Walmart Makes M1 MacBook Air More Accessible

Joe Rossignol reports today for MacRumors Walmart has begun selling the dearly beloved M1 MacBook Air for the low price (for MacBooks) of $599. The deal is for the laptop’s base configuration of 8GB RAM and a 256GB SSD in gold, silver, or space gray.

“In case you missed it, Walmart is currently offering the older but still very capable MacBook Air with the M1 chip for just $599 in the United States,” Rossignol wrote of the deal on Wednesday. “It seems like this deal began around Amazon’s four-day Prime Day event in early July, but it flew under our radar until a reader let us know about it today.”

As Rossignol notes, Apple discontinued the M1 Air last year when it added the then-new M3 models. Walmart announced it would carry the M1 Air (at $699) back in March 2024.

My reasoning for covering this news is, as ever, accessibility—quite literally. As Rossignol also notes, although the M1 chip is getting long in the tooth by technological standards—the M5 generation of Apple silicon is said to be on its way—the chip remains more than serviceable for everyday tasks like email, web browsing, word processing, and even light photo editing. From an accessibility standpoint, the value proposition of Walmart’s $600 MacBook Air is stratospheric; budget-conscious buyers, a lot which includes most people with disabilities, get a modern, eminently capable computer that’s small and lightweight to boot. For those who can’t afford the current (and admittedly better) $999 M4 Air, the M1 variety is, again, a veritable steal for hundreds of dollars less. Eventually, assuredly sooner than later, Apple’s M1 chip will be outmoded and obsolete—but that day assuredly is years away. Right now, today, the “low end” M1 MacBook Air could cogently be argued is Apple’s most accessible Mac, and in more ways than one. In other words, for those who prefer macOS to the Mac-like iPadOS 26—more on that from me soon—the inexpensive M1 MacBook Air a revelation.

News of the $600 Air comes amid rumors Apple is preparing a “real” low-cost MacBook powered by the A18 Pro chip that’s sitting inside my iPhone 16 Pro Max. The device is purported to come out either late this year or early next, according to multiple sources.

The M1 MacBook Air is available on Walmart’s website.