Updated

Updated · Tom's Guide · Aug 3

Amazon Launches August Apple Deals With Watch Ultra 3 at $700 and MacBook Pro Up to $500 Off

Updated

Updated · Tom's Guide · Aug 3

Amazon Launches August Apple Deals With Watch Ultra 3 at $700 and MacBook Pro Up to $500 Off

Q: Could these record-low Amazon prices actually be a clever illusion masking Apple's recent hardware cost increases?

Yes — in part. The Amazon prices are real discounts, but their “record-low” label can be misleading because Apple raised MacBook Pro prices in June 2026, inflating the reference price those discounts are measured against. Apple increased MacBook Pro prices by roughly $300 on many configurations, citing a global memory and storage crunch driven by AI data-center demand. That means a listing like the 14-inch M5 Pro at $2,259.99 looks especially dramatic against Apple’s new $2,499 MSRP. In some cases, today’s Amazon deal is genuinely the lowest tracked price since the hike, but that does not always mean buyers are getting a dramatically better deal than they would have before Apple reset the baseline. The practical question is not whether the discount is “record-low,” but whether the sale price beats the pre-hike market price. In several cases, it does. Reports indicate some Amazon listings remained below both Apple’s new MSRP and some earlier street prices, making them meaningful bargains. In other cases, the savings appear larger mainly because the sticker price above them got higher. So the discount is not fake, but the optics matter. Shoppers should compare the current Amazon price not just to Apple’s new MSRP, but also to the model’s pre-June pricing and competing offers from Best Buy, B&H, Adorama, and Apple’s refurbished store. That is the only reliable way to tell whether a “record low” is a true bargain or partly a byproduct of Apple’s recent price increases.

3 articles · Updated · Tom's Guide · Aug 3

$699.99 Apple Watch Ultra 3 models led Amazon's August sale kickoff, with Black Titanium and several Natural Titanium configurations marked down from $799 to about $700.
The fresh push also revived broader Apple discounts, including GPS Apple Watch Series 11 models at $299 and $329, AirPods Pro 3 at $200, and AirTag 2 deals still near recent lows.
MacBook Pro offers remained the biggest-ticket cuts, with select M5 Pro and M5 Max configurations discounted by as much as $500, including a 14-inch M5 Max 36GB/2TB model at $3,599.
The sale extends beyond Apple, with Amazon discounting Ring doorbells by up to 38% and Best Buy launching an August back-to-school event covering laptops, TVs and dorm gear.