No complaints from me, but you might want to ask Jony. He seems to believe thinness trumps everything else.
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Apple Now Selling Refurbished 13-Inch MacBook Pro With Touch Bar
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No complaints from me, but you might want to ask Jony. He seems to believe thinness trumps everything else.
Happens when somebody returns a refurbished product? Does Apple refurbish it again and put it back on sale? I'm just curious because I'm almost sure a lot of people will be up returning those as well.
My "perfect Mac" would be the 12" with the updated keyboard and Touch Bar. I like the 13" MacBook Pro with Touch Bar but also like the size and weight of the 12" MacBook.
Sure. I had bought a Time Capsule, and the WIFI antennas failed within about a month. They ended up swapping it out at the store for a new one. More recently (as in, this week) my Apple Watch Series 2 had the Taptic Engine fail after just a week of owning it. With that one, they had to "send it for repair" meaning mail it to their distribution center and just mail me another one. Either way, both refurbished products purchased, both failed rather quickly. This isn't a knock at Apple's warranty as they immediately took care of both. But like I said, twice scorned and I just don't think I'd go back to buying refurbished again.
A Mac "Pro" featuring Intel Iris Graphics. I still can't stop laughing when I see that.
Just wanted to point out that the Touch Bar is not the only thing you are getting for the $300 difference. There is a significantly faster CPU in the touchbar model(2.9GHz v 2.0GHz), a faster integrated GPU(Intel Iris Graphics 550 v 540), faster RAM(2133MHz v 1866MHz), Touch ID, and two additional Thunderbolt 3 ports. When you factor the TouchBar back into the whole picture, I think that you're definitely getting a solid $300 worth of upgrades, when comparing it to the non-TB model. I do understand that, when compared to the 2015 models, the discussion around price points changes, but I'm hoping they are able to bring the prices down closer to 2015 levels soon.
You are late. I discovered almost every version of the 13- and 15-inch with Touch Bar in the German refurbished store since early March or maybe even before. 
Edit: Seems very much of these got returned or just didn't sell good and aren't even refurbished. It's really early for Apple to do this.
Edit: Seems very much of these got returned or just didn't sell good and aren't even refurbished. It's really early for Apple to do this.
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I hope thats not a trend, as far as defectives! I've been buying refurbed Macs almost exclusively since 2000 and had excellent luck with them..I always buy new iPhones! Better luck next time
Fair and reasonable MacBook pricing died with Steve Jobs.
2011 lineup
Along with any hopes of a 17-inch portable at a reasonable price (or being available at all).
I've also had a couple of not-so-renewed refurbs. I went thru 3 rMBP13" (2015) with various issues, the last one showed a battery cycle of 1 but battery age was 340 days and battery health was down to 94% out of the box.
Seems to me like someone just reset the counter.
It's very unfortunate.
Who knows, maybe they'll give us a 17" iPad "Pro Pro", but it will still use the same interface as an iPod Touch and have a maximum of 5 apps in the dock.
Yea, but Apple was known to have a near-new standard for refurbs, unlike some PC manufacturers.
Him and I noticed a slipping of that standard. In my case, batteries used to be 100%+ and less than 3 months old, now I got a well used battery with a counter reset. Kinda like the used car guy dialling back the odometer.
Also the measly 15% discount they offer for previously used products compared to 10% or sometimes more discounts for new products at retailers, diminishes the value refurbs previously offered.
Yet another sad development.
Thing to remember with the non Touchbar version vs Touchbar, is that the non Touchbar PCIe SSD can be removed. Now, the Apple PCIe SSD also has a custom chip on it to crank out faster throughput over your typical 3rd party drive, but it at least is not soldered to the mainboard.
Touchbar in that respect is a step backwards... let alone loss of optical out, SD slot, HDMI, etc over the prior years.
I think the other considerations you have to configure that was not mentioned in your post, was the non-Touch Bar version does have a larger battery and a 54.5 Watt versus a the Touch Bar version at a 49.2 Watt.
Also, reports for the battery usage on the non-Touch Bar version seems to stronger results in longevity as well. I just think Touch Bar is a personal preference for somebody if they truly appreciate for what It can do, and you do make a sacrifice in the battery with Touch Bar in the long run when you configure the differences.
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Most likely.
That's part of the problem with limiting iOS to a single concept.
And likewise limiting MacOS to a single concept.
The area in the middle becomes a wasteland.
It would take some work. But MacOS is very much capable of being adapted to a touch interface.
Essentially your finger becomes the mouse pointer. Some programs would be unusable that way. But, for those they already have keyboards for iPads.
Personally, I find the concept of a keyboard with limited usefulness on an iPad to be more awkward than the idea of MacOS on a tablet with a touch screen for navigation and a keyboard for typing.
The touchbar is essentially an OLED strip which is lit up when in use, so I guess that invariably contributes to increased power consumption.
Is that like car showrooms where they pre-register the cars and sell them cheaper, is Apple "Pre-registering, ahem refurbishing them at a cheaper price"
It took 9 months for the 2015 macbook 12 retina to show up at the refurbished store. The 2016 none touch bar was up in 4 months - think what you want, but these machines are coming from somewhere... Not like apple makes refurbished laptops.
On the topic of refurbs
I bought a 15" 2014 refurbished MacBook Pro with the nvidia 750m dGPU, and out of the box it had artifacts on the screen and red lines.
So I don't really believe that Apple refurbs are thoroughly checked as stated. However, they are fantastic from an aesthetic point of view, basically brand new.
I bought a 15" 2014 refurbished MacBook Pro with the nvidia 750m dGPU, and out of the box it had artifacts on the screen and red lines.
So I don't really believe that Apple refurbs are thoroughly checked as stated. However, they are fantastic from an aesthetic point of view, basically brand new.
I'm of the exact opposite opinion... I don't believe that there are any benefits to the consumer in buying Apple refurbs.
First, with just a little patience one can find brand new units for sale from retailers for LESS than an Apple refurb.
Second, the "more intimate QC testing" seems to be more of an urban myth than based on concrete evidence. People repeat that because they've heard others say it but have no evidence to support that. I find nothing on the Apple refurb page to indicate that "more intimate QC testing" is performed than (A) manufacturing QC testing and (B) any other computer manufacturer.
I am more inclined to believe that at one time in the past that statement was true, but without evidence to support that claim today, I wouldn't believe it now.
Having tried out the 13" MBP with touchbar for a few days, I can say I too didn't think I would use it. However, it's cleverly integrated into the system. It's a nice design that brings many of the best shortcuts of a touchscreen without getting fingerprints on the screen.
I cannot believe that the touchbar itself can add that much to the total price. After all, Windows PCs of higher than FHD are pretty much almost all touchscreens. I'm assuming that if Apple is eschewing that aesthetic of touching the screen itself, they've worked out an efficient way to do this. If they cannot do it in a cost-effective way, I don't get all the hullaballoo about it.
You are late. I discovered almost every version of the 13- and 15-inch with Touch Bar in the German refurbished store since early March or maybe even before.
Edit: Seems very much of these got returned or just didn't sell good and aren't even refurbished. It's really early for Apple to do this.
They have sold really well. Hell they couldn't keep them in stock from the end of November until January/February and built to order took a month! A lot were returned because the battery life on many wasn't good especially on the 13" TBs. I returned two 15" space greys myself. One was a 2.6/256/450 and another 2.7/512/455 that had a scratch on the lid. I kept the third one. I know many people that exchanged their machines multiple times like I did. They had a really generous return policy until Jan 9th if you bought it in November. The problem was really 10.12.1 which shipped with them. After 10.12.2 & especially 10.12.3 all battery problems were fixed. I get 9.5-10 on my 15" and I love it. Using the adapters is not a hassle for me, the touchpad is the best and the keyboard you get used to after a few weeks. $3k for a mac is really not a big deal for me. I'm sure if these machines were listed for $1299-1799 (13"-15") there would be much fewer complaints. The people who have bought them are happy with them. My SSD is stupid fast and the performance is great. Kaby Lake isn't even a 10% boost. The big improvements are happening with their arm chips. The performance difference between the A8 and A10 Fusion is really huge.
The AMD GPUs are the only weak link here but still good for nearly anything unless you work in Hollywood or for a AAA game dev. For normal "pro" Adobe users, these machines have more than enough performance and no other laptop offers 4 TB3 ports for dual 5k displays, etc. Are they expensive compared to everything else? Yeah but Apple has never been cheap and they have never included the greatest GPUs. It's only recent (last 2 years) that nvidia has developed powerful mobile GPUs. And if everyone here is a "pro," $3-4K should be nothing if you're making money. Too many amateur YouTube "pros" complaining about lack of SD card slots and USB type B ports.
Its only when band new products bought are returned do they go on the refurb store as part of their policy.... They are fixed up to look like-new before Apple sells them on the refurbished store.. plus all the documentation and warranties as buying brand new... The only difference, if it could be scrached, and not in retail box... (brown unmarked box)
Apple wouldn't really be making much money if they just re-branded refurbished and sell it for $100 more on the store.
https://www.apple.com/shop/browse/home/specialdeals/refurbfaq_popup