If you're wondering whether or not to make the plunge into purchasing Apple Care, I'm here to tell you my opinions on buying the extended warranty. I've debated many a nights on just sticking with the one-year warranty or getting Apple's signature extended coverage. I'm going to tell you what Apple Care is and break down each product and tell you what benefits you'll receive from the warranty service.
What is Apple Care?
Apple Care is an extended warranty you can buy for your iPod, iPhone, Macbook Pro/Air, iMac, or Mac Pro desktop computer. The warranty extends your manufacturer warranty to two-years or three-years. You'll receive full software support during your Apple Care warranty, which can be done in an Apple Store or over the phone. If the device cannot be repaired by Apple in some cases you will receive a brand new shiny Mac, iPhone, iPod, or whatever Mac product you have under the coverage.
iPhones/ iPod
I've dropped every cell phone I've ever owned, so Apple Care for me was a no brainer and it costs $99 for two-year coverage that also insures you over accidental damage. A new iPhone 5s if broken today without Apple Care would cost at least $650 to replace, so yeah Apple Care is worth it for that. Apple will only replace your twice due to accidental damage, and you will have to pay a deductible fee of $79, but hey that's way less than $650. The warranty covers your phone's charger and headphones too.
Should you buy it? If you're prone to dropping your iPhone or iPod a ton, Yes!
MacBook Pro/ Air
For countless nights the debate has raged on in my mind of whether or not I should buy Apple Care for Macbook Air. The coverage extends the manufacturer warranty to three-years and does not cover accidental damage due to drops and spills. The warranty does give you three-years of tech support like Apple Care for an iPhone and iPod and if purchased with Apple accessories at the time of purchase it will cover them too. Accessories that can be covered by a MacBook Pro/ Air warranty include Apple's USB SuperDrive, Apple's Thunderbolt Display, or AirPort Extreme router.
If you're getting a Macbook Air I would recommend purchasing Apple Care for one of two reasons the first the accessories are covered and two Macbook Airs cannot be serviced easily. What do I mean about serviceability? Well the Air has soldered in RAM which means you'll need to know how to use a soldering iron to replace it. The keyboard is hard to fix too, as you'll have to take the whole notebook apart to replace it. If your SSD fails it might cost $300 or more for Apple to replace it if its outside the one year manufacturer warranty. Also as stated before Apple Care covers the charger too, so that's another reason to purchase it.
Unfortunately, Apple Care does not cover battery replacement of your MacBook Air, so you'll have to fork over $129 plus tax to get it replaced.
The 13" and 15" Retina Display MacBook Pros are built very similarly to the Macbook Air so I recommend you buy Apple Care on these notebooks too.
If you're planning on buying a non-retina MacBook Pro then you don't really need Apple Care if you're familiar servicing laptops. The non-retinal Pro is a very serviceable laptop as the RAM is not soldered to the motherboard, the hard drive is easily replaceable, and not to mention the optical drive and battery can be replaced too. On laptops the two components that fail the most are the system's RAM or hard drive and since these are easily user-repaired I don't feel that you need to buy Apple Care.
Breaking down the costs of servicing a non-retina Macbook Pro if you wanted to replace your MacBook's RAM ($40), hard drive ($60), and battery ($60) it would cost roughly $160 in parts to replace these yourself.
I recommend Apple Care on the Air/Retina Pro and don't recommend it on the regular Pro.
If you're planning on buying a iMac or a Mac Pro then I'd say purchase Apple Care, as these computers are hard to service just like the Air/ Retina Pro. The iMac is particularly difficult because every computer is behind the computer's glass screen. I've seen someone try to service one themselves and actually break the glass screen. The new Mac Pro is not service and has everything soldered to its motherboard, so you're going to want to get Apple Care for it unless you're again a competent solderer. Apple Care for these computers is cheap running $169 for three years, which is super cheap.
Get Apple Care for these units.
Another option I read on the internet is going through Apple's Repair Depot and paying a flat rate of $319 for repairs. The repairs you can get done can only be things that fail from normal use so if your motherboard dies, RAM gives out, or hard drive goes you can get it repaired through the repair depot. While the repair depot could save you money potentially since you can get a battery replacement from them, but its still very expensive. One person stated they had their battery replaced, hard replaced, and motherboard swapped out by using Apple's Repair Depot. If you can wait for everything to break on your MacBook and then go and have it serviced then, yes, the repair depot is a great option. If you want your out of warranty Mac to be serviced its a great option, but $319 is a pretty hefty fee to pay and they don't cover cosmetic things or repairs needed for accidental damage. Some accidental damage quotes have been reported at a whopping $1200.
That's my spiel on Apple Care, I see it as very beneficial to users of hard to service products, but for those comfortable servicing laptops the non-retina MacBook Pro is one unit that go without Apple Care.
Written by,
John Kessler
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