The refurbished Mac and second hand Apple market is now bigger than ever, and for good reason.
Buying refurbished electronics, especially high value ones like MacBook Pros and iMacs has become far more prevalent in recent years. With a far lower price tag than buying brand new, its not hard to see why, but buying second hand often raises questions such as “what happens if something goes wrong with the item?”.Â
We are going to delve into exactly why more people are choosing refurbished Macs; the benefits, the things you need to be aware of, and why buying privately second hand is very different to buying refurbished.
1. MAKING SAVINGS DURING THE COST OF LIVING CRISIS
Its time to finally grab a bargain. You’ve decided that you need a MacBook or iMac perhaps for that new job, new business venture you have been meaning to pursue, for your education or for some other important purpose, but all you hear about everywhere you turn is energy prices rising, the base rate creeping up on your mortgage, and huge inflation all around.Â
The increase in the cost of living has affected us all, and hardly makes us want to rush to the nearest Apple store to buy the latest 16″ MacBook Pro where prices start at an absolutely eye watering £2399.Â
Even if you can afford to, this is still an enormous amount of money where buying refurbished will pose a significant saving. Now really is, more than ever, the time to find a way to grab a bargain and make some savings where you can.Â
With the option of buying a refurbished Mac, you do not need to go without.Â
We have seen that as of today, in 2022 the price of a brand new 16″ MacBook Pro from Apple starts at £2399. On average, you will be making savings of up to around 50% when buying refurbished, so clearly you’re getting a much bigger bang for your buck, saving you hundreds of pounds.
Apple is a high quality brand of computer, hence the high price tag, their items have become like a designer accessory loved by everyone. If you buy refurbished, you receive the quality of an Apple item, for the price tag of a lower quality less desirable brand.
We can clearly see that there is a big appeal of the lower price tag which comes with buying a second hand or refurbished Mac, but there are other benefits too and things to be aware of.Â
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Better
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Do Your Bit.
2. REUSE IS GREAT FOR THE ENVIRONMENTÂ
We all need to do our bit. Buying a refurbished Mac, rather than buying brand new is better for the environment. Fact.
We have lived through a disposable age, and this is proving to not be sustainable. With climate change, our electronic waste ending up on the shores of poorer countries and in the seas, it is a mess, and it needs to change for the future of our beloved Earth.Â
Companies need to manufacture out of recycled materials, and use 100% renewable electricity. We give credit to Apple who are building Macs out of recycled materials and targeting a transition to an entirely renewable electricity supply for manufacturing by 2030.Â
Whilst this is great, maximising the life of an already existing Mac is far better for the environment than producing a whole new one out of recycled materials.
We stand buy buying refurbished where you can.
“Great for the wallet, great for the environment, anything else?”
3. WARRANTY – YOUR PEACE OF MIND
Macs aren’t cheap, and they aren’t cheap to fix either.Â
Now we will explore the real difference between buying a Mac privately second hand and buying refurbished.Â
It all starts out great, you find a Mac for sale privately, you agree a price and visit the unknown seller’s house to pick it up. Without really knowing the item’s history, you hand over the cash, and its yours. Bargain, or so you thought…
After wading through trying to remove the previous user’s data, to then try and reinstall the Mac so you can actually use it, a few weeks later, the Mac crashes. You don’t think much of it, so you reboot, and all seems ok, then a month later, it crashes again, this time, it doesn’t reboot. You find you’re without your device, and don’t have access to your data. A big inconvenience, but you rationalise, and think, “ok, I’ll get some quotes to get it repaired,” to find that repair centres want hundreds of pounds on average for logic board repairs, no longer such a bargain.
Whilst your second hand private purchase could be perfectly ok, there is no warranty to back you up when something goes wrong.
Here’s why buying refurbished from a reputable seller is the best option in our opinion.
Buying refurbished, you’re provided with a warranty and support. The MacBook will be supplied ready to use and setup like a new user. Maple provide warranty coverage up to 4 years on refurbished Macs, so you get the benefit of the savings compared to buying brand new, with the benefit of the warranties that come with new items.
Our verdict: We stand by buying Refurbished.
In Summary, buying refurbished:
- Saves Money
- Great for the Environment
- Includes Support and Warranty
- Setup and Ready to use like new
Anything else is there to consider?
There is one other difference between the USB-C port on the different MacBooks. The other benefit of the USB-C port is that it doesn’t matter what orientation you plug your cable in. If you feel that every time you plug in a USB-A plug it is the wrong way round, this will become a distant memory. That sounds like an awful lot of Thunderbolt 3/USB-C ports, to recap:
- MacBook: One USB-C port
- MacBook Air: Two Thunderbolt 3/USB-C ports
- 13in MacBook Pro: Two Thunderbolt 3/USB-C ports
- 15in MacBook Pro: Four Thunderbolt 3/USB-C ports
| DESCRIPTION | MACBOOK PRO | MACBOOK AIR 2017 | MACBOOK AIR 2020 |
| Display | 16″ LED-backlit display | 13.3″ LED-backlit display | 13.3″ LED-backlit display |
| Core | Intel Core i9 processor | Intel Core i7 processor | Apple M1 chip |
| Memory | 64GB | 8GB | 16GB |
| Storage | 8TB SSD | 512GB SSD | 2TB SSD |
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