Refurbished apple thunderbolt display , buy or wait

[longthizzz]

looking to buy a monitor to hook up to my mbp , debating on whether to buy a Refurbished thunderbolt display 27 Originally released September 2011 799 from the apple store , or should i wait for a newer gen to come out , i looked into the macrumoer buy guided , and it says dont buy .. should i wait to buy the newer gen if it releases.


also i never brought anything Refurbished from apple before , how is the condition , quality , how would it hold up if i were to buy a brand new one out the box ..or does it matter how you use it /?

 

[tobefirst ⚽️]

To answer the question about refurbished quality: you won't be able to tell, once you get it out of the box, that it even is refurbished. All of the Apple refurb products I've bought have been flawless, both in presentation and in working.

 

[theluggage]

should i wait to buy the newer gen if it releases.

Trouble is, nobody knows

• when or if a new Thunderbolt Display will be released.
• whether it will be a "4k" screen (which would require an October 2014 rMBP with Thunderbolt 2).
• whether Apple will produce a Magasafe 2 - to Magsafe 1 adapter so it can be used to power 'classic' MacBook Pros.
• What size it will be. In some ways a ~22" 3840x2160 '4k' display with a default 'pixel doubled' resolution of 1080p (so a 'retina'-ized 21.5 iMac) make sense. Pixel-doubling the 1440p Thunderbolt display would require 5k, more than current interfaces can do. 27"@3840x2160 would give rather large icons and system fonts c.f. the current TBD - to get comparable screen estate you'd have to use 'scaled' mode (which might tax a less-capable GPU).
• how much it will cost - could be pricey if its 4k.

My uneducated guess is that Apple are now holding fire until (a) 4k matures a bit and (b) they have Thunderbolt 2 across the range on new Macs, so they can go 4k.

If you have a pre-Thunderbolt 2 MBP, especially a 'classic' one with no Magsafe 2, it might be worth going with the refurb TBD.

 

[pogoyoyo]

I recently bought one from the apple store and i have to say; It's showing it's age.
It requires an adapter for the new power cables (included) which is annoying.
It lacks USB 3.0
The resolution on my 15" rMBP is higher and if the iMac rumours are true, the next thunderbolt display will be pushing 6k resolution.
Although gorgeous, It's quite bulky and thick looking.
It's really heavy.
The built in speakers are not very good
The built in microphone is god awful. People tell me I sound like i'm in a tunnel.

It's not worth the money right now. Wait it out.

 

[longthizzz]

I recently bought one from the apple store and i have to say; It's showing it's age.
It requires an adapter for the new power cables (included) which is annoying.
It lacks USB 3.0
The resolution on my 15" rMBP is higher and if the iMac rumours are true, the next thunderbolt display will be pushing 6k resolution.
Although gorgeous, It's quite bulky and thick looking.
It's really heavy.
The built in speakers are not very good
The built in microphone is god awful. People tell me I sound like i'm in a tunnel.

It's not worth the money right now. Wait it out.

I'll wait it out thanks guy

----------

Trouble is, nobody knows

• when or if a new Thunderbolt Display will be released.
• whether it will be a "4k" screen (which would require an October 2014 rMBP with Thunderbolt 2).
• whether Apple will produce a Magasafe 2 - to Magsafe 1 adapter so it can be used to power 'classic' MacBook Pros.
• What size it will be. In some ways a ~22" 3840x2160 '4k' display with a default 'pixel doubled' resolution of 1080p (so a 'retina'-ized 21.5 iMac) make sense. Pixel-doubling the 1440p Thunderbolt display would require 5k, more than current interfaces can do. 27"@3840x2160 would give rather large icons and system fonts c.f. the current TBD - to get comparable screen estate you'd have to use 'scaled' mode (which might tax a less-capable GPU).
• how much it will cost - could be pricey if its 4k.

My uneducated guess is that Apple are now holding fire until (a) 4k matures a bit and (b) they have Thunderbolt 2 across the range on new Macs, so they can go 4k.

If you have a pre-Thunderbolt 2 MBP, especially a 'classic' one with no Magsafe 2, it might be worth going with the refurb TBD.

I might take you advice n wait it out till Oct
If no update I'll buy the current one

Thank for the help out

----------

To answer the question about refurbished quality: you won't be able to tell, once you get it out of the box, that it even is refurbished. All of the Apple refurb products I've bought have been flawless, both in presentation and in working.

Thanks guy

 

[cambookpro]

The thing is, Apple's display release schedules are totally unpredictable. Part of me thinks if they were going to release a 4K display, they would've done it with the release of the new Mac Pro. After all, otherwise people will just buy other displays.

Bearing that in mind, maybe look at a third party 4K monitor if you really want 4K. Apple sell a Sharp one so it works fine with Macs. Plus, it'll be cheaper than any Apple 4K display.

You can't beat the simplicity of the TBD, but you need to decide if you want a slightly outdated, but still very good, monitor or a modern but 'unApple' monitor.

 

[theluggage]

Part of me thinks if they were going to release a 4K display, they would've done it with the release of the new Mac Pro. After all, otherwise people will just buy other displays.

At the Mac Pro announcement last summer, they specifically mentioned "Third party 4k displays" so this is no great surprise. I suspect a lot of Mac Pro customers have always bought third party displays in the past, anyway - graphics pros seem fairly universally against glossy screens. The 27" LED Cinema display and subsequent Thunderbolt display are primarily designed as MacBook peripherals.

I suspect that Apple's next priority will be an external 'retina' display targetted at retina MBP owners.

 

[Acronyc]

I recently bought one from the apple store and i have to say; It's showing it's age.
It requires an adapter for the new power cables (included) which is annoying.
It lacks USB 3.0
The resolution on my 15" rMBP is higher and if the iMac rumours are true, the next thunderbolt display will be pushing 6k resolution.
Although gorgeous, It's quite bulky and thick looking.
It's really heavy.
The built in speakers are not very good
The built in microphone is god awful. People tell me I sound like i'm in a tunnel.

It's not worth the money right now. Wait it out.

I bought an Apple refurbished TBD recently for about US$550 and thought I'd provide another perspective.

So far I have been really pleased with the TBD. Sure, the resolution is not as high as my 15" 2012 rMBP, but I sit farther away from it than I do my rMBP so it isn't really that noticeable to me.

The power adapter is, to me, a non-issue. It's not like I'm taking the adapter with me all the time.

The lack of USB 3.0 is disappointing, especially if you require fast transfer speeds. I have been using USB 2.0 hubs for a while though with my rMBP and I don't need fast transfer speeds for anything, so it's fine for me.

It's thicker and heavier than the 23" LG it replaced, but it's not ridiculously thick or heavy and I think it still looks quiet nice. I'm actually saving a lot of desk space with it because I got rid of some USB hubs I was using and my bluetooth speakers.

I've found the built in speakers to actually be very good, and much better than my bluetooth speakers. Granted, I live in a small studio apartment in Tokyo so I'm not really blasting music that much, but I've found they are perfectly fine for my use.

I've had no issues with the microphone or anyone say anything to me about it sounding bad.

I don't think it's worth $799 and the US store seems to have them overpriced. In the Japanese Apple store a refurbished TBD is about US$640 at current exchange rates, and some third-party retailers have official Apple refurbished displays for even less. If you can find a deal on it like I was able to, I think it can still be a great monitor. Otherwise, I'd get something else or wait to see if Apple eventually releases an update.

 

[thetechfixer]

The Thunderbolt display is great but I would wait for one with a higher resolution

 

[indiekiduk]

I recently bought one from the apple store and i have to say; It's showing it's age.
It requires an adapter for the new power cables (included) which is annoying.
It lacks USB 3.0
The resolution on my 15" rMBP is higher and if the iMac rumours are true, the next thunderbolt display will be pushing 6k resolution.
Although gorgeous, It's quite bulky and thick looking.
It's really heavy.
The built in speakers are not very good
The built in microphone is god awful. People tell me I sound like i'm in a tunnel.

It's not worth the money right now. Wait it out.

"Best Apple product pipeline ever" Maybe the new display will have a soldered on cable.