Apple have introduced significantly lower pricing on SSD upgrades across the range of Macs with the highest end options being cut by 50%.
The performance offered by SSDs over rotational drives have made nearly all of us embrace them but this has usually involved a compromise on capacity because large capacity SSDs are expensive and when speccing a new Mac, the costs of the higher capacity drives have been a serious disincentive. It looks like Apple have revised what we have jokingly referred to as “Apple Tax” - the premium paid for storage and RAM options when fitted to non-user upgradeable Apple machines.
How Much Less Do SSD’s Cost Now Apple Have Revised Their Pricing?
As is so often the case the more you spend the more you save but taking some examples, the highest end upgrades qualify for a 50% saving compared to the previous prices.
Model | SSD Upgrade | Old Price | New Price | % Change |
---|---|---|---|---|
15" Macbook Pro 2.3GHz 8 core i9 | 4TB | $2400 | $1200 | -50% |
15" Macbook Pro 2.6 GHz 6 core i7 | 512GB | $200 | $200 | 0 |
1TB | $600 | $400 | -33% | |
2TB | $1200 | $800 | -33% | |
4TB | $3000 | $1600 | -47% | |
Mac Mini 3.6GHz 4 core i3 | 2TB | $1400 | $1000 | -29% |
Buying a Mac for audio has always been a tradeoff between what you’d like and what you can justify spending. I’m sure most of us have selected the options to make a maxed out Mac, gulped and downgraded a few components. To guide you through the current options we recently published “Which Apple Mac Should You Choose As A Pro Tools Computer? Specs And Prices”.
These price revisions address one of the key pain points when specifying a new Mac. We were pleased to see the new Mac Mini featured RAM which wasn’t soldered in and was, for people who are confident disassembling a Mac Mini (and potentially invalidating their warranty), user upgradeable. Unfortunately the SSD in those machines remains something which needs to be specced at the time of purchase so price reductions like this mean we’ll be able to get closer to the Mac we want rather the Mac we can afford. Go to the Apple website to see how much you might save.