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Wild price increase in the UK.

AdmiralKirk

AdmiralKirk

macrumors member
Original poster
At the end of April I got a 14” MacBook Pro M5 Pro 18/20 with 64gb RAM, 2TB Storage, Nano texture display for £3549 ($4685.03).

That exact same laptop just 8 weeks later is now £4349 ($5741.11) - £800 ($1056.08) more expensive!

That’s a wild price increase by any assessment. That’s absolutely insane.

These prices are never going back to their old levels either. The world economy is so screwed it’s untrue.

NOTE: added a US Dollar currency conversion for American friends 🤝
 
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After the price rises I managed to get a 16" M5 Pro 48Gb 1Tb MacBook Pro from Amazon on a Prime Day deal, its being delivered today. I didnt really need the upgrade but this will now last me a while.

I can sell my Mac Mini M4 Pro 48Gb and MacBook Air 15" for a great price second hand.
 
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I took a note of the UK 14 inch M4 Max MacBook Pro upgrade prices from when I was deciding what to buy a while ago.

I thought it was interesting since at the beginning of the year you could get a Max product for £1,050 less than today - albeit with the older chip and only a 1TB SSD.

Here's the before and after prices:

14 inch M4 Max was from £3,199
14 inch M5 Max was from £4,249 (but 2TB vs 1TB SSD in M4 Max)

Standard > Nano-Texure Display £150 (no change)

32 core GPU > 40 core GPU £300 (no change)

48GB > 64GB £200 now £400
48GB > 128GB £1,000 now £2,000

1TB > 2TB £400 now included in base model price
1TB > 4TB £1,000 now 2TB > 4TB £1,000
1TB > 8TB £2,200 now 2TB > 8TB £3,000
 
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SpitUK said:
I can sell my Mac Mini M4 Pro 48Gb and MacBook Air 15" for a great price second hand.
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I guess I'll be keeping my M4 Pro mini for a few years now - great machine.

And I guess I've been fortunate, timingwise. In the last 18 months, I've invested in the mini and two 4TB NVMe in external enclosures, before being aware of any 'chip crisis'. Spent about $2400 (Norway, very high-cost country, about 20%+ on US prices). The resale value will go up now, I'm sure - but, "my cold, dead hands".
 
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Ben J. said:
I guess I'll be keeping my M4 Pro mini for a few years now - great machine.

And I guess I've been fortunate, timingwise. In the last 18 months, I've invested in the mini and two 4TB NVMe in external enclosures, before being aware of any 'chip crisis'. Spent about $2400. The resale value will go up now, I'm sure - but "my cold, dead hands".
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Those drives will be worth a lot now! Yes, resale value is high. However if you sell and want to rebuy in 1-2 years you will be screwed.

2.5 years ago I bought a gaming pc. Pretty much every component inside is is now worth more money then before.
 
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PBG4 Dude said:
I’m pretty sure the 64GB RAM in my 2020 iMac is worth more than the rest of the machine now.
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In China there is a work shop that makes a fortune from desoldering ram from faulty gpus and putting them on healthy ones alternatively manufacturing PCB boards and putting ram on them.

High speed ram is the main constraint for ai inference.
 
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Macalicious2011 said:
In China there is a work shop that makes a fortune from desoldering ram from faulty gpus and putting them on healthy ones alternatively manufacturing PCB boards and putting ram on them.

High speed ram is the main constraint for ai inference.
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Yeah it's true especially the whole 4090 and 5090 transplants going around in Shenzhen 😉
 
I got my 14" M3 Max from Apple refurb for £2900, it was £3300 retail, it now costs £4099 for the M5 Max variant! Just not worth it.

To add the spec I would want, nano texture screen, 64GB RAM, the higher spec Max chip it takes the price to £5249......
 
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This is giving me pause for thought in the UK too. For the minimal viable option I could get away with in my job (biotech), I'm looking at £2399.

For the option I would usually go for then it's £3099.

I'm in good position with work and salary, but it's giving me pause for thought now, to outlay £3k. Factor in that my wife works in the same field and has the same computer that's £6K for two laptops.

Plus I have a Mac mini, which used to be cheap, now I'm looking at £2099 for that.

I used to upgrade regularly, now I probably won't. Or it's going to force me to reconsider my dual Mac mini / MBP set up, which I could do, but it will make me work in a way I'd prefer not to (first world problems, I guess).

The issue is I don't currently see any viable alternative for me beyond Apple.

This has surely got to impact Apple's sales figures.

Even with base Air, popular among uni students, I wonder about parents forking out £1299, at least I'd imagine they are going to think harder about it.

One gripe: Apple has been price gouging us for years on the upgrade price of RAM per 8GB increase. Even before the RAM shortage, it was £200 per 8GB, which was ridiculous.
 
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That's why I bought my MacBook M5 Pro when it was first launched. I didn't really need it yet (was quite happy to wait for the M6 or M7), but seeing the way prices kept rising at the end of 2025 and with no end in sight, I could see it being many years before they come down to 2025 levels again.

It isn't just Apple of course, at work we are having to get £2000 Windows laptops where previously we would have only spent around £1200.
 
OK, so here is a company who's trailing twelve-month profit after tax (net income) as of March 2026 reached $122.58 billion. I personally think that the price increase is short-sighted money grapping. Apple had a historic oppertunity to increase their market share by not increasing their prices but widely advertise that they would be going against the trend and not increase their prices. It would not only solidify their existing customer base, but also drive net new customers who at this time would likely be more consious about spending money on a new computer. Instead, I personally think it will shrink the net new device sales YoY.
 
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hvfsl said:
That's why I bought my MacBook M5 Pro when it was first launched. I didn't really need it yet (was quite happy to wait for the M6 or M7), but seeing the way prices kept rising at the end of 2025 and with no end in sight, I could see it being many years before they come down to 2025 levels again.

It isn't just Apple of course, at work we are having to get £2000 Windows laptops where previously we would have only spent around £1200.
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They are NEVER coming back down. The same with everything else that's gone up the last 6 years. These price rises are the new baseline, and until the economy starts growing again and salaries start increasing (that's looking further and further into the future), what was affordable will remain unaffordable for most for some time yet 😔


Sgaar said:
OK, so here is a company who's trailing twelve-month profit after tax (net income) as of March 2026 reached $122.58 billion. I personally think that the price increase is short-sighted money grapping. Apple had a historic oppertunity to increase their market share by not increasing their prices but widely advertise that they would be going against the trend and not increase their prices. It would not only solidify their existing customer base, but also drive net new customers who at this time would likely be more consious about spending money on a new computer. Instead, I personally think it will shrink the net new device sales YoY.
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I don't think they are short sighted, by doing this they have basically confirmed that component prices are not going to be a blip and come back down any time soon. They have seen the future involved them taking a permanent reduction in profit on each unit sold, so adjusted prices accordingly. No way they do this if they saw any prospect of their supplier price increases being a blip.
 
I was in between going for a MacBook Air m5 13 and 15 inch with different configs, but was drawn to the base model based on my use case.

Found a base m5 MacBook pro 14 with 1 battery cycle and only 3 weeks old for £900.

Best decision I’ve made as a day later these increases came into play.
 
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So it looks like they are shafting the upgraders a lot more. They already did but it’s on steroids now... I’m quite lucky that my M1 Pro is going strong AND the look and feel of them haven’t changed in 5 years so not really having any FOMO at the moment.

I imagine this isn’t just because RAM is more expensive, I think they are trying to manage stock (I.e reduce demand) so they don’t put sold out on their site.

I don’t think they will reduce prices but keep them as is for longer to bake in a perceived reduction in price or start offering upgrades in storage like they did with some SKUs in the past
 
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