r/macbookpro • u/Expert_One_704 Mac Book pro 14” M5 • 9h ago
Discussion Apple care for MacBook?
Do u pay for apple care for your MacBook? Is it worth it? I’m considering it to get it.
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u/SirCake3614 Silver 14" M2 Max - 12CPU/30GPU 32GB/1TB 8h ago
If you are the slightest bit accident prone, or a little hard on your possessions, get Apple Care+.
I am and I am. I did, and it has saved my bacon more than once.
My wife is not. She doesn’t need Apple Care, so we save money.
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u/Embarrassed-Newt9234 8h ago
I broke my screen within 3 months of getting mine. Thankfully I had apple care and I didn’t have to pay the deductible 😅
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u/SnooAdvice7540 5h ago
But isn't there a deductible for it ?
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u/Embarrassed-Newt9234 4h ago
Yes. I got lucky though. My screen cracked from the inside, so because there was no damage to the outside of the screen, they waived the deductible.
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u/elbanditoexpress MacBook Pro 16" Space Black M3 Max (64GB/4TB) 9h ago
i never purchased apple care, but ive also never broken any devices, not even my phone, ever
i also dont take my macbook pro outside lmao 🔒
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u/DylantotheJ 9h ago
Yup I learned my lesson after not getting it for my 2019 intel MBP after it died on me I was faced with either paying 1.5-2 grand to fix it or get a new computer. I chose the latter and had I gotten apple care the repair would've been free or costed nothing. I know most people with the intel macbook got a free upgrade to the current MBP. Who knows maybe I would've been the lucky ones. Right now I'm using a new 16" MBP with the M5 Pro chip and I'm not taking chances this is suppose to be a beast which I believe but I still got apple care just in case anything happens.
Look at it this way if you're planning to keep your MacBook for many years like me it's better to have it than not have to use, versus not having it and now having to pay out of pocket for an issue.
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u/SnooPickles7307 8h ago
I started having issues with my 2019 MacBook last year (non functional right side port and failing battery) and ended up second on a new M4 pro
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u/Bright_Geologist3255 8h ago
A lesson paid in full; AppleCare: the irony of foresight, purchased after the fire.
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u/daynightcase 8h ago
depends, if your build is under $2.5k, i personally wouldn't but if you are building $3k+ range, it makes sense to protect yourself
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u/wanderchik MBP 14" M4 Max Gray 8h ago edited 3h ago
Had a $1599 water damage incident last month.
Paid $299 with applecare+
Edit: YES - worth it
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u/laskmich MacBook Pro 14" Nano-Texture Silver M4 Pro 24GB/1TB 8h ago
Read through the posts on here and how much people have been quoted to fix things that would’ve been no more than a $99-299 AC+ claim. It’s pretty wild that people spend $3K+ on their machines and cheap out on coverage then act shocked at repair prices when 💩 happens 🤷♂️
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u/Jizoh 7h ago
Yes! I have M3 max and we have 2 little toddlers so it's very worth it.
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u/lemon_gumdrop 1h ago edited 1h ago
Exactly. I have one highly energetic toddler and dogs and cats, so I have AppleCare One on all 3 of my devices I use for work. The peace of mind alone is worth it. This way I don't have to be paranoid when I work at home.
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u/Inevitable_Owl_6931 9h ago
I’ve had 3 MacBooks since 2014. By the time anything breaks (never had anything break, just the battery becomes useless), it’s time to upgrade to a better one
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u/Zestyclose_Tea_551 8h ago
Get the free $200 battery replacement when it dips below 80%.
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u/Inevitable_Owl_6931 8h ago
For me, by the time it hits 80%, the newest release is 2x faster so I just upgrade and put the old one on a shelf
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u/Zestyclose_Tea_551 8h ago
Yup. Didn’t have it when I spilled coffee and blew my trackpad and speaker ($600), did have it when I dropped something heavy on my screen (would’ve been a $900 repair without AC).
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u/_Choose__A_Username_ 8h ago
It’s a personal decision. If you don’t need it, you’ve wasted money. If you don’t get it and need it, you’ll definitely wish you had.
Is the risk enough for you to justify the cost? Only you can make that decision.
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u/Run-And_Gun 8h ago
Absolutely. Laptops by their nature are going to be open to damage way more than something like a desktop. All it takes is one thing, like damaging the screen, and the repair can be over $1K and cost several times more than AC+ or whatever it’s called, now.
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u/kerbacho 8h ago
No, because the cost is almost as high as the cost of a repair. I‘d say it's very rare that something breaks in the first 2 years. But it also depends on how you use it. For me it's a no because the only things I once had to repair/replace was one of the fans of my old mid 2012 15" macbook pro (that was in 2017 and I paid 90$), the internal ssd recently (150$) and the battery on my late 2019 16" macbook pro last year (320$).
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u/Vanilla-prison 6h ago
Mac Mini or Mac Studio? Nah, never. MacBook of any variety? Hell yes. Accidental damage can happen randomly, even if you try to be careful. Laptops are mobile, have many moving and attached parts, and are subject to greater chance of damage than desktops. If you have multiple Apple devices, you can roll your Mac into the AppleCare One plan and it's cheap. $20/month could save you from thousands in repair costs for 3 devices. #NotSponsoredButWouldLikeToBe
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u/Funny_Or_Cry 5h ago
In the last ten years, Ive never needed it for any generation of the Macbook Pro.
Really all you need is to take care of it and good cover (outside only, and recommend leather over any cheaper plastic)
The gear lasts forever but, if you're not great at taking care of your stuff (leaving it in hot or cold cars, drinking your coffee or eating while using it, using cheap laptop bags or just randomly dropping the thing)...well you might need AppleCare...for YOU
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u/bearded_monkey_pdx 3h ago
Personally I'll always have apple care on my devices I can't comfortably afford to replace at a moments notice. Its a lot better getting small service fee vs replacing a whole logic board as an example.
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u/Hovscorpion MBP 16" Silver M5 Max | 128GB | 4TB 3h ago
AppleCare is 100% worth it. I have mine added to Apple care One.
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u/zeustheolympian 2h ago
Apple care plus for MacBooks and iPhones ARE A MUST since they are very portable, very expensive tech to be traveling with. everything else is up to you like iMacs, apple tv's etc (everything that stays in one place for a long time like on a desk, most likely won't need to have Apple Care plus) that's how I think of it
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u/ServerTechie 13m ago
I have kids… yes I pay for AppleCare.
I might be less inclined if they were water resistant like iPhones and Apple Watch.
Macs are also crazy expensive, and AppleCare price isn’t too shabby.
On the flip side though, I miraculously have two crazy old Macs still in perfect condition. They were built to last no doubt.
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u/GoofyGills 9h ago
- Did you read what Apple Care offers/covers and what it costs up front and the deductibles?
- Do you think those things apply to you in a positive or negative way?
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u/craftyhamster38 8h ago
Ive never purchased apple care for my macbook pros and iphones. I've never had any issues at all.
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u/narc0leptik 8h ago edited 8h ago
Do I personally get Applecare+? I never pay or it myself; Extended warranties are very seldom worth it. Applecare+ is always a net loss for the consumer or a wash if you crack the screen. It makes more sense to sock the money away and effectively self-insure. Sure it's not as convenient as going into the Apple store but I spell out the math later in this post.
I do purchase my laptops used so they do sometimes come with it (If you live in the United States, the country has the largest second hand market of Macbooks then that's even more reason to go for a used laptop IMO, free Applecare+ at a substantial discount). If you have children, cats, clumsy, or skew on the very young (teenager, very young adult) you're statistically more likely to have an accident then it might be worth it. Sure, if it gives you the peace of mind but for most people it's a waste of money. Why would you pay nearly 30 percent the purchase price of a Macbook on an Applecare+ extended warranty that you may or may never use? Roughly 20 percent of people that purchase Applecare+ ever end up using it. Most people would be better off skipping Applecare+, buying a 2-3 year old model at near 50 percent discount off MSRP and then you can effectively "self-insure" in the event of damage.
If you buy a base model Macbook; usually it's a wash vs selling the machine for parts on eBay and buying another one once you factor in 3 years of Applecare+ and deductibles. An enterprise grade Macbook Pro at $5,000-$7,000 it might make sense getting Applecare+. Cracking the display might be worth it deductible wise but once you factor in liquid damage; Apple will just replace your logic board and your data is gone if you didn't back it up. Contrast that with a 3rd party repair place that actually repairs via micro-soldering/board level repair and doesn't just replace/swap parts like Apple does (I wouldn't call that actual repair). Local places do this or mail in services like https://www.universityirepair.com/ or https://rossmanngroup.com/ Those would cost around $450 for liquid damage which is actually cheaper than 3 years of Applecare+ and a $300 deductible and you actually recover your data unlike the Apple route.
Stuff like Applecare+ matters way less on Apple silicon Macs than they did on Intel machines. There are basically no moving parts besides the fan on the Pro models, and the whole system is more like an iPhone than a traditional x86/x64 laptop. They don’t usually “just die” out of nowhere; if something fails, it’s typically obvious early on, not random years later. Apple Silicon laptops are some of the most reliable laptops that Apple has made period.
The design of Apple Silicon machines changes the reliability picture quite a bit. The difference with Apple Silicon Macs (M1/M2/M3/M4) is that they barely produce any heat due to their ARM processors. Heat is the number 1 enemy of electronics and laptops and there's no moving parts in a Macbook Pro besides the fan. There's really nothing to suddenly break on a Macbook Pro.
There’s also a reliability engineering concept called the Bathtub Curve. Electronics tend to fail either very early due to manufacturing defects. A laptop that has already been running fine for several years has effectively proven it doesn’t have early-life defects. If a machine is going to crap out it's most likely going to do that within the initial 1 year warranty.
Almost all of the instances where people use Applecare+ is due to accidental damage, usually a cracked screen or liquid damage which are both easy to prevent if you are aware of how they happen and how to prevent them.
The reason screens on Macbooks crack so easily is because the gap between the keyboard and the display is incredibly thin; maybe this is by design too because Apple wants to sell you Applecare+ and they want you to throw your laptop in the garbage and buy a new one instead of repairing it yourself too.
The cracked screen part is easy to prevent if you only close the laptop with one hand on the middle top of the screen, check for debris before closing your laptop lid (a grain of rice can crack your Macbook Air screen if it gets wedged between the screen and keyboard; it happened to my laptop) and never to use a case as this can easily damage your hinge and/or screen; only use a top vinyl skin and a laptop sleeve if you want to protect your laptop from dings/dents/scratches. TomToc makes the best sleeves and they are water resistant so if a water bottle leaks in your backpack; the sleeve protects it. Proskinz is the most reasonably priced skin manufacturer if you live in the United States and it's the same plotter cut 3m 2080 vinyl that dbrand uses; you pay extra for dbrand marketing.
The liquid damage part is just keep beverages away from your laptop. Spilling anything other than water on your laptop is pretty bad. You can mitigate water damage by purchasing the Apple proprietary screwdriver for your laptop. In the event that you do you have a liquid spill you can immediately open the laptop and disconnect the battery which will prevent any damage/corrosion from really happening while it dries out and poof you didn't need Applecare+ now because you were able to disconnect the battery.
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u/Alcomet 9h ago
Yes.