The actual prices
iPhone and Apple Watch leases run 24 months. iPad and Mac leases run 36 months. Published monthly pricing at launch:
iPhone: 17e at $17.99, iPhone 17 at $22.99, iPhone Air at $28.99,
iPhone 17 Pro at $31.99.
Apple Watch: Series 11 at $11.99, Ultra 3 at $24.99.
iPad: mini at $11.99, Air at $15.99, Pro at $24.99.
Mac: MacBook Air at $24.99, iMac at $28.99, MacBook Pro at $38.99,
Mac Studio at $48.99.
(MacRumors)
Number one: you do not own it
This is the part that separates Apple Upgrade from the program it replaced. The old iPhone Upgrade Program was an installment loan, you were buying the phone, and at the end of 24 payments it was yours. Apple Upgrade is a lease. At the end of the term you either hand the device back and start a new lease, or you pay a separate buyout amount to keep it. Twenty four payments does not equal ownership here.
That is not automatically bad. If you were already trading in every year or two, you were never keeping the phone anyway, and a lease priced correctly is honest about that. It is bad if you assumed you were building toward owning something and you were not.
Number two: AppleCare+ is not in the payment anymore
The old program bundled AppleCare+ into the monthly number. Apple Upgrade does not. AppleCare+ is now a separate $9.99 to $13.99 a month depending on device. So the honest comparison is not $22.99 against the old iPhone Upgrade Program price, it is $22.99 plus roughly $11 if you want the same coverage you used to get automatically.
And coverage matters more on a lease than it did on a loan, because Klarna assesses damage when the device comes back. AppleCare+ covers the repair service fee, it does not make the end-of-lease damage assessment go away. Read that twice if you are hard on phones. (MacRumors)
Number three: the fine print that is actually pretty decent
Credit to Apple and Klarna, some of this is more humane than I expected. Signing up is a soft credit check, not a hard pull. There are no late fees, a missed payment rolls into next month. Missing a payment does not brick or throttle your iPhone, which is a real thing some financing products do and it is ugly. You can pay off early with no penalty.
The limits: three missed payments terminates the lease automatically, and missed payments can still hit your credit report even without a late fee. Ending a lease early means paying the remaining balance. Payment has to come from a debit card, ACH, or direct debit, no credit cards. Trade-in credit is spread across your monthly payments instead of knocking money off up front, so the sticker relief is slower than you would expect.
What is not eligible
No refurbished devices, no education pricing, and a few current products are excluded, including iPhone 16, Apple Watch SE, and MacBook Neo. Phones come unlocked but you pick a carrier at checkout and it has to be a postpaid plan, prepaid is out. If you are on a cheap prepaid plan on purpose, this program is not built for you.
Who this is actually good for
If you upgrade every year or two, hand the old phone back anyway, and you want the lowest monthly cash number, this is a reasonable deal and the no-late-fee, no-lockout terms are better than most consumer financing. Add AppleCare+ to your math and treat the total as the real price.
If you keep phones three, four, five years, skip it. Your cost per year of ownership on a phone you actually own and use until it dies beats any lease, every time. A lease is a subscription to always having a new phone. That is a preference, not a savings plan, and it is worth being clear with yourself about which one you are buying.
Apple Card zero-interest financing is still available as an alternative, and that one does end with you owning the device. If ownership matters to you, that is the door that is still open.
This is a breakdown, not financial advice.
Sources: Apple Newsroom, MacRumors pricing, MacRumors details, and CNBC. You can see what this studio builds at jcmobileappstudio.com/apps.
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