $699 at Walmart
The MacBook Air M1 is now no longer made by Apple, but that just means that retailers are discounting the price of remaining stock by hundreds of dollars. One of the best deals we’ve seen on the MacBook Air is this one at Walmart, which makes for the lowest price that the laptop has ever been. While it might not be the most powerful MacBook that money can buy anymore, it’s definitely one of the best looking, and perfect for anyone who doesn’t need loads of processing chops.
The M1 processor is still powerful enough to get you through everyday computing, and the 8GB of RAM is plenty for multitasking. If you’re looking for one of the best MacBooks for students, then this could well be it, with a super portable chassis that slips into a bag without issue and is perfect for taking notes in a lecture or class.
Now, if you’re looking for a more powerful MacBook Air, then you should head over to Best Buy where you can find the M2 MacBook Air 15-inch for $300 off. That gives you a more powerful processor, a bigger screen, and the more modern looks of a 2023 model MacBook Air.
