I purchased a refurbished MacBook Pro with a 16-inch screen from the Apple Store years ago and they sent it to me.
I will never do it again… I saved 20%, but unfortunately after a couple of years, in the morning I found my MacBook Pro swollen, the battery had swollen, destroying the keyboard and making the device unusable.
Apple’s warranty was one year, so if I wanted to fix it it was all at my expense.
I’ve always had new Macs, my G5 and G4 ibook are still perfect and working.
After the refurbished experience I have always purchased new devices and have no longer had any problems.
The packaging and cables were all original to the device.
I saved right at $450.00 (over Best Buy, Amazon, B&H, Apple Store)
More than enough to purchase AppleCare+ - A full three year Apple warranty
Packaging is like new; the box, the computer, cables, everything
Yes, everything comes with it
At least here in the USA, you have 14 days to evaluate the computer and return it, no questions asked, at Apple’s expense. If, for any reason, you don’t like it, package it up and send it back. Well, I suppose you’re out of luck if you spill coffee all over the keyboard, but as mentioned, I done just that with two refurbs I’ve purchased over the years. One, many years ago, just would not stay connected to WiFi; I returned it; the next one was great and lasted my wife many, many years. Then, a few weeks ago, I returned the 16GB model and ordered the 32GB one. No questions asked either time; money promptly refunded to my credit card; Apple paid for the return FedEx shipping…so easy.
As for the comment further down about someone else buying a refurbished laptop and then having a swollen battery; so did lots of other people- including so many people who had purchased NEW computers that Apple set up a website where users can determine if their MacBook Pro will qualify for the free replacement battery.
And, they are constantly adding/deleting products. So, if you don’t see the configuration you are looking for right now, check back later in the day / they might have it then. When I was looking at 14" laptops, the selection fluctuated quite a bit depending upon color, memory and capacity.
Thank you Dave, Lukh and Jannis, this is very helpful information.
In the NL they do offer the return option for 14 days. Warranty is the same as a new one: a year. The pricing… not so much discount, it wouldn’t compensate for Apple care+. However, 3rd party sellers offer 2 years of warranty.
Being that I have a M1 Mini sitting as the 2nd machine, I figured I’d switch over to using it, before upgrading to the M2 model (regular or Pro). I figured I’ll see how it performs, then that will help me decide which I need to go for.
As @Parker above said, even the base model with only 8gb of ram is working fine, with everything as detailed above somewhere open and running! I’m actually quite stunned just how well this little machine copes with only 8GB ram!
I’m going to continue testing for another week or so, but all things considered, I’d say the regular Mini M2 will do grand.
I am considering even just sticking with the M1, but I need way more space that just 250GB of internal storage. I do run several external SSD’s, but with only two USB C ports on the back, it’s limiting as to how many I can plug in.
On that note, if anyone has any suggestions for USB C hubs I’d love to hear them. Most I’ve seen add loads of useless ports and only two USB C’s, which is daft.
Bloody hell, mad expensive! Why so much? Amazon has USB-c hubs from reputable brands for £50!
On another note… The Mac Mini M1. It’s brilliant! I got it not long after they launched it, but only ever used it as an archive and CCTV machine. Last week I removed the iMac from my desk, hooked two monitors up to the Mini and it’s still doing all the background stuff, plus my daily work stuff, and it’s skipping along perfectly. No lag, no beachballing, nothing.
Activity monitor tells me I’m using all the ram and about 4gb of swap. Which I’m assuming means about 4gb of the internal ssd is being used as ram. Butr even so, it’s working perfectly.
I’ve hooked up a USB-C external drive for Dropbox and docs, and it’s a total winner.
I will most likely replace it with a newer one at some point, and it’ll most likely be the Mini M2 Pro, as this machine is destined to replace the old Mini in my office in Spain, but for now it’ll do grand!
I think it’s fullspeed Thunderbolt 40gbps and has plenty of ports.
EDIT: I suppose I should explain what I need!
The Mini has two USB-c Ports. One I’m using for a monitor (a 2nd monitor is plugged into the HDMI port), the other to attach an SSD that contains my Dropbox files and docs etc. I need to connect more external SSD’s (ideally via USB-C for speed). I also have a USB-3 hub, so if that can be incoprated into the new hub, all the better.
I don’t need to the new Thuderbolt hub for powering/charging devices, it’s really just to get some more USB-C ports for more external drives.
Maybe going for a Thunderbolt hub is overkill for me? I realise now the difference between them and regular USB-C ports is speed. But if I’m only plugging in external Samsung SSD’s, do they need 40gbps? Maybe 10 is fine? How fast are SSD’s.
I know, I should know all this stuff, but I’ve always been lcueless on this front. Help is welcome!
MORE EDIT:
So the fastest external drive I have is a Samsung SSD T7. Which rates as 1,000 MB/s (Bytes) at it’s fastest. I think this equates to about 8000mbps (bits), which I think means there is no benifit to plugging this into a 40 Gb/s Thunderbolt port, or a 10 Gb/s USB-c 3.2 port?
@TemplateRepo did you find a USB-C hub, with multiple USB-C connections available? I don’t need like SD Card, HDMI or Ethernet, just some more USB-C ports.