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Overall, Apple's new leasing program — Apple Upgrade — looks pretty good.
Instead of paying full price upfront, you can now lease an iPhone, iPad, Mac or Apple Watch over 12, 24 or even 36 months (depending on product type and your choice).
Plans start as low as $18 a month for iPhone, and at the end of the term, you can return the device, pay off the remaining balance and keep your hardware, or upgrade to a newer model with a new plan.
I thought it’d be fairly simple to work out if it was a good deal for my family, but the more I looked into it, the more my head hurt.
For example, it costs $1,099 to buy a 256GB iPhone 17 Pro outright.
But leasing it from Apple for 12 months costs $551.88, saving about $550 a year.
Over a 24-month lease term, the same phone would cost $767.76, saving $331.24.
This all looks pretty good. If you trade it in and start a new lease, you get the latest, greatest iPhone and save a few hundred dollars a year.
Or, if you pay off the balance and keep the device but immediately sell it, you might save even more.
Looking at these numbers, it’s tempting to conclude that leasing from Apple makes the most economic sense.
But in our household, I always upgrade my iPhone every year. My wife, who cares not a whit about upgrades, gets my old iPhone. Her phone then trickles down to one of the kids.
In this scenario, we spend about $1,200 a year, and most of us have recent-vintage iPhones that we own outright. As a family, I don’t think it makes much sense for us to switch to leasing.
And then there’s Apple Card, which lets you buy Apple devices interest-free — and score cash back. This is the most economical option if you’re OK carrying a balance and keep your devices longer than a couple of years.
But if you want to upgrade every year or two, leasing may be the better option.
Whether it’s a good deal or not very much depends on how often you upgrade and your family circumstances. Here are the details.
Also in today’s newsletter:
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The number of vulnerabilities fixed in the latest macOS updates sounds mad. Is this AI-driven?
🔥 DEAL OF THE DAY: We recently reviewed this great travel router, which is on sale for more than 30% off. Pro tip: If you set it up to mimic your home Wi-Fi, no one has to change any device settings. It all just works! #affiliate
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Thanks to the World Cup and Tour de France, I’ve been glued to Peacock for months, which makes this new deal with YouTube look particularly good.
In yesterday’s poll about upcoming Apple TV releases, Matchbox: The Movie received way more votes than I expected (two). See full results below.
— Leander Kahney, EIC.
A message from the Cult of Mac Deals team
A message from the Cult of Mac Deals team
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One more thing ...
Simplicity isn’t just a visual style. It’s not just minimalism or the absence of clutter. It involves digging through the depth of the complexity. To be truly simple, you have to go really deep. For example, to have no screws on something, you can end up having a product that is so convoluted and so complex. The better way is to go deeper with the simplicity, to understand everything about it and how it’s manufactured.
Today’s poll
Will the new Apple Upgrade program change the way you buy hardware?
Results from yesterday’s poll:
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