Apple Begins Selling Refurbished Mac Studio With M4 Max and M3 Ultra Chips at a Discount

[LFO8]

Definitely go with Amazon to get better prices on Apple products! That's even true here in the EU.

 

[nottorp]

At a quick glance on the DE store all the M4 Max models have the default ram.

I wouldn't recommend buying a "pro" machine that you're supposed to keep for years with less than 64 gb today...

Edit: Oh or not. The asses have linked the 64 Gb option to the more expensive M4 Max CPU submodel.

 

[neuropsychguy]

Looking at the M4 16/40 combinations, the prices are (oddly) pretty good, better than the new EDU prices. 128GB/1TB combo is $3,139, which is significantly less than the regular new price.

Refurbished prices have always* been better than education prices. The difference can range from maybe $100 to several hundred. If you can be patient when new devices are released, buying refurbished is a great way to save money. There are, however, times when third party deals on new computers beat Apple's refurbished prices.

*I can't be 100% certain there was never a higher refurbished price than an education price for the same product.

 

[Galas]

US $3400 for an M3 Ultra from the US Education Refurbished site is a fantastic deal, it’s just that I can’t justify buying one under any circumstance. Way overkill for my use case. Unfortunately, owning an LG 34” 5K2K Ultrawide monitor means I’m subject to the M4 bug with those monitors, so I can’t grab the cheaper refurb M4 Max Mac Studios or M4-based Mac minis, either. Le sigh … 😞

What is that bug?

 

[nt5672]

iPads aren’t Mac Studios.

Duh, that was not the point. It is the same manufacturer that, because of cost cutting, the bugs in both hardware and software are on an exponential curve upwards.

 

[Makosuke]

Now that it's generally possible to get a modest discount from resellers (assuming you don't qualify for Apple's own modest educational discount, which usually comes out right around the same), refurbs aren't that great of a deal, but on the other hand every one I've gotten in the past has been functionally indistinguishable from a new one apart from the packaging, so it's also not a terrible deal.

Does anyone know what the source of Apple's refurbs are? They seem like open-box returns, so I've always kind of assumed that's where the vast majority (if not all) come from.

 

[dlondon]

Definitely go with Amazon to get better prices on Apple products! That's even true here in the EU.

It's true that Amazon has better pricing but they only offer base. They don't offer other specs unless via specialist third parties who usually don't generally discount and often just order through Apple so there's still a wait time.

I wish Apple would increase the range of specs options available to purchase across all retailers or allow at least some retailers to request alternative specs instead of the standard ones. Apple used to have some additional configurations available in their stores to take away immediately (such as larger SSDs and additional RAM) but they don't seem to do that anymore (at least not in the UK).

 

[Riot Nrrrd]

What is that bug?

The lack of the normal default 3840x1620 scaled HiDPI resolution on M4 Macs when used with 5K2K Ultrawide monitors at less than 120Hz

 

[LFO8]

Now that it's generally possible to get a modest discount from resellers (assuming you don't qualify for Apple's own modest educational discount, which usually comes out right around the same), refurbs aren't that great of a deal, but on the other hand every one I've gotten in the past has been functionally indistinguishable from a new one apart from the packaging, so it's also not a terrible deal.

Does anyone know what the source of Apple's refurbs are? They seem like open-box returns, so I've always kind of assumed that's where the vast majority (if not all) come from.

Specially on Amazon the refurbs can be littered with ‘sketchy’ sellers.

For new stuff buying directly from Amazon saved me €100 on an Apple Watch 10 purchase compared to buying straight from Apple.

 

[OGdrknight]

My wife wants a Mac Studio and I think this might be the ticket over her MacBook Air M2.

“refurbished M4 Max configurations starts at $1,699”