Amazon Sells the MacBook Air at Its Pre-Hike Price

Amazon is selling the 13-inch M5 MacBook Air for $1,099, the same price Apple charged before a June 25 memory hike. Prime Big Deal Days runs through the October 6 and 7 sale window for Prime members, and the laptop cut is $200 off Apple’s current $1,299 sticker.

AirPods Pro 3 are $179, iPad mini 7 is back at $499, and the 11-inch M4 iPad Air is $649. The first two match Apple’s old list. The tablet does not.

Amazon Is Selling the M5 Air at Its Pre-Hike Price

The 13-inch model with 16GB of memory and a 512GB drive is $1,099 in three colors, $200 off $1,299. That $1,099 figure is not a new floor invented for the fall event. It is the starting price Apple published for this Air until June 25, when the company lifted the same configuration to $1,299.

The 15-inch 16GB/512GB Air follows the same script at $1,299, down from $1,499, which was also the 15-inch starting price before the hike. Amazon is taking $200 off nearly every M5 Air it has in 13-inch and 15-inch sizes, including the 16GB/1TB and 24GB/1TB builds. Deal posts on the morning of October 6 still showed those tags live.

Apple’s own shop still lists MacBook Air from $1,299. A shopper who wants the $200 back has to check out as a Prime member on Amazon, or find a rival that has matched the cut. The machine remains a four-figure purchase after the markdown, which is the part the deal blast posts skip.

During June’s four-day Prime Day, which ended June 26 and overlapped the hike, listings put this 13-inch Air near $950. October’s $1,099 is $149 above that summer sale price, even as it undercuts Apple’s new list by $200.

The June 25 Memory Hike on Macs and iPads

On June 25, a Thursday, Apple raised prices on Macs and iPads and blamed a memory and storage squeeze driven by AI data-center demand. iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods were left alone. The June 25 Mac and iPad hikes moved the 13-inch Air’s start from $1,099 to $1,299, the 15-inch Air from $1,299 to $1,499, the 11-inch iPad Air from $599 to $749, and iPad mini from $499 to $599.

We have shielded our customers from these increases so far, but we have now reached a point where we need to begin raising prices on a number of products, including today’s increases for iPad and Mac.

Apple, written statement, June 25, 2026

The company also said it had never seen a component price jump this far, this fast. That is the backdrop Amazon is selling against. The October tags look like $200 and $100 wins only because Apple printed higher numbers in June and left them on its site.

APPLE LIST VS AMAZON ON OCTOBER 6

Two of those Amazon prices are photocopies of the old Apple list. One is still $50 above it. One is a true extra cut on a product Apple never marked up.

AirPods Pro 3 at $179, With or Without Prime

The earbuds are $179, $70 off Apple’s $249 AirPods Pro 3 list price. That $179 tag last showed up at this level during June Prime Day, and Apple has not changed its own price. Heart-rate sensing, the stronger in-ear noise cancellation, and the rest of the Pro 3 spec sheet are unchanged; only the street price moved.

Walmart is also at $179 on October 6, which means the earbud cut is not a Prime-only ticket. Best Buy has been higher, near $199.99. Amazon has AirPods Max 2 at $429, $120 off, in the same wave.

If the only cart is a pair of Pro 3s, a full-price year of Prime costs more than the $70 you get back. The 30-day trial covers the 48-hour event. Paying $139 to unlock a $70 earbud discount is the membership math Amazon is hoping you do not run.

The $649 iPad Air Still Costs More Than June

The 11-inch M4 iPad Air with 128GB and Wi-Fi is $649, $100 off the post-hike $749 list. Before June 25 that tablet started at $599, so Amazon’s “low” is still $50 higher than the old Apple price. The 13-inch 128GB Wi-Fi model is $849, also $100 off.

These 2026 Airs use the M4 chip, a C1X modem, and an N1 networking chip with Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6. The chassis matches the 2025 Air: edge-to-edge display, slim bezels, aluminum. Best Buy has matched several of the Air cuts, so the tablet discount is not trapped inside a Prime checkout either.

M4 IPAD AIR PRICES ON AMAZON

• 11-inch 128GB Wi-Fi: $649, which is $100 off $749 and $50 above the old $599 start.
• 11-inch 256GB Wi-Fi: $749, with the 512GB Wi-Fi model at $949, each $100 off.
• 11-inch cellular: 256GB at $899 and 1TB at $1,399, both $100 off.
• 13-inch Wi-Fi: 128GB at $849, 256GB at $949, and 1TB at $1,449, each $100 off.

iPad mini 7 is the cleaner tablet restoration. Every Wi-Fi model is $100 off, and the 128GB Wi-Fi unit is $499, the price Apple charged before June. The 256GB Wi-Fi mini is $599 and the 512GB Wi-Fi mini is $799. A few cellular minis are on sale in the same window.

Apple Watch SE 3 Returns to $199

Watch prices never moved in June, so these cuts are not clawbacks. The SE 3 GPS 40mm is $199, $50 off $249, and the 44mm GPS is $229, $50 off $279. Both match the lows from June Prime Day.

Series 12, which launched in September, is seeing its first real street cuts. The 42mm GPS model is $349.99 and the 46mm GPS model is $399.99, $49 off the $399 and $449 launch prices. Two colors are at those lows, and some cellular Series 12 watches are discounted as well.

Fifty dollars off a watch Apple did not reprice is a different deal from $200 off a laptop Apple did reprice. The SE 3 at $199 is the one wearable number that keeps showing up whenever Amazon runs a Prime event.

Does a Year of Prime Cover the AirPods Cut?

The hardware markdowns are Prime member deals on Amazon, and Amazon is using them to sell the plan. A year of Prime is $139. A month is $14.99. New customers can start a 30-day free trial, which is enough to cover October 6 and 7. Carmen Nestares, vice president of North America Marketing and Prime Tech, said the event is built for fall hosting, decorating, and holiday gifting while people save.

WHAT PRIME COSTS TO CHECK OUT

• Standard plan: $14.99 a month or $139 a year, with a 30-day trial if you qualify.
• Young adults 18 to 24: a 6-month $0 trial, then $7.49 a month or $69 a year, half the standard rate.
• Prime Access: $6.99 a month after a 30-day trial for qualifying government-assistance and income-verified customers.

On the $1,099 Air, $139 of Prime is a small share of a $200 laptop cut, and you may already pay it for shipping. On AirPods Pro 3, the annual fee is $69 larger than the $70 discount, and Walmart is selling the same buds for $179 without that fee. The membership is the product Amazon cannot discount off Apple’s shop.

Forty-Eight Hours and Three Daily Drops

Prime Big Deal Days opened at 12:01 a.m. PDT on October 6 and ends at 11:59 p.m. PDT on October 7. Amazon is running it in 22 countries and says deals span more than 35 categories. Fresh “Today’s Big Deals” drop at midnight, 8 a.m., and 1 p.m. PDT on both days, and the company says they last only while supplies last.

The Apple aisle is already doing the work those drops are meant to do: pull people into a Prime checkout with familiar hardware. The M5 Air at $1,099 and the mini at $499 are last summer’s Apple prices with a countdown clock on them. The Pro 3 at $179 is the one extra cut, and it is sitting on Walmart’s shelf too.

After 11:59 p.m. PDT on October 7, Apple’s shop will still ask $1,299 for the Air. The June 25 list does not expire with the sale.