Wednesday, February 22, 2012, 12:30 pm

Killer Deals: Save up to $680 on MacBook Pros and $79 on Mac minis

By AppleInsider Staff

A pair of Apple's largest authorized resellers this week are offering a handful of incentives on sales of new Macs that translate to the most aggressive instant savings on MacBook Pros and Mac minis seen so far this year and prior, including a 2.2GHz 17-inch MacBook Pro for $1815 and 2.3GHz Mac mini for $529.

MacBook Pro

In particular, MacMall has initiated steep price cuts on Apple's entire line of February 2011 MacBook Pros, which yield the lowest prices ever seen on such models when combined with the 3% instant discount coupons on all MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs available exclusively to AppleInsider readers.

At the same time, a simultaneous offer that runs through this Friday (Feb 24th) sweetens the pot by throwing in free FedEx 2-Day shipping on all Macs, meaning orders placed today for in-stock items will be in customers' hands by week's end. There are no rebates or additional requirements tied to the deals, so all savings are instantaneously reflected at checkout.

The deals include a 2.7GHz dual 13" MacBook Pro for $1,159.19 ($339.81 savings), a 2.0GHz quad 15" MacBook Pro for $1,503.49 ($295.51 savings), a 2.2GHz quad 15" MacBook Pro for $1,645.03 ($553.97 savings), and a 2.2GHz quad 17" MacBook Pro for $1,814.38 ($684.62 savings).

It's worth noting that these February 2011 MacBook Pros, while heavily discounted, offer only marginal performance tweaks compared to the refreshed MacBook Pros Apple quietly brought to market late last year, which in most cases sport only a 200MHz performance bump to their primary Intel CPU and similar enhancement in the clock speed of their discrete AMD Radeon HD 6700-series graphics processors.

The differences between the models, which are likely to be immaterial to most buyers, can seen and compared on Apple's MacBook Pro Tech Specs support pages.

MacBook Pro						Discount
2.5GHz 13" (4GB/500GB HDD)	$1,199.00	$1,112.79	$1,079.40*	sold out	$1,112.78	$119.60
2.5GHz 13" (8GB/500GB HDD)	$1,299.00	n/a	on order	n/a	n/a	$86.51
2.9GHz 13" (8GB/750GB HDD)	$1,499.00	$1,398.99	$1,357.02*	$1,499.00	$1,374.00	$141.98
2.9GHz 13" (8GB/1TB HDD)	$1,599.00	n/a	$1,546.18*	n/a	$1,559.00	$52.82
2.9GHz 13" (8GB/256GB SSD)	$1,899.00	n/a	on order	n/a	$1,799.00	$153.01
2.3GHz 15" (4GB/500GB HDD)	$1,799.00	$1,709.96	$1,658.66*	$1,649.00	$1,659.00	$150.00
2.3GHz 15" (4GB/750GB HDD)	$1,899.00	n/a	on order	n/a	n/a	$61.82
2.3GHz 15" (4/750/ANTI-GLARE)	$2,149.00	n/a	n/a	n/a	$2,149.00	$0.00
2.7GHz 15" (8GB/750GB HDD)	$2,599.00	n/a	on order	n/a	n/a	$82.82
13-inch MacBook Pro (MBP) with Retina display
2.5GHz 13" MBP (8GB,128GB)	$1,499.00	$1,419.00	$1,377.38*	$1,399.00	$1,416.10	$121.62
2.6GHz 13" MBP (8GB,256GB)	$1,699.00	$1,599.00	$1,551.98*	$1,649.00	$1,599.98	$147.02
2.5GHz 13" MBP (8GB,256GB)	$1,699.00	$1,539.99	$1,479.99	$1,499.00	$1,479.99	$249.01
2.9GHz 13" MBP (8GB,256GB)	$2,199.00	n/a	$1,599.99	sold out	sold out	$599.01
2.5GHz 13" MBP (8GB,512GB)	$2,499.00	n/a	$1,699.99	sold out	$1,899.95	$799.01
2.9GHz 13" MBP (8GB,512GB)	$2,699.00	n/a	$1,799.99	sold out	n/a	$899.01
2.5GHz 13" MBP (8GB,768GB)	$2,999.00	n/a	$1,839.99*	sold out	$2,149.00	$1,159.01
2.9GHz 13" MBP (8GB,768GB)	$3,199.00	n/a	$2,279.49*	sold out	sold out	$919.51
15-inch MacBook Pro (MBP) with Retina display
2.3GHz 15" MBP (8GB, 256GB)	$2,199.00	$1,944.99	$1,899.99	sold out	$1,899.00	$300.00
2.4GHz 15" MBP (8GB, 256GB)	$2,199.00	$2,079.98	$2,017.58*	$2,199.00	$1,999.00	$200.00
2.6GHz 15" MBP (8GB, 512GB)	$2,799.00	$2,279.99	$2,299.99	sold out	$2,249.00	$550.00
2.7GHz 15" MBP (16GB, 512GB)	$2,799.00	$2,649.99	$2,570.48*	$2,799.00	$2,599.00	$228.52
2.7GHz 15" MBP (16GB, 768GB)	$3,199.00	n/a	$2,699.99	sold out	sold out	$499.01

Meanwhile, MacMall continues to offer AppleInsider readers the lowest prices anywhere on the current, late 2011 MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs via the same instant savings, 3% discount coupons, and complimentary 2-Day FedEx shipping arrangements. Final pricing and discounts on all such models can be seen in the price guides above, where the links to each product embed all necessary coupon codes.

Mac mini

For its part, MacConnection on Wednesday is also holding a 24-hour sale on the current 2.3GHz Core i5 Mac mini, knocking nearly $70 off the model until midnight, which is similarly the lowest price ($529.95) ever seen on that particular model.

Mac mini						Discount
2.50GHz dualCore i5 Mac mini	$599.00	$574.98	$574.98	sold out	$574.98	$24.02
2.30GHz quad Core i7 Mac mini	$799.00	$774.99	$788.84	$794.00	$779.00	$24.01
2.30GHz quad Core i7 mini Server	$999.00	$980.00	$961.34	$989.00	$949.00	$50.00

Savings on the remainder of Apple's hardware offerings are always available through AppleInsider's full-fledged price guides.

MacMall and MacConnection are both Apple Authorized Resellers and official AppleInsider sponsors, meaning a small portion of the proceeds from sales of Macs mentioned in this article may in some cases help support the publication financially.