Apple has long offered a refurbished store on its website, where it sells recent generation products at a pretty sizable discount. Unlike other refurbished offerings, Apple guarantees a replaced outer shell, battery, and glass – ensuring no wear and tear. You also get a 1 year Apple warranty and the ability to add AppleCare if you’d like.
That sounds great, but is it actually worth it? Well, it depends. We’ll be delving into Apple refurbished listings, and comparing it to other offerings on the market.
Apple Refurbished
One great thing about Apple Refurbished is that a lot of the time, you can buy current-generation products. For example, the M4 MacBook Pro, iMac, and Mac mini are all available on the store. Apple is pretty great about putting new Macs on the store pretty quickly.
iPads and iPhones, on the other hand, aren’t the same. You can’t buy an M4 iPad Pro or M2 iPad Air on the refurbished store yet, despite those products being a year old. The most recent iPads on the refurbished store are 2022’s iPad 10th generation and M2 iPad Pro. When it comes to iPhones, you can only buy iPhone 15 models.
That said, a lot of people (including myself) love Apple Refurbished, mainly because you can effectively purchase products in new condition, just with some less fancy packaging. Instead of a traditional Apple box, you get a plain white box with the text “MacBook Pro” instead of a printed image. It’s also covered with a 1 year Apple warranty, so even if something goes wrong, you’re covered.
Amazon Renewed Premium
While there are a number of ways to buy refurbished Apple products out there, I think Amazon Renewed Premium is the best comparison.
Why? Amazon offers a 1 year return window, allowing you to get your money back if any issues crop up. Yes, that’s a full 365 day return window. Amazon promises 90% battery health as well. Amazon’s Renewed Premium program likely is the closest thing to Apple’s refurbished program.
To be clear, there’s also a the standard “Amazon Renewed” program, which only offers a 90 day return window. However, that won’t be used in this price comparison.
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