Why You Really Need AppleCare On Your Retina Display MacBook Pro

Why You Really Need AppleCare On Your Retina Display MacBook Pro


Apple’s retina display MacBook Pro may well be the platonic ideal of a portable computer: it’s fast, it’s thin, it’s brilliantly realised. Oh, and it’s a gigantic, expensive pain in the arse to fix yourself.

The fact that Apple made the retina display MacBook Pro a difficult nut to crack isn’t a new revelation; iFixit already deemed it the “least repairable laptop” ever back in June. But now we know that if your fancy $2500+ laptop does break, it’s going to cost almost as much as a new laptop to fix it.

Need to replace the FaceTime camera? You’ll have to remove the LCD frame from the display first, which will break it, which means you’ll need an entirely new assembly. Have to switch out one of Apple’s proprietary components? Sorry, there’s no third-party analogue. Oh, and replacing the battery alone will cost hundreds of dollars from a third party. Apple charges $229 in Australia, but not everyone has access to an Apple Store or can afford to wait.

It might feel weird spending over $400 on AppleCare for a rig that’s already taking such a big bite out of your wallet. But there’s perhaps no other Apple product that merits that kind of three-year all-inclusive protection more. Because if literally anything breaks or malfunctions, it’s probably going to cost a whole lot more than $429 to repair — if it’s even possible to repair in the first place. [iFixit via 9to5Mac]


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