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The Mac price crash of 2021 (used Macs prices down)
ZDNet ^ | February 25, 2021 | By Robin Harris for Storage Bits

Posted on 02/26/2021 10:10:08 AM PST by dennisw

The Mac price crash of 2021 Macs hold their value. Where I live it’s not uncommon to see 10-, 12-, even 20-year-old Macs for sale. But the new M1 Macs have cratered MacBook resale values. The carnage is just beginning.

The impressive performance and battery life gains of the new M1 MacBooks have created a historic discontinuity in the normally placid resale market. Should you spend $800 for a one year old MacBook Air when for $200 more you could get a MacBook Air with several times the performance and 50 percent better battery life?

That's a question savvy buyers are asking themselves. Not surprisingly, the most common answer seems to be "Nope!"

SAVVY SELLERS AND NAÏVE BUYERS I check Craigslist fairly regularly to keep track of what's for sale. I've seen an unusual bifurcation in the pricing for MacBooks.

There are more late-model Intel MacBooks showing up for sale. Some of those are showing context sensitive pricing, i.e. almost new MacBook Airs for $600 rather than the $800-$900 that some think their Intel-based machine is still worth.

But most seem to be hoping that good news travels slow. And why not?

Buying a used Mac laptop: How to avoid scams and find the best deals Unless buyers check out a site like Everymac they won't know what they're missing. The bottom-of-the-line M1 MacBook Air has a Geekbench 5 multiprocessor score that is almost 2.5x that of the early 2020, top-of-the-line quad-core I7. For 80 percent of the price. And most users won't need to spend the extra cash for the 16GB version since the memory management and page swapping is so efficient.

The contrast is even more striking when comparing MacBook Pros. Not only is the 13" MacBook Pro faster on the Geekbench 5 single and multiprocessor benchmarks than the top-of-the-line 16" MacBook Pro Intel I9, it less than half the price.

And it isn't just a single benchmark. Search on "M1 MacBook Pro vs 16 MacBook Pro" on YouTube to see multiple videos testing real world workloads on both machines.

To be fair, not everyone is impressed, often because the software critical to their workflow isn't optimized for the new M1 processor. But those corner cases don't reflect average users needs. In the meantime, most of those specialized apps are being recompiled to be M1 native over the next year.

THE TAKE The days when Intel produced startling performance gains with every new generation of x86 processors are, sadly, decades behind us. The industry hasn't seen this level of price/performance discontinuity since the jump from the Intel 8008 to the 8080.

(excerpted)


TOPICS: Computers/Internet
KEYWORDS: apple; mac; macbook
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1 posted on 02/26/2021 10:10:08 AM PST by dennisw
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To: dennisw; Swordmaker; dayglored; ShadowAce

Ping!................


2 posted on 02/26/2021 10:13:05 AM PST by Red Badger (SLEAZIN' is the REASON for the TREASON .................................)
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To: dennisw

I just bought a new MacBook Air. My old HP laptop died and I decided I had had enough of Windows and Windows 10. So I made the switch and could not be happier.


3 posted on 02/26/2021 10:13:33 AM PST by Captain Peter Blood (https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/3804407/posts?q=1&;page)
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To: Swordmaker

ALSO!! For further Freeper Apple knowledge and entertainment value! ——>>>>>
https://www.zdnet.com/article/the-new-m1-macbook-air-vs-the-ipad-pro/?ftag=TRE-03-10aaa6b&bhid=25275353122913214062959128115956&mid=13280706&cid=716724095

Compare: Apple’s M1 MacBook Air kills the iPad Pro for the rest of us
The M1-powered MacBook Air sports all the power of the 12.9-inch iPad Pro and Magic Keyboard, for hundreds of dollars less. If you aren’t using the iPad’s camera or the Apple Pencil, is there any reason to get the big iPad?


4 posted on 02/26/2021 10:13:33 AM PST by dennisw
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To: dennisw

People I know who refuse to learn how to use computers but still want to use internet, pay bills, etc?


5 posted on 02/26/2021 10:17:51 AM PST by jospehm20
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To: dennisw

Well it was the reason why apple moved from Intel to their own chips, to crash the used Mac market, they did that to motorolla as well and made all of that stuff worthless and they are doing the same to Intel Macs

Yes I know some people collect this stuff.

That is why I just buy Lenovos or whatever, I know that they they are outdated and worthless three months later, but I didn’t pay a premium for any of it


6 posted on 02/26/2021 10:21:28 AM PST by Trump.Deplorable
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To: Captain Peter Blood

wait till it breaks and Apple’s answer is “buy a new one”


7 posted on 02/26/2021 10:22:07 AM PST by Trump.Deplorable
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To: dennisw

Intel is lagging AMD and Apple and it can’t do anything the past few years to save itself.

Makes me happy.

Go AMD and Apple!


8 posted on 02/26/2021 10:25:48 AM PST by ConservativeMind (Trump: Befuddling Democrats, Republicans, and the Media for the benefit of the US and all mankind.)
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To: dennisw

Wait until there are repeated security problems discovered. Security apparently isn’t easy these days.


9 posted on 02/26/2021 10:27:57 AM PST by diatomite (That grifter crook Biden or Kamella isn't my president and never will be!! Resist!!)
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To: Captain Peter Blood
I just bought a new MacBook Air. My old HP laptop died and I decided I had had enough of Windows and Windows 10. So I made the switch and could not be happier.

I am still a remote controlled zombie of Farmer Bill Gates. In the last year I have bought el Cheapo refurbs from Dell and HP. One is a 15.6" laptop. The other a desktop connected to an IPS LED monitor. In both I installed more memory and an NVME. Now they fly.

But really, what you want in a new Windows computer is one that the sleep function works 99-100% of the time. This is not always the case. BUT if the sleep function works great in your new Windows Ten computer.....Then use sleep and rarely turn it off. THEN an old fashioned 1TB hard drive is tolerable. No SSD or NVME needed. I have a computer with Intel Optane chip installed. This hypes up the conventional spinning hard drive action, so that reads go much faster into the 900 mb/s range. Writes stay pretty much the same. Maybe 10% faster.

I am guessing that the sleep function in Apple laptops runs perfecto 100% of the time

******** The kings of cheapo refurbs are VIP Outlet which is part of Walmart. They have their own website and also are on eBay. Also the official Dell refurbs website. Dell refurbs are also on eBay. Dell loves to move product however they can. You can find different prices for Dell refurbs on their own website versus their Ebay prices.

10 posted on 02/26/2021 10:36:16 AM PST by dennisw
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To: dennisw

Oh I hope at least something goes down. A year ago or so I could buy a 27” all in one well equipped and pretty new for less than $600. Not any more. Prices went stupid.


11 posted on 02/26/2021 10:48:43 AM PST by Sequoyah101 (I have a burning hatred of anyone who would vote for a demented, pedophile, crook and a commie whore)
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To: Captain Peter Blood

“I just bought a new MacBook Air. My old HP laptop died and I decided I had had enough of Windows and Windows 10. So I made the switch and could not be happier.”

I run a Mac with Windows 7 running inside it via Parallels, have done so for almost a decade.

I have set up several systems for clients who NEED a Mac for X software and need Windows for X software as well. My wife has a MacBook Pro and a New MacAir configured like this with Windows 8.1.

It’s the best of both worlds and updates on Window can be turned OFF!


12 posted on 02/26/2021 11:16:52 AM PST by BBB333 (The Power Of Trump Compels You!)
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To: Red Badger
Thanks for the ping!

I bought a high-end Mac Mini about 6 months ago that I intended to be "my last computer purchase". I wonder now how long -that- prediction will last...

13 posted on 02/26/2021 11:17:16 AM PST by dayglored ("Listen. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.")
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To: BBB333
I run a Mac with Windows 7 running inside it via Parallels, have done so for almost a decade.

After being a slave on the Microsuck plantation for decades I did the same - switched to Mac and ran parallels for my required Windows-only programs I needed at work.

1. Windows ran faster on the Mac than on my Dell top end computers.

2. When I finally sold that business, I deleted the Windows partition.


14 posted on 02/26/2021 11:23:05 AM PST by aMorePerfectUnion (I'd rather be anecdotally alive than scientifically dead...)
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To: dayglored

I saw this looooong ago, Pentium days.

Computers are not like cars.

Most don’t need a zillion gigs of memory and 100 Terabyte hard drive, at 100 GHz speed to write posts on Fakebook, surf the Interwebz, or write a homework assignment.

Yet a ten year old Mac or PC is blazingly fast for these needs.................


15 posted on 02/26/2021 11:23:11 AM PST by Red Badger (SLEAZIN' is the REASON for the TREASON .................................)
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To: dayglored

My last mac lasted 9 years, handling every system update and running speedily.

Finally replaced it this year. I’d worn several letters off the keyboard.


16 posted on 02/26/2021 11:24:09 AM PST by aMorePerfectUnion (I'd rather be anecdotally alive than scientifically dead...)
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To: dennisw
But really, what you want in a new Windows computer is one that the sleep function works 99-100% of the time. This is not always the case. BUT if the sleep function works great in your new Windows Ten computer.....Then use sleep and rarely turn it off. THEN an old fashioned 1TB hard drive is tolerable. No SSD or NVME needed. I have a computer with Intel Optane chip installed. This hypes up the conventional spinning hard drive action, so that reads go much faster into the 900 mb/s range. Writes stay pretty much the same. Maybe 10% faster. etc.

Who really should need to know that stuff? I have a degree in computer science, have worked as a software engineer and consultant for decades, and HATE dealing with that trivia. It's just a costly distraction in time and attention from getting on with my life.

Just my two cents on all that computer stuff ;-)

17 posted on 02/26/2021 11:26:10 AM PST by glorgau
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To: Trump.Deplorable

Breaks?

What is this ‘breaks’ you talk about.

My old iMac from 2010 is still going strong. Although it is only worth about $100 now.

Although, when I did spill a drink in the keyboard and toasted it...

What happened?

I had a thirty minute window to get a new keyboard before I had to get to work. I walked into the crowed (they were always packed) Mac store.

I was greated instantly - about midway into the store.

I said seven words...

The man said hold on, went and grabbed a new keyboard, took my old one and sent me on my way.

Seven words !

Now that was service !!!


18 posted on 02/26/2021 12:31:23 PM PST by Pikachu_Dad ("the media are selling you a line of soap)
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To: glorgau

Though you be the scholar I save three hundred dollah knowing this stuff. And no bluff, learnable in 30 minutes on youtube, even for rubes, goobers and boobs.


19 posted on 02/26/2021 1:28:34 PM PST by dennisw
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To: Trump.Deplorable

My niece had a Mac for 10 years and it never broke. If I get a reasonable use out it I will be satisfied .


20 posted on 02/26/2021 3:43:34 PM PST by Captain Peter Blood (https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/3804407/posts?q=1&;page)
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