Refurbished Mac Books

[Slatkater]

My daughter needs a laptop for school. She wants a Mac Book but a new one is out of our price range. Amazon has some refurbished ones that seem reasonable, are they any good?

It depends what model and what year. A number of macs have had major battery issues which would be a concern with a refurb - some have even been banned by airlines.

But how old is your daughter; too? Almost all schools will use windows, so Mac could be a problem for compatibility. Although I was desperate for one when I was at school too!

She’s 15.
I don’t think compatibility would be a problem as (apparently) all her friends use them!

I'm not being a party pooper or anything, but there is absolutely NO need to buy something as expensive as a Mac for school. You can get a decent laptop with word processing software and internet for less than £300. This is all she needs. It's up to you if you want to spend the money (and FWIW refurbished macs are fine) but I honestly wouldn't.

I bought a refurbished Macbook air 2015, for just under £400 recently, from the website Music Magpie. It's been great. Includes a year's warranty.

You can get them direct from Apple too, although generally only saving a couple of hundred quid www.apple.com/uk/shop/refurbished/mac

We bought DD a 3yr old MacBook from this company in Harrogate (through eBay) www.howard-conrad.com/ when she was in yr6, she's now in yr10. It is still running and has never been any trouble. I've had more than one new windows devices in that time.
She now has a new MacBook, purely because it is lighter, faster etc. No trouble with school compatibility and she has MS Office on it.

I'm not being a party pooper or anything, but there is absolutely NO need to buy something as expensive as a Mac for school. You can get a decent laptop with word processing software and internet for less than £300. This is all she needs. It's up to you if you want to spend the money (and FWIW refurbished macs are fine) but I honestly wouldn't.

I never really understand that attitude, if you can buy her the tech she wants with the budget you have, why wouldn't you.
I personally prefer the O/S of Android and Windows, but O can't deny how much more reliable DD's and DH's Apple devices have been than mine and all apart from her new MacBook have been second hand or reconditioned.

My refurbished Mac is 10 years old...and I'm currently typing on it now! It has outlasted many a Windows machine...my kids have been through a few!
The battery life is rubbish now so it stays plugged in, but... it still works!
It groans first thing (like an elderly person getting out of bed!) but then cracks on with life.

Can anyone advise which year models I should avoid? Thanks

Chromebook!

Just buy one of those instead.

Don’t worry about compatibility as most can convert or output into .doc format these days. Libreoffice and open office being two good ones.

DH and I both bought refurbed MacBooks (different models) from Apple - never again, they both developed major faults which would be expensive to repair.

I wouldn’t buy a teen a MacBook personally.

Ignore the budget laptop Vs high-end MacBook 'argument'

Of course a high quality expensive machine costing around £1k will last longer than a cheap mass produced £300 laptop. It's nothing to do with Mac's being "better". It's just that for some bizarre reason people will happily fork out ~£1k for a Mac, but baulk at shelling out that much for a Windows based one.

Essentially it comes down to your budget. How much can you afford? If you can afford £800-1000 then buy whatever she wants.

If you can't.... Get something as good as you can afford.

Google suggested this thread to me in my news feed and I registered to reply to this.

Avoid ALL of them. EVERY. SINGLE. MODEL.

Every model of MacBook has severe design issues baked in, that can render the entire machine unusable, whereas a similar issue on a Windows machine would only affect that particular part. I'll give you some examples:

Recent machines connect the display to the board using a ribbon cable. In their infinite "wisdom" apple put the high voltage line for the backlight next to a line that connects directly to the CPU. It is very common for this to kill the entire CPU, hense the entire machine.

Another fault is to do with usb. If the usb/thunderbolt port is even slightly damaged in any way, it can destroy the controller. On a Windows machine, this would break that port, annoying but hey the rest works. On a MacBook, this kills the ENTIRE machine.

Another problem (especially with more modern machines) is the T2 chip. It sounds good on paper, providing security and other features. BUT, if the machine dies, your data is gone. Not even apple can retrieve it. It's encrypted, and the drive is non-removable.

Then there's the biggest issue imo. They prioritise silence over all else, as such the processor will regularly run at over 95c. This is VERY bad from a performance and longevity standpoint, and will kill it eventually.

With a Windows laptop, these issues are easily (and cheaply) fixed, but with a MacBook, apple will charge you more than the price of a complete new machine FOR A DAMAGED CONNECTOR.

Have a look at Louis rossman on YouTube to see apples dirty underbell, one video in particular which features a news article from an American channel where they take a MacBook to apple for diagnosis. Apples diagnosis was : broken screen, dead motherboard (logic board in apple speak). Over $1500 in repairs. They took the MacBook to Louis rossman, who opened it, found the damaged connector, and repaired it FOR FREE.

Other reason include: lower specs for the money, worse software comparability, and as previously mentioned, more expensive repairs. The only advantage they have is the operating system (Mac os), which, to be honest after trying it, is less flexible. It also doesn't have the reliability lead it once had

I understand I may have confused you with technospeak (I don't know your background), but I do hope I've given you enough information to help explain why a MacBook is a bad idea at all, let alone an unknown refurbished model (I work in it, I refuse to use refurb equipment of any kind, too many bad experiences). If you need any more advice, I'll be glad to help.

Thanks @kernelfergus, can you make any recommendations for a laptop?

In our school system all students from grade 7 up are given Macbook Airs by the school. My kids have had no problems at all and the IT people at the school are happy with them.

I've had mine for 3 years - again no problems.

One of my DDs who went to a different school system had to buy her own. We bought a refurbed Macbook Air in 2015 and it's still going strong.

I've killed many PC laptops but not yet managed to kill a Macbook.

There are good PC laptops out there too, but personally I'm sticking with Macs from now on.

@drsausage

How much did you pay for the windows laptops you bought?

Because unless they were around £1000 or more, you’re not exactly comparing similar equipment.

NO And pjt comparing the quality and longevity of £1.99 primary T-shirt to the at of a £40 organic, top quality cotton T-shirt
.... of course the primary one will wear out and look tatty before the better quality shirt

Primark

Because unless they were around £1000 or more, you’re not exactly comparing similar equipment.

I paid $1500+. Do you need to see the receipts?

I've totally ruined my MacBook. Spilt a cup of tea on the keyboard and it's as dead as a dodo. Apple want £800+ to repair, so that's not going to happen

We have (in the household)

A windows dell from 2009- now can be used only for light internet browsing, originally cost £800

A 2011 Samsung, almost unusable, disk checks on every start up and randomly crashes, ok for the kids to pretend to work on. Cost £700ish brand new

A refurbed macbook from 2014 - used daily as main office laptop for self employed, £350 cost.

A 2018 MacBook Air used daily as work laptop, cost £850 on a Very cash back deal.

All of them still work to a greater or lesser extent...the MacBooks work better...possibly because they were better to start with?

I’d say that a £350 refurbed macbook is generally going to be better than a brand new windows laptop in the same price range.

However, if you’re looking at a £650 plus refurbed macbook - look at the equivalent brand new windows laptop and you might not find much difference in spec.

But ultimately, it comes down to the OS you prefer, I’d always prefer a Macbook over Windows because that’s the OS I like.

I use Howard Conran in Harrogate and can vouch for them, it is where I go whenever one of us drops our phone/tablet , good place.

DD is using my 15 year old MacBook Pro, my air is now five years old.

We have been an exclusive Mac household for decades without issues.

However, DD would like a new laptop for Christmas and my £500 budget won't get a MacBook so I am going to buy her a HP laptop. here.

My 2015 Mac has an i7 processor. I wouldn't buy anything less than an i5 processor.

Because unless they were around £1000 or more, you’re not exactly comparing similar equipment

Not quite true as the Mac brand attracts a premium just because it's Mac. I think that they were superior 20 years ago, iChat predated Skype and Mac IOS had much more functionality than Windows back then but the world has caught up imo.

Two Mac book pros in our house hold. Both 2010. One was bought brand new, the other was bought 4 years later as a refurb. They still work perfectly. Have both needed new chargers in that time and the brand new one needed a new battery and a new tracker pad at one point. The refurb had something t to do with the fan fixed / cleared.
I've been very happy with both to be honest, they are used every day. Will consider upgrading in a couple of years, but certainly feel we've had our money's worth!

My Macbook Air is the second one I've owned. Its been going 5 years now and is almost as good as new. I wouldn't buy anything else.