You'll never pay full price of a MacBook again if you know this simple strategy
If you’re in desperate need of a MacBook update but don’t want to cough up for the full price of one then you’re in luck, because there is a simple strategy that could save you a lot of cash.
A new MacBook Pro purchased at the Apple Store will set you back by at least $1,999 for the 14-inch base model, scaling up past $3,499+ for higher-tier 16-inch configurations.
Meanwhile, the more affordable MacBook Neo, which was released earlier this year, starts at $699 for the 256GB storage model and goes up to $799 for the 512GB version.
While Apple does offer some limited discounts for students and teachers, there is no obvious way to get your hands on a MacBook for cheaper without having to show a student ID.
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However, this might all be about to change after journalist Bridget Carey lifted the lid on another way you can make sure you’ll never need to pay full price for a MacBook ever again.
In a video posted to YouTube by CNET, Carey went through the ‘fine print of Apple’s latest back-to-school promotions for students and offers some other tricks to scoring a cheaper laptop and accessories’.
And this included one way to get a discount even without being a student yourself.
In the video, she explained: “I want you to look at refurbished Macs. And yes, Apple even sells refurbished. Go to apple.com/shop/refurbished. These are certified products with a one-year warranty. And this is where you’re gonna find a MacBook Neo for about a hundred bucks off at $599. That is the education price without needing to be in education. And you can also get good discounts here on last year's MacBook Air with the M4 chip. No one's going to know it's not the M5 chip. You won't even be able to tell. But if you're upgrading from an M1 or M2, yeah, you're going to notice it's better.
“Refurbished products get cleaned and they have all the accessories and cables repackaged in a brand new box. It is a no-brainer. And I think Apple will be pushing more customers down this path. Not just because things are more expensive, but because Apple will get more used inventory due to the new upgrade program. You can now pay for many types of Apple products in monthly installments and upgrade anytime by trading in your old device. That means Apple will be getting more of your old products to resell and customers will feel less of a pinch to jump into a new machine when the payments are spread out.”
On the Apple website, it says consumers can save up to 15% by buying refurbished to give a device a ‘new life’.