As US Labour Day sales unfold, discounts on Apple’s smaller hardware and accessories outshine limited Mac reductions, highlighting rising prices and cautious retailers amid a shift in promotional focus.
By Sunday 6 September, the clearest pattern in US Labor Day Apple promotions was that the best value had shifted away from Macs and towards smaller hardware. Several retail round-ups agreed that the strongest offers were on AirTag 2, AirPods and accessories, while notebook discounts remained notably restrained. The most consistent eye-catchers were AirPods Pro 3 at $199, down from $249, and second-generation AirTags at record or near-record lows, with single units at $24 and the four-pack at $79.99 or $80. Laptop deals existed, but they were modest by holiday-sale standards.
That subdued picture appears to reflect higher starting prices as much as retailer caution. Esquire said prices on Apple gear had risen this year because of memory and storage shortages, adding that some Macs, iPads, Apple TV models and HomePods had become “a few hundred dollars” more expensive. TechRadar likewise tied the sale to recent price increases on some Apple products, while Good Housekeeping noted that Apple had already signalled higher prices and suggested the current reductions should be judged against that backdrop rather than against previous holiday events.
The Mac line is where the disappointment is easiest to see. The one widely cited mainstream laptop offer was the 13-inch M5 MacBook Air at $1,449, a $150 reduction that 9to5Mac said was live over the weekend at Best Buy, while Tom’s Guide highlighted the larger 15-inch M5 MacBook Air at $1,459 on Amazon, only $40 below list and no better than Best Buy’s price check. The newly introduced MacBook Neo, down just $10 to $689, was treated more as a sign of Apple protecting price gaps than as a genuine bargain. Tom’s Guide listed its 13-inch Liquid Retina display, A18 Pro chip, 8GB of RAM, 256GB SSD and 1080p camera, with a 512GB version at $799. Good Housekeeping was blunter, saying it was “worth waiting for a deeper deal on a new MacBook or an Apple Watch”.
Tablet pricing was slightly better, but still not exceptional. The 11-inch iPad Air with the M4 chip fell to $649 from $749 at both Amazon and Best Buy, and Tom’s Guide said the model carries a 2360 x 1640 display, 128GB of storage, 12MP front and rear cameras, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6 and Thread support. The 13-inch iPad Air was also reduced by $100 to $849. For buyers with lighter needs, several sites pointed to the 11-inch iPad with the A16 chip at $399. Even so, Good Housekeeping warned that current iPad reductions were only slight, noting that previous sales had reached as much as $200 off.
If there is one category that looks genuinely competitive, it is tracking accessories. Good Housekeeping said second-generation AirTags, released in January 2026, had “rarely gone on sale” and described the latest drop as their lowest price yet. TechRadar put the four-pack at $79.99 from $99 and called it the lowest price it had seen, while 9to5Mac said unit pricing had fallen to “all-time lows” from $20 each. Good Housekeeping also said its editors were impressed by the improved Precision Finding technology, making this one of the few offers supported by both price history and a meaningful product update.
Audio products were the other bright spot. Popular Mechanics, Tom’s Guide and TechRadar all listed the standard AirPods 4 at $99, down from $129, while TechRadar added that the earbuds use Apple’s H2 chip and offer personalised spatial audio, voice isolation and up to 30 hours of battery life with the redesigned case. Good Housekeeping said $99 was the lowest price the model had reached this year, though still above the $69 seen last Black Friday. Buyers who want noise cancellation had another option: TechRadar listed AirPods 4 with active noise cancellation at $148.99, and AirPods Pro 3 at $199 remained one of the most widely repeated deals across the coverage.
Retailer choice also mattered more than usual because the cheapest Apple price was not always at the same shop. Esquire’s multi-store comparison showed the AirTag 2 four-pack at $80 on Amazon and Target, but $104 at Walmart. The same article priced Apple Pencil Pro at $99 on Amazon, yet as low as $79 at Walmart and as high as $150 at QVC. Its 35W Dual USB-C compact power adapter was $39 at Amazon and Walmart, versus $54 at Target. That kind of spread suggests shoppers are dealing with a fragmented market rather than a coordinated holiday sale. Esquire even appended an editor’s note on 4 September saying Apple Watches were “full price at the time of publish”.
The late additions to the weekend coverage reinforced that conclusion. In a 6 September update, 9to5Mac expanded the deal field beyond the usual consumer picks to include preorder discounts on the new M6 and M5 Pro Mac mini, plus new all-time lows on the 2026 Studio Display. Popular Mechanics also pushed the sale further upmarket, flagging a 2026 MacBook Pro at $2,699 and a Magic Keyboard at $242 on Amazon. TechRadar said most of its featured offers were due to end on Labor Day, Monday 7 September. Taken together, the advice from the weekend round-ups was fairly clear: buy now if you need AirTags, AirPods or a few accessories, but if you are shopping for a Mac, these are serviceable discounts rather than truly strong holiday pricing.
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