Apple Upgrade makes getting a new Mac easier but not necessarily cheaper

The Apple Upgrade purchase program was introduced earlier this week in the U.S. It’s a leasing program where you agree to a term, pay a monthly fee, and then have to decide what to do with the device you bought at the end of the term. If you are familiar with car leases, Apple Upgrade will make perfect sense.

When you’re in a situation where you need to buy a new Mac, it’s nice to have purchasing options that suit your finances. But regardless of how you buy a Mac, you should understand the implications of how you pay for your Mac. Sometimes, it’s pretty straightforward, but other times, it’s a little more involved.

Apple Upgrade is one of those times when it’s a little more involved. Let’s take a look at what you’re getting into if you enroll in Apple Upgrade. This can help you decide if it’s a plan that suits your needs, or if you should pay a different way.

Apple Upgrade: What I’m buying

In this examination, I’ll be looking at what’s involved with buying a 14-inch MacBook Pro. Apple Upgrade will appeal to customers in the market for pricier Mac models, so with that in mind, these are the specs of the MacBook Pro I’ll use for this article.

The price of this laptop as configured is $2,649 without AppleCare+. Apple Upgrade does not include AppleCare coverage, and I won’t be including it in the analysis. Sales tax and other fees are also not calculated here.

Apple Upgrade: Terms and cost

For this particular MacBook Pro, Apple offers two Apple Upgrade term options:

• 24-months: $74.34 per month. After 24 months, the total payment equals $1,784.16 (67 percent of the total $2,649).
• 36-months: $52.87 per month. After 36 months, the total payment equals $1,903.32 (72 percent of the total $2,649).

Apple Upgrade looks appealing: The monthly fees are a lot more manageable than paying full price for an outright purchase or even financing it through the Apple Card, which would cost $220.75 per month for a year. The total amount you have spent when the term ends seems attractive, too.

With leases such as Apple Upgrade, the true value–or lack of it–comes when the terms end, and you have to decide what you are going to do with the Mac. Apple Upgrade gives you three options; let’s take a look.

End of lease: Buy the Mac

You can decide to buy the Mac after you’ve made all 24 or 36 payments. The fees you’ve paid count towards the original purchase price; you then pay the remaining cost in one sum. In our example, the price would be:

• $864.84 when the 24-month term ends
• $745.68 when the 36-month term ends

This option is essentially an interest-free loan. You have the burden of making monthly payments and the payment at the end of the lease, but that setup might be more manageable than paying full price all at once at the original point of purchase

Is this a good deal?  If you lack the funds to buy a new Mac upfront, this option is attractive. However, Apple products tend to hold a substantial amount of value over time. Leasing means you miss out on getting a good return when selling or trading in the Mac when you upgrade. You’d almost certainly get more for a two-year-old M5 Mac Pro on eBay or Facebook Marketplace than $865. A similarly specced M4 Pro MacBook, for example, sell for about twice that.

End of lease: Upgrade to a new Mac

Since this is the Apple Upgrade program, Apple expects most users to return the Mac and get a new one. In this case, you’re basically renewing the Apple Upgrade lease. How much you pay with the new lease depends on the new price of the new model. If it’s the same, then you’ll make the same payments.

Say you had a three-year term, so over those three years, you paid $1,903.32. If the upgrade you get has the same price, you’ll be paying another $1,903.32 over three years.

After six years, you will have paid $3,806.64. If you decide to buy the device after the end of the second term, your final payment would be $745.68. The total cost would be $4,552.32 (lease of first laptop + lease of upgrade + final payment). You’re still paying $750 less than you would have if you bought both laptops, but remember, you never actually owned the first one.

As I mentioned earlier, Macs hold their value better than PCs, so if you owned the old MacBook Pro and sold it before upgrading, you’d almost certainly recoup more than $750.

Is this a good deal? Leases are a good option for users who upgrade often and don’t want to deal with selling old Macs. It’s not the most cost-conscious, but that’s the price of avoiding the hassle of selling old stuff.

Foundry

End of lease: Return the Mac

When the term ends, you can simply return the Mac and walk away.

Of the three options, this is the least cost-effective. Using the three-year term as an example, your total cost is $1,903.32, which is $745.68 less than the full price.

Once again, Mac value plays a key role in this scenario. Based on what we’ve seen with other older Macs, if you buy the MacBook Pro and then three years later decide to sell it, there’s a pretty good chance you can get more than $750 and end up with a larger amount than the end-of-term payment.

Presumably, the reason you want to leave the Apple Upgrade program is that you want to buy a new Mac and pay for it in full. In this case, you’d take that $750 and use it towards that new Mac. Had you bought and sold that same MacBook Pro, you’d likely have more money towards the new purchase,

Another situation that can be compared to this Apple Upgrade option is Apple’s trade-in program. For a 2023 M3 Pro MacBook Pro, Apple offers  $900 to $1,300 if the laptop is in excellent condition, and $700 to $1,000 if it’s in average condition (which is more likely). There’s a good chance you can get more than $750, the amount of your final Apple Upgrade payment that you are walking away from and presumably are pocketing.

Is this a good deal? The walk-away option is the least attractive one because you could be leaving money on the table. While you avoid the big purchase payment at the end, you could get more if you buy the Mac first, then sell it and use that money towards a new Mac.