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agregson

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 18, 2020
180
109
I have always been a little annoyed by the pricing of Apple storage and memory upgrades. In comparison to quality components of similar specifications (or often superior specifications) they have been expensive. In the past I would always have went for 1 stage up on memory and storage at a cost of £400 even though it stung. Lately my M1 MBA, M2 mini and m4 mini have all been base spec. They also sell with less loss when a new version comes along as upgrades don't tend to fare too well in resale. I am lucky that base spec has worked well for me.

The new M4 mini spec bump (and price drop in UK) was welcome and now fits well for me. I pre-ordered one on announcement and received it on launch day - super computer. The ability to install apps on external storage is nice. I was browsing the UK store on M4 mini and noticed something that annoyed me a little. Upgrade to 32GB (+16GB) and 512GB (+256GB) costs £600. A complete mini with 16GB and 256GB (the exact sizes of upgrade) cost £1 less than the upgrades yet I get a whole computer, case, processor and so on. If I needed something to say the price of upgrades was seriously out of line and possibly an opportunity to exploit the closed nature of the system this is it.

As I am in UK and various agencies in UK and EU (I am in NI which is a bit of both and a bit of neither and generally a bit of a jumble) are taking an interest in Apple's approach to customers I wonder how long before someone looks at upgrade prices or even spots this rather odd situation on the M4 mini.
 
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Reactions: dimittar
Yes. It's the same in other countries and was mentioned in the larger Mac mini thread (albeit in US$). It's ridiculous that's more expensive to buy one Mac mini with 32 GB / 512 GB than it is to buy two, each with half the RAM and storage.

I went with 24 GB / 512 GB myself though. 16-24 GB seems to be the sweet spot for the M4 for most (but not all) people.
 
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