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Went to the Apple Store earlier and was flip flopping between the M3 Pro for £2,500 and the Base Max for £3,300. There was a big waiting time on the Max too. Anyway, got home and noticed Laptops Direct were selling the Max with a £300 discount and should be shipping ASAP. Result!

Not sure if it was an early Black Friday deal and think they only had a couple left. There were discounts on lots of other M3 base models too. Not sure how they managed that after they were only just released but I’ll take it.
 
Went to the Apple Store earlier and was flip flopping between the M3 Pro for £2,500 and the Base Max for £3,300. There was a big waiting time on the Max too. Anyway, got home and noticed Laptops Direct were selling the Max with a £300 discount and should be shipping ASAP. Result!

Not sure if it was an early Black Friday deal and think they only had a couple left. There were discounts on lots of other M3 base models too. Not sure how they managed that after they were only just released but I’ll take it.
Nice find, yeah there's some great Black Friday deals on, KRCS also have 10% off throughout November. Given how much I'd be saving, I'm pretty sure I'm going to return the one from Apple (thankfully we're into Christmas return period now) and get the same machine from KRCS at a later date. Wouldn't normally bother but for a £730 saving it feels silly not to...

I miss when edu discount was 17% (and when I was a student!)
 
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Nice find, yeah there's some great Black Friday deals on, KRCS also have 10% off throughout November. Given how much I'd be saving, I'm pretty sure I'm going to return the one from Apple (thankfully we're into Christmas return period now) and get the same machine from KRCS at a later date. Wouldn't normally bother but for a £730 saving it feels silly not to...

I miss when edu discount was 17% (and when I was a student!)
Is there any issue you can think of with not buying directly from Apple? I did some quick research and think I can still get AppleCare.
 
Is there any issue you can think of with not buying directly from Apple? I did some quick research and think I can still get AppleCare.
Yep the only disadvantage in my eyes is the return policy - I’m not certain but I believe once you’ve opened the box from most places you’re committed to purchasing (unless faulty) - which is why I always go through apple in case i change my mind!
 
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Yep the only disadvantage in my eyes is the return policy - I’m not certain but I believe once you’ve opened the box from most places you’re committed to purchasing (unless faulty) - which is why I always go through apple in case i change my mind!
Costco you can open it and they offer 3 months no question returns.
 
Costco you can open it and they offer 3 months no question returns.
Aaa yep good point - I should have known that, I bought the XDR from them in June and then pondered whether to return it for 3 months! Only limitation is that they only tend to offer base configs right?
 
Mine has arrived and just been setting it up whilst doing some work for the last while. I'm pleased that it stays cooler underneath than the Max ones do - that was one of the main reasons for not going for a Max this time.

The space black colour is very nice and unless it's under bright light, it really does look very black. Other than that its exactly as you'd expect, so will see how battery life does over the next couple of days.

Re not buying from Apple, the only other advantage we've seen a couple of times is that if you have a faulty product and you've bought it from them, they seem to have more leeway & manager discretion around providing a replacement rather than sending something away for repair.
 
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We're on the move...

Screenshot 2023-11-09 at 20.38.23.png
 
Yep - just saw this as well... really hope it ends up being sooner than Wednesday, I'm watching the clock already 😅
 
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Also, Apple has just sent out the trade in pack for me to send my M2 Max back which should be here Saturday.

If my new one doesn’t come till Monday-Wednesday it doesn’t give me much time to make sure everything is ok with the new one before sending the old one back.
 
View attachment 2310023Just been processed at Hong Kong but I just wonder…..
I got a customs clearance notification after that flight took off but customs clearance can be done while the packages are in transit, so it could be on that flight but I think it's more likely that our laptops are on the DHL D0515 flight which goes Hong Kong -> Dubai -> Leipzig -> East Midlands. The DHL DHX722 flight goes Bangalore -> Bahrain. There aren't really any reasonable DHL flights for us out of Hong Kong. Alternatively, there's a later flight, DHL D0001 that is scheduled to fly out at 18:05 local time but flies the other way around, going Nagoya -> Cincinnati -> East Midlands. There are more flights over the next couple of days though that go to East Midlands too through either the Dubai route or the Japan route.

My hunch is that we'll get our laptops on Monday, whatever flights they end up on as Apple doesn't really deliver on the weekend in my experience.
 
Same message about departed DHL facility. The only DHL flight I could find flies over the Pacific Ocean via the US. So it does look like Monday for delivery
 

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Update to my last, just looked at HKG and there is a DHL flight taking off now heading to Leipzig
 

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Can someone post a link of reliable retailers? I'm actually surprised that some are offering such large discounts on new machines, as I always thought it was Apple that set the prices (which is why Apple stuff is never on sale... usually!). As with others here, I've always bought direct from Apple... but I'm happy to shop around!
 
Here's my thinking and from past experience, if our MacBooks are on the BOX509 flight and gets to Leipzig around 9-10pm local, there should be a flight from Leipzig to East Midlands around 2-3am and be in the UK by 4-5am.

In the past my Macs have been delivered the same morning they take off from Leipzig so we could see deliveries tomorrow if DHL deliver on Saturdays which im sure they do.
 
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