osxrules; would you recomend waiting for any length of time until I buy a mac, Im pretty sure thats what i want to do now, its just that do you think that the refurbished mac book pro is the updated version? It also seems a bit expensive- one of them says that the actual price is 1699 but nowhere in the uk shop does it have this for the price of any macbook/pro which is rather odd.
If I waited for the next 4-5 weeks do you think the new updated mcbpro would be in the refurbished shop?
New iMacs should be coming near the end of July but I haven’t heard of any expected laptop updates. The Macbook Pro was just updated so I don’t expect an update there. There are supposed to be new products coming though so it’s possible that there could be a smaller Macbook Pro. It’s easy to tell when an update to a current model is coming because the supply lines dry up but it’s difficult to tell when a new product is coming unless you get leaked info.
It’s not the new one as it only has the X1600 GPU.
The first was Core Duo with X1600
The second was Core 2 Duo with X1600
the third and current one is faster Core 2 Duo with 8600M GT GPU
They compare it to the original price it used to be sold at. Given that the new ones start at £1299, the refurbs don’t look like very good deals at the moment. You save about £220, which is fair but I’ve seen better. I’ve seen the first model Core Duos as low as £899.
The Core 2 Duo price isn’t bad though. Acer sell pretty cheap PC laptops and here’s one with a similar spec for £936:
which isn’t far off the £1079 refurb.
It’s just luck with the refurb store. I don’t know how soon after a new model is released for them to appear in there. I’d guess you could see them at any time but it all just depends on if any need fixed.
I would watch the store for a week or two to see if any good deals come along. Look out for Core Duo with X1600 around £899, Core 2 Duo for under £1079.
If it was me personally, I’d have concerns about spending so much to face the prospect of getting a scratched case. I don’t mind about cosmetic defects much if I save a bit of money but it’s still an expensive machine. Like I say, I haven’t heard any bad reports about the refurbs but that’s not to say everyone’s experience will be like that and I wouldn’t like to see you get a bad one based on my recommendation.
Mind you, I’m not sure if you can return a refurb if you’re not happy with it so it might be ok. It’s probably best to call Apple and ask about their policy on that.
Given that the lowest new Macbook Pro is only £220 more and offers 200MHz per core faster CPU, LED backlight, faster system bus (667Mhz -> 800MHz plus the other Santa Rosa chipset benefits) and a 50% faster GPU, I’d be thinking about whether it’s worth going for the refurb.
If you can’t afford to go to the new Macbook Pro then there’s little choice and in that case I’d still look at the refurb over a macbook. You might even be able to get Applecare with the refurb so that you get a 3 year warranty - again ask Apple about that. This is generally recommended for laptop purchases. Usually you can get Applecare up to a year after the purchase but I don’t know if you can do that with refurbs.
2 weeks later…
I just found one browsing the store:
http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObjects/ukstore.woa/wa/RSLID?nplm=FA600
The 2GHz Core Duo isn’t hugely different performance-wise from the newest one and although it only comes with 512Mb Ram, the 1GB upgrade kit from Crucial is £30.
So all in all it would be £100 more than the middle Macbook with almost the same spec but with an X1600 graphics card instead of GMA, bigger screen and metal case.
ill check the editor method