Buying a MacBook from Apple or MicroCenter store?

[Vil_Riker]

$600 is an upgrade from the 16GB standard...

I future proofed it a little bit, Apple hardware seems to last a very long time if you take care of it and the specs are robust enough to stay useful for the next 10 years. I'm quite amazed at the energy efficiency and speed of the laptop. Exporting 4k 30fps videos that took 14 hours on my i7 Macbook Air are done in less than 5 minutes.

 

[PandaBear]

Microcenter is more of an "outlet" of electronics world. When it is on sale there it is likely already in the discount phase of the product cycles.

 

[PandaBear]

$600 is an upgrade from the 16GB standard...

I future proofed it a little bit, Apple hardware seems to last a very long time if you take care of it and the specs are robust enough to stay useful for the next 10 years. I'm quite amazed at the energy efficiency and speed of the laptop. Exporting 4k 30fps videos that took 14 hours on my i7 Macbook Air are done in less than 5 minutes.

This is likely due to new logics on the board doing things that used to be done by CPU. I would imagine a newer PC with the right codec logics (new GPU) would be very fast as well. No power management update can go from 14 hour to 5 mins, nor do CPU processing speed update. It has to be done with new hardware acceleration replacing software running on CPU.

 

[Vil_Riker]

This is likely due to new logics on the board doing things that used to be done by CPU. I would imagine a newer PC with the right codec logics (new GPU) would be very fast as well. No power management update can go from 14 hour to 5 mins, nor do CPU processing speed update. It has to be done with new hardware acceleration replacing software running on CPU.

Yes, I think it's done on the hardware level. The thing is a beast.

 

[y_p_w]

If you are a Costco member and their pricing is competitive, they normally double the manufacturer's warranty on electronics to 2 years from the date of purchase. I'm not 100% certain on Apple products but the 2 year warranty includes to laptops (but not tablets).

I don’t think it’s technically doubling the warranty. Once the manufacturer’s warranty is up, they probably have some sort of third party repair provided. And certainly for an Apple product, it wouldn’t come anywhere close to what Apple provides, which is all available at an Apple Store as well as shipped in. I’ve been through Apple’s warranty and it’s pretty good. Was provided a complete replacement of a part or entire device.

 

[Rand]

Microcenter is more of an "outlet" of electronics world.

That might be your impression but it does not fit my experience.
I recently bought a new to market unifi wap there for 50$ cheaper than direct.. because it was... on sale.

Do they have clearance items, sure. mac m4 mini was $399 the other day

 

[silversport]

I bought my desktop iMac from Microcenter for a better deal than even Costco (Microcenter CC offer to open credit account)…no worries and about 2 years now since purchase...

Bill

 

[Carmudgeon]

My wife is enrolled in courses so I could have used the EDU store to save a few dollars

Next time…

That might be your impression but it does not fit my experience.
I recently bought a new to market unifi wap there for 50$ cheaper than direct.. because it was... on sale.

Do they have clearance items, sure. mac m4 mini was $399 the other day

Microcenter has also started to offer UI Care, so buying direct no longer necessarily provides any exclusive advantage.

 

[melk]

I finally bought the Macbook Pro. Bought it from Apple.com after the M5 Pro chips became available. 18 core M5Pro chip with 20 core GPU, 64g Ram and 1tb storage came to around $3,400

Ouch

Congrats! Coincidentally that’s what we paid for my wife’s M1 Max with 32 GB / 1 TB in 2021. What a quick 5 years, it still feels great and doesn’t lag at all with literally hundreds of browser tabs open. We expect another 5 years out of it easy at this rate.

I still use an Intel 2016 MBP (so loud, so hot) but have been eyeing the Neo as I don’t need much more than a web surfer machine, no video editing for me.

 

[Vil_Riker]

Congrats! Coincidentally that’s what we paid for my wife’s M1 Max with 32 GB / 1 TB in 2021.

Is the OS still supported and updated? Mine just got updated to Tahoe.

 

[melk]

Is the OS still supported and updated? Mine just got updated to Tahoe.

Yep, running Tahoe as well. MacOS support timeline is generally 7 years.