Buying advice: Applecare warranty with low end powerbook?

yevgeny · December 18, 2003 10:01PM

Hi all, one of my roommates is really impressed with my other roommate's new 15 Al book and wants to make the switch and go Mac (yeah!). Only one question remains: should he get the extended Applecare warranty for the low end iBook. The iBook is basically $1000 and the warranty is $250. He debates if this is worth it. Normally, I would say that the applecare warranty is just a given for a laptop (peace of mind, etc.), but given the cheapness of the iBook, it is alot of money to pay for peace of mind. What do all of you think?

Thanks.

amorph · December 18, 2003 10:30PM

You have the option to buy AppleCare at any point within the normal 1 year warranty, so you can punt the decision if you want to.

I'd say it's worth it for the piece of mind. Laptops have about a one in five chance of dying per year (across the industry - actually, on the PC side it's 1 in 4), so three years of protection is worthwhile insurance.

If the cost seems high, that probably reflects the fact that iBooks get banged around more than any other Apple product except perhaps for the iPod.

torifile · December 18, 2003 11:45PM

I'd wait until the year was just about up to make the decision. If he wants to keep the 'book, get it for sure. If not, make sure he sells it before the year elapses. It gives added value if you can say the warranty isn't up.

BTW, this is what I've done for the past several years with my laptops. Near the end of the warranty period, I'd check out the going prices for the computer, figure in the cost of additional applecare and weigh other non-specifics and decide what I wanted to do. Personally I'd never be without applecare on a notebook. They're just too damned expensive to fix if something goes wrong.

danmacman · December 19, 2003 9:11AM

I just got a 12in AlBook yesterday, and I am waiting on getting the applecare, here's why. A few weeks ago think secret ran an article about an updated "apple care plus" for notebooks that would in addition to the normal coverage, add accidental damage such as dropping your comp. They report this will come out in June, so I am going to wait at least until then, or more concrete evidence surfaces.

Article: http://thinksecret.com/news/applecareplus.html

yevgeny · December 19, 2003 9:45AM

Thanks all for the info. I forgot that you could purchase Applecare after the original sale.

Buying advice: Applecare warranty with low end powerbook?

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