[dangus]

Notable, the 14” MBP that is $1599 has the same display limitation because it doesn’t have the Pro chip. You need the $1999 one with the Pro chip.

But I agree with you as a generality: there’s a lot of ways for savvy people to buy an Apple system at a somewhat reasonable price that has the features that are segmented away to Pros.

For example, get a previous model. The M2 Pro 14” either Apple refurbished or lightly used. You can also get the current models refurbished (that’s full warranty and essentially new condition).

Could go all the way back to the M1 Pro and it’s really a very similar machine.

Another example: the education discount they’ll give to anyone without verification.

Further example: authorized resellers. Costco has the M3 Pro for $1799.

[bdcravens]

Yes, I missed that. Looks like the cheapest with a Pro chip is $1999. Microcenter has the same deal as Costco: $1799.

I used a factory refurb for a while last year, an M1 Pro with 16GB of RAM. It handled everything I threw at it (mostly backend dev using Docker Compose) easily, and it was only $1300, which is cheaper than an M3 MBA with the same memory.