Apple’s Refurb Store Just Saved the Budget M5 MacBook Pro
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If Apple’s recent price increases have pushed a new MacBook Pro or Apple TV 4K out of your budget, you might not be completely out of luck. Apple has a Certified Refurbished Store that can get you 10–15 percent off. That makes it a good place to hunt for bargains any time of the year, but right now, there are some even better deals, thanks to the availability of configurations that can no longer be purchased new.
As discovered by 9to5Mac, Apple is selling a refurbished 14-inch M5 MacBook Pro with a 512 GB SSD for $1,439. That’s only $160 off its regular price of $1,599 — or what it would be if Apple still sold that model.
With the “RAMpocalypse” upon us, memory chip shortages have resulted in Apple discontinuing several of its Mac configurations, making $1,999 the entry-level price for a MacBook Pro with a 1 TB SSD. Granted, that’s only $38.99 per month if you go with Apple Upgrade for three years (plus a nearly $600 buy-out at the end), but not everyone needs 1 TB of internal storage on their MacBook.
The only catch here is that Apple’s refurbs are limited to whatever it has available, as these are open-box or returned products that have been cleaned up and certified for resale, which means they’ll be in short supply by their very nature. While Apple isn’t likely to put up a product listing if it only has a handful of units available, it’s also not producing more to meet demand, so they can sell out very quickly — especially when they’re a good deal.
You also don’t get a lot of choice when it comes to things like glass type, colors, or accessory options for desktop Macs (e.g., keyboard type or Magic Mouse vs. Magic Trackpad).
While the 512 GB M5 MacBook Pro is the bluebird here, Apple is offering some other great discounts for folks who want to go big on storage. A 14-inch M5 MacBook Pro with nano-texture glass, 2 TB of storage, and 24 GB of RAM is available for $2,419 (versus $2,849 new), and a 16-inch M5 Pro MacBook Pro with 4 TB of storage and the base 24 GB of RAM is $3,819 (compared to $4,499 new).
At the very top end of the spectrum, you can get a fully maxed-out 16-inch M5 Max MacBook Pro with an 8 TB SSD, 128 GB of RAM, and a nano-texture display for only $8,629. While the word “only” might feel like it’s carrying too much weight here, it’s really not when you consider that the same configuration brand-new now runs into the five figures — a staggering $10,149.
For those with more modest budgets, Apple’s refurb store once again has stock of the Apple TV 4K in both 64 GB and 128 GB configurations for $169 and $209, respectively. The Apple TV 4K was one of the products hit the hardest by Apple’s June price hikes, going from $129 to $199 for the base model. While the refurb prices don’t totally compensate for that, they can definitely take some of the sting out of it.
Are Refurbished Apple Products a Safe Buy?
There’s room for debate on whether refurbished products are always a good idea in general, but Apple’s Certified Refurbished products are a much better deal than most folks realize.
While other programs like Amazon Renewed can offer some better deals, these products are being refreshed, renewed, or refurbished by third-party companies, so they don’t have quite the same guarantee of quality.
By contrast, Apple Certified Refurbished products are almost literally as good as new. In fact, in some ways they’re even better. They have the same warranty and eligibility for AppleCare+ as a brand-new product, but they’ve actually been individually tested, fitted with replacement parts or fresh batteries if needed, and packed with new cables and power adapters. You’d be hard-pressed to find even the tiniest blemish on an Apple refurbished product.
While some refurbished products come from trade-ins and warranty replacements, there’s always a chance that you’re getting one that’s almost brand new. Apple doesn’t sell “open box” items, so even a Mac that’s returned to the Apple Store one day after it was purchased goes through the same refurbishment process as a trade-in. This means you could end up with a MacBook Pro that was returned only because someone saw their credit card bill.
