Refurbished Macbook?

[Craig Laughlin]

My son is graduating from High school in a few weeks. We are planning on giving him a computer for graduation. I looked around a little and we might be able to afford a Macbook pro if we go refurbished. He said he would prefer a refurbished Macbook over a new windows computer. - Any thoughts about what to watch out for, good places to purchase?

Also - what other software will he need to read MS office documents. He is headed toward Chemical engineering and my general impression as been that such hard science fields were bent toward Microsoft.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

[Cam Pence]

from talking to my apple friends, it is worth it to get used iworks rather than spend the extra money on MS Office, which makes sense to me as Apple stuff is generally made work better with other apple stuff. Also I would get the refurb through Apple so you can still get a warranty.

[Ryan Pugh]

The refurbished Apple store is a good place to start. He would also qualify for the education discount. Apple offers their full warranty (and you can purchase Apple Care if you want) on their refurbished products.

Apple's iWork software includes Pages, their word processing program. He could read Word documents (some formatting issues might pop up) and save as Word (.doc) with Pages. But if he really just wants/needs to use Microsoft programs, you could just purchase Microsoft Office for Mac, which should also be available at an education discount price.

[Marsha Lynn]

My son is graduating from High school in a few weeks. We are planning on giving him a computer for graduation. I looked around a little and we might be able to afford a Macbook pro if we go refurbished. He said he would prefer a refurbished Macbook over a new windows computer. - Any thoughts about what to watch out for, good places to purchase?

Also - what other software will he need to read MS office documents. He is headed toward Chemical engineering and my general impression as been that such hard science fields were bent toward Microsoft.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

Sounds like a good plan. A recent Reader's Digest article recommends never buying Apple products new.

I wouldn't worry about the Office question now. Depending on where he goes to school, he can likely get an incredible deal on Microsoft software once he gets there -- "get 'em while they're young" marketing on Microsoft's part. Our daughter got MS Office for her Mac that way as an Olivet student. Meanwhile, even though I got one of those terrific student deals on MS Office when taking some college classes, I use OpenOffice for all MS Office documents other than Access databases. Great compatibility and even better price -- absolutely free! And an entire open-source community to provide support. (Rather than using the "help" feature, which I find frustratingly unhelpful, I use Google to find out how to do stuff in OpenOffice.) It's available for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS. I primarily live in a spreadsheet world and have always found competing products to be fairly equitable, but right now I definitely prefer Open Calc over MS Excel. That's partly due to familiarity. I've had all .xls documents default into Open Calc for a couple of years now, even on computers with MS Office installed.

Marsha

[Mike Schutz]

I agree with Marsha. The Microsoft educational discounts through college bookstores and IT are great, much less than you can find anywhere else. Depending on where he is planning to attend, he will receive correspondence from them detailing this deal.

[John Reilly]

We bought our daughter a refurbished iBook for seminary at a local Apple store. Heather has been happy with it. We are an Apple family. I use a MacBook. I still have our original Macintosh.

[Gary Creely]

1. I would have no qualms about a refurb, and apple in store support is great.
2. I would not get apple care, the odds are in your favor you will not need it, and if you do the repair will likely be less than the cost of the apple care.
3.

He would also qualify for the education discount.

Go to mac mall and between avoiding tax and their discount you will often get a better deal than the 10% educational discount. (not sure if the edu discount applies on refurb)
4.

it is worth it to get used iworks

I disagree. Works is great, but it can be a pain for compatibly. Just wait for a sale or coupon at staples and get the real deal student version. Sciences will rely heavily on Excel, and word and ppt are staples. If you want to go on the cheap just download open office, but MS is the better option. Considering the cost of college this stuff is chump change, and not having MS could be problematic.

[Mike Schutz]

1. I would have no qualms about a refurb, and apple in store support is great.
2. I would not get apple care, the odds are in your favor you will not need it, and if you do the repair will likely be less than the cost of the apple care.
3. Go to mac mall and between avoiding tax and their discount you will often get a better deal than the 10% educational discount. (not sure if the edu discount applies on refurb)
4. I disagree. Works is great, but it can be a pain for compatibly. Just wait for a sale or coupon at staples and get the real deal student version. Sciences will rely heavily on Excel, and word and ppt are staples. If you want to go on the cheap just download open office, but MS is the better option. Considering the cost of college this stuff is chump change, and not having MS could be problematic.

Gary,
The discount on Microsoft Office that they give through college bookstores is much more than the 10% Apple educational discount. For example, I have seen Office for $75, and Word alone for under $50.

[Gary Creely]

Gary,
The discount on Microsoft Office that they give through college bookstores is much more than the 10% Apple educational discount. For example, I have seen Office for $75, and Word alone for under $50.

The 10% discount I was referring to was on the hardware not on the software. As for the discounts I know there are some very significant discounts available. Some schools have better deals worked out with Microsoft than others, but my feeling is that Microsoft office is a necessary evil for any college student these days.

[Craig Laughlin]

Talked to Apple. The hardware discount didn't apply to refurbished. It was $100 off a new but the refurbished were so high that even after the discount there was only about $100 difference between refurbished and new. - - Looking at places other than Apple for a refurbished Macbook but it makes me a little nervous. Don't have any idea who is reputable and I'm guessing the definition of "refurbished" is pretty loose.

[Gary Creely]

Talked to Apple. The hardware discount didn't apply to refurbished. It was $100 off a new but the refurbished were so high that even after the discount there was only about $100 difference between refurbished and new. - - Looking at places other than Apple for a refurbished Macbook but it makes me a little nervous. Don't have any idea who is reputable and I'm guessing the definition of "refurbished" is pretty loose.

I would only get refurbished directly from mac.

Lets look at it-

Macbookpro 13" from apple $1199 + $78 tax= $1277

Macbookpro 13" from apple refurbed- $1019 + $66 tax= $1085

Macbookpro 13" from apple macmall $1119 + free shipping + no tax= $1119

I have purchased my last 3 macs from macmall. Although I have no qualms about a refurbed mac, for $29 I would get a new one.