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10% off Apple Mac (MacBook Air 13" with M3 Chip, 10-Core GPU, 512GB/16GB $2159, Was $2399) + Delivery (C&C/ in-Store) @ JB Hi-Fi

530

https://www.jbhifi.com.au/collections/hot-deals-on-apple-mac…

Was in the market for a Macbook Air and had JBHIFI Open on the Apple MacBook Air 13-inch with M3 Chip, 10-core GPU, 512GB/16GB. Right before my attempt at asking them to price match the Apple EDU store, Lo and behold the page refreshed to show the same pricing as their education store, used some giftcards and got that build for $1700

Thought I'd share in-case anyone like me was in the market, and if you were wondering, no I don't care about Macs being overpriced for the hardware.

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    • +4

      Cause joking about the price of apple products hasn't been funny in years. Especially now that high end laptops from other manufactures aren't far off the same prices anyway.

      • +3

        I have no problem with the price of the Macbook as a product - I bought one and use it every day and for the price, they work a hell of a lot better than an equivalent Windows laptop imo
        But a good chunk of the cost is paying for the whole UX, R&D, stability, support whatever else - not just the hardware.
        From a purely hardware point of view, ie if you were to go and just buy the product without the Apple logo AND without supper for Mac OS I'd argue it is overpriced

        • +9

          The hardware wouldn't exist if it wasn't for all the stuff you listed previously.. You buy the whole package, that's what apple has always been about.

        • +1

          Interestingly I switched my workflow to a MacBook after a very long time on Windows.

          The Apple hardware is nice but MacOS is super buggy.

          Don't get me wrong, Windows is a hot mess of bugs and it's annoying every single day. But for my use at least, the Mac is worse.

          Especially for things like use with a dock and multiple monitors where it frequently won't connect to a mouse or keyboard, forgets custom key settings (for an apple keyboard no less) forgets what monitor things were on or gets the taskbar stuck on top of content, requiring logging out and back in to fix.

          It's also awful with RAM management and very quickly starts to stutter and freeze if it has to read to and from the SSD.

          Whereas my older (and lower performance) Windows laptop with the same amount of RAM and the exact same docks and workflow has zero issues with multiple monitor use, is much better at RAM management (and much more graceful when it runs out) and more stable overall.

          • +1

            @Prong: Same. I switched from a decade on Linux and was surprised at how terrible the multi screen and window support was on apple.

            It sort of gives the impression that the one true way to use the things is with 1 monitor and one full sized app at a time. So like some sort of tablet.

            Overall the os is ok. But for the price of the things I'd be disappointed if I'd dropped that sort of money.

        • The build quality of my Lenovo p series workstation is way below a MacBook Pro (and I assume MBA). Plastic vs aluminium.Thing is, it costs a lot more than an equivalent performance MBP.

          I would prefer the Mac, but I need the CAD software optimised for the Lenovo.

    • Can I run Final Cut X on a pc?

  • +16

    Better get Apple gift cards at 8% discount from here - https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/847014
    and ask Apple to price match JB HiFi.

    Total - 18% discount.

    • +10

      17.2%

    • +2

      Does Apple price match??

      • Yep, last time (2-3y ago) bought MB Air for my daughter - it was on special in JB and asked Apple to price match it. Up to 10% is OK.

        • Cool. Was the price match done online or at physical store??

          • @choister: Physical

            • +2

              @localhost: It is the same price in Apple AOC education store… why do you need to ask price match?

              • @lw1987321: Because not all of us are in a edu business :)

                • +1

                  @localhost: just for kind info, you don’t need to be in education business. I visited apple and say want to buy product from education store. He didn’t ask a single question, and even if someone asks, just say buying for someone who is studying. That’s it

                  • +1

                    @karanpatel: So if you buy from edu store and use 8% gift cards… better discount. @kanjus: can you calculate exact numbers please? :)

          • +1

            @choister: Besides price matching at stores you can call Apple sales for a price match. And order over the phone. Old school.

  • +11

    Good find!
    Blows me away that this is cheaper than an iPhone of similar specs! Really is a “what the market can bear” pricing approach with their phones.

  • +15

    There is a great value 15inch M2 model with 16GB/1TB at Officework - (https://www.officeworks.com.au/shop/officeworks/p/apple-macb…) if you don't mind it is one gen older. I bought one for my wife and she loves it.

    • +1

      The whole M-series are really fantastic - I have the budget basic M1 Pro I got a few years back, battery is very good, it's still very quick and the build quality is considerably better than an equivalently priced Windows laptop imo

      • +3

        Looks at my lenovo p series workstation and nods head in agreement.

      • +1

        The M1 Pro chip is 'budget'..?

        • Guess they mean basic MacBook Pro M1, rather then M1 Pro

        • Oh my bad - yeah the Macbook Pro, not the M1 Pro haha

    • Honestly the M3 is only slightly faster if you’re not doing any sort of rendering, this is a great deal, also worth mentioning though that the SSDs on the m2 are slower than the M1 series, but in real world use I doubt that’s an issue for most people

      • Why'd they slow them down you reckon?
        Is it an actual change in drive tech, or did they change the bus in favour of something else on the logic board?

        • The M1 had 2 chips for the SSD which makes it faster as it could access both at the same time. For the M2 they only used 1 chip for the SSD and so it was slower. Thankfully the M3 went back to having 2 chips.

          • +6

            @kalithreaver: Thought this issue was only with the base 256gb model?

            The 1tb model is linked and shouldn't have this issue?

            • +2

              @freoleo: Tha's right, only the 256gb model had the single SSD, 512 and up have 2 SSDs so it doesn't apply to this deal

              This deal
              M series 15 inch 16Gb/1TB macbook for under $2K is actually awesome

    • That is insane value!

  • +1

    Officeworks has already price matched

  • -2

    Is this the copilot+PC effect?

    • +1

      Only a matter of time before Siri gets the LLM upgrade I think

  • +1

    Some models are few bucks cheaper from AOC EDU store if you want to deal directly with Apple

  • +8

    All base models 2024 Apple laptops and computers should come with 16GB Ram and 512gb SSD hard drive and 4 ports as standard.

    • yeah including usb-a ports too

      • +3

        No can do. USB C is slim but A is so limited and antiquated it’s best left behind with floppy’s and serial ports

      • It's outrageous I can't connect my PS/2 mouse to my MBP.

        You'd think it's such a great laptop!

  • +6

    It’s confirmed now, the M4 chip is ArmV9.4A instruction set, the M1/2/3 are the over decade older V8. Apple are now set for another decade so keep this in mind as it will matter over time

    V8 is backward compatible with V9 but the new instructions will take long to decode and run on the older V8 - the v9 is a major update and it’s much like the change from dual core 32bit intel to 64bit instruction set upgrade.

    • +3

      Yeah, gut feeling is M4 is going to be quite a change, wouldn't be buying any new Mac unless absolutely necessary at the moment. Or if a $500 M1 Macbook Air from FB marketplace can't tide you over.

      Game performance improvements etc are going to be eye opening I think

      • +1

        A few changes to the Apple mini and they could give Xbox and Sonys ps5 a run for its money.

        • Wouldn't that be a cracker! Current emulator performance for even PS3 titles amazing

      • I wonder how much clock speed headroom the M4 has for when it goes into a laptop compared with the iPad Pro (types away on an M4 IPP).

        • If they implement actual cooling it might do a fair bit better

    • +3

      V8 is backward compatible with V9 but the new instructions will take long to decode and run on the older V8 - the v9 is a major update

      V9 is backward compatible with V8. The new instructions take long to decode and run on the older V8 - the v9 is a major update.

      Fixed!

  • +3

    How does OP go from $2159 to $1700 for the m3 with 16GB/512? Which gift cards give such a big discount?

    • That's what I wanna know. OP is doing better than 20% gift card discount. The best I can find is 10% off.

      • -3

        Sorry I worded this incorrectly, I already had some gift cards I wanted to use at JB, they were gifted/redeemed with velocity points so technically didn't cost me anything

  • Why do they never include the Studio Displays in their Apple sales? In the market for one.

  • I don’t know if it’s even worth updating my M1 is still doing very well for me in Final Cut and Davinci resolve.

    Even with HDR work so not sure if it’s every worth it for me to upgrade since it’s docked most of the time to my 5k display

    • +1

      I just made the jump from maxed out M1 MacBook Pro to M3, and honestly even heavy Lightroom work with large RAWs, I cant tell the difference day to day. M1 is fine for almost everything except 8K multicam footage.

      • yeah I only work with 4k video Raw, with either HDR or standard video, do everything off of a usb 4 nvme drive never misses a beat no lag or nothing.I guess the only thing i can think of doing is maybe upgrading for better battery but other than that nothing really interests me with the new M3. it was difference back in the intel days though lol they weren't as good.

  • +1

    Bought an M3 Air and had it delivered within 30 min to the office.
    15 years on a Mac as a personal machine, took the plunge with the cheap Surface 7+ bundle 2 years ago gave it a red hot go but for personal use windows is not for me.
    Wonder how much of an upgrade this is over my 2013 MBP. Shall see tonight 🙂

    Thanks OP, the discount was what nudged me over the edge.

    • +1

      The M3 Air is outstanding, but I think the M4 Air will really be the machine worth waiting for. The M4 iPads are just nuts, especially when you consider the 13" is only 5.1mm thick. Witchcraft.

      • i wish they put the M4 in a macbook pro because the ipad pros was the worst place to put it because it doesnt' even run mac os…..to me that chips a waste in a ipad….

  • On a budget a MBP M1/2 or Air 2/3 used

    Upgrader, well you’ll be out the difference when you upgrade which helps

    Buying for the longer term, I’d wait for the M4. The 1/2/3 will be supported for a long while yet with OSX but soon Intel support will be discontinued and then the M1/2/3 series. The M4 has legs, like the X64 chips from Intel did.

    As for performance, if they feed it 90-120watts the desktop chip would be awesome! Look at what they get out of 15-30 on the mobile chips as an example

  • My mbp m3 grinds to a halt on chrome.

    • Had the same issue. For me it was Chrome nuking 3rd party ad blockers. Disable ad blocker extension and works as normal again.

      • No issues for me with uBlock.

        • +1

          Unlock is one of the few that’s keeping ahead off both Google and YouTube’s serious attempt to kill adblockers!

          • @srhardy: Yes very surprise it can really blocked all those stupid popups in files share downloading sites, all other ones I used are useless.

      • Yep using uBlock Origin on my 2012 mpb here and its fine, just make sure you block off all those damn annoying ads!

  • +1

    Well few hours using the M3 last night and some emails and stuff this morning before work.
    This thing has no business being this quick!
    Really impressed so far.

    • I’ve owned all of the M1234 series and as much as I hate to admit it, they are all bleeding fast and I get amazing battery life even after several years of ownership too. I’ve bought my last Intel, AMD or nvidia product so my desktop remains but no more spending on upgrading now. As long as it games at 1080p at >60fps (it does 4K at 120fps easy) I’m set. It will be years now before it gets a dime spent on it and probably won’t get replaced with another desktop

      The M4 Mac mini might well replace it if I was buying again from scratch

  • Imo if you're really looking for a value MacBook, a used M1 Air is pretty hard to beat.

  • This is a great deal!

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