Photo: HardwareZone
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’d know about the iPhone X, Apple’s most eXpensive iPhone to date. The futuristic iPhone X actually costs quite a fair bit more than one would expect out of a phone as the 64GB model is priced at S$1,648 and the 256GB model is priced at a whopping S$1,888.
Let that sink in for a moment.
The iPhone X (256GB) is just S$112 shy of crossing the S$2,000 mark! And we’ve no doubt you would have to spend more than that figure once you factor in Apple Care and other individual preferential accessories to enhance your usage experience. With this in mind, we’ve decided to compile a list of other Apple gadgets which you can consider buying if you’ve given up on buying the iPhone X. We’ll go by product segments and we’ll start off with the most often compared product for this price point – a notebook/desktop system.
The Mac lineup
Photo: Apple
If you top up S$10, you can purchase the base model of the 12-inch MacBook which comes with the 7th gen Intel Core m3 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 8GB 1866MHz RAM, 256GB SSD storage. As an additional bonus, you get to choose from four colors: space grey, silver, gold and rose gold, of which the latter two options are not available for the iPhone X.
Photo: Apple
You also can consider the 13.3-inch MacBook Air which is equipped with Intel Core i5 dual-core 1.8GHz processor, 8GB 1600MHz LPDDR3 RAM and 256GB SSD storage. The base model is priced at S$1,618, which leaves you with spare change of S$270. With S$270, you can choose to upgrade the processor for S$210 or top up another S$20 to max out the storage capacity at 512GB.
Photo: Apple
While you can’t buy the latest MacBook Pro with the TouchBar, a top up of S$10 can get you a powerful 13.3-inch MacBook Pro with 7th gen Intel Core i5 dual-core 2.3GHz processor, 8GB 2133MHz LPDDR3 RAM and 128GB SSD storage. Imagine that, a MacBook Pro vs. the iPhone X – who would have thought phones would ever be this pricey.
Photo: Apple
Even more radical is that you can actually consider a 21.5-inch iMac with Retina 4K Displayas an option too. With a top up of just S$10, you get an iMac equipped with 7th gen Intel Core i5 quad-core 3.0GHz processor, 8GB of 2400MHz DDR4 RAM, 1TB SATA Drive, Magic Mouse 2 and Magic Keyboard. And don’t forget, the system uses a 4K resolution Retina screen! Seems like you’re getting quite a fair bit of hardware for the cost of an iPhone X.
The iPhone lineup
Photo: HardwareZone
If you’re one of the 30 million customers (as of March 2016) who prefer a 4-inch iPhone model, S$1,888 can get you more than one unit of the iPhone SE. With the 32GB iPhone SE priced at S$568, you can three units for S$1,704 and spend another S$174 to buy three matching Apple’s official Leather Cases (S$58 each) with spare change of S$10.
Photo: Apple
Alternatively, you can buy two units of the 128GB iPhone SE for S$1,456 with matching Apple’s official Leather Cases for S$116 and extend the warranty to two years with AppleCare+ for S$276 (S$138 each). And you still get a spare change of S$40.
Photo: HardwareZone
What about something regular sized? You can either purchase two units of the 4.7-inch iPhone 6s (32GB) for S$1,456 or two units of the 128GB model for S$1,776. You will be left with spare change of S$432 or S$112 depending on your choice of device.
Photo: Apple
If you’ve decided on the 32GB iPhone 6s, S$432 can get you two iPhone 6s Smart Battery Cases for S$296 (S$148 each) to extend the battery life with spare change of S$164. If you’ve decided on the 128GB iPhone 6s, you can buy two Apple Official Silicone Cases for S$96 (S$48 each) with spare change of S$16.
Photo: Apple
When you go for the 5.5-inch iPhone 6s Plus, your choice is limited to two units of the 32GB model with spare change of S$112. With that spare change, you almost can buy two Apple Official Silicone Cases for S$116 (S$58 each).
Photo: HardwareZone
What about something more current? You can purchase two units of the 4.7-inch iPhone 7 (32GB) for S$1,776 with spare change of S$112. You can save S$112 or use the money to buy two Apple Official Silicone Case for S$96 (S$48 each). As an additional bonus, you have the option to purchase the iPhone 7 in Jet Black, last year’s favorite color option which was previously exclusive to the 128GB and 256GB model.
Photo: Apple
The iPad lineup
Photo: Apple
You can almost get two units of the 10.5-inch iPad Pro (64GB, Wi-Fi only) which will cost S$1,936. Alternatively, you can almost assemble one of the most complete iPad packages with a budget of S$1,922:
- One unit of 256GB cellular model for S$1,388
- AppleCare+ warranty for S$138
- Smart Keyboard for S$248
- Apple Pencil for S$148
Photo: Apple
At a price of S$498 for the 32GB WiFi model, you can easily purchase three units of the 9.7-inch iPad (2017) for S$1,494. From the spare change, you can almost purchase three AppleCare+ warranty for the iPads as well.
Another possibility is two units of the 128GB model (Wi-Fi + Cellular) for S$1,696 (S$848 each), add two Apple Official Smart Cover (S$58 each) and get spare change of S$76.
Photo: Apple
Looking at the 128GB Wi-Fi model, you can purchase three units of the 7.9-inch iPad Mini 4for S$1,794 and have spare change of S$94. On the other hand, you can buy two units the cellular model with spare change of S$292. The spare change can be used to purchase two AppleCare+ warranty for S$276 and you still have S$16 left.
Conclusion
Photo: Apple
The list of recommendations is not exhaustive; our intent is merely to show you what other Apple gadgets you can purchase with the price of one iPhone X, which has set a new bar on how expensive a smartphone can get. At the end of the day, it’s your prerogative on how you want to spend your money.
One last parting thought. For the health conscious folks, you can choose to buy apples. Suppose four apples cost S$2.35 and you consume an apple a day, S$1,888 will get you 8.8 years worth of apples to eat everyday. It helps to keep the doctor away too!
This article was first published at HardwareZone.
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