You don't become one of the world's most valuable companies without some expensive products, yet one YouTuber hilariously shows how little you can actually buy if you were to walk into the Apple store with $1,000 to spend.
Apple's products remain the default choice for millions of tech customers across the globe despite other companies offering cheaper and sometimes more powerful options across smartphones, laptops, and wearables.
It's become almost a joke within the tech community quite how much Apple can charge – and as a consequence, how much its customers are willing to pay – for its products and accessories, with the latter being notoriously overpriced.
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It's hard to deny the appeal of Apple though, especially when a new iPhone or Macbook rolls around, but you might be left out of pocket with little to show for what you've actually bought.
What can you buy with $1,000 in the Apple store?
If you were to withdraw exactly $1,000 in cash from your bank account and walk into an Apple store looking for a new computer, you'd be greeted with a rather limited number of options that can be even more deceiving when getting into the details, as revealed by YouTuber SAMTIME's popular comedy sketch.
The default option that many, including Apple's own employees, would recommend is the standard iMac — which now even comes in a number of stunning color options to add a new look to your desk setup.
Unfortunately, with this being an all-in-one package complete with a screen, mouse, and keyboard, it'll set you back $1,299 leaving you a third over budget and looking for other options.
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You might think that something not quite as big and without any of the other accessories would come in at a lower price then, but you couldn't be more wrong when looking at what else Apple have to offer.
The Mac Pro – Apple's powerful desktop solution – is undoubtedly overkill for most non-professional consumers, and it's $6,999 price tag more than reflects that. It's so expensive that if you wanted wheels to move it around your office, that'd set you $699 for a pack of four, which SAMTIME points out is more than the cost of wheels for an actual car!
The smaller and less powerful Mac Studio will still set you back $1,999 at the minimum, leaving you with just a single desktop option underneath our budget: the Mac Mini.
This tiny yet deceptively powerful product is $599 in its base configuration, making it the ideal choice for many people, but you'll still need a couple of other products to complete your setup.
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Picking up Apple's Magic Keyboard will cost you $99, the Magic Mouse for $79 so you're still underneath that magic $1,000 figure, but if you want an Apple-branded display then that's where it gets difficult.
The standard Studio display, boasting a 5K resolution, comes in at $1,499 on its own, with the only other option being the hilariously expensive Pro display at $4,999.
That might then lead you to forgo a desktop and instead opt for a laptop, and while the cheapest M4 Macbook Air does come in at $999 – perfect for our budget – you might want to consider Apple Care in case of any accidental damage, which only increases the price.
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You might think that then opting for a similar sized yet less effective iPad with a mouse, keyboard, and case would be cheaper, but it's actually $1,076 in total, and even more if you get the case/keyboard hybrid.
SAMTIME eventually ends up settling for a 'measly' iPhone 16 with a keyboard as a compromise, but it shows really how little you can actually get without having to breach a $1,000 budget when buying directly from Apple.