When you\u2019re in a situation where you need to buy a new Mac, it\u2019s nice to have purchasing options that suit your finances. But regardless of how you buy a Mac, you should understand the implications of how you pay for your Mac. Sometimes, it\u2019s pretty straightforward, but other times, it\u2019s a little more involved.<\/p>\n
Apple Upgrade is one of those times when it\u2019s a little more involved. Let\u2019s take a look at what you\u2019re getting into if you enroll in Apple Upgrade. This can help you decide if it\u2019s a plan that suits your needs, or if you should pay a different way.<\/p>\n
Apple Upgrade: What I\u2019m buying<\/p>\n
In this examination, I\u2019ll be looking at what\u2019s involved with buying a 14-inch MacBook Pro. Apple Upgrade will appeal to customers in the market for pricier Mac models, so with that in mind, these are the specs of the MacBook Pro I\u2019ll use for this article.<\/p>\n
14-inch MacBook ProSpecificationsCPU15-core CPU\/16-core GPU M5 ProRAM24GBSSD1TBDisplayNano-texturePower adapter70W<\/p>\n
The price of this laptop as configured is $2,649 without AppleCare+. Apple Upgrade does not include AppleCare coverage, and I won\u2019t be including it in the analysis. Sales tax and other fees are also not calculated here.<\/p>\n
Apple Upgrade: Terms and cost<\/p>\n
For this particular MacBook Pro, Apple offers two Apple Upgrade term options:<\/p>\n
24-months: $74.34 per month. After 24 months, the total payment equals $1,784.16 (67 percent of the total $2,649).<\/p>\n
36-months: $52.87 per month. After 36 months, the total payment equals $1,903.32 (72 percent of the total $2,649).<\/p>\n
Apple Upgrade looks appealing: The monthly fees are a lot more manageable than paying full price for an outright purchase or even financing it through the Apple Card, which would cost $220.75 per month for a year. The total amount you have spent when the term ends seems attractive, too.<\/p>\n
With leases such as Apple Upgrade, the true value\u2013or lack of it\u2013comes when the terms end, and you have to decide what you are going to do with the Mac. Apple Upgrade gives you three options; let\u2019s take a look.<\/p>\n
![\"m5](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/m5-macbook-pro-07.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
At the end of the Apple Upgrade lease, Apple offers three options for your next step.<\/p>\n
Foundry<\/p>\n
End of lease: Buy the Mac<\/p>\n
You can decide to buy the Mac after you\u2019ve made all 24 or 36 payments. The fees you\u2019ve paid count towards the original purchase price; you then pay the remaining cost in one sum. In our example, the price would be:<\/p>\n
$864.84 when the 24-month term ends<\/p>\n
$745.68 when the 36-month term ends<\/p>\n
This option is essentially an interest-free loan. You have the burden of making monthly payments and the payment at the end of the lease, but that setup might be more manageable than paying full price all at once at the original point of purchase<\/p>\n
Is this a good deal? \u00a0If you lack the funds to buy a new Mac upfront, this option is attractive. However, Apple products tend to hold a substantial amount of value over time. Leasing means you miss out on getting a good return when selling or trading in the Mac when you upgrade. You\u2019d almost certainly get more for a two-year-old M5 Mac Pro on eBay or Facebook Marketplace than $865. A similarly specced M4 Pro MacBook, for example, sell for about twice that.<\/p>\n
End of lease: Upgrade to a new Mac<\/p>\n
Since this is the Apple Upgrade program, Apple expects most users to return the Mac and get a new one. In this case, you\u2019re basically renewing the Apple Upgrade lease. How much you pay with the new lease depends on the new price of the new model. If it\u2019s the same, then you\u2019ll make the same payments.<\/p>\n
Say you had a three-year term, so over those three years, you paid $1,903.32. If the upgrade you get has the same price, you\u2019ll be paying another $1,903.32 over three years.<\/p>\n
After six years, you will have paid $3,806.64. If you decide to buy the device after the end of the second term, your final payment would be $745.68. The total cost would be $4,552.32 (lease of first laptop + lease of upgrade + final payment). You\u2019re still paying $750 less than you would have if you bought both laptops, but remember, you never actually owned the first one.<\/p>\n
As I mentioned earlier, Macs hold their value better than PCs, so if you owned the old MacBook Pro and sold it before upgrading, you\u2019d almost certainly recoup more than $750.<\/p>\n
Is this a good deal? Leases are a good option for users who upgrade often and don\u2019t want to deal with selling old Macs. It\u2019s not the most cost-conscious, but that\u2019s the price of avoiding the hassle of selling old stuff.<\/p>\n
![\"M4](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/M4-MacBook-Pros.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Whether the Apple Upgrade program works for you depends on your comfort with aspects of Mac ownership.<\/p>\n
Foundry<\/p>\n
End of lease: Return the Mac<\/p>\n
When the term ends, you can simply return the Mac and walk away.<\/p>\n
Of the three options, this is the least cost-effective. Using the three-year term as an example, your total cost is $1,903.32, which is $745.68 less than the full price.<\/p>\n
Once again, Mac value plays a key role in this scenario. Based on what we\u2019ve seen with other older Macs, if you buy the MacBook Pro and then three years later decide to sell it, there\u2019s a pretty good chance you can get more than $750 and end up with a larger amount than the end-of-term payment.<\/p>\n
Presumably, the reason you want to leave the Apple Upgrade program is that you want to buy a new Mac and pay for it in full. In this case, you\u2019d take that $750 and use it towards that new Mac. Had you bought and sold that same MacBook Pro, you\u2019d likely have more money towards the new purchase,<\/p>\n
Another situation that can be compared to this Apple Upgrade option is Apple\u2019s trade-in program. For a 2023 M3 Pro MacBook Pro, Apple offers \u00a0$900 to $1,300 if the laptop is in excellent condition, and $700 to $1,000 if it\u2019s in average condition (which is more likely). There\u2019s a good chance you can get more than $750, the amount of your final Apple Upgrade payment that you are walking away from and presumably are pocketing.<\/p>\n
Is this a good deal? The walk-away option is the least attractive one because you could be leaving money on the table. While you avoid the big purchase payment at the end, you could get more if you buy the Mac first, then sell it and use that money towards a new Mac.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Summary created by Smart Answers AI In summary:Apple\u2019s new Upgrade program offers 24-month or 36-month leasing options for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":551127,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[111,139,69,145],"class_list":["post-551126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}