14 DAY TRIAL // Apple is selling a refurbished MacBook Air packing a 1.86 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU, and 256GB of NAND Flash for just $1,099 - a $400 discount from the notebook’s original retail price.
Originally released October 2010, this MacBook Air is the first redesigned model with a square-ish appearance and FaceTime camera.
It boasts a 13.3-inch LED-backlit glossy widescreen display, and has 2GB memory as standard. There’s 256GB of on-board storage, and the NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics should be more than enough to run anything from Photoshop to a Windows virtual machine.
If you ever wanted a bargain on a MacBook Air that wouldn’t be obsolete any time soon, this is probably the moment you’ve been waiting for.
But don’t run off to the Apple online store just yet!
An even more powerful version of the 13-inch Air with Intel’s 1.7GHz Core i5 CPU, 4GB of memory, Thunderbolt connectivity, and HD Graphics 3000 is available for the same price - $1,099. Granted, it has just 128GB of flash storage, but that’s more than enough to get you by.
And considering the multitude of cloud services out there, who would even want hundreds of gigs of storage on a laptop anyway?
The only difference between these two offers, from a price point of view, is that the Core i5 model only saves you $200. In reality, you get double the value, if not more, on this purchase.
Not to mention that the 2011 model also ships with OS X Lion pre-installed. On the aforementioned Air, if you want Lion you’ll need to upgrade from Snow Leopard for 30 bucks.
All in all, both offers sound attractive, but the second one should really pique your interest if you want Apple to match the value of your purchase to the last dollar.
As usual, these offers are only available in the U.S.