Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Now that Macs have Apple silicon, do you think they are fairly priced?

100% agree - very fairly priced for what performance you get compared to yesteryear!

Not to age myself, but coming from Apple's RISC processors (G3, G4) which were pretty efficient back then, to the dreaded changet to Intel chipset that was awful, Apple Silicon has transformed me and returned my faith in Apple!
 
  • Like
Reactions: AdamBuker, Parowdy, AF_APPLETALK and 2 others
The so called 'Apple Tax', to me, has always been the price of using a Mac. But, I believe it's a fair trade considering their longevity and flexibility.

And, I generally don't pay the tax anyway. Someone else does that for me. I'm about 16+ years behind the current model at the moment and once the older M series Macs start coming in to my price range (around $250 or less) then that'll close quite a bit.

But it's the longevity that enabled me to use PowerPC Macs from 2001 to 2020, and then go fully Intel in 2020. The flexibility means that the 2009 MacPro I'm typing this on is running Sonoma (via OCLP).

If the M-series Macs continue with this, then I should have a good run while everyone else is on the next chip.
 
  • Like
Reactions: AdamBuker, Happy_John and The Cockney Rebel
The Cockney Rebel said:
I think so.

They are very powerful now, and have great specs (displays, battery life, speakers etc) and are aesthetically pleasing.

Apple tax is real, but I really believe Macs are now fairly priced.

What say you?
Click to expand...
No. Getting an extra 256GB storage or 8GB RAM should not cost anywhere close to $200 extra at today's prices.

The base models are almost a fair price but the scrimping on internal storage is especially bad. For $100 you can very easily get a name brand, faster, quality 1TB SSD at retail that includes an extra drive controller the Mac doesn't use. Absolutely ridiculous Apple charges $200 to move from 256GB to 512GB. I'd be surprised if costs them $20. It wouldn't be so bad if it was at least possible for the average consumer to upgrade themselves. They have the highest priced upgrades of anyone besides Microsoft and Microsoft at least let you upgrade the SSD.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Luke MacWalker, dave559, theluggage and 6 others
salamanderjuice said:
No. Getting an extra 256GB storage or 8GB RAM should not cost anywhere close to $200 extra at today's prices.

The base models are almost a fair price but the scrimping on internal storage is especially bad. For $100 you can very easily get a name brand, faster, quality 1TB SSD at retail that includes an extra drive controller the Mac doesn't use. Absolutely ridiculous Apple charges $200 to move from 256GB to 512GB. I'd be surprised if costs them $20. It wouldn't be so bad if it was at least possible for the average consumer to upgrade themselves. They have the highest priced upgrades of anyone besides Microsoft and Microsoft at least let you upgrade the SSD.
Click to expand...
I have to admit, I upgrade to 16BG + 1TB.

I know what you mean.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ruftzooi
The Cockney Rebel said:
I think so.

They are very powerful now, and have great specs (displays, battery life, speakers etc) and are aesthetically pleasing.

Apple tax is real, but I really believe Macs are now fairly priced.

What say you?
Click to expand...
I would agree, but also say that in the past they were "fairly" priced.
The biggest issue people have is with the upgrade pricing for RAM and storage, both are considered "too much".

I look at it a little different, I assess my current needs and what might change in my usage over the next few years, then decide on the config and see if that is "worth it" to me. Example, when I got my M1Max Studio I configured it with 64GB RAM and a 4TB internal SSD, 64 cause I use Photoshop and 4TB cause I don't want to deal with storing my photos on external. After now almost 3 years, it's performance still meets all my needs and more.
I did not buy it from Apple though, got it from B&H which had that config at a $100 or $200 discount, plus using their credit card, they covered the ales tax, which for me in CA would have been 9% or something like that.
The other thing that helps is that I keep my desktops for 5+ years.

The other piece is, for me, I do not like dealing with Windows and integration with my iPhone, AW is "worth it" to me.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Happy_John and The Cockney Rebel
Entry level yes.
Mid-Tier and up NO and no and never no!
Get you hooked on the cheap so you up grade later. NO!
Great marketing strategy though.
 
  • Like
Reactions: psingh01
I agree that the upgrades when new are overpriced. If you buy when they go on sale 6-12 months after release, you can get deals on the upgraded models that are much more reasonably priced. Same applies to buying used in many cases.
 
Yes, it made it fairly priced. The performance gap between the base models and higher-end configs is also much smaller now, so you don't feel forced into expensive upgrades just to get decent performance, unless I am much mistaken from a year now, when I read back my comment.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Happy_John
Yes, they are now fairly priced, but, as a buyer, you do need to be clever about it.

Avoid the upselling as much as possible

Watch out for special offers and discounts.

Apple Refurbished Macs are not that much cheaper than RRP, but they are indistinguishable from retail new Macs, so it’s a good way to go.

Buy what you really need, don’t buy a machine with far more performance than you need. If you’re not sure if you need a MacBook Air or Pro, get the Air If you’re not sure if you need a mini with an m4 or an m4 pro, get an m4. Outside of core use-cases, people buy higher specs than they need.

If you’re buying a desktop, 40gb/s external storage is a far better option than an Apple upgrade.

If you’re getting a laptop, seriously consider buying a cheap Mac mini second-hand to use as a file server rather than paying for a lot if internal storage.

If you can live with half a Tb of internal storage, don’t go above that.

At this point, with AS, I’d worry far less about spending more for future proofing. Buy what you need now, don’t buy for 5-8 years down the road. Future proofing a new Mac is never as cost-effective as it seems it should be.
 
  • Like
  • Love
Reactions: Lukomaldini and _Mitchan1999
maflynn said:
Base model Macs are the most affordable and economical, as soon as you need more memory, storage or cores, the price goes up significantly.

The storage upgrade price is excessive especially compared to regular SSDs you can buy for PCs
Click to expand...
External USB4 or Thunderbolt enclosures is the most fist-effective way around that.

Given that, if Ms inboard dies all your storage dies, it makes a lot of sense to keep all user data somewhere other than the internal storage anyway.

The internal drive at most is good for the OS, apps, and current work / project files. Best to offload everything rise to an external drive or local server.

Apple’s larger storage options are too expensive and you’re toast if anything goes wrong internally.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Luke MacWalker and martint235
No, I think the prices are unfair to Apple and they need to charge more—especially for storage upgrades.

Really, when are they going to realize they're a business and not a charity?

Only then will they be able to fairly compensate their executive team. Just look at poor Tim Cook having to grow his own vegetables so he has enough to eat:

1756509237372.png
 
  • Haha
  • Like
Reactions: AdamBuker, cogzero, purplefox and 4 others
Good question. If you are doing a lot of video editing yes. If you need a laptop with great battery life yes.

On a desktop that is not used for video work, I can find more RAM and more storage with good performance for everything except video for less money.
 
assuming you are buying a product freely (no duress) that meets your need then it probably is fairly priced, a lack of lower priced substitutes or substitutes at any price implies a market failure (or external regulatory disruption) or the product is fairly priced
 
Happy_John said:
External USB4 or Thunderbolt enclosures is the most fist-effective way around that.

Given that, if Ms inboard dies all your storage dies, it makes a lot of sense to keep all user data somewhere other than the internal storage anyway.

The internal drive at most is good for the OS, apps, and current work / project files. Best to offload everything rise to an external drive or local server.

Apple’s larger storage options are too expensive and you’re toast if anything goes wrong internally.
Click to expand...
and if your external drive goes dead, you're toast too ...
Only a good backup strategy keeps your data safe, regardless of internal or external storage
 
  • Like
Reactions: sgtaylor5 and JMStearnsX2
Battery Yes, Speakers Yes but not display, the Oled/120 hz variety only sold on the Pro$$ models and not cheap. 5K external displays, ouch$$$.
 
jz0309 said:
and if your external drive goes dead, you're toast too ...
Only a good backup strategy keeps your data safe, regardless of internal or external storage
Click to expand...
Of course, that too. But I don’t mean instead of a backup, I mean treat the external drive as you would treat internal storage.

You back up both the internal and fast external to both a słower external drive connected to the mac and also, over the network, to a file server.

Don’t think of the fast storage as backup. It’s fast enough to be „fake internal storage”. The’re very little real-world diffference.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back