Difference in refurbished MB from new?

[sam10685]

I'm about to go to bed but I was wondering if getting an Apple refurbished macbook is noticeable from gettin a brand new one. Would I be better off going with a new one or if i just wanted a faster system (i have a 3 year-old Powerbook G4 now), would a refurbished one be just fine? Do i still have a 1 year warranty? What exactly do they do to refurbish them? Any help would be appreciated.

 

[janey]

Refurb can include a lot, but generally they're in great condition, they come with the apple 1 year standard warranty, you can still get the applecare extension for it, and they are often slightly cheaper.

No difference between regular MacBooks, except maybe before they were refurbished it was returned for some trivial thing or whatever. You never know, but really. Comes with the standard warranty.

 

[iW00t]

Refurbs come with free ram and harddisk upgrades.

 

[Igantius]

On the Apple site, it should say what a refurb model is defined as - as janey rightly says, the term covers a lot of ground; in the UK, it can be a machine that's been sent to a customer who then returned it unused as legally, it can't be resold as new.

They do go through a hefty testing process to make sure that they work ok - some posters say they prefer to get a refurb for this reason... but like anything, some people had to return them for a fault.

As you get the usual 1-year warranty, save cash and may have an unexpected goodt (see below), I think it's a great way to get a Mac!

Refurbs come with free ram and harddisk upgrades.

Sometimes, but not always... luck of the draw.

 

[Cybergypsy]

i bought a 24 imac refurb, got extra ram and video card, also many extraproblems, i am for the little i save not worth it.

 

[jdechko]

Cheaper price for one (a very good thing in my opinion), and you get a brown box instead of the cool Apple box.

 

[gnasher729]

I'm about to go to bed but I was wondering if getting an Apple refurbished macbook is noticeable from gettin a brand new one. Would I be better off going with a new one or if i just wanted a faster system (i have a 3 year-old Powerbook G4 now), would a refurbished one be just fine? Do i still have a 1 year warranty? What exactly do they do to refurbish them? Any help would be appreciated.

A refurbished Mac should look exactly like a brand new one. It will likely not come in a fancy box but some cardboard like thing. It has the same warranty and you can get the same three year warranty (AppleCare) if you want. And they are a lot cheaper.

But read _carefully_ to make sure you get exactly what you want. Refurbished models are often older models, and the savings ("Save 30 percent") are calculated from the price when that model was current. An example:

I bought a Mac for $1000 a year ago. A brand new Mac for $1000 bought today would be much improved; you might say that a brand new one exactly like the one I own would only be worth $800 anymore (except Apple doesn't sell it anymore so you can't buy it for $800). That Mac might be available as refurbished for $650. Apple will advertise it as "Save 35%" because you pay $650 instead of the $1000 that I paid a year ago, but you only save $150 compared to the $800 that it would be worth.

You still save $150, so it is certainly worth buying. In general, I think someone at Apple decides what each Mac would be worth if it was brand new, and then they subtract 15 to 20 percent.

 

[sam10685]

Thank you guys. Another question i thought of last night was should i by from the online apple.com store or would anywhere be ok? (also, where would that anywhere be?)

 

[janey]

A refurbished Mac should look exactly like a brand new one. It will likely not come in a fancy box but some cardboard like thing. It has the same warranty and you can get the same three year warranty (AppleCare) if you want. And they are a lot cheaper.

Sometimes those refurbs might as well be brand new

Thank you guys. Another question i thought of last night was should i by from the online apple.com store or would anywhere be ok? (also, where would that anywhere be?)

A lot of Apple Stores have tables or areas where they have a whole bunch of overstocked/refurb/discontinued products, everything from computers to iPod accessories. Might want to look there - I have seen some great deals on hardware, picked up a few cool things at a cheap price too.