I just tried their Apple "Trade In" Tool.

They ask for serial which you can copy and paste from the "About this Mac" dialog box that is in MacOS.

From there it asks you the year of your laptop which is also in the same dialog box.

From there it asks you which CPU version and core count you have (for M series laptops with multiple options.) To get this info, you click on "More Info" on the same dialog box(In Sonoma you also click System Report and it is all there).

Afterwards it just asks the condition of the laptop (ie, does it turn on, screen cracked etc.)

I don't see why you would need MacRumors for this.

Why do they need more than the serial number, though?

Disregarding that there are 10 different laptop product lines to choose from, if I've already somehow decided that what I want is an XPS and I want a 13 inch screen size, my first two search results are

- XPS 13 Laptop

or

- XPS 13 Laptop

https://i.imgur.com/2SHL91Y.png

I gather that one of these is a newer revision than the other, but it's a lot more confusing than "M2" and "M3". I need to know whether I want (up to) a Core Ultra 7 155H vs a Core i7-1250U, and whether (up to) Intel Arc Graphics is better than Intel Iris Xe graphics.

Scrolling down further adds the XPS 13 Plus and XPS 13 2-in-1 Laptop. How does XPS 13 Plus compared to XPS 13 Laptop? What about to the other XPS 13 Laptop, is it better than both? Or is this a weird side-grade where you get a different form factor which is in some ways nicer, but then also comes with all the dumb parts of the Apple's "Touch Bar" and none of the good parts? (that's my 10 second interpretation of the product, but more clueless customers will have absolutely no idea)

I like how one is Intel i7 and one is Intel 7. Mind that the i7 is a -U, which is totally different from a -H or a desktop i7.

Isn't it the same with Apple? You choose between Air or Pro 14" or Pro 16".

But then there are all the variations with different amounts of RAM, SSD, processors (M3, M3 Pro, M3 Max)

And every little upgrade costs you 10X compared to a PC laptop.

No not really, I already narrowed down the product lines to only XPS. And 13" is actually one of their less messy sizes, there are the 4 XPS models and 7 Latitudes.

Then within each of these the configurable parts vary, but you're potentially picking processor, RAM, GPU, SSD, and even display resolution. It's not any simpler than the options within one of Apple's laptops, except Apple has a total of four laptops in all sizes.

If you wanted a 15" laptop from Dell, you have 1 XPS, 2 Latitudes, 4 Inspirons, 2 Vostros, and 2 G Series. All of which are an ambiguous mix of actually different models or new/old revisions of the "same" models.

Looking at pricing on the XPS 15, 64 GB RAM adds $450, the RTX 4070 is $1200, upgrade from i7-13700H to i9-13900H is $450, you can option Windows 11 Pro for $50, there's a higher resolution screen for $300 (or $800 if you didn't option the fancy GPU), it's not cheap over here either.

The one place where it really feels like Apple is screwing you compared to Dell is SSD pricing.

There are going to be screen and components options on any laptop, and that's fine. What's weird is how many different but similar products Dell has, same with HP.

The most confusing laptop lineup Apple ever had that I remember was early 2015: MacBook, MacBook Air, Macbook Pro, and the old non-retina MBP from 2012 that they were still selling.

Huh, the xps itself has 36 SKUs in Germany. Then there’s Latitude, Inspiron, Vostro, Alienware, Gaming Pro, Mobile Precision Workstation…

I’ve done a trade in a few times with Apple and it’s always been simple. There’s a serial number on the device, or you could just select it from devices attached to your account

> Have you ever tried to trade in an Apple product? They ask you to enter the serial number and then bizarrely ask you to indentify to device.

Yes, Apple changed to a randomized serial number format in 2021. https://www.macrumors.com/2021/04/14/apple-preapres-for-rand...

So, if you have a device made after that transition and Apple doesn't already know the details (e.g. because you didn't buy it direct), they'll also need to know how much RAM and SSD space it has.

But they manufactured it. They couldn't keep a database mapping serial numbers to specs?

That's a great point. My guess is that Apple doesn't share that data with their trade-in partners, which would include the web-based trade-in estimator. I don't recall having to share this when I brought stuff into an Apple Store for an in-person trade-in.

I've traded in multiple Apple computers over the years and never had to refer to some external site like you say.

You can identify your machine here: https://checkcoverage.apple.com

It's also available inside of the about this mac screen.

Multiple orders of magnitude easier than the PC laptop space.

I've traded in multiple and only ever had to enter the serial number.

Actually I just did this the other day with an iPad Pro and it was kinda neat. Instead of asking me to enter the serial number, it said something like “it’s this device” or “use this device”. After I tapped that it just continued on and asked me about the condition of the iPad.

I have seen that serial number prompt before though, I don’t know what makes it ask for a serial number versus prompting to use the current device’s serial number. I’m not even sure how it knew what device I was on to be honest.