Unfortunately, during Black Friday we almost never see really great deals on the very latest iPhones, iPads, MacBooks and other Apple devices. It may therefore be more attractive to purchase a slightly older Apple product during this period that does receive nice discounts. This is generally a great option if you look at products from the past few generations, but some devices are better left out of your shopping cart.
As attractive as some discounts on really old Apple products can be, if the deal seems too good to be true, it probably is. In general, Apple devices are supported for a fairly long time, but at a certain point they are no longer really future-proof and it may be better to spend a little more money now than to have to invest again in a year or two.
To help you find the right Apple deals, we have created an overview below of all the Apple products that you can get better this year. not can buy during Black Friday. We have divided the products into different product categories.
iPhones that you should not buy during Black Friday 2024
Of course, many people are curious every year whether they can score a new iPhone for an attractive price during Black Friday. Well, that probably won’t work with the latest iPhone 16 series, but the iPhone 15 and iPhone 14 in particular will be the most interesting.
We would no longer recommend any iPhones that are even older, because they will probably not receive software updates for much longer (Apple offers updates for an average of five years) and are also a bit outdated in terms of design and features. For example, the standard iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus even have a notch instead of a Dynamic Island, but in any case those devices are expected to be supported for a little longer. Although many older iPhones can still run iOS 18 according to this Apple help page, at some point you will miss many of the software’s most useful features.
The reason why we no longer recommend some of these older devices, including the iPhone 13 series, is because we want to avoid purchasing a phone that will no longer have software support in a relatively short time. . So it is not so much the case that the hardware is no longer OK, but mainly the software is the problem here. Even if you find a really good deal on one of these older iPhones during Black Friday, we’d recommend spending a little more sooner for longer software support.
- iPhone 8 and older
- iPhone XR
- iPhone XS
- iPhone XS Max
- iPhone 11
- iPhone 11 Pro
- iPhone 11 Pro Max
- iPhone SE (2nd generation)
- iPhone 12 mini
- iPhone 12
- iPhone 12 Pro
- iPhone 12 Pro Max
- iPhone 13 mini
- iPhone 13
- iPhone 13 Pro
- iPhone 13 Pro Max
iPads that you should not buy during Black Friday 2024
The same applies to iPads as to iPhones. This mainly concerns how long certain iPads will continue to receive updates to the latest version of iPadOS. Also in this case, Apple usually offers software support for five years. In this overview of iPads that are compatible with the latest version of iPadOS (iPadOS 18), you will see that some older models are still supported, but that will not be the case for some of these models for much longer.
Unfortunately, with iPads it is a bit more difficult to distinguish between the different models, because not all of them officially have a number in their name. At Apple itself, you can still find out fairly easily which generation of iPad you are dealing with, but if you are scrolling through Black Friday deals at all kinds of different web shops, this will be much less clear. There are also not always (many) design differences between the different generations.
Below is a list of the iPad models we no longer recommend this year, despite any excellent Black Friday deals.
- iPad: 8th generation and older
- iPad mini: 5th generation and older
- iPad Air: 4th generation and older
- iPad Pro 10,5 inch
- iPad Pro 11 inches: 3rd generation and older
- iPad Pro 12.9 inches: 4th generation and older
Apple Watches that you should not buy during Black Friday 2024
With Apple Watches it is quite easy to find out which generation you are dealing with. These watches are numbered, just like the iPhones, and the standard Apple Watch model also receives a new version every year.
In this case too, you have to take into account how many updates to the watchOS software are still on the way for these watches. In principle, a new version of watchOS is released every year in September and Apple has also created an overview page for the Apple Watches to indicate which models still support the latest software (you can find the list if you scroll down a bit on the page). The Series 6 and 7 still support watchOS 11, but we no longer recommend it for future-proofing.
- Apple Watch Series 4 and older
- Apple Watch Series 5
- Apple Watch SE (2020)
- Apple Watch Series 6
- Apple Watch Series 7
MacBooks that you should not buy during Black Friday 2024
With MacBooks, it can be quite complicated to tell the different models from different generations apart. They are generally often referred to by screen size, and the release schedule for MacBooks isn’t exactly consistent either.
There is of course a clear distinction between the MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro. The MacBook Air is as thin and light as possible and is aimed slightly more at casual users, while the MacBook Pro is also really aimed at professionals.
Since 2020, Apple has no longer used processors from third parties for its MacBooks (Intel previously provided the chips). Over the past four years, Apple has been developing its own M-series chips for use in its MacBooks (plus other Macs, and now even iPads). The fourth generation of Apple’s own processors, the M4, has recently finally become available in new MacBook Pro models.
Previously, we could say that you should basically just avoid all older MacBooks with Intel chips and that almost all (good) deals on a MacBook with an M1, M2 or M3 chip would be worth it. We still recommend that you avoid models with Intel chips, but we also now advise against any deals on the M1 MacBooks.
Those M1 MacBooks are not necessarily too slow or anything like that, but the M series has improved considerably with each generation and there are simply not many (new) M1 MacBooks available anymore. When you do come across them, the prices generally don’t differ much from those of the M2 MacBooks. If the difference is really only 100 euros, we would always recommend that you choose a newer generation.
Below you will see a brief overview of the MacBooks that you should avoid during this Black Friday.
- MacBook Air: any model with an Intel processor, plus the M1 models
- MacBook Pro: any model with an Intel processor, plus the M1 models
