Apple will give students free AirPods when they buy a MacBook Air or iPad Air

Apple’s back-to-school promotion for 2020 is an especially good one if you’re in need of some headphones. At Apple’s education store, students and educators can get a free set of second-generation AirPods when purchasing the $899 MacBook Air or $479 iPad Air (both prices listed reflect the educational discount). What’s also cool is that Apple is giving you the option to upgrade to the AirPods with the wireless charging case for an extra $40, or all the way up to AirPods Pro for $90 out of pocket.

The iPad Air and MacBook Air are the entry point for the deal, and of course, more expensive items are eligible to get you the free headphones, like the MacBook Pro of any size or either size of the 2020 iPad Pro. There are exclusions for this deal, namely the Mac Mini desktop and any iPad less than the cost of the iPad Air (including the mini and the baseline iPad). Strangely, the expensive Mac Pro desktop is excluded from the deal, too.

This is the best freebie that Apple has included in its back-to-school promotion in years, and it’s great that you don’t need to spend over $500 to get in on it. If you want a capable laptop that’s ready to go with a keyboard, trackpad, and an OS that’s more capable than iPadOS, the barrier to entry is the $899 MacBook Air, but that’s still not a bad deal at all.

Here are the eligible laptops and desktops: