Apple ecosystem on a budget

 Apple have a track record for being typically pricy and out of range for any budget conscious consumer with their cheapest new phone still costing at least $400, and their cheapest new computer still being over a thousand dollars, so with all that in mind is it possible to get into the apple ecosystem for under $700?

For starters I wanna preface this by saying that the items selected are, in my opinion the best cheap ecosystem, this list does not include an iPad as a tablet doesn’t really fit my day-to-day life and anywhere I would use an iPad a laptop would still be preferred

For the phone which acts as like the gateway to the apple ecosystem I went with the iPhone 8 as it was $250, I could have opted for the SE for $400 but in my country the SE is price hiked to just over $500 equivalent, however the iPhone 8 is still about 75% of the SE at 50% of the price, it runs the latest iOS, looks identical and isn’t that much slower, you’ll be getting at least a couple years of software updates with it as well, which even if it only got 1 more version update it still puts it ahead of the majority of android handsets, its also the first iPhone with wireless charging and fast wired charging, touchID is arguably better for the current day with everyone wearing masks, personally I still prefer faceID as after a shower or a shift at work my fingerprints are kinda rubbed off or something, the camera is also very nice, even for today’s standards and I’ve actually taken shots which I’ve posted on my professional photography instagram account, video on iPhones is always top notch and maxes out at 4K60 however I mostly use 1080P60 as I don’t have any 4K screens anywhere.

The iPhone 8 also makes a great companion to the laptop which I’ve chosen, the MacBook Pro 2012, the non retina version of this MacBook is the last upgradable Mac as well as the last to feature a DVD drive so if you have a lot of CDs or DVDs this will be very useful to you, the non retina screen still holds up decently well, considering I paid $300 USD on the laptop itself and then another $50 or so on some optional, but recommended upgrades (namely an SSD and more ram) this is not only the cheapest laptop I’ve ever owned but also the fastest, I actually edit the majority of my videos on This laptop now, as premiere just runs *better* than on my desktop, the handoff feature between my iPhone and MacBook is also really useful, I simply right click and press a button then take a photo with my phone and it automatically shows up on my document on my Mac, the fact I can see my battery percentage and cellular coverage from my Mac and hotspot without pulling my phone out is also really useful, check out my more indepth look at the macbook pro 2012 with upgrades here

This is the most subjective part of the video, some people can make use of an iPad, others would prefer an Apple Watch, personally its AirPods for me, for the average person these will be the best wireless earphones on the market, do they sound the best? Not really no, but the simple pairing process and how well they work with eachother (yes even when paired with an android I find these keep up with video playback and are less likely to become unsynced with each other than typical true wireless earphones) and unlike bluetooth earbuds I can feel with confidence that they will not disconnect and blast my music out loud on a bus or in a study period as well as feel confidence in the touch controls, they let enough noise in to allow me to keep these in when im talking to someone

The hiccup

I mentioned I picked up the iPhone 8 refurbished as it was much cheaper than an iPhone SE however that’s came to bite me in the ass as eBay seems to do more often than not, my advice? Only buy form eBay if its something non electronic or something you can fix yourself, personally I’ll only be using eBay for things like stickers, desktop parts or furniture, I can’t advise buying these complex mobile phones from some random ebay seller, the battery when I received it came with 100% maximum capacity, I thought “wow cool either an official battery or a new battery!” Turns out nope, as after a few months it just jumped to the “service” status which explains why I need to charge up in the middle of the day, because of how apple’s battery software works this causes the phone to run slower and I’ve noticed my handsfree hotspot tethering with my Mac doesn’t work anymore! So I ordered a brand new iPhone SE and that’s what I recommend you do!