My Old Phone Had Trade-In Value. My MacBook Was Rejected.
When buying electronics, I used to go straight for the most powerful model. If I was already spending the money, I might as well get something I could keep for years.
Eventually, I mostly noticed the weight
The iPhone XS Max was my first proper flagship phone. When it was new, I liked everything about it: the large screen, the high-end hardware, even “Max” in the name.
After a while, the weight was what I noticed most. Many of the features I thought I would need went mostly unused until the phone broke. The repair quote was much harder to ignore.
I replaced it with an iPhone 12. Lighter and easier to hold: the XS Max weighs 208 grams (opens in a new tab), the iPhone 12, 164 (opens in a new tab). For something I held every day, those few dozen grams made a real difference. I ended up keeping it for five years.
Recently I traded it in for an iPhone 17 and replaced my Apple Watch at the same time. JD.com’s trade-in service was easy to use, and the subsidy and trade-in credit made the price worthwhile. I also enjoyed having a new device again.
Five years with the iPhone 12 hardly counts as frequent upgrading. The old phone could still pay for part of the new one, and I already wanted to replace it. There was no need to wait for it to break.
The trade-in service wouldn’t take my MacBook
The phone still brought in some trade-in credit. My old computer didn’t fare as well. It was a 2019 15-inch MacBook Pro (opens in a new tab) with an i9 processor, 32GB of memory, and a Vega 20 graphics card. I spent a long time choosing that configuration. As a frontend developer, I rarely needed that much performance, but I thought the extra money would help me keep the computer longer.
It lasted for years before it finally broke. A shop said the motherboard had a problem and suggested that I try the online trade-in service. The pickup technician pressed the power button several times. Nothing happened, so he refused the machine without making an offer.
I still read spec sheets and like good hardware. I’ll keep using something while it suits me. Once I want a replacement and the price makes sense, I’ll trade it in while the old one can still turn on.
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