Is a refurbished a 2nd hand Mac?

[frittino]

Hi All,
I wonder if a refurbs Mac is indeed a 2nd hand Mac or they are Macs that
are used in the Apple retail Store? Both of them?

thanks

 

[robbieduncan]

They are either machines that have been returned for some reason and then factory refurbished (hence the name), or occasionally in the case of discontinued models unsold, new machines.

 

[frittino]

They are either machines that have been returned for some reason and then factory refurbished (hence the name), or occasionally in the case of discontinued models unsold, new machines.

So if they are factory refurbished ... it sounds like a brand new Mac.
It sounds a good deal instead buying a new one?

 

[desiringGod]

So if they are factory refurbished ... it sounds like a brand new Mac.
It sounds a good deal instead buying a new one?

It is an excellent deal. You normally save 15-20% off the price of a new one and more on discontinued models.

I bought my wife a refurb MBP last year for $1400-1500. It has been nothing short of spectacular.

I just bought a refurb white MB for $850. It will be here this week.

You get the same warranty, etc, plus there is a chance you a get a free upgrade, because sometimes they send refurbs with extra ram or hard drive capacity.

 

[velocityg4]

So if they are factory refurbished ... it sounds like a brand new Mac.
It sounds a good deal instead buying a new one?

There are many happy owners of refurbished Macs here. They come with the same applecare coverage as a new machine. If they are customer returns they are thoroughly gone over, given a fresh Mac OS X install and any problems the computer may have had are repaired.

Occasionally these machines have some bonus upgrades like extra RAM or a larger hard drive. The specs listed on the page are for default models you find in stores, typically if the original customer ordered it online and say chose an upgrade in the BTO section those upgrades will be included. Unless Apple stopped doing this recently?

The downside however is they come in a brown box rather than the pretty retail box.

Edit: darn you desiringGod you beat me to the punch

 

[Shake 'n' Bake]

Got my Mac mini 2.0 GHz as a refurb. It has been perfect hardware wise. In fact, I got my mini and two Dells as refurbs, and the newer Dell is nearly perfect cosmetically and perfect hardware wise. The older Dell (about 7 years old) has some issues, but is not due to it being a refurb.

 

[bobjob186]

My rule, first apple you buy should be new, just so you can have the feeling. from then on save your money and buy refurb, brown box no glam, just as good machine.

 

[GGJstudios]

http://store.apple.com/Catalog/US/Images/apple_certified.html

 

[Shivetya]

Is it a great deal? Put it this way...

I purchased a refurbished mac book pro for $1699. I can toss on apple care for 349 and barely cost more than a brand new one yet I have the same machine and a 3yr warranty

 

[windowpain]

It may just be japan..but my refurb came in a retail box. Just had a small sticker in one corner saying it was refurbished.

Like many (most?) others my refurb was cosmetically perfect.
Forgot it was a refurb 5 minutes into using it and saved a nice chunk of change. Will definitely buy another when the time comes.

To answer the op, yes they are secondhand, but mine looked like someone had pulled it out of the box, didn't like it and put it straight back..although he must have been wearing gloves as there wasn't even a fingerprint on it.

 

[flyfish29]

I have a great iMac flatscreen in the basement that has been running for many many years and I got it refurbished for something like $1299 when they retailed for $1799. That being said, I had to exchange my first refurb. flatscreen iMac- they forgot to refurb. it. It came with fingerprints, unwound mouse cord, and some dirt on the screen, keys, etc. So obviously my first one was "refurb" on a Friday around 4:45! That being said, Apple replaced it immediately and the "new" one was/still is terrific.

I just got my wife an iPod touch refub. and it is like new. they give it a new case and battery supposedly.

MY QUESTION THOUGH- does Apple replace the battery on laptop refurbished like they do on iPods? I would assume so.

 

[desiringGod]

You can get Applecare on Ebay for much cheaper. Like savings of $100-200 versus buying it from Apple

 

[Shivetya]

You can get Applecare on Ebay for much cheaper. Like savings of $100-200 versus buying it from Apple

I would prefer a retail site to purchase Applecare for my MBP... ebay gives me the willies on things beyond throw away levels of pricing

 

[runebinder]

I've got a similar decision to make next week, getting a Macbook Pro. Been reading round on the forum for people's opinion's on refurbs and it seems like most are more than happy and have a machine that they wouldn't know was brand new apart from the packaging. Seems like if you are unlucky and get a bad refurb, Apple are pretty good on getting it replaced.

I've decided to go for the refurb as I can save over £200 doing so. No box is worth that money lol.

 

[Freewayjim]

I Bought my 12 year old son a refurbished Black Book just after the unibody MacBooks came out last fall for a great price and it's worked like a charm so far.

I would not hesitate to buy another Refurbished item.

 

[js81]

I've had great luck with my refurb Touch. Haven't bought a refurb Mac, though... but my Touch looked brand new, save for the packaging.

 

[Genghis Khan]

Bought a refurb Mac Pro a couple of weeks ago.

You can't tell cosmetically...looks like new.

Currently rendering in HD with it, only thing i hear is the hard drive

 

[desiringGod]

I would prefer a retail site to purchase Applecare for my MBP... ebay gives me the willies on things beyond throw away levels of pricing

I bought mine off ebay with no problems, but if you wanted you could buy it from amazon.com for $50 cheaper.

 

[balamw]

You can't tell cosmetically...looks like new.

At least for notebooks, refurbs include a whole new outer case since they need to assign it a new model and serial number as a refurb. So you REALLY can't tell.

I'm very happy with my refurb unibody MacBook.

One other ting to remember is that HDD and RAM specs for refurbs are minimum values, so that you sometimes get pleasant surprises like the 4 GB of RAM in my MacBook when I only ordered it with 2 GB.

B

 

[frittino]

Sorry for the silly question ... it looks like to me refurbs are a great deal indeed.
What's the benefit to buy a brand new Mac if a refurb is still the same?

 

[robbieduncan]

Sorry for the silly question ... it looks like to me refurbs are a great deal indeed.
What's the benefit to buy a brand new Mac if a refurb is still the same?

It's brand-new in retail packaging. You can't get refurbs consistently so the machine you want may simply only be available brand-new. You can configure your new machine exactly the way you want: refurbs you get what there is and can't upgrade the specs...

 

[windowpain]

What's the benefit to buy a brand new Mac if a refurb is still the same?

Good question... hmm ... A better box?


(serious answer btw)

 

[macrumorsMaster]

What's the benefit to buy a brand new Mac if a refurb is still the same?

Good question... hmm ... A better box?

Better resale value on ebay. Some people are skiddish on buying refurbs there, people are almost always asking if it's a refurb. So a new, used one will most likely get more, and higher bids.

 

[ralphc20]

I have a dilemma

Ok here's the problem I need a new laptop my ibook G4 is running out of hard drive space it has under 5 gigs left

I don't want to spend too much so I was thinking a refurbished white macbook that I haves seen as low as 849 but I really want the aluminum that goes for as low as 1,099. The kicker is the specs are identical the only difference is the cosmetics and that's it for the most part. The whitebook has a faster processor 2.4GHz while the aluminum one has faster bus and all the new features. Decisions decisions

note the aluminum is running at 2.0GHz so yeah there.

 

[desiringGod]

Ok here's the problem I need a new laptop my ibook G4 is running out of hard drive space it has under 5 gigs left

I don't want to spend too much so I was thinking a refurbished white macbook that I haves seen as low as 849 but I really want the aluminum that goes for as low as 1,099. The kicker is the specs are identical the only difference is the cosmetics and that's it for the most part. The whitebook has a faster processor 2.4GHz while the aluminum one has faster bus and all the new features. Decisions decisions

note the aluminum is running at 2.0GHz so yeah there.

The new whitebook is 2.0. They basically are the same computer with these major differences:
1. White has firewire - Alum doesn't (killer for me - which is why I bought the white)
2. Alum has DDR3 ram - White has DDR2 (not that big of difference)
3. Alum looks better and doesn't have the cracking issues that the White does
4. The white is $250 cheaper in the refurb store and $300 cheaper vs new.