Offered to buy DH a MacBook and he's annoyed

[CelTa]

I offered to buy my DH a new MacBook - he's had his current one for 10 years and it's a bit slow.

My budget is £1250 and there are plenty of MacBooks online for this price.

We've just had an argument because he wants a better one at £1600.

He had no intention of buying it for himself and can't afford it. I came into some money recently and wanted to do something nice for him. I feel like it's just been thrown back in my face. He's always complaining about his laptop and how slow it is.

Aibu?

😂

If your DH is concerned about security and thinks the one you would like to buy him is not secure I would speak to apple.

Obviously the one he has probably is not secure as maybe there are less updates available for a machine of that age.

My last apple computer still had security updates but I couldn't install the last test versions of office etc.

However I would think that a machine costing £1200 would still have the most up to date software and will do for some time to come...as in years.

Again, speak to apple if you have an apple shop near to you and ask them if there would be any issues buying the MacBook you have found.

No he won't....

The websites are the security for banking etc

Macs can and do get malware, because everyone thinks they're secure they actually take less time to check and secure their devices!

If the £1200 one isn't a good enough spec for what he wants it for, then he's entirely correct to say no. It may well not be much better than the one he's got, so he's sensibly saying no, as it could be a waste of £1200. Maybe he was a little clumsy in refusing it and asking for a higher spec model, maybe he should have suggested paying the difference himself, but I don't think he's wrong to say he didn't want the £1200 version if the spec isn't right for him.

I hated getting "cheaper" presents when I was a child, my parents were the kind of people who wanted to give lots of things, but generally low spec/poor quality. I'd far rather have had far less possessions/gifts, but things I actually wanted. Throughout my adult life, I've been minimalistic about possessions etc - happy for "token" presents for birthdays, Christmas, etc if there was nothing in particular I needed, but also being upfront when there was something major/expensive - basically I'd "bank" value of not having presents some years towards more expensive things in a later year. I still remember having guitar lessons at school, and my parents buying me the wrong practice book (Play in a day instead of a Tune a day), which meant I couldn't practice what the group were told to practice (different tunes etc) - parents thought I was being ungrateful when I told them it was the wrong book and refused to exchange it! That kind of thing sticks with you.

To be honest, I'd rather my OH be upfront and refuse a gift he didn't want than let me buy it and him being unhappy for potentially years about it. It does sound like the OP has communication issues between her and her partner if something like this causes rows etc.

Is the row because he expects you to pay the extra, or because he wants to pay the extra but you want to control what he is allowed to have?

In that case he's a twat. Get him a 200 quid Chromebook.

He’s being grabby, you’ve offered him an expensive gift, if he wants to upgrade it further, he does it from his own pocket. If he can’t afford to do that and would rather just use his old one, that’s fine, but I highly doubt that he’ll be happy with that either.

What, and waste £200 on a laptop he's never going to use?

How is he being grabby when he never asked for a new computer in the first place?