Why Mac and iPad “Deals” Aren’t Always Good

Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. Let me show you why sometimes online deals on MacBooks and iPads aren't that great. 

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Now if you're in the market for a new Mac or iPad then you may have noticed that you can sometimes find deals online. Different websites will advertise Macs for $100, $200, or $300 off or the lowest price ever or Back at the Lowest Price ever and all of that. You see these a lot especially on tech and Apple news sites. Sometimes these deals are fine. You save a little bit of money off of maybe exactly the Mac or iPad that you want. But other times these deals can be very misleading and it's important to understand why the price is less or what it is that you may not be getting when you go for a deal like this. 

The important thing to remember is that most sites when they list deals they are actually making money from those deals. If you look carefully you'll see notifications like this saying they are getting an affiliate revenue if you click on the deal and then buy. This one here isn't even by a writer at the site. It is an inserted advertisement basically and they are going to make money if you buy from this. Maybe even if you just view it. Now I have no problem with affiliate advertising. The price for you isn't going to change just the site that brought you the deal is going to get a little bit of that money. That's fine. But something you should be aware of. Sometimes these deals are basically bait and switch. There maybe were a few MacBooks or iPads at that price but it was a very limited quantity and now that you've gone to the site you may end up buying something else there or seeing another deal and that affiliate revenue is still going to go to that original place that you clicked. So be aware that if you click on a link to see a deal and know that it is sold out there were probably very few of that particular item available in the first place. 

Now another thing to consider is how getting a deal affects the lifespan of your new Mac or iPad. For instance this one here is not for a very new Mac model that just came out, but for a 2021 model. The same thing here. Another 2021 model. So it is important to understand the lifespan of a Mac. When a new Mac model comes out it is probably going to receive updates for the next seven years. This can vary. There are some Mac models that have actually gotten less and a lot that have gotten a few years more. But you can estimate about seven years from when the model comes out. So you can guess that a 2021 model will probably still be getting macOS updates all the way through 2028. You can guess maybe a seven and a seven and a half year lifespan if you want to keep your system up to date. If you want to go one or two years beyond that, that's fine. But the lifespan still kind of starts when the model comes out. Now if you buy an older model then you're buying it well after that starting date. So if it's refurbished, if it is slightly used, or it's just a model near the end of its run you may find that you only have six years until suddenly you can't get the latest version of macOS. Even if you want to go one or two years past that it's still going to be one or two years less from if you bought it originally. So buying a refurbished model, buying a model at the end of its lifespan will actually get you maybe a year, maybe a year and a half less. So if you divide up the amount of money it really costs by the number of years it is going to last for a cheap MacBook Air it might be $100-200 that you're loosing; for a MacBook Pro it might it could be $300-400 that you're loosing. That may actually be more than the money that you're saving by getting this deal. So in the long run you actually save money by getting the brand new Mac that just came out rather than getting a model that is one or two years old or refurbished. 

Plus there is the fact that newer models can sometimes be so much better. For instance getting a M2 MacBook Air versus a M1 MacBook Air there is an estimated 25% difference in performance. So you may save 10% on the price but you won't be getting as good as a machine. For some iPads this is even more dramatic. You could go from one of the A series chips to one of the M series chips and get a significant performance improvement but you may not be able to find that great deal where you save, say, $150. 

Another thing to look out for is when the deal seems amazing there's usually a really good reason for it. For instance this $200 MacBook Air seems really cool and if you look at it it looks pretty modern and new and all of that. But if you check carefully you'll notice it is a 2013 model. It's ten years old! So we're talking something that already can't run the current version of macOS. As a matter of fact a lot of people, myself included, have a recycled Macs that are less that ten years old. So $200 may seem incredible for a MacBook, but it's a really old MacBook that's not going to be capable of doing a lot of things that the newer MacBooks can do right out of the box. Chances are you may be able to find something not quite as old and a little more powerful used from a local store or a friend or family member for much cheaper or even free. Also check the specs really carefully. For instance on this one its got an anemic 128 GB SSD and an intel core i5 processor with only 4gigs of RAM. So this was a pretty under powered machine even ten years ago. It's not really going to be capable of doing too much today. I see this all the time. Even with refurbished models that are only a couple of years old you'll see it's the minimum specs. So a really tiny hard drive and the slowest processor. 

Other times the deals is actually for a Mac that is too powerful. So let me explain. In this case here you can see that you can get up to $800 off some MacBook Pros. That sounds like a great deal to save $800. So it gives this one example here saving $500 here on a 14 inch MacBook Pro down from $2500 to $2000. However $2000 is still more than it would cost to get a brand new M2 MacBook Air right now. So you may be all wrapped up in saving $500 and not realize that the machine that you really want, the one that actually fits your needs, is actually cheaper than that brand new directly from Apple. 

Also realize that there are four types of Macs and iPads that you can find in deals. The first is a brand new model. It's never been used by anybody else and usually you'll find those when the model starts to get pretty old and is about to be replaced by something else. 

The second is a refurbished Mac or iPad, refurbished though by Apple. So these are called Apple Certified Refurbished  and you buy them from the Apple website. Go to apple.com/shop/refurbished and this is where you get those. You can view a list of everything that Apple has got. You can take a look at the current Macs. What's available just about changes everyday. The advantage of getting it through Apple is that it goes through their special program and is backed by Apple and their warranty and everything. However, that is Apple Certified Refurbished. That's not all refurbished Macs and iPads. If you are at another site and it says that the Mac or iPad is refurbished it doesn't mean it is refurbished by Apple. It could have been refurbished by the site. It could have been refurbished by some other company and then sold to the site. You don't really know. What those Macs go through can be a completely different thing. As a matter of fact where the Macs come from can be different. I gather that a lot of Apple's refurbished machines are the ones that have been returned within 14 days of purchase. So a lot of those are simply somebody who bought it and then realized that it wasn't right for them. There are also floor models or Macs that have been returned because of software issues or somebody not understanding something and these get refurbished by Apple, the battery gets replaced, everything gets cleaned, and it is checked probably more thoroughly than actual new ones coming directly from the factory. But a third party company could be getting a one year old or two year old used Mac and then just testing it out and wiping the drive. You don't really know and it's going to be backed by whatever warranty or guarantees they have. Not from Apple. 

The fourth type of deal is a straight used Mac. Something that is not necessarily refurbished, it's just basically wiped and ready for resale. So a MacBook or an iPad could have an old battery in it that already has a bunch of cycles. It could already have a lot of wear and tear. So it is important when you're looking at a deal to figure out which one it is and compare that to the price appropriately. Is it brand new? Is it Apple Certified Refurbished? Is it refurbished by somebody else or is it just a used Mac or iPad. 

Another thing to consider is Returns. When you buy something directly from Apple, so you're buying the Apple Certified Refurbished models that might be on sale, you have 14 days to return it. Not only that you could return it directly to Apple. But if you buy from somebody else you can't return it to Apple. You've got to return it to whomever you bought it from. That may be a lot more difficult and their policies may be a lot more strict. Make sure you take that into account.

So there is some things to think about whenever you see a deal online for a new or refurbished Mac. It doesn't mean that every deal is bad but a lot of them are so you've got to be careful. Hope you found this useful. Thanks for watching.