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What are your favorite Apple products of all time?

This is hard, I needed to leave many out 🙂

- Mac mini 2006 (my first one).
- iPod Touch 2009.
- iPhone 5 (often the iPhone 4 gets all the attention, but to me this is the best iPhone design ever).
- MacBook Air 2013 (probably peak MBA, before it became the cheap alternative in the lineup).
- iPad Air 2.
- iPhone 11 Pro (a really well balanced phone).
- Apple Watch Ultra 2021.
- MacBook Pro 2021.
- iPad Pro 2024 (Apple often talks about devices that feel magical, but this one really does).
 
Lloigorr said:
I owned a lot of apple devices over the years. But the iPhone 3GS is a device that comes to my mind first. It blowed my mind back in 2009. It was years ahead of the competition.

Also the polycarbonate white MacBook 2007 is a device I really love. Coming from a win XP tower machine it felt like entering a new century. Used that machine for 7 years, until it was hopelessly outdated.

And not to forget the 12” MacBook. While painfully slow, it ist so light and thin. The Retina display is gorgeous even today. I still use it as a couch surfing machine.
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The 3GS was my first smartphone and my first Apple product that I owned outright outside of work machines. You mean I can access my Gmail in my hand, untethered with a cell signal? I was amazed. As incredible as that was, the iPhone4 that replaced it- yeah that was another level.
 
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awshucks said:
As we remember Apple's 50th birthday, I would like to ask what are your favorite Apple products? Here are mine:

-PowerBook G4 17" 1.33ghz: I bought it last year as a collector, but it is so cool to have such a giant laptop.

-iPod nano 7: Actually the blue 2015 color revision, I used that thing until I finally decided to start using Apple Music in 2021.

-Blue iPhone 5c: Unpopular opinion, but I remember how I felt when it came out. I liked it so much when I was younger that I have all five colors now.

-Gold 12" MacBook: My first MacBook. Enjoyed the newness I felt using it.

-Apple Studio Display (tilt and height): In 2022, I decided to get something nice to replace my 1080p 24" Dell monitor as my main monitor, and I love it. Love the design and the high quality display.

-iPhone Air: Just like the 2015 MacBook, it feels so new and lightweight, just without a butterfly keyboard.

Studio Display is my absolute favorite.
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Apple Extreme et Express
iPhone 6s, iPhone X
Xserve and cheese greater Macs
All silicon Macs
 
iPhone 4s
iPhone 5c
iPhone SE 2016
iPhone 7 Plus
iPhone 11 Pro Max
iPhone 13 Pro Max
iPhone 16 Pro Max

I would like to own a 15" MacBook Pro 2012 and experience OS X Mavericks but for now I'm okay with my 15" MacBook Pro 2015 which I can downgrade to a late release of OS X Yosemite any time.
 
iPod nano 2nd gen
Nike+ iPod Sport kit
iPhone 3GS
iPhone 17
AirPods Pro 2
Apple Watch SE 3
MacBook Neo
 
edubfromktown said:
The G3 lucite Cube and 22" ADC display

iPod's

TiBook (looked cool and was until paint chips hatched!)

24" iMac's

Mac Mini's, MBP's, ... (2006-2015) that had dual 3.5mm analog and mimi-TOSLINK optical audio

MacBook 12"

M-Series processor-based systems.
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Oh Yeah! I was sooo disappointed the moment I realised my (then) new machine had no Toslink audio!
I Initially thought, my Mac was broken 😅
Real bummer
 
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Longish list, and fairly subjective, but all of these machines were/are (for me) brilliant, but for various reasons.

Macintosh SE/30
Macintosh Powerbook 140
iMac "Lamp" G4
MacBook Pro 15" 2009
MacBook Air 2014 ( both 11" and 13" )
Mac Pro 2010
Apple Thunderbolt Display
TimeCapsule
All Mac minis 2011 - 2014 ( excepting those with AMD dGPUs and the horrific 4GB RAM 214 Mac Mini )
Iphone4
Mac Mini M2 Pro
MacBook Air M4 13" ( they got everything right with this one)
AirPods (all and any)



If I had to narrow it down, The Mac Pro 2010 and MacBook Pro 2009 both earned their price back many times over, and the iPhone 4 was the phone where they nailed the concept. - any other iPhone I've had has felt like "just an iPhone", but the 4 was special.

I was never a fan of PPC Macs, and I switched to PCs for most of that period, but the G4 iMac was and is a thing of beauty.

NOTE: I don't/ didn't own all of these machines, but I used all of them at some stage, either professionally or because a family member / friend owned one. I've used other Macs and Apple devices, and "they were fine", but didn't stand out.

Honourable mention to the various versions of the AirPort Extreme, for having an audio out.
 
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Ones that I have good memories are
IPhone 4s (first iPhone I owned)
iPhone 5
IPhone 6s
iPhone 7 (first time I took a iPhone with me abroad)
iPhone XR
IPhone 12
IPhone 13 mini
iPhone 16 pro max (Main phone since May 2025)
iPad (1st generation)
iPad mini (1st generation)
MacBook Air 2013 (still in use as a backup)
MacBook Air 2020 M1 (retired in February 2026 after I replaced with M5 IPad Pro)
M5 IPad Pro 13 Inch (Main Computing Device)

Honourable mention I would say is the iPhone X which my parent owned , I remember seeing that for the first time and thought wow this is the future
 
iMac G4
Cube G4

(Although anything from the Jonathan Ive era 1998-2015, starting with the iMac G3 and ending with the 2015 MacBook Pro)
 
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Favourites that I’ve owned?

PowerMac G4 (Quicksilver): the first, and only, Mac Pro desktop I’ve ever owned.

PowerBook G4 1GHz: the TiBook remains the most beautiful looking laptop to this day, even if build quality (and ergonomics) doesn’t hold up to the aluminum bodies.

iPhone 4: the most perfect hardware product ever designed. Absolutely obsolete; even this fan of the mini cannot argue that the 3.5” screens were enough… although my wife would! Beautiful aesthetics, beautiful to hold, great to use (at the time).

2014 5K iMac, fully loaded: the first computer I ever owned that didn’t make me want to upgrade the moment a replacement came out. In regular use for about seven years, I retired it to become a Win machine for children of friends.

Ones I missed that I might still own to this day…
20th Anniversary Macintosh
Trashcan Mac Pro (certainly wish the present Studio had the form and materials of that machine)
12” MacBook (c’mon Apple!)

From a performance standpoint, “whichever hardware is newest” works pretty solidly in the Apple Silicon era!
 
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favorite, or fondness memories. : the original Macintosh followed by the dual g5 power Mac (tower) honorable mention to blue and white g3 tower (bootable in os 9 or OS X)
 
It’s really difficult to narrow down. I can’t just list every bit of Apple gear I’ve owned! So:

G4 ‘sawtooth’ Power Mac: This was the machine that convinced me to switch. It was a superbly well designed and built machine, and OS X was a revelation, particularly around multitasking compared to Windows XP!

1st gen iPod Nano: This was responsible for the first thawing in my attitude towards Apple. Before this, I was firmly in the PC camp of the Mac vs PC Holy Wars.

1st gen iPad: I used it a ton while I was studying, and it became an indispensable secondary device I still can’t do without. I could see the format was something special, and still love it despite being told “it’s nothing special, it’s just a big iPhone” for 16 years.

2012 11” i7 MacBook Air: The little computer that could. I used this machine for over a decade as my main study/work computer. It ran AutoCAD until I upgraded to an M3 Pro. How can you complain about that‽ And it is still going!

2023 MacBook Pro: How good is Apple Silicon! Going from a 2012 dual core i7 to an 11 core M3 Pro is a seismic leap! It feels as well built as my old MacBook Air, and I hope it is as long lived!
 
AlexESP said:
Mac mini 2006 (my first one).
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Loved my 2006 Mac mini, also my first Mac, which I used with a flatscreen TV. Loved Front Row.

The original iPod Shuffle was my very first Apple device and first visit to an Apple Store.

By the end of 2006, I also owned and loved a white MacBook.

Such fond memories.
 
Username Here said:
Sorta like asking. "Whats your favorite hammer?"...Just a tool for a job. that's it....
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I have a friend who is actually unable to comprehend sentiment, attachments to things (or people), but his intelligence keeps us friends, even though I get criticism for using Apple products.

Edit to add: And about that hammer, I wonder what they'd say in a woodworking forum. 😉
 
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Taken within the context with which it was launched the original iPhone. Before they were everywhere having one felt like being in something of a special club, a feeling only increased with the launch of the App Store and the 3G model and its cheaper plastic chassis.

It wasn’t just a revelation in UX, but being able to photograph a whiteboard and email it to myself for the next lesson as a teacher was really cool.

At the time I had a great deal with O2 where my £15 a month PAYG got me unlimited data and unlimited calls within my postcode prefix.
 
CharlesShaw said:
I have a friend who is actually unable to comprehend sentiment, attachments to things (or people), but his intelligence keeps us friends, even though I get criticism for using Apple products.

Edit to add: And about that hammer, I wonder what they'd say in a woodworking forum. 😉
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I was a cabinetmaker back in my younger days. I definitely had a favourite hammer! That hammer wasn’t my favourite tool though, that was an old 1800s timber hand plane that I restored. Such a great tool that worked so well with a bit of TLC.
 
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