16-inch vs 14-inch MacBook Pro Resale Values
By The SellMacBooks Team | Published 9 June 2026 | Updated 8 July 2026
A 16-inch MacBook Pro resells for £150 to £400 more than the equivalent 14-inch in the UK in 2026 - indicatively £1,450 versus £1,050 for M3 Pro/Max era machines in good condition. But measured as a percentage of the original purchase price, the 14-inch consistently retains more, making it the better financial hold.
Absolute pounds versus retained percentage: which one matters depends on whether you are selling a machine you already own or choosing which one to buy next. This comparison covers both angles.
What do 14-inch and 16-inch models sell for in 2026?
Indicative UK buyback values in good working condition, base configurations for each size:
| Generation | 14-inch value | 16-inch value | 16-inch premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| M4 (2024) | £1,150-£1,300 (Pro) | £1,500-£1,700 (Max) | ~£400 |
| M3 (2023) | £1,000-£1,100 (Pro) | £1,350-£1,500 (Max) | ~£350 |
| M2 (2023) | £780-£870 (Pro) | £1,050-£1,150 (Max) | ~£280 |
| M1 (2021) | £580-£650 (Pro) | £720-£800 (Max) | ~£150 |
Two things jump out. First, the 16-inch premium is real in every generation. Second, it shrinks as machines age - from roughly £400 on current models to £150 on the M1 generation. The size premium melts faster than the underlying value does.
A caveat on reading the table: 16-inch machines are more often specced with Max chips, 32GB-plus memory and larger SSDs, so part of the gap is configuration rather than screen size. Compare a 14-inch M1 Pro against a 16-inch M1 Pro with identical internals and the pure size premium is nearer £80 to £120.
Which size retains more of its original price?
Flip the question from pounds to percentages and the answer reverses:
| Machine | UK launch price | 2026 indicative value | Retained |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14" M3 Pro (2023) | £2,099 | ~£1,050 | ~50% |
| 16" M3 Max (2023) | £3,499 | ~£1,450 | ~41% |
| 14" M1 Pro (2021) | £1,899 | ~£620 | ~33% |
| 16" M1 Max (2021) | £3,299 | ~£760 | ~23% |
The pattern holds across generations: the 14-inch keeps a noticeably larger slice of what its first owner paid. The reason is simple market breadth. Nearly everyone shopping for a used MacBook Pro can live with a 14-inch - students, developers, photographers, hybrid workers. The 16-inch buyer pool is narrower: people who specifically want the biggest screen and will tolerate the weight. Deep demand supports prices; niche demand negotiates them down.
Expensive launch configurations compound the effect. A £3,500 Max machine was priced for a professional who needed that performance on day one; three years later, second-hand buyers can get comparable real-world speed from a newer, cheaper chip, so the original performance premium evaporates from the resale price.
How does the gap change when the machine is faulty?
Faulty values compress the size premium hard. Indicatively in 2026, a faulty 14-inch M3 Pro brings £450 to £500 while a faulty 16-inch M3 Max brings £600 to £680 - the £350 working premium shrinks to £150 or so. On M1-generation machines, faulty values sit at £250 to £300 for the 14-inch and £320 to £360 for the 16-inch.
The mechanics are worth understanding if you own a damaged 16-inch. A refurbisher's offer is essentially resale value minus repair cost, and everything on the 16-inch costs more to put right: the panel is the priciest in the MacBook line, the battery is bigger, the top case costs more. So while the working 16-inch enjoys a premium for its screen, the broken 16-inch is penalised by that same screen. Cracked-display 16-inch owners consistently find quotes lower than they expect for exactly this reason - the machine is still well worth selling, but the size works against you once it is damaged.
Who is actually buying each size second-hand?
Knowing your buyer explains your price:
- 14-inch buyers are the mass market: students stepping up from an Air, developers, photographers and editors who travel. They compare across many listings, buy quickly at fair prices, and keep demand liquid year-round.
- 16-inch buyers are specialists: colourists, music producers running large sessions, engineers replacing a desktop. They pay properly for high-memory Max configurations - a 64GB M2 Max holds value impressively - but there are simply fewer of them, and they shop more slowly.
This is also why unusual configurations behave differently by size. A base-spec 16-inch can be surprisingly sluggish to sell privately, because its natural buyer wanted more machine. A maxed-out 14-inch, by contrast, sells fast to power users who want portability without compromise. Chip generation interacts with all of this too - our comparison of M1, M2 and M3 MacBook Pro values shows how each generation's premium is decaying on its own schedule.
Do colour, finish and small options change resale by size?
At the margins, yes - and the margins differ between the two sizes.
Colour. Space Black, introduced with the M3 Pro and Max, carries a small but observable second-hand premium over Silver, typically £20 to £40. The effect is slightly stronger on the 14-inch, where style-conscious individual buyers dominate; 16-inch buyers shopping for a workstation care less. Space Grey versus Silver on earlier generations makes no measurable difference.
Nano-texture glass. The matte display option on M4-generation machines resells better than its modest upfront cost suggests, particularly on the 16-inch, where buyers often plan long desk sessions under office lighting. Expect £40 to £70 of the option's price back.
Power adapter wattage and cables. Including the original 96W or 140W adapter matters more for the 16-inch, which needs the higher wattage for fast charging. A missing charger costs £20 to £30 off either size at resale.
Condition interacts with size too. The 16-inch lives on desks; the 14-inch lives in bags. In practice that means 14-inch machines more often show corner dings and shell scratches, while 16-inch machines more often show pristine cases hiding high battery cycle counts from being used as always-plugged-in desktops. Check the weak spot for your size before you describe the machine, because it is exactly what an inspector will look at.
None of these factors rivals chip, memory or screen condition - but on a £1,000-plus machine, three marginal factors together can be £100.
So which is the smarter machine to own for resale?
If minimising depreciation is the goal, the evidence points one way: the 14-inch with a Pro-tier chip and one storage bump is the sweet spot. It retains the highest percentage, sells to the widest audience, and suffers the smallest penalty if it ever gets damaged. The 16-inch remains the right buy for people who need it - just go in knowing that its resale premium is largest early and erodes steadily, so a three-year ownership cycle captures far more of it than a five-year one.
Whichever size is on your desk right now, selling it is the same two-minute job: request a quote online - working or broken - and a fixed figure arrives by email inside two working hours, any day of the week, valid for 14 days. We send a free fully-insured postage label, you drop the box at any Post Office, and payment reaches your bank within 24 hours of the machine passing inspection; if a quote is ever revised and you decline, return shipping costs you nothing. Before it goes in the box, follow our guide on how to wipe a MacBook before selling - then sell your MacBook Pro at whichever size it happens to be.
Good to know
Quick answers
Everything sellers ask us before posting their Mac - answered straight.
Does a 16-inch MacBook Pro sell for more than a 14-inch?
In absolute pounds, yes - a 16-inch of the same generation typically resells for £150 to £400 more, partly because 16-inch models ship with stronger chips and more memory. As a percentage of original price, however, the 14-inch usually retains slightly more of what its first owner paid.
Why do faulty 16-inch MacBook Pros lose proportionally more value?
Repair economics. The 16-inch display is the most expensive MacBook part Apple makes, and its larger battery and enclosure cost more to replace too. When a refurbisher prices a faulty unit, they subtract those higher repair costs from resale value, so the bigger machine takes the bigger deduction.
Which size should I buy if resale value matters to me?
Buy the 14-inch with a Pro-tier chip if you want the strongest percentage retention and easiest resale - it has the broadest buyer pool. Buy the 16-inch only if you genuinely need the screen or Max-tier performance, and plan to sell within three years while the premium is still intact.