Following Apple’s revelation of new MacBook Pro models (complete with shiny new Touch Bar) yesterday, there was an unwelcome sting in the tail for UK consumers when the Apple Store came back online, in the form of price hikes – Brexit-fuelled rises thanks to the considerable weakening of the pound against the dollar.
Those looking to buy the cheapest MacBook possible were certainly hurt with a two-pronged attack – firstly, Apple has now ditched the 11-inch MacBook Air which was its cheapest notebook at £749.
And secondly, Apple has raised the price on the base 13-inch MacBook Air from £849 to £949. Effectively this means that the cheapest MacBook available is now 25% more expensive than it previously was, a real wallet-cruncher for those looking at the low-end of Apple’s range.
Or to put it another way, you’re not getting much change from a grand any more.
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More woe for your wallet
Prices rose across Apple’s various MacBook ranges, with the vanilla 12-inch MacBook seeing its tag bumped up to £1,249 – an increase of £200 on what you’d have paid for it earlier this week.
And the only MacBook Pro models currently on sale, the old 13-inch Intel Core i5 model and 15-inch Intel Core i7 laptop will now set you back £1,249 and a staggering £1,899 respectively – that represents a price increase of £250 and £300 respectively compared to before.
Although, on the bright side – at least that makes the new cheapest MacBook look more palatable at £949. Ahem.
The cheapest new MacBook Pro (which are on pre-order), by the way, is pitched at £1,449, although that’s the one without the fancy new Touch Bar (the 13-inch flavor). If you want the Touch Bar, then you’ll be stumping up £1,749 for the cheapest 13-inch machine.
Prices have also seen a bump across other Apple products, such as for example the iMac – the base 21.5-inch model with a 1.6GHz Intel Core i5 processor now costs £1,049, an increase of £150. Note that you can still get this at £899 if you hunt around other outlets outside of the Apple Store – and that’s the case for some MacBook models as well (but all that could change soon enough).