MacRumors Buying Guide Helps with New Apple Purchases

When is a good time to upgrade to a new Mac, iOS device, or Apple accessory? The general thinking has always been that you should upgrade once a piece of technology is no longer serving your needs. And that’s a good way to approach the decision. Still, you can never be too informed when it comes to making what could amount to a major purchase. Also, you don’t want to bring home a shiny new piece of technology and then find out a few weeks later that Apple has refreshed that product line, effectively leaving you with last year’s model.

Popular Apple-news site MacRumors has a buying guide that compiles historical information as well as the most recent rumors relating to Apple products. The guide then rates different products on a Buy Now, Neutral, Caution, and Don’t Buy scale. The ratings are fairly self-explanatory but if something is marked as Buy Now, then that product line has been recently refreshed. If an item is described as Neutral, then it’s likely to be at the midway point to a product refresh. A Caution rating indicates that product line is nearly out of date. And if a product carries the Don’t Buy warning, MacRumors believes that a refresh is imminent.

Given my recent computer issues, I’ve been looking at new Mac options. I may go with a Mac Mini, and when I started checking the MacRumors guide a few weeks ago, the Mini was being given the Caution label. Within the last few days, that rating has been upgraded to Don’t Buy. I will likely hold off on that purchase now, since it looks like Apple may have new Minis on the market in early 2016.

At present, the buying guide is giving a Don’t Buy rating to the MacBook Pro (non-Retina), Mac Mini, Mac Pro, and Apple displays. If you’re in the market for a new Apple product, be sure to check the buying guide first. It might save you some heartache down the road.