In most situations, I tend to recommend that you buy Apple’s extended hardware warranty, called AppleCare. Apple enhanced AppleCare in 2017 so I think it’s an even more compelling option. In June 2017, Apple modified AppleCare. It’s now called AppleCare+ (read AppleCare Plus). The original AppleCare offered two primary features. It extended the standard 1-year warranty for manufacturing or design defects to 3 years. It also extended the 90 days of phone support to 1 year. In the past, AppleCare could be bought within 1 year of the date of buying a Mac, but now Apple requires that you buy it at the time of your initial purchase.

AppleCare+ provides all the same features as AppleCare, but it adds coverage for two incidents of accidental damage for 3 years from the purchase date. Each incident is subject to a $99 fee for damage to the case or screen or $299 for other damage.

In my mind, AppleCare+ is an attractive option because it now covers both manufacturing and accidental damage and the cost of your repair is a maximum of $299. Based on the following example, I think AppleCare+ is practically a no-brainer. Two months after buying a new MacBook Air, a client spilled coffee on it. She took it to an Apple Store for assessment. She was told that repair cost would be $1,400. She reminded Apple that she bought AppleCare+. Apple then indicated that the repair cost would be $299. Obviously, she just saved herself about $830 since she had bought AppleCare+ protection for $269 ($1400-$299-$269=$832). On top of that, her laptop is still covered by AppleCare+ for another 2 years and 10 months so it could cover any defects or another incident of accidental damage.

AppleCare+ was originally introduced for the iPhone around 2011. It was then offered for the iPad and is now available for Macs. The exact price of AppleCare+ varies based on the each model that you purchase.