Take the Surface Laptop 7th Edition, which has been one of my favorite alternatives to the MacBook Air throughout 2025. It’s been competitively priced with the M4 MacBook Air all along, with both laptops occasionally dipping to $799 during sales events like Prime Day throughout the year. But now, the Surface Laptop has gotten an official price hike due to the lack of RAM and is currently priced at $1,200. I still like this laptop a lot, but at $350 more than a similarly configured M5 MacBook Air, it’s very difficult to recommend.
Or consider the MacBook Neo, Apple’s new budget laptop that also launched in March. Although it is much cheaper overall, it was sold for only $10 off its full price. That discounted price of $949 for the M5 MacBook Air leaves only a dangerously small gap of $260 between the Neo and the Air. It’s almost embarrassing how good the air is in every way imaginable. If you’re interested in how these two laptops stack up, I’ve done a comprehensive comparison between them that’s worth checking out. But quite simply, for all the excitement (and controversy) over the much cheaper MacBook Neo, the MacBook Air still has the most price flexibility in terms of deals.