LOL. Nope. Apple refurbished != open box like Bestbuy.
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Refurbished... are they worth it?
- Thread starter zoran
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3 cycles means battery was discharged and then recharged three times. So it was very lightly used.
No. Apple refurbed products even get a new serial number. Maybe Apple has records somewhere of where a product has been before it was refurbed, but they aren't going to tell you.
Several years ago I bought two of my kids MacBook Airs from the refurb store. Saved a bunch of money and the machines were indistinguishable from new other than the plain white box they came in.
They're not like open-box floor models. Those get sold cheaper to employees first if they want them. Refurbs come with new exterior and typically very fresh batteries in a sealed package.
I've bought refurbished from Apple and they are indistinguishable from new. But I do hate the website because they don't have selectors for what I'm looking for, like 10GB Ethernet and a specific GPU. So I have to look through all that's on offer to see if they have what I want, which is a time-waster. Not sure why they're so inept at this.
I cannot speak for macs but i bought a refurbished iPad after they raised the prices and i am happy with the quality of the iPad.
Just to clarify--all of the previous posts are referring to purchasing refurbished items at the Apple store and NOT some other vendor/store/website.
One of the downsides of the refurbished items on the Apple store website is that for some products like iPhones, the current and even the most recent discontinued generation devices are not offered. If they are, they are in limited quantities and will quickly sell out.
If you are buying from the Apple store website, refurbished or new, Apple will stand by their products. There is absolutely nothing for Apple to gain to sell a product that will not perform as their new counterpart.
The only drawback to buying refurbished is that the model you want when you want it may not be available. I'd buy from the Apple Refurbished Store every single time if I could, but due to circumstances I sometimes have to buy brand new.
Availability of items in the refurbished store can be very time sensitive. If you're on the hunt for a low availability item, you can't delay if you see it pop up. If you're half asleep at 1am and that missing model you want suddenly shows up, best not wait until morning. All of them may be gone by then. Ask me how I know.
Availability of items in the refurbished store can be very time sensitive. If you're on the hunt for a low availability item, you can't delay if you see it pop up. If you're half asleep at 1am and that missing model you want suddenly shows up, best not wait until morning. All of them may be gone by then. Ask me how I know.
I fully enjoy my Refurbed (from Apple Store) 14" M1 Pro 10/16/32G/2TB since end of 2022 on a daily basis. Looked/felt new with a battery cycle count of 2. No regrets and not looking towards new M2 Pro stuff.
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Apple refurbs are great. Typing this on my now 5+ year old 27" iMac which was a refurb and has been completely trouble free. My 2017 iPad Pro was a refurb, my wife's iPad Air was a refurb... pretty sure one of the two 2015 MacBook Pros we have in the house was a refurb too. As others have said, getting the exact model/configuration you want can take some careful watching of the refurb site and patience, but as long as you're either flexible about what you want, or don't need it right this second, it's a great way to save money with essentially zero risk.
Refurbished sold by Apple is as good as new in my opinion. But, I've also bought older refurbished Macs and Chromebooks on backmarket.com.
All products sold on the site come with a 1 year warranty. I recently had a chromebook screen die at month 10 and sent it back in for a full warranty.
No, that's good.
When you charge a battery from empty to full, that counts as 1 charge cycle (approximately ... battery charging is a science unto itself, but this definition works well enough for our purposes).
Battery capacity naturally degrades over time as they are charged, drained and recharged.
So the higher the # of charge cycles on your battery, the more likely it is to have diminished capacity to hold a charge.
3 charge cycles is nothing. Most laptops come with between 1-5 charge cycles on their batteries (as the laptop battery has to be charged/discharged/recharged as part of the testing process).
So a battery with 3 charge cycles is brand-new.
Currently using a refurbed iPhone and have a refurbed Mac Studio coming on Saturday. Definitely worth it for the discount. The only downside is having to wait until the spec you want shows up. For my Mac Studio, I used Refurb Tracker, which alerts you when the machine you want shows up.
Yes. I buy refurbished most of the time. It's returned. It receives a full diagnostic by Apple so everything is made certain that it works 100 perfectly, and then it's resold cheaper with the exact same warranty. They always look brand new when you receive them. I'll only ever buy refurbished things from Apple and not other companies because I know how their process works.
Typing this on a refurbished 2018 MBP. I needed a new one when I had not much money. Kept my target configuration but went Apple refurbished instead. No regrets.
These might be former demo ones from Apple stores, former higher configurations ending up sidelined after upgrades and such. Mine felt "like new" and has no wear and tear at all. The bonus is you might get extra installed RAM or similar on top. I feel like there are not as many refurbished ones as they had before.
These might be former demo ones from Apple stores, former higher configurations ending up sidelined after upgrades and such. Mine felt "like new" and has no wear and tear at all. The bonus is you might get extra installed RAM or similar on top. I feel like there are not as many refurbished ones as they had before.
Nothing bad with 3 cycles. I would be concerned if it came with more than 10-15 cycles.
Yes. Refurb+apple care is one way to do it for me. peace of mind for 3 years.
Yep. My Macbook Air 2012, refurb was maxed out model at the price of new base model. It still runs great,except it is officially obsolete. Apple sent me an upgraded processor with my order for what ever reason.
My 2012 Macbook Pro looked new when I bought it refurb in around 2016, and asides from battery wear (which is normal of any laptop), the machine still runs perfectly fine.
Of course that only speaks to Apple's refurb quality standards seven years ago, but I'd still buy refurb again
Of course that only speaks to Apple's refurb quality standards seven years ago, but I'd still buy refurb again
It gets used for several things, but primarily as a Plex server. It is headless, and I screen share to it a lot, and access its drives over my network. It currently is using a boot loader hack for it to boot into El Capitan.
I have every HDD bay full, different configurations over the years, but currently a single SSD to use as a boot drive, two 4TB HDDs in a SW RAID0 for the Plex media drive, and a single 14TB drive that has many partitions used for back ups of old MacOS versions, as well as a back up for the SSD boot drive and Plex media drive.
I have upgraded the GPU a few times over the years, maybe the last time in 2010ish. I don't really have a need for anything GPU-related anymore.
The RAM has been upgraded several times, currently at 11GBs. For what it is used for, 11GBs is overkill now. I think it came with 1GB originally. The Mac Pro 1,1 used very expensive RAM, ones with huge heatsinks, and I cannot remember how much 11GBs cost, but I remember it being pricey.
I use the old MacOS partitions for troubleshooting older Macs and to use older software that Apple has discontinued, such as the older Disk Utility. The older Disk Utility has some features that the GUI was removed on newer MacOS versions, the RAID creator for example.
While my Mac Pro has been really good to me over the years, I am considering retiring it for the lower energy consumer, like my M1 Mac Mini when my new M2 Pro Mac Mini gets shipped. I will keep it for the old MacOS versions, but it will no longer be running non-stop, like it has for the passed 16 years.
That's what I'd wondered too. I was tempted to get myself a really cheap 1,1 Mac Pro, especially to use older MacOS versions, but even then, it's not really worth the energy consumption compared to, say, a 2010 Mac Mini. And an M1 Mac Mini is even more power efficient than that.
You cannot buy AppleCare for a Refurbished... where did u get that info from?
100% Apple refurbished (USA) is the best Mac experience IMHO. Purchased many Apple refurbished, in fact in July I bought a 2021 14" MacBook Pro 16GB RAM, 1TB HDD for $1700, when new would have been $2199, and just the other day bought a M1 Mac mini at a deep discount. 16GB RAM and 256GB HDD for $575 when new would have been $899.