Questions for Mac users before making the switch

[IAmAndre]

Hi guys,

 

So after bashing Apple for 10+ years, I'm considering buying a MacBook Air as a secondary computer. I already have a gaming desktop, which I love and I'm on the lookout for an upgrade to my current 1st gen Huawei Matebook. The Mac looks super sexy and the performance seem to be good as per the reviews, but I'll have to wait a little bit to see how Premiere / After Effects will perform once optimized.

 

Meanwhile I'd like to know how the prices fluctuate in the Apple ecosystem.

• Do they have sales on their website? Can I expect to find a good deal by early 2021?
• Can they be found discounted on Amazon after a few months?
• Is there anything I need to know regarding software-related fees? In other words, if I'm not using Apple Music or any other Apple service or product, are there any licensing or annoying fee to expect? It could be for example a very useful feature that should have been included in the first place but actually requires money. As a long-time Linux user with everything free, let me know if there's anything I should know.

Thanks

[Sousuke]

Sales are hard to find however after a few months you maybe able to snatch up a refurbished MacBook Air on Apple's Refurbished site, I bought my 2017 iMac off there and had £250 off (£1500 instead of £1750) and it was like a new product (3 Months after launch). 

 

I've not had any licensing fees to know of however Apple Music and other services will be subscription but unlike the iOS ecosystem you can just use whatever you want. 

[DrMacintosh]

8 minutes ago, IAmAndre said:

Meanwhile I'd like to know how the prices fluctuate in the Apple ecosystem.

• Do they have sales on their website? Can I expect to find a good deal by early 2021?

They don't. Mac's never go on sale from Apple.com, with the exception of "Back to School" promotions which usually include a small discount of about $100-$200 and a pair of wireless headphones such as AirPods. Other retailers, like BestBuy and Amazon have been known to have seasonal sales/flash sales where you can get a few hundred off the price of a new Mac.  

 

8 minutes ago, IAmAndre said:

Can they be found discounted on Amazon after a few months?

You can buy certified refurbished Macs from Apple a few months after a new product launches. Amazon and other retailers may offer "renewed" machines, but they are nothing like a genuine refurb which are usually in new condition. 

 

8 minutes ago, IAmAndre said:

Is there anything I need to know regarding software-related fees? In other words, if I'm not using Apple Music or any other Apple service or product, are there any licensing or annoying fee to expect?

None. OS updates are free, all paid services are completely optional and do not affect your user experience. There is no "DLC" on macOS with the exception of Window snapping which is unfortunately patented by Microsoft and cannot be added to macOS natively for the time being. You can spend under $3 to get an app like Better Snap Tool or Magnet to add window snapping. That's about the only thing you might want to worry about. 

 

If you are looking at an Apple Silicon (M1) MacBook, I would seriously take pause unless you know for sure you will never need to boot into Windows 10 and that you are sure that you won't be running mission critical software on it. Apple Silicon is still in its infancy and things are bound to go wrong. 

 

[IAmAndre]

10 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

If you are looking at an Apple Silicon (M1) MacBook, I would seriously take pause unless you know for sure you will never need to boot into Windows 10 and that you are sure that you won't be running mission critical software on it. Apple Silicon is still in its infancy and things are bound to go wrong. 

Thank you for the detailed reply. That was helpful. Much appreciated.

 

I was exactly going to wait until early 2021 to see how things go. Again, this is going to be a backup computer that I'll be using mostly when I'm on the go, when I have issues with my main computer, or if I decide to develop software products on the Apple ecosystem. Actually at that price range, it's not easy to find a premium looking device with a similar performance (so far) and battery life. The base model is interesting to me although the 256GB of storage would be barely enough to install the Adobe suite... Which brings another question: how much storage does the OS (and preinstalled software) take?

[foldingNoob]

click the "shop for university" link on apple's website. That will take the price down a bit. You need more than 250GB. I had a macbook air back in 2016 and I filled 256GB up very fast.

[exhaustedbrit]

You will find them discounted on Amazon pretty quickly by a short margin, simply because the supplier price for Apple hardware is marginally less than RRP, if it wasn't nobody would be incentivised to sell anything Apple besides Apple. Margins are low on Amazon because it's a competitive marketplace, so you can get it cheaper than RRP. You also have some sellers who have acquired them cheaply by passing through airports and getting a marginally cheaper unit to resell, buying with an educational discount and selling on for a quick buck or from businesses which held stock but go into liquidation and are forced sell short.

I can tell you that altogether though, margins retailers make buying Apple laptops from distributors are not large though, and the methods above can only go so far - expect maybe 5-6% off on Amazon. My personal recommendation would be to just use a referral link that gives you a kickback from the Apple store and just pay full price to get it straight from them. In my experience, once a product is not 'new' (as in weeks new) the referrals rewards can be quite generous.

I say this because I've bought maybe 12 Macs over the years, some directly from Apple and some from third parties and any time I have had to solve a problem, the experience has been remarkably better going directly to Apple, even without AppleCare.

[IAmAndre]

OK I just discovered other "tax", which is the dongle to make the port situation beareable. 

[IAmAndre]

5 minutes ago, exhaustedbrit said:

I can tell you that altogether though, margins retailers make buying Apple laptops from distributors are not large though, and the methods above can only go so far - expect maybe 5-6% off on Amazon. My personal recommendation would be to just use a referral link that gives you a kickback from the Apple store and just pay full price to get it straight from them. In my experience, once a product is not 'new' (as in weeks new) the referrals rewards can be quite generous.

It would help a lot to buy a dongle with that kickback  My ideal price for this kind of hardware would $900-ish so it would be great to find a deal at around this price by early 2021.

 

I still find it odd that Apple doesn't do Black Friday or Christmas sales.

[exhaustedbrit]

Just now, IAmAndre said:

It would help a lot to buy a dongle with that kickback  My ideal price for this kind of hardware would $900-ish so it would be great to find a deal at around this price by early 2021.

Haha yes - the dongles directly from Apple are extortionate. Luckily it's not 2016 anymore and USB-C is prevalent outside of the Apple ecosystem so you can find decent (and wholly compatible) third party adapters for cheap. 

There are a variety of USB-C dongles on Amazon which work fine in place of Apple's official AV multi-port adapter. Here in the UK right now some are available for just over £10, and combine charging, a HDMI output and a USB 3.0 port which might be sufficient for you. I've used a plethora of adapters including the Apple one and can't think of a convincing argument for choosing the latter.

[Roswell]

2 minutes ago, IAmAndre said:

OK I just discovered other "tax", which is the dongle to make the port situation beareable. 

They cost like 15 bucks, not a big deal. It's the price you pay when you choose a laptop that's literally too thin to have USB-A.

[Donut417]

1 hour ago, IAmAndre said:

• Do they have sales on their website? Can I expect to find a good deal by early 2021?
• Can they be found discounted on Amazon after a few months?

Macs in general keep their value. Even older used Macs cost hundreds of dollars. With Apple, be prepared to pay. 

 

1 hour ago, IAmAndre said:

Is there anything I need to know regarding software-related fees? In other words, if I'm not using Apple Music or any other Apple service or product, are there any licensing or annoying fee to expect? It could be for example a very useful feature that should have been included in the first place but actually requires money. As a long-time Linux user with everything free, let me know if there's anything I should know.

None that I have found. I have a 2020 MacBook Pro by the way (Intel Version). 

 

You going with an Intel Mac or with one of the new Macs that just released? 

[IAmAndre]

44 minutes ago, Vitamanic said:

They cost like 15 bucks, not a big deal. It's the price you pay when you choose a laptop that's literally too thin to have USB-A.

I'm pretty sure they could have fit a USB port there if they wanted.

[IAmAndre]

25 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

 

You going with an Intel Mac or with one of the new Macs that just released? 

The one with the M1 chip but I'll wait until early next year to see how things go and apps get optimised.

[Roswell]

29 minutes ago, IAmAndre said:

I'm pretty sure they could have fit a USB port there if they wanted.

Where? The USB-C ports barely fit and they're half the height.

 

 

[IAmAndre]

Just now, Vitamanic said:

Where? The USB-C ports barely fit and they're half the height.

 

 

They could use one of these "latches" or whatever it's called that other thin laptops use.

[foldingNoob]

1 hour ago, IAmAndre said:

I still find it odd that Apple doesn't do Black Friday or Christmas sales.

i find these deals are retailers clearing ageing stock to make room for an upcoming seasonal sale. We just had one 6 weeks before christmas and there will be another one on boxing day. Apple being a manufacturer doesnt have the same stock management problem.

[IAmAndre]

Just now, foldingNoob said:

i find these deals are retailers clearing ageing stock to make room for an upcoming seasonal sale. We just had one 6 weeks before christmas and there will be another one on boxing day. Apple being a manufacturer doesnt have the same stock management problem.

That would mean that other retailers do? Because even iphones are discounted during those sales.

[Roswell]

4 minutes ago, IAmAndre said:

They could use one of these "latches" or whatever it's called that other thin laptops use.

There literally isn't enough space for the port. The body of the laptop is thinner than the height of a USB-A port, latch or not.

[IAmAndre]

Just now, Vitamanic said:

If you have time to fiddle with a flimsy latch, you have time to plug in a dongle.

Implying that you have the dongle with you. They could at least include the dongle in the box.

[Roswell]

Just now, IAmAndre said:

Implying that you have the dongle with you. They could at least include the dongle in the box.

I edited my post after I realized a latch doesn't make sense anyway. The height of a USB-A port is taller than the side of the laptop. It wouldn't fit, latch or not.

[Z3R0 CHANC3]

I think the new Air is pretty compelling. Not my first choice in OS but I'm perfectly able to use it. I just hate the file structure, having to use finder to find just about anything efficiently, no right click (yes I know ctrl-click), and closing programs.

 

The only problem I see is the performance claim looks to be highly misleading. I'm not sure if it was GN or LMG that talked about it very recently.

[IAmAndre]

12 minutes ago, Z3R0 CHANC3 said:

I think the new Air is pretty compelling. Not my first choice in OS but I'm perfectly able to use it. I just hate the file structure, having to use finder to find just about anything efficiently, no right click (yes I know ctrl-click), and closing programs.

 

The only problem I see is the performance claim looks to be highly misleading. I'm not sure if it was GN or LMG that talked about it very recently.

There are reviews popping all over the place and the performance seems to be there, which is good news considering that most apps aren't optimised yet.

 

What really bothers me now is that I'd need to pay an extra $400 for the 16GB / 512GB configuration, although I know that the production cost is roughly the same.

[Z3R0 CHANC3]

5 minutes ago, IAmAndre said:

There are reviews popping all over the place and the performance seems to be there, which is good news considering that most apps aren't optimised yet.

 

What really bothers me now is that I'd need to pay an extra $400 for the 16GB / 512GB configuration, although I know that the production cost is roughly the same.

Well that's some good news, then. I don't pay a lot of attention to Apple. The last Macbook I really liked was the 17" Macbook Pro (although the ones I used had thermal issues).

 

Yeah the Apple storage/memory premium is garbage, but hey, if you want to play with Mac you gotta pay the Apple tax. hahaha I just got the new XPS 13 today, seems pretty nice and perhaps an alternative to what you're looking at, but not great if you are considering doing dev for Apple software/apps. It was $100 to double the memory from 8 to 16, still pricey, especially compared to an 8GB desktop stick.

[IAmAndre]

17 minutes ago, Z3R0 CHANC3 said:

Well that's some good news, then. I don't pay a lot of attention to Apple. The last Macbook I really liked was the 17" Macbook Pro (although the ones I used had thermal issues).

 

Yeah the Apple storage/memory premium is garbage, but hey, if you want to play with Mac you gotta pay the Apple tax. hahaha I just got the new XPS 13 today, seems pretty nice and perhaps an alternative to what you're looking at, but not great if you are considering doing dev for Apple software/apps. It was $100 to double the memory from 8 to 16, still pricey, especially compared to an 8GB desktop stick.

I did look into the XPS lineup but it's too pricey for me. The Mac is already super edgy for me but 8GB of RAM on an Apple device isn't that bad and it's currently impossible to match the performance of the MBA at this price range with a similar build quality on the Windows side. The cheapest XPS is at $1200 or so iirc so that's a no no for me. If anything I'd go for the HP Envy.

[Z3R0 CHANC3]

Makes sense. I wanted the Xe graphics and there's not a lot to choose from. Plus I get a nice discount from Dell, which makes it cheaper.