Every now and then, one of the big retailers quietly lists an older-generation MacBook — an M2 or M3 chip — at a noticeably lower price than the current M4/M5 lineup. If you’ve spotted one of these and wondered whether it’s actually a smart buy or just old stock nobody wants, here’s the honest breakdown.
Quick note before we start: this is different from our New vs Refurbished guide. We’re talking about brand-new, unopened, older-generation Macs still being sold through official retail channels — not used or refurbished units. Same “brand new in the box” experience, just an older chip inside.
The examples that prompted this guide
At the time of writing, Amazon.co.za has two older-generation Macs worth knowing about:
- 2022 MacBook Air, M2 chip, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD — brand new, sold and shipped directly by Amazon, at R16,999.
- MacBook Air 13″, M3 chip, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD — also sold directly by Amazon, at R21,071.99, with only 2 units left in stock at the time we checked.
For comparison, the current entry-level M4 Air (16GB/256GB) typically sits around R18,000–R19,000 depending on the retailer, and the current M5 Air (16GB/512GB) is closer to R26,000. Both older-generation listings above undercut their equivalent current-generation configuration by a meaningful margin — the M3 in particular is over R5,000 cheaper than the current M5 at the same 512GB storage tier.
That “only 2 left in stock” note on the M3 listing is a perfect real-world example of the point we make later in this guide: this kind of stock doesn’t last, and doesn’t come back once it’s gone.
Is the performance still good enough?
Honestly, yes, for most everyday use. Both the M2 and M3 chips handle browsing, email, Office, streaming, and general multitasking without any real strain — this isn’t a “struggling old laptop” situation. If you’re doing heavy video editing or serious multitasking, you’d feel the gap between these and M4/M5, but that’s a small minority of buyers.
The RAM matters more than the chip generation here, same as our M4 vs M5 for developers guide points out. Both listings above come with 16GB RAM, which is the more important number — an older chip with generous RAM will outlast a newer chip with too little. If you spot an older-generation Mac with only 8GB RAM at a tempting price, think twice; that’s the config where the age actually starts to show.
How long will Apple actually support it?
This is the real question, and it’s more reassuring than most people expect. Apple’s transition to its own Apple Silicon chips changed the support story significantly:
- Apple Silicon Macs (M1 and up) get roughly 5-7 years of full macOS feature updates, followed by another 2-3 years of security-only updates.
- With macOS 27, Apple drew the support line at Apple Silicon vs Intel — every M-series Mac, including the M2 and M3, remains fully supported going forward. It’s Intel Macs being phased out, not older M-series ones.
- A 2022 M2 or 2024 M3 Mac, on that pattern, should realistically keep getting full macOS updates well into the late 2020s, with security patches likely stretching into the early-to-mid 2030s.
In plain terms: buying an M2 today doesn’t mean buying into an operating system dead-end anytime soon.
The one honest catch
Stock like this doesn’t last. Retailers list older-generation Macs when they’ve got remaining stock to clear, and once it’s gone, it’s usually gone for good — Apple isn’t manufacturing new M2 units. If you’re reading this guide some time after we wrote it, there’s a real chance the exact listing we found is no longer available, or the price has changed. Always check current stock and pricing before assuming last month’s deal is still standing.
Our honest take
If you find a well-specced older-generation Mac (16GB RAM ideally, not the base 8GB) at a genuinely lower price than the current model, and you don’t need cutting-edge performance, it’s a legitimately smart buy — not a compromise. You’re not buying “yesterday’s tech,” you’re buying a still-fully-supported Mac for less money, with years of software updates ahead of it.
Just don’t wait around deciding — this kind of stock tends to disappear quietly and doesn’t come back.
Check our MacBook Air price page for the current cheapest options across every configuration and generation we’re tracking.