Prices rose in June 2026
Switching to a Mac: what it really costs
A Mac is a genuine option, particularly if you already use an iPhone or iPad. It is also the expensive path — roughly two to four times a budget Windows PC, and thirty to sixty times what staying on Windows 10 costs. Here are the real numbers and the honest trade-offs.
Staying on Windows 10 is free until October 2027. If the deadline is your only reason to spend $800–2,000, the numbers don’t work. Switch because you want a Mac — the ecosystem, the battery life, the build quality, the quiet. Those are good reasons. A deadline you can neutralise for free isn’t one.
Current prices — and the June 2026 increase
Apple raised prices across nearly the whole Mac line in June 2026 because of a global memory-chip shortage — Tim Cook called the increases “unavoidable”. If you last looked at Mac prices a year ago, they are higher now than you remember, for identical hardware.
| Model | Chip | From |
|---|---|---|
| Mac mini best value | M4 | $799 |
| MacBook Neo | A18 Pro | $699 |
| MacBook Air 13"/15" | M5 | $1,299 |
| iMac 24" | M4 | $1,499 |
| MacBook Pro 14"/16" | M5 family | $1,999 |
| Mac Studio | M4 Max / M3 Ultra | $2,499 |
You already own a monitor, keyboard and mouse — and they’ll all work. A Mac mini at $799 reusing your existing peripherals is by far the most sensible entry point for anyone replacing a desktop, and it’s the machine most “should I switch” articles skip past on the way to recommending a laptop.
Two buying notes that save real money
- Check education pricing first. Students, accepted applicants, parents buying for them, and staff at eligible institutions get about $100 off — MacBook Air at $1,199, Mac mini at $699.
- ⚠️ Refurbished is currently a bad deal. A refurbished MacBook Air was listed at $1,359 while the education price for a new one is $1,199. Always compare both before assuming refurb is cheaper — right now it often isn’t.
The $699 MacBook Neo deserves a warning
It’s the cheapest Mac laptop, but it runs an A18 Pro — a phone chip, not an M-series processor. Fixed 8GB of memory, one of its two USB-C ports limited to USB 2.0 speed, no Thunderbolt, and a single external display at 4K/60Hz. Fine for browsing, email, streaming and light documents. Not the machine for heavy multitasking, video editing, or running Windows in a virtual machine.
Who should not switch to a Mac
| If this is you… | The honest position |
|---|---|
| Competitive multiplayer gamer | Absolute blocker. Valorant, Call of Duty and similar use kernel-level anti-cheat that macOS cannot permit. This fails through virtual machines and cloud streaming. It is an architecture conflict, not a missing port — it will not be fixed. |
| Heavy Excel modeller | Blocker. Power Pivot, the Data Model and DAX do not exist in Excel for Mac. No add-in, no workaround. VBA runs but anything calling Windows APIs fails. |
| Microsoft Access user | Blocker. No Mac version, no real equivalent. Frequently overlooked until after the purchase. |
| QuickBooks Desktop or Sage 50 | Blocker. Sage 50 has no Mac version. QuickBooks Desktop for Mac is end-of-life — 2024 was the final version and support ends 30 September 2027. Don’t let anyone tell you “there’s a Mac version”. |
| Hardware dongles or specialist kit | Blocker. Licence dongles, lab instruments, till systems and medical devices need Windows kernel drivers. These frequently fail even inside a virtual machine. |
| You want an upgradeable machine | Think carefully. Memory and storage are soldered. Nothing is user-upgradeable, ever. Buy the specification you’ll need in five years, on day one. |
| Tight budget | Think carefully. There’s no Mac equivalent of a $400 Windows laptop. |
Who a Mac genuinely suits
- You already have an iPhone or iPad. This is the strongest real reason — messages, calls, AirDrop, Handoff, and a shared photo library that just works.
- Browser, email, documents, photos, video calls. Everything works, and the experience is excellent.
- Creative work. Adobe runs natively and is now Apple-silicon-first. From version 27 this autumn, Premiere Pro and After Effects require Apple silicon and drop Intel Macs entirely.
- Laptop users who care about battery life and silence. A genuine, non-marketing advantage.
- You’re tired of Windows maintenance — the ads in the Start menu, the forced restarts, the bundled software.
Moving your files across
Apple’s Windows Migration Assistant is alive and actively maintained (version 3.0.2.1, requiring macOS Sonoma 14.4 or later). It moves a lot — but the gaps matter more than the coverage.
What it moves
Automatically- Documents and files from your home folder
- Email, contacts and calendars from Outlook and Windows Mail
- Bookmarks from Chrome, Edge, Firefox and IE — into Safari
- Music, podcasts, films and TV
- Desktop wallpaper, language settings, known Wi-Fi networks
What it does not
Do these manually- Applications — you reinstall or rebuy every one
- Software licences and settings
- Passwords — export from your browser or password manager before you wipe the PC
- Photos land in your home folder, not the Photos app — import them yourself
Bluetooth: on macOS 14 and later, pairing needs Bluetooth Low Energy. Older Windows 10 desktops often don’t have it and need a cheap USB adapter. Version mismatch: using an old Migration Assistant against a current Mac is the most common cause of a freeze mid-transfer — match the version to your macOS release. Multiple users: each Windows user account needs its own separate run.
Running Windows software on a Mac
Understand the constraint first: Apple silicon Macs can only run the ARM version of Windows 11, which then emulates normal Windows apps. Two layers of translation. Boot Camp does not exist on Apple silicon — there is no dual-booting, despite what older guides say.
| Option | Best for | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| CrossOver | One or two specific Windows apps. No Windows licence needed. Compatibility is app-by-app — always test yours in the free trial first. | $74 once |
| Parallels Desktop 26 | A full, polished Windows environment. The Microsoft-authorised route, so it’s entirely legitimate. You still need a Windows licence (~$139). | $99.99/yr |
| VMware Fusion Pro | Same job as Parallels, rougher edges, awkward download process. Free for all use including commercial — genuinely underrated. | Free |
| Anything with kernel drivers | Dongles, tills, lab equipment, anti-cheat games. | Nothing works |
Microsoft documents real limits on Windows-on-ARM: no nested virtualisation (so no WSL, no Windows Sandbox), no 32-bit ARM apps, and DirectX 12 limitations that affect games.
Your printer, scanner and other hardware
- Most modern printers need no driver at all thanks to AirPrint, and often work better than they did with the manufacturer’s Windows software.
- ⚠️ The single most useful tip on this page: if a printer stops working after a macOS upgrade, it’s usually the new Local Network privacy permission blocking it — fixed in System Settings, not by reinstalling drivers. People reinstall for hours over this.
- Scanning is a separate system from printing. An all-in-one can print perfectly while its scanner does nothing.
- Older models get abandoned. Check your exact printer against the manufacturer’s macOS 26 support page before buying a Mac.
- External graphics cards do not work. Apple silicon has never supported eGPUs for graphics, and still doesn’t. Whatever GPU is in the Mac you buy is the GPU you have forever.
- Reformat external drives. macOS reads NTFS drives but can’t write to them without extra software.
The real total
| Scenario | Realistic year-one cost |
|---|---|
| Stay on Windows 10 with ESU | $0–30 |
| New budget Windows 11 PC | $400–700 |
| Mac mini, reusing peripherals, free software | ~$800 |
| MacBook Air, typical setup | $1,400–1,800 |
| Mac + Office + Parallels + Windows licence | $1,700–2,300 |
The cost people forget is rebuying software. Every paid Windows application you use needs a Mac licence, and few transfer.
Several websites claim otherwise. Apple’s own trade-in page limits third-party credit to Samsung and Google smartphones — not Windows computers. Apple will recycle your old machine free of charge, “no matter the model or condition”, but you won’t get money off. Third-party buyback services generally pay more than any manufacturer scheme, though a 5–10 year old Windows desktop is usually worth very little. Wipe the drive — or physically remove it — before you dispose of it either way.
The option most people overlook
You don’t have to choose. Keep the old PC for the one or two things that need Windows, and use a Mac for everything else. It’s cheaper and far less frustrating than forcing a virtual machine to do work it can’t reliably do — and since ESU keeps that old machine patched until October 2027, it costs nothing to leave it in the corner for occasional use.