Apple is Now Selling a Refurbished Mac Mini for Just $319 (!)

[sublunar]

They likely won't be sold for $300 on the refurb store. What Apple generally does is just remove them from the store completely at a certain point.

Anyhow at this point, that price difference is minimal. Even if the price did drop (but it likely won't), if you needed a Mac soon, $319 now seems to make much more sense than waiting until 2026 to get it for $299.

But it's too late, since it's sold out now. It might come back in a few weeks though, who knows.

It’s rare that Apple sell 2 generations of the same line simultaneously for long on the refurb store. The revised price will probably remain until Apple no longer sell it. The only other way there would be a price change would be due to an exchange rate change that the Apple hedge didn’t account for, that will usually spell a price increase for euro customers.

The price correction on the m2 will have been welcome but if you need one then the 319 usd base model is the sweet spot there. As you add extra storage and ram onto the older model the m4 model becomes the wiser buy on account of the fact it has 16Gb ram as standard. There’s also the issue of the 256gb storage models being hamstrung by the slow nand module from the m2 generation.

My forecast will be that we might see m2 refurbs on sale occasionally in the Apple refurb store in the short to medium term but at some point quite soon they will no longer be offered.

Basically, if you need 16Gb ram in your refurb then get the m4. If your use case is extremely light and a relatively slow 256gb ssd module doesn’t bother you then the base model m2 seems ok.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

Grabbed one. I was still on Intel so this will be a huge jump for me. I plan to use it with a 42 inch LG C3 OLED.

Interesting combo...frugal on the computer and splurge on a monitor (TV)?

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

Unfortunately a 8GB/256 Mac is equivalent to a Ferrari with a 1 gallon fuel tank.

I don't get the analogy. Your car example goes as fast as everyone else's Ferrari then runs out of gas and stops. An 8GB/256 Mac is capped on performance compared to most other configurations. Maybe a Ferrari with 1 cylinder engine is a better analogy?

 

[turbineseaplane]

Interesting combo...frugal on the computer and splurge on a monitor (TV)?

Most people keep monitors longer than computers (would be my guess)

And/or have other usages for a monitor that's a TV (like the OLED in this example)

I use an LG OLED TV with my M4 Mini also

 

[WarmWinterHat]

Most people keep monitors longer than computers (would be my guess)

And/or have other usages for a monitor that's a TV (like the OLED in this example)

I use an LG OLED TV with my M4 Mini also

I still have, and use, a dell 2005fpw monitor that I bought in grad school, in '05 or '06.

 

[EugW]

Interesting combo...frugal on the computer and splurge on a monitor (TV)?

That TV costs much less than a 27” Apple Studio Display for example. Also, 42” OLED TVs have a very low pixel density by modern Mac standards, at about 105 ppi. To make that Retina, you’d have to sit about 3 feet away or so.

Mind you, if text quality isn’t your main concern, 105 ppi could work well at say a 2-foot seating distance.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Also, 42” OLED TVs have a very low pixel density by modern Mac standards, at about 105 ppi. To make that Retina, you’d have to sit about 3 feet away or so.

Which people using larger displays do tend to do

(sit further away)

You bring up a good point in the "retina" discussion that frequently gets overlooked ... user distance from the display

 

[hooptyuber]

You are confused. A Plex server is not the same thing as a media streaming client. A Mac mini makes for a decent Plex server, but not a good media streaming client box for a TV.

I didn't say a single solitary word about Plex servers. Do you understand that? That was someone else on this thread who wants his media tech to work to the level of a ten-year-old child. Apparently you're confused.

I correctly pointed out that you get a lot more value and flexibility out of a $319 Mac mini than you get out of a $100 Apple TV for not that much more money. You can watch YouTube ad free with the Brave browser. The YouTube app on Apple TV is awful. You can easily watch Netflix in a browser. Those two alone cover probably 50%+ of the average person's streaming.

Some people are really angry about this point of view. Interesting. I've got some people responding to statements I never made and others even voting with angry emojis about it (LOL). What's my “sin”? Pointing out the value of a cheap Mac.

This place has gotten even dumber and more toxic than most of Reddit.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

Most people keep monitors longer than computers (would be my guess)

And/or have other usages for a monitor that's a TV (like the OLED in this example)

I use an LG OLED TV with my M4 Mini also

You made my point -- you have the latest, greatest Mac Mini...the other person had Intel then upgraded to not the latest, greatest. The latest M4 Mini can be had for only $140 more.

 

[Velli]

My bad. I changed the image. I had used an an image of the latest Mac mini out of habit. Truly wasn't intentional.

People giving this a thumbs down should be banned for life for not being mentally fit for online presence.

 

[Eriamjh1138@DAN]

People over-react to everything, now. Granted, click-bait IS everywhere.

 

[Velli]

You want to see something even crazier. HSN is selling HP laptops with 4GB of memory, a 128GB SSD, Windows S mode. The laptops do have a touch screen. The on-air hosts explaining how the machines are fast, will handle high workloads, lots of apps open, etc., with swirled color plastic cases. And HSN is selling thousands of those machines each week. PT Barnum is still being proven correct today.

Even crazier than that, for obscure reasons I now have two 16GB Windows computers in the household that were about the same price at about the same time as my M1 MBA 8/256 (within 20% or so). And while being provably slower at everyday tasks, they also completely suck on screen quality, battery life, touchpads and keyboard, and one of them is unbearably noisy (the other is okay for light use).

Apple bumping up the base to 16GB doesn’t change the fact that an 8GB Apple Silicon stomps all over equivalent Windows hardware with 16GB. Saying Apple MUST have 16 GB equals saying Windows computers MUST have 32GB. And better screens, keyboards, touchpads, battery life, noise levels etc as well, which for whichever reason isn’t something people get even remotely as riled up about as RAM numbers, even though they are infinitely more important to many light users.

 

[Velli]

I didn't say a single solitary word about Plex servers. Do you understand that? That was someone else on this thread who wants his media tech to work to the level of a ten-year-old child. Apparently you're confused.

I correctly pointed out that you get a lot more value and flexibility out of a $319 Mac mini than you get out of a $100 Apple TV for not that much more money. You can watch YouTube ad free with the Brave browser. The YouTube app on Apple TV is awful. You can easily watch Netflix in a browser. Those two alone cover probably 50%+ of the average person's streaming.

Some people are really angry about this point of view. Interesting. I've got some people responding to statements I never made and others even voting with angry emojis about it (LOL). What's my “sin”? Pointing out the value of a cheap Mac.

This place has gotten even dumber and more toxic than most of Reddit.

What you said was: “A $319 dollar Mac mini is a better option than an Apple TV.”

This statement on it’s own is false, since it depends on how you want to use it. I’m assuming this is what people reacted to. You then qualified your statement with:

“It's a bit more expensive but it's far more capable, versatile, and useful as a home entertainment device.”

Capable, versatile, yes. Useful? Not necessarily. I use the Apple TV for everything, using only the Apple TV remote to use several streaming services, including local ones where using a Mac would be very troublesome without a mouse or touchpad. No way in hell I would replace the Apple TV UI with MacOS.

You lined yourself up for negative comments by falsely summarizing to “better option”.

Edit: I see you prefer to downvote without comments than argue against rationale. Maybe that shows who is responsible for the alleged toxicity.

 

[raythompsontn]

And while being provably slower at everyday tasks, they also completely suck on screen quality, battery life, touchpads and keyboard, and one of them is unbearably noisy (the other is okay for light use)

And people still buy those machines. A crappy machine at $300 is a better choice for many people over an Apple Laptop for $800. Sometimes crappy is much better than nothing.

If you really want to see poor quality machines, look no further than the Chromebooks being provided to the students at local high schools. Granted the districts cannot afford $800 per student so a Chromebook at $150 is probably OK. Plus the Chromebook is relatively secure, files stored at Google where the school has control.

The screens are horrible, the trackpads barely functional, the absolute low end of the PC spectrum. What does amaze me is how well the machines are built structurally. Those kids hold on to the laptops by screen, slam them on the desks, jostle them in backpacks that get tossed on the floor. Yet those machines continue to work. The kids don't take care of their cell phones as verified by the number of cracked screens, they certainly do not take care of laptops they really don't own.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

That TV costs much less than a 27” Apple Studio Display for example. Also, 42” OLED TVs have a very low pixel density by modern Mac standards, at about 105 ppi. To make that Retina, you’d have to sit about 3 feet away or so.

Mind you, if text quality isn’t your main concern, 105 ppi could work well at say a 2-foot seating distance.

What does any of that have to do with what I said (which was basically cheap out on the computer but have a pricey monitor)? Talk of pixel density or quality or the ASD? Not the point. Just thought it odd to have a nice OLED screen (probably >$1000 when purchased) but not spend an extra $140 and get the latest M4 Mac Mini.

 

[Velli]

And people still buy those machines. A crappy machine at $300 is a better choice for many people over an Apple Laptop for $800. Sometimes crappy is much better than nothing.

Which is why I underlined that these machines were not $300. One retailed for more than 1000 USD, the other 800 USD, when the list price of the MBA was 1000 USD (I paid less). In other words, bad and flawed excuse. I would have no issue with crappy 300 USD machines if what I got for 1000 USD was actually good. I have yet to have had an example of thatbplaced in my hands. Every time someone shows me a Windows computer that actually seems to be pretty good, although typically with tradeoffs vs the Mac*, it turns out to be 2000+ USD.

*Generally no Windows computer I have touched at any price matches Apple’s touchpad, for instance. But then they have benefits such as touchscreens (if that’s your thing). Not counting software support, which is not really objectively comparable.

 

[EugW]

What does any of that have to do with what I said (which was basically cheap out on the computer but have a pricey monitor)? Talk of pixel density or quality or the ASD? Not the point. Just thought it odd to have a nice OLED screen (probably >$1000 when purchased) but not spend an extra $140 and get the latest M4 Mac Mini.

Since I have to spell it out for you: The point is it's not actually that expensive. It's not exactly cheap, but by computer monitor standards, it's not very high end either. In fact, it's arguably a budget solution to get a large OLED monitor, one that doesn't have the high pixel densities that typically are recommended for Macs.

As mentioned though, it's not a low end screen either. For a lot of people, it makes more sense to spend a little bit more to get a reasonable screen paired with a budget computer than it does to get an expensive computer with a crappy screen. This is especially true with Apple Silicon, given that these so-called budget machines are actually very fast. An M2 Mac mini's CPU speed is as fast as a mid-range gaming PC's CPU.

 

[Radin.Y]

I seriously think looking back, the 8 GB base will be considered one of the more anti-consumer things Apple has ever done.

In one year they’ve gone from “8 GB is enough” and “8 GB is like 16 on Windows” to 16 GB is the minimum and practically giving away 8 GB Macs.

I fell for it, even though I’ve been a
Mac used since 2010. For my M1 MBA, I opted for 8 GB, thinking I wouldn’t be needing much more because of how “optimized” it is. Boy was I wrong.

My computer is always connected to a 4k when I’m working at my desk. Once things get a little busy (not even heavy), RAM goes in the orange range. Because there’s an external display, Windowserver has a lot of work to do, and that’s something no review on YouTube talked about. I regret it a lot.

 

[turbineseaplane]

I fell for it, even though I’ve been a
Mac used since 2010. For my M1 MBA, I opted for 8 GB, thinking I wouldn’t be needing much more because of how “optimized” it is. Boy was I wrong.

My computer is always connected to a 4k when I’m working at my desk. Once things get a little busy (not even heavy), RAM goes in the orange range. Because there’s an external display, Windowserver has a lot of work to do, and that’s something no review on YouTube talked about. I regret it a lot.

The truth is that the 8GB RAM ASi Macs were "optimized" for one thing .... "margins"

 

[macintologist]

Please don’t link to X posts or if you do then provide a screenshot.

 

[seanmcbay]

Changed my mind and I’m gonna return this. I didn’t realize M4s were not that much more. I’d rather have that with 16gb for a little more.

 

[StoneJack]

The truth is that the 8GB RAM ASi Macs were "optimized" for one thing .... "margins"

I have 3 Macs with 8GB of RAM and 32GB Windows PC desktop with 11th generation Intel and 12GB GPU AMD Radeon. Macs are M1 mini, Air M2 and Macbook Pro M3. Tasks are office, games, some video editing, music work (Logic). All macs are as fast as the PC if not faster. Even M1 beats Windows in boot and general smoothness of work and operations. As a geek who enjoys assembling computers for fun, I'd appreciate if Apple put more RAM in the machines, however, they work perfectly fine with 8GB. So I have no complaints.

 

[Westside guy]

This would be a great media server. Attach a big hard drive; load Jellyfin on it; and hey, presto, you're done!

 

[johnsawyercjs]

How dare you use facts and the evidence of your personal experience! At this rate, you'll never be a clickbait youtube influencer wannabe! /s

The thing that really holds me back from doing that is I can't find the right hair gel

 

[turbineseaplane]

I have 3 Macs with 8GB of RAM and 32GB Windows PC desktop with 11th generation Intel and 12GB GPU AMD Radeon. Macs are M1 mini, Air M2 and Macbook Pro M3. Tasks are office, games, some video editing, music work (Logic). All macs are as fast as the PC if not faster. Even M1 beats Windows in boot and general smoothness of work and operations. As a geek who enjoys assembling computers for fun, I'd appreciate if Apple put more RAM in the machines, however, they work perfectly fine with 8GB. So I have no complaints.

That's great! Enjoy!

(still doesn't mean they weren't optimized for mega margins - multiple things can be true here)