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When will the new MacBook Pro be refurbished?
- outside1234 5y agoContext: Refurbished Apple machines are essentially new -- but significantly cheaper. Apple runs them through the manufacturing process again -- including testing and repackaging.
- simoelalj 5y agoNot All Apple refurbished products are created equal though. Apple have literally the BEST condition you can expect on any refurbished product on the market. But all other refurbishers (Gazelle, Mac of All trades, Amazon Warehouse, Decluttr...) grade them in a scale (A, B, C) based on their cosmetic condition and add a year warranty as well.
- ravenstine 5y agoMy M1 Macbook Air was the first computer I've bought in a long time that was brand new instead of refurbished. The only reason I bought new this time was because the keyboard on my old laptop kept burning out and I didn't want to keep replacing it. Most of my electronics were bought as refurbished, and I've never regretted it. It's surprising just how "new' a refurbished item can be at a substantial discount. And not once have I had a issues with refurbished items. (the keyboard issue for my last laptop didn't manifest until after ~6 years of use).
- gambiting 5y agoI keep buying stuff from Amazon Warehouse based on the same principle....heavy discount for a "like new" or "very good condition" items, everything so far has been pretty much completely new, or maybe I'd guess someone opened the box once. Either way, Amazon still offers no questions asked 30 day return and 1 year warranty on everything, so it's a no brainer really.
- boplicity 5y agoI agree with this -- however, for bigger purchases, keep in mind that warranties are not always "transferable", and may not apply to used products.
- gambiting 5y agoAmazon gives 1 year of their own warranty on any warehouse item(at least here in UK). But yes, the manufacturer might or might not honour the original warranty separately to this.
- boplicity 5y agoHere in Canada, there's no 1 year warranty, though they do seem to allow you to buy extended warranties. > Used products generally do not come with a manufacturer's warranty but all of our items are backed by Amazon’s return policy. If you would like additional protection, you can purchase a warranty from Square Trade to cover certain items. Maybe there are better consumer protections in the UK?
- gambiting 5y agohttps://www.amazon.co.uk/Amazon-Warehouse-Deals/b?ie=UTF8&node=3581866031 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Amazon-Warehouse-Deals/b?ie=UTF8&no... "All Amazon Warehouse items are covered under legal warranty for 1 year. If your item becomes defective after the Amazon return period, Amazon will repair any defective item, and if a repair is not possible, we will refund the purchase price in accordance with Amazon's Returns Policy."
- christiangenco 5y agoIt's interesting to me to see that the outlier in time to become refurbished is the Late 2016 MBP (the first version with the Touch Bar). I would've thought the new design would've meant more broken laptops sooner which (I would think) would mean quicker refurbished laptops.
- mcintyre1994 5y agoThis website looks awesome, will definitely use it next time I buy! Super small feedback thing, on your support page (https://www.refurb.me/support https://www.refurb.me/support) you have some HTML sneaking in: Refurbished Products <p>Covering answers and tips about refurbished Apple products in general. We break down the answers into sub-categories.</p>
- simoelalj 5y agoThanks! I just pushed an update to fix that :)
- gnicholas 5y agoJust a nit: > It should be noted that Apple itself is unlikely to sell the new MacBook Pro as refurbished. As soon as it’s released. This should be one sentence, at least to my ear.
- simoelalj 5y agoThanks for the feedback! I rephrased the conclusion :)
- jcadam 5y agoIf a large number of the new MBPs start showing up in the refurb store in the very near future... that's probably not a good sign.
- simoelalj 5y agoThat was the case of the the first Macbook Air M1 (which was super popular): https://www.refurb.me/stats/macbook-air/macbook-air-13.3-inch-m1-late-2020?merchantSlug=apple-store https://www.refurb.me/stats/macbook-air/macbook-air-13.3-inc... 106 days exactly since its first release. The first batch would be more for people who bought it to review it and return it.
- bombcar 5y agoUsually the first batch are all returns of custom configurations which can't be sold as new - and sometimes there are good deals.
- outside1234 5y agoThese are "cold feet" returns usually - its a expensive machine and people have second thoughts.
- Jasper_ 5y agoYou know, I wonder if you could buy a new computer, return it for a refund, and then buy the same configuration back from the refurbished store a month later at a discount.
- chrisBob 5y agoI love getting Apple products refurbished, but I wish people on the internet wouldn't talk about it so much. I just bought a refurbished M1 Macbook Air, and had to settle for less RAM than I would have liked because my preferred configuration went out of stock while I was debating the purchase. The experience is even better now than It used to be. I remember buying an iMac a long time ago and it came in an ugly brown box that screamed "you bought this at a discount". My recent Macbook Air just has a tiny "refurbished by Apple" note on what is otherwise normal retail packaging.
- mnahkies 5y agoI've only ever brought one Apple product and it was a refurbished "blackbook" - really was a no brainer, I got the top of the line model for the price of a base model MacBook with no discernible difference in quality. That laptop lasted close to 10 years with a few battery replacements along the way
- fouc 5y agoI bought a white macbook in 2006 from the apple refurbished store, no packaging differences from brand new. I bought a 13" rMBP in 2016 from the apple refurbished store, no packaging differences from brand new.
- spicybright 5y agoI know it shouldn't matter on a practical level, but I love apple product boxes. For smaller devices I'll even use them as drawer organizers. They're so rugged!
- mehrdada 5y agoApple's own refurbs usually come with a box identical to the retail one except they don't have the graphics and they are just white and just have a wordmark, e.g. "MacBook Pro", in the center, so you can still use them for storage.
- simoelalj 5y agoThat was exactly my pain point back in 2007 when I wanted to get a specific configuration for the retina Macbook Pro. That's why I built RefurbMe as a comparison and monitoring service :)
- bombcar 5y agoIf they went off "ship date" instead of "order date" they'd have more accurate info. Some Mac releases ship immediately upon announcement, others are announced well in advance of first shipments.
- simoelalj 5y agoGenerally it's around 2-weeks from the "announcement date" and "order date"?
- andrei_says_ 5y agoLouis Rossman has two videos discussing (and showing the boards of) refurbished Apple laptops. I imagine the quality varies depending on the third party who does the refurbishing. The videos contain some colorful language. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XaGHcBZjmWA https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XaGHcBZjmWA https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YhpDs3AJOyI https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YhpDs3AJOyI
- robertoandred 5y agoRefurbished by Apple or by Best Buy etc?
- smoldesu 5y agoThe refurbishes he's looking at are all Apple-authorized or first party.
- robertoandred 5y agoAny proof those are laptops Apple sold as refurbished? Rossman has been caught lying about a bunch of stuff in the past.
- andrei_says_ 5y agoThat’s a pretty quick jump to ad hominem / character association for very low stakes. Rossman’s level of transparency and willingness to address errors is unparalleled. Using non-original parts in the context of Apple actively making it impossible to obtain such parts - and loudly complaining about it while fighting for right of repair legislation is … not lying, that’s for sure.
- Toutouxc 5y ago> has been caught lying about a bunch of stuff Would you mind linking to some of those? He's not my cup of coffee, but I always saw him as a fair guy.
- hedgehog 5y agoFor a while my yearly OS upgrade strategy was to wait for the XX.2 release, buy a recent model refurb, and then sell the old one once my workflow was migrated. In that situation saving a few hundred dollars on a refurb makes a relatively large difference in net cost. Never had a problem I could attribute to buying refurbs (just some replacements due to the butterfly keyboard problems).
- itake 5y agoI'm skeptical this timeline reflects the current supply chain issues that Apple (and the world) is experiencing. Apple has delayed the friends and family discount on the iPhone 13 and does not allow in-store pick up for the macbook pros (Due to limited supply and in-store staffing).
- simoelalj 5y agoI think there would still be a supply for refurbished products (maybe a bit less this time with the shortages) – as Apple cannot sell open-boxes or returned products as new.
- jmole 5y agoBingo - I’m likely planning on returning my 16” for a 14”. After using the M1 air for the past year, the 16” just feels too big. But even with a 14 day return policy, Apple cant just turn around and sell this as new. I have seen a few open box items at Best Buy though, usually discounted ~$100 or so.
- gnicholas 5y agoThey may not allow in-store pickup of online orders, but they did have plenty of stock of the new MBPs when I checked last week. Also, for anyone considering an MBP, it appears Apple will again offer 6% back on Apple Store purchases over Black Friday/Cyber Monday. They had this deal last year, and it was offered to some folks (seemingly accidentally) last week. It was quickly removed, but they're apparently honoring it for anyone who got in under the wire.
- pembrook 5y agoRegarding refurbs, I’ve been buying refurbished gear for years without issue, however recently have had 2 bad experiences that make me question whether it’s worth it. The first was a an official refurb 2018 MacBook Pro which ended up having a burnt out touchbar and battery issues a year later. The second was an official Amazon refurb kindle, which never reached even half the battery life of a new model. This is of course anecdata (these issues could have occurred with brand new items as well), but I would love to see blackblaze style reliability data from companies who buy large numbers of refurb laptops vs new stock. I’m curious if there’s a correlation.
- singhrac 5y agoI buy refurbished too pretty much every time, and I've had no real problems. Keyboard in 2014 MBP gave out because I dropped a Clorox wipe on it, and they replaced the whole motherboard for free (in warranty). Typing this on a refurbished 2019 16" MBP with no problems yet, though I swear typing lags every so often which I attribute to the Intel processor and some throttling.
- tarellel 5y agoI've bought several MBP's over the years. The 2018 MPB is one of their worst models I've had ever had and still have. I've had the keyboard in-operable and repaired twice. The battery has been services twice and won't keep a charge again. I'm honestly blown away by the latest version, but what to wait to for the hype to die down and ensure there's no Quality issues with this years model as well. But it appears they may have taken a step back and instead of pushing aesthetics this year, they looked at what its users "want/need".
- mehrdada 5y agoThose issues would have likely occurred even on new MBP 2016-19 models, esp. on 2016.
- fouc 5y ago> The first was a an official refurb 2018 MacBook Pro which ended up having a burnt out touchbar and battery issues a year later. Why do you consider this to be a bad experience when it was clearly still under warranty and they replaced your topcase for free - brand new touchbar & battery & keyboard?
- adolph 5y agoOn average, the discount you can expect is 15% from the Apple store. So expect to see the refurb price for a refurbished 14-inch starting from $1,699 and the 16-inch from $2,125. I'm a refurb-first shopper/buyer and something I've noticed about Apple's refurbs is that they often maintain their from-new discount as if products released later (sometimes with lower price tags than the returb) don't exist. Reviewing the store today, it looks like they are doing a somewhat better job of price models for refurbs but maintain a silly discount for things. Example: refurb XS at $550, "save $340." Claiming $340 is fictitious--a new 11 is $500. Maybe XS to 11 is not an apple-orange comparison but the price competitiveness of a new older model phone speaks to refurbs as not always being bargains.
- samstave 5y agoI had a macbook pro which was under the recall for the 15" recall... This fucking machine caught FIRE while in my bed as I fell asleep. Apple had the machine for TWO MONTHS in the flagship San Francisco Store. After TWO MONTHS they told me that I could not have the machine replaced (it was under RECALL for battery incinerations) -- IT INCINERATED and caught fire. IN MY BED. After spending TWO MONTHS at the flagship apple store they said they couldnt replace the machine because at "some point" the liquid sensors were set off... and they wouldnt replace it. So a machine that was under recall for specifically a battery explosion/fire incident, which actually caught fire was denied the recall because a liquid trigger had been set off was denied. it took Apple, TWO FUCKING MONTHS to come to this conclusion. Fuck you Tim Apple
- mixmastamyk 5y agoSmall claims court might be a help.