Up to R140,000 to go all Apple in 2025

Buying a mid-range all-Apple setup is roughly R2,300 more expensive than opting for alternatives from other manufacturers, a MyBroadband analysis has shown.
Those with the budget for an ultra-high-end all-Apple setup will spend nearly R140,000 for the best Apple products available in South Africa, roughly R4,400 more than opting for ultra-high-end alternatives.
MyBroadband compared the cost of going all-Apple to the most comparable alternatives in terms of specifications across two tiers: mid-range and ultra-high-end.
Each tier includes wireless headphones or earbuds, a smartwatch, a smartphone, and a laptop.
Apple’s mid-range gear totalled just under R46,000, while the ultra-high-end setup came in at R139,896.
The alternative setups each feature a Windows-Intel (Wintel) laptop, Samsung smartphone, Garmin smartwatch, and headphones or earbuds comparable to the audio device chosen for the Apple setup.
The alternative mid-range setup costs R43,496, including a 15-inch Lenovo LOQ laptop, Samsung’s Galaxy S24 FE, Garmin’s Forerunner 55 watch, and Sennheiser Momentum 3 TWS earbuds.
The laptop costs R20,999 and features an Intel Core 17-13650HX CPU, 16GB of DDR5 memory, a 1TB NVMe SSD, and an RTX 4060 graphics card with 8GB of video memory.
In comparison, the Apple laptop we chose is the 13-inch MacBook Air, which has the company’s in-house M3 processor, a 256GB SSD, and 8GB of unified memory.
The MacBook Air’s M3 chip features an eight-core CPU and eight-core GPU. It costs R21,999.
Regarding smartphone choice, Apple’s only mid-ranger is the iPhone SE 2022, which costs R13,499 for the 128GB storage configuration. We chose Samsung’s R14,999 Galaxy S24 FE 128GB as the alternative.
While the Samsung device is more expensive, it is far newer. Samsung released it in September 2024. For reference, Apple released the latest iPhone SE available in South Africa in March 2022.
Apple also sells an SE version of the Apple Watch. We opted for the 40mm variant with GPS and cellular connectivity, which iStore sells for R7,399.
We selected the Garmin Forerunner 55 as the alternative. It costs R4,499.
Regarding the earbud choices, we chose Sennheiser’s Momentum 3 TWS earbuds as the alternative to the AirPods 4 we chose for the all-Apple setup. The Sennheiser earbuds are R100 more expensive at R2,999.
A price comparison between the two mid-range setups is shown in the table below.
Item | Apple Product | Price | Alternative | Price |
---|---|---|---|---|
Laptop | MacBook Air 13-inch [M3 | 256GB SSD | 8GB RAM] | R21,999 | Lenovo LOQ 15 [i7-13650HX | RTX 4060 8GB | 16GB RAM | 1TB SSD] | R20,999 |
Smartphone | iPhone SE 2022 128GB | R13,499 | Samsung Galaxy S24 FE 128GB | R14,999 |
Smartwatch | Apple Watch SE [40mm | GPS + Cellular] | R7,399 | Garmin Forerunner 55 | R4,499 |
Headphones | Apple AirPods 4 [No ANC] | R2,899 | Sennheiser Momentum 3 TWS earbuds | R2,999 |
Total | R45,796 | R43,496 |
Ultra-high-end price comparison
The difference in price between all Apple high-end products and comparable alternatives is slightly more noticeable at R4,400. The Apple setup costs R139,896, while the alternative totals R135,496.
The laptop contributes the most to the respective totals for both setups. On the Apple side, we chose Apple’s 14-inch MacBook Pro, and the configuration we selected cost R70,499 at iStore.
It packs an M4 Max chip with a 14-core CPU and 32-core GPU, a 1TB SSD, and 36GB of unified memory.
We selected MSI’s 17-inch CreatorPro Z17 laptop as the alternative. For R64,999, it packs an Intel Core i7-13700HX processor, a 2TB SSD, 32GB of DDR5 RAM, and an RTX 2000 graphics card with 8GB of video memory.
The choice of smartphone was pretty straightforward. We opted for the iPhone 16 Pro Max on the Apple side and Samsung’s Galaxy S24 Ultra as the alternative.
For a fair comparison, we selected the 512GB configuration for the iPhone — the maximum internal storage offered with the Galaxy S24 Ultra in South Africa.
The Samsung device is R1,000 more than the 512GB iPhone 16 Pro Max at R37,999.
The alternative smartwatch was also more expensive than the high-end Apple option. We compared pricing for Apple’s Watch Ultra 2 and Garmin’s 47mm 2nd-generation Epix Pro Edition.
The Garmin wearable is R1,100 more expensive than the R19,899 Apple Watch Ultra 2.
The highest-end Apple wearable audio device is the AirPods Max, which iStore sells for R12,499. For an alternative, South Africans can get the Bose QuietComfort Ultra wireless headphones for R11,499.
A price comparison between the two ultra-high-end setups is shown in the table below.
Item | Apple Product | Price | Alternative | Price |
---|---|---|---|---|
Laptop | Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch [M4 Max | 1TB SSD | 36GB RAM] | R70,499 | MSI CreatorPro Z17 [i7-13700HX | RTX 2000 | 2TB SSD | 32GB RAM] | R64,999 |
Smartphone | iPhone 16 Pro Max 512GB | R36,999 | Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra 512GB | R37,999 |
Smartwatch | Apple Watch Ultra 2 | R19,899 | Garmin Epix (Gen 2) Pro Edition 47mm | R20,999 |
Headphones | Apple AirPods Max | R12,499 | Bose QuietComfort Ultra | R11,499 |
Total | R139,896 | R135,496 |