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Originally released June 2012
15.4-inch (diagonal) Retina display; 2880-by-1800 resolution at 220 pixels per inch
8GB of 1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM
512GB Flash Storage
720p FaceTime HD Camera
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 1GB of GDDR5 memory

$2379


this one is still available lol anybody got that kind of money laying around?

http://store.apple.com/us/product/FC976LL/A
 
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They just added a 2.6/16/512 for $2,549! I cancelled my first order and went with this one! So excited!
 
So let me get this if you buy a refurbished RMBP laptop your saying there won't be any dents or scratches on them?? Like for example where all the ports are to plug in connections...?? Are you saying they will be in MINT MINT condition like its BRAND NEW? For some reason I find this hard to believe...[/QUOTE]

That is why its called a "Refurb" versus "Used".

Apple checks the case and the internals for use and replaces them. I have bought many Apple refurbs and never once could I ever find anything that says it was used or a store demo or whatever. Only giveaway was the brown/white box that it came in.

When you buy a new Apple machine and the moment you cut open the plastic cover and open another plastic cover on your mac, right there at that instant it has transitioned from new to refurbished state. In the sense that, even return it immediately or after 14 days it will end up in the refurbished store.

So if you are wondering if I returned it immediately I know its new so i can accept that. But what if I used to for a few weeks and then returned it? Well the answer to that is, irrespective of wether you used it for 14 seconds or 14 days, Apple still inspects the machine for use or wear and tear and replaces the parts and puts it for sale on the refurbished store. The clue here is, refurbished mac's are not that cheap or at throwaway prices. They are still pricey, but better than new one.

So hopefully that should ease your stigma about refurb Apple products. I have also had good luck with SONY products that way.

And many of them have won the so called "Refurb Lottery" where they order 4 GB and get 8 GB RAM, double the hard disk size or twice the memory on the video card etc etc etc...

So what makes refurbs exciting is you don't know what you are going to get. Probably more, but never less than a perfect machine as you ordered.
 
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".

Apple checks the case and the internals for use and replaces them. I have bought many Apple refurbs and never once could I ever find anything that says it was used or a store demo or whatever. Only giveaway was the brown/white box that it came in.

When you buy a new Apple machine and the moment you cut open the plastic cover and open another plastic cover on your mac, right there at that instant it has transitioned from new to refurbished state. In the sense that, even return it immediately or after 14 days it will end up in the refurbished store.

Exactly. I had very good luck with a refurbished Mac that I purchased a few years ago. Apart from the ordinary shipping box that it arrived in, it was indistinguishable from a new Mac. I'd argue that it was even better since you know it was personally inspected by someone, while a new Mac could simply have come off the assembly line and into a box with a defect.

I have no qualms at all about ordering a refurbished Mac or recommending one to someone else. After I lost my 2012 MacBook Air, I wavered between getting a refurbished MacBook Air and the new 13" rMBP that I wound up with. The former was tempting since it would have been no net money out of pocket (my insurance proceeds less the deductible would have covered the cost of a refurb).
 
Nice pickup. If I didn't need a new laptop until Summer I would have got it before you ;)

I was considering waiting until summer, too; but then I came to the realization that my MBP from 1Q 2007 might not survive that long... haha

This is my first experience with an Apple refurb... For AppleCare, I'm assuming you purchase it as you would for a new computer?
 
I was considering waiting until summer, too; but then I came to the realization that my MBP from 1Q 2007 might not survive that long... haha

This is my first experience with an Apple refurb... For AppleCare, I'm assuming you purchase it as you would for a new computer?

Correct.
 
This is my first experience with an Apple refurb... For AppleCare, I'm assuming you purchase it as you would for a new computer?
Apple refurbished products are considered by most to be a very good deal, as they're pretty much like buying a new Mac, except for the box.
  • Apple Certified Refurbished Products are available online from the Apple Refurb Store and are not sold in local Apple stores
  • Educational discounts do not apply to refurb products.
  • Refurb products come with the same warranty as new products, and qualify for AppleCare
  • Refurb products have a changed serial number that identifies them as refurbished
  • Refurb products come with whatever OS version and software they originally shipped with as new
  • Refurb products come with the same items in the box as new products, only the box is a plain one, not the new box.
  • A refurb product could have some cosmetic signs of prior use, but rarely do
  • A refurb Mac may have some cycles on the battery, but not a significant enough amount to affect usable life
  • The refurb store inventory changes frequently, sometimes several times a day, and doesn't have any direct relation to upcoming product releases. What's available in the refurb store is determined by what has been returned to Apple.
  • If you're looking for a particular item, refurb.me can alert you when it becomes available.
 
My intuition tells me most of these refurbished rMBPs will receive LG displays with image retention, although these are very good deals.
 
im not surprised with the amount of people buying and returning this model.

If you want to even save more money on a refurb, checkout with the student discount. You dont have to prove what school you went to or anything, just add a university or college name on checkout and thats it! In stores they require you to show your student card. This is what an apple store salesperson told me. Then I ordered my macbook pro retina with the student discount. Saved quite a bit of money and it worked!

FYI: Im in canada, not sure if the rules are different to the guys south of the border.

Hopefully this works and helps you guys save a little more. :)

I'm sure it will be purchasers like you who Apple will charge with ruining a student discount. Student discounts are for students.

Of course, a good retort would be that students who have the money to buy said Apple machines probably don't need a student discount either. But I still feel its unfair of you to take advantage of a student discount when you are not a student.
 
Apple refurbished products are considered by most to be a very good deal, as they're pretty much like buying a new Mac, except for the box.
  • Apple Certified Refurbished Products are available online from the Apple Refurb Store and are not sold in local Apple stores
  • Educational discounts do not apply to refurb products.
  • Refurb products come with the same warranty as new products, and qualify for AppleCare
  • Refurb products have a changed serial number that identifies them as refurbished
  • Refurb products come with whatever OS version and software they originally shipped with as new
  • Refurb products come with the same items in the box as new products, only the box is a plain one, not the new box.
  • A refurb product could have some cosmetic signs of prior use, but rarely do
  • A refurb Mac may have some cycles on the battery, but not a significant enough amount to affect usable life
  • The refurb store inventory changes frequently, sometimes several times a day, and doesn't have any direct relation to upcoming product releases. What's available in the refurb store is determined by what has been returned to Apple.
  • If you're looking for a particular item, refurb.me can alert you when it becomes available.
I know what you mean; I prefer to have the original box/packaging etc.

Are the retina models available in the UK refurbished store?
 
Then refurbished isn't the way to go for you.

You can check here.

"Prefer" is not the same as "must have." For 15% off list, lots of people can probably live without the nice box. I ordered a refurbished Mac once and it worked out very well for me. From my recollection, the shipping box was the only box. The Mac, power accessories, etc. were placed into form-fitting foam inserts that were built into the white shipping box. It made it ridiculously easy to ship it when I ultimately sold it on eBay.
 
I bet most of these refurbs have the image retention problem.

Or... There is a better chance they were returned for image retention only to be refurbished with a Samsung panel...

Even so, you can have Apple replace the display just the same. There is really no downside to getting a refurb even if it is more likely to have an LG panel.
 
Because you can save money.
Because they are usually perfect.
Because you still get the full 1 year warranty.
Because you can still buy the extended Applecare protection.
Because technicians have QA'd the system, not line workers.
Because a Refurb has passed more quality testing than a system off the production line.

Question is.....Why NOT buy a refurb?

Exactly! My original 15" rMBP was awesome expect for the 8GB of RAM. I returned it to obtain one with 16GB of RAM. So, the original is now a refurb with no problems, plus Apple does the QA to make sure...
 
I bet most of these refurbs have the image retention problem.

I returned a MBA with Samsung screen which was in perfect condition. I just opted for the retina MBP.

So there might be some with IR issues but not all.Plus, when it was returned saying it had IR issues, Apple will replace the panel anyway. Its cheaper to replace the panel then keep sending and getting back the same units.
 
I finally bought a refurbished rMBP today!

I had been debating if I should buy a new rMBP with 16GB of ram or a refurb with only 8GB. I decided that the $530 difference made the refurbished unit a much better deal. Plus I had $200 in Apple gift cards from Christmas, so my final price was $1,669 - not too bad!

As an aside, these have been on the refurbished site for a few days now, but at the rate they are selling should be sold out in another 2-3 days. It's interesting that they waited until they had a big batch of them before they made them available.
 
As an aside, these have been on the refurbished site for a few days now, but at the rate they are selling should be sold out in another 2-3 days. It's interesting that they waited until they had a big batch of them before they made them available.

Well.. forget about them selling out in a couple of days. When I first saw these on the Apple site last Friday, there were about 150 for sale (you can see how many are available on www.refurb.me). This morning that number was down to 67. I just checked again and it's up to 258! They must have a lot of these to sell.

The large quantity and the delay in getting them to the refurbished site makes me wonder if these did go through some extra refurbishing.
 
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