US · Aug 28, 2026
Best bang for your buck MacBook Pro
A MacBook Pro is a bad deal if you needed an Air, and a good deal if HDMI, an SD slot, or a real GPU would have forced a dongle tax later.
We rank Pros for video and code together so the score prefers memory and GPU without ignoring price.
Best bang
$1,999
13-inch MacBook Air
M5 · 10 CPU / 10 GPU · 32GB · 1TB · 153 GB/s
New
- Per GB RAM
- $62
- Per CPU
- $200
- Per GPU
- $200
- Per storage
- $2.0
Best bang for your buck this week: 13-inch MacBook Air (M5, 32GB / 1024GB) at $1,999 as of Aug 28, 2026, ranked for video + code.
We are not earning from these links right now. None of them are affiliate links.
Retailer searches may include third-party refurbished units — not Apple Certified Refurbished. Read the listing.
Cheaper pass
$999
13-inch MacBook Air
M4 · 10 CPU / 10 GPU · 24GB · 512GB · 120 GB/s
Apple Certified Refurbished · list $1,199
- Per GB RAM
- $42
- Per CPU
- $100
- Per GPU
- $100
- Per storage
- $2.0
Cheaper machine that still clears the bar: refurbished 13-inch MacBook Air (M4, 24GB / 512GB) at $999 as of Aug 28, 2026, ranked for video + code.
We are not earning from these links right now. None of them are affiliate links.
Retailer searches may include third-party refurbished units — not Apple Certified Refurbished. Read the listing.
More RAM
$3,299
14-inch MacBook Pro
M5 Pro · 18 CPU / 20 GPU · 48GB · 1TB · 307 GB/s
New
- Per GB RAM
- $69
- Per CPU
- $183
- Per GPU
- $165
- Per storage
- $3.2
More unified memory for the same job: 14-inch MacBook Pro (M5 Pro, 48GB / 1024GB) at $3,299 as of Aug 28, 2026, ranked for video + code.
We are not earning from these links right now. None of them are affiliate links.
Retailer searches may include third-party refurbished units — not Apple Certified Refurbished. Read the listing.
FAQ
Is the base M5 Pro enough?
For most people, yes, if you buy enough RAM. The Max tax is for GPU-heavy timelines and huge local models.