The Apple Black Friday guide: 14 early deals on AirPods, MacBooks

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Apple raised prices this year, but who didn’t? Well, now that Black Friday sale season is here, this is your best chance to cancel out those price hikes. That’s why we’re paying extra close attention to early Black Friday Apple deals.

Yes, Apple does do Black Friday, but not in the way you might expect. Shopping directly on Apple’s website usually means getting a measly gift card for future purchases. The real way to find great deals? Looking at retailers like Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, and Target. Especially as Black Friday approaches (mark Nov. 27 in your calendar), retailers duke it out to see who can offer the best prices on AirPods, MacBooks, and iPads. Walmart and Amazon are infamous for outdoing each other by a single cent.

Usually, prices on Apple products drop to record lows during the hectic Black Friday weekend. However, especially good deals can also sell out quick. In my five years covering Black Friday at Mashable, I’ve seen many an AirPod Pro deal go out of stock before I can finish writing a 200-word story about the deal.

Shopping early lets you score decent savings while avoiding the post-Thanksgiving chaos. So, how do you know what to buy, and what to save for Black Friday and Cyber Monday? That’s where the expertise of the Mashable shopping team can be helpful.

How I chose the best early Apple deals

Let’s start with the very expensive elephant in the room. In June, Apple raised prices on MacBooks, Macs, iPads, the HomePod, Apple TVs, and even the Vision Pro headset, followed by iPhone price increases in September. With many products rising up to $200 in price, the likelihood of seeing products fall to record-low prices is, well, low. Instead, I used price-tracking tools to look for products at or near record-low prices over the past five months.

I also took into account the frequency of deals. If, like the AirPods Pro 3, there’s a $50 deal that’s nearly always on, I don’t necessarily consider that a deal worth highlighting. On the other hand, if an iPad is $100 off for the first time in a month, I’ll include it and note its pricing history.

Finally, I considered our reviewers’ first-hand experiences with these products. Most of the items in this guide have been hands-on tested by at least one person on the Mashable staff, and I prioritized Mashable award winners, choosing the best deals based on overall product performance and value.

Best Black Friday AirPods deal

Why we like it

AirPods with no active noise cancellation are a thing of the past, unless you pick up a pair of the last-generation earbuds. The AirPods 4 without ANC don’t stand up against the AirPods 5 with ANC at full price, but picking them up for a sub-$100 price point makes them a much better buy. With five hours of battery life per charge, an IP54 water- and dust-resistance rating, spatial audio for immersive listening, and voice isolation for calls, they’re a great daily pair of earbuds. With no silicone ear tips, they’re also ideal for folks who like the Apple experience, but prefer a semi-open ear design.

While this $89 sale price has been live for some time, I imagine Walmart is clearing out the last of its stock — these earbuds are no longer sold new at Amazon, Apple, or Best Buy (at least, not by a first-party seller). During Black Friday, I imagine they’ll clear out for good.

More early AirPods deals

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Black Friday AirPods deals to watch for

• The Apple AirPods Pro 3 are on sale for $199 at the time of writing. While the $50 discount off their $249 isn’t necessarily bad, it is common, and almost certain to get significantly lower during the week of Black Friday. Ahead of June’s Prime Day sale, they dropped to a record low of $169.

• The AirPods 5 haven’t received a proper discount yet, as Apple’s newest AirPods. The version without a wireless charging case got a few dollars off the $129 around their release, while the $149 wireless charging case edition hasn’t had any price drops. If these buds are going on sale in 2026, Black Friday is likely when.

Best early MacBook deal

Why we like it

At $250 off, this is the lowest price we’ve seen on the 13-inch MacBook Air since June. The terabyte of built-in storage means you probably won’t ever run into the issue of having to delete a bunch of files when updating your operating system, while the M5 chip will easily power you through daily tasks. According to our laptop expert, this is a great laptop for college students due to its size, but it’s also a great daily driver in general. If you prefer a slightly larger display, the 15-inch Air with 1TB of storage is also $250 off at the time of writing.

Black Friday MacBook deals to watch for

MacBook prices went up in June of this year, with the Neo jumping by $100 and the Air by $200. That means it’s highly unlikely we’ll see any prices reach their former record lows, even if they’re starting at a much higher price point. I’ve taken this into account as I select the best deals and note the deals to look out for.

• The MacBook Neo only dropped $10 over October Prime Day, which means that the $684 price isn’t bad, but the real Black Friday dream for this laptop would be if it dropped back down to its former list price of $599.

• The MacBook Pro hasn’t really dropped below the sale price of $1,799 since the price was raised in June. That is, except for one time on October 31, according to the price-tracking tool camelcamelcamel, when it fell to $1,349. While I’m not keeping my fingers crossed for that much of a price dip, a $250 discount would at least be an improvement.

Best early iPad deal

Why we like it

While it’s pricier than the base iPad, the M4 chip in this tablet means that it’s more versatile, being just as good for streaming as it is for creative projects. Since the price raise on iPads, the Air has fallen to $649 a handful of times, dropping even as low as $559 in August. Still, even with the price raise this is one of the better value (and more future proof) tablets you can pick up from Apple. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for a return to the $559 low, but in the meantime, this is a solid deal to pick up in early Black Friday sale season.

Black Friday iPad deals to watch

• The base iPad used to regularly go on sale for $299 pre-price raise. Its current $399.99 price isn’t bad, especially compared to the rest of the iPad lineup — but it could be even better.

• The 11-inch iPad Pro is technically on sale, but a price drop of $99 on a $1,200 isn’t significant. It is the lowest price this tablet has dropped to in the past five months, which is why I included it as one of the best early deals. Still, a $200 price drop for Black Friday would make this a more palatable tablet to pick up.

Best early Apple Watch deal

Why we like it

The Apple Watch Ultra 3 shares similar features to the newer Ultra 4. In his review of the Ultra 4, Mashable’s Stan Schroeder wrote, “It’s an amazing smartwatch, but not an essential upgrade from last year’s model.” A huge benefit of opting for the Ultra 3? The list price is $100 cheaper, and during Best Buy’s first phase of Black Friday deals, it’s at an even more impressive discount of $549, making it $150 cheaper than the Ultra 4’s current sale price of $799. In other words, it’s easily the best Apple Watch deal available right now.

More early Apple Watch deals

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Black Friday Apple Watch deals to watch

• The Apple Watch SE 3 dropped $50 to a price of $199 during October Prime Day, so I expect to see a return to this price point during or in the lead-up to Black Friday.

• The Apple Watch Series 12 was announced just this past September, but it has dropped down to $349.99 once already. In Black Friday’s past, new generations of Apple Watch have fallen as low as $329. It would be great to see a return to that pattern, but with RAMaggedon, we’re hoping for a $50 markdown.

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