Refurbished Apple Macbook Pro 13.3″ MB991LL/A review

So it’s Christmas season, and my brother is ready to get a Macbook Pro. The chance of getting discount on Macbook through Apple store or any other Authorized Resellers is very slim to none. In Canada, with student discount, we could get $100 off the Macbook Pro (Part number: MB991LL/A, with 4GB Memory, 250GB), which is $1499 before tax; but it’s still over our $1500 (total) budget.

I have been hearing a lot of review on the good quality of Apple’s Refurbished Product and I personally have seen an actual refurbished iPod Touch from my friend. If I wasn’t told that was a recertified iPod Touch, there is no way I would know that. It looks exactly the same as a brand new iPod Touch!

So, while on budget on our Macbook shopping, I visited Apple’s Refurbished Store online. And found out they actually have the model we want. It’s listed $1349CAD under Macbook Pro section. That’s 15% off the original price and Apple guarantee its one full year warranty which is the same as buying a brand new one. I was a bit hesitated but I eventually placed my order, just simply based one the experience I had with Apple.

Order was placed on Dec 17th, and I received order confirmation on the 18th, which promising order would be shipped out within 3 business days, and since it’s Christmas season, all shipping would be upgraded to air shipping for free. Then I received a UPS tracking number on the 20th (that was a Sunday, so weird; I thought all shipping carriers were closed on Sunday). But the tracking number doesn’t show any update until late night on the 21st and the Macbook Pro arrives on the 22nd.

Now, let’s take a look at what’s the difference between a refurbished Macbook Pro and a brand new one from retail store.

The shipping box is huge. Apple is reducing the size of product packaging over the past years, and the shipping boxes are just slightly bigger than the product box itself. However, this shipping box for our refurbished Macbok Pro is huge and the shipping box itself is the Macbook Pro package.

After we opened the shipping box, we could see the Macbook Pro right underneath the accessory box. The accessory box includes AC Power Adapter, extension cable,  basic instruction manual and wiping cloth. The box itself is the same size as the ones come with iMac (where the keyboard and mouse are) and have “Apple Certified” printed on top to remind you this is a refurbished model.

The laptop itself is wrapped the same way brand new laptop was packed. So you will have to break the packing seal in order to take it out (second seal-breaking, actually). Like I said, from the outer appearance, there is no way you could tell whether this machine is a refurbished or brand new one. There is absolutely no scratch on the machine body and the machine is cleaned before it’s put back on shelf as refurbished. Machine starts up, everything is just fine as we expected. The only difference I could see while logged onto the system is that the serial number of the machine is no longer the usual serial number that starts with a “W”.

One last thing I really need to highlight is that, we actually received this one with a 500GB hard drive instead of a 250GB. From the standard 250GB to 500GB, that’s another $165 we had to pay if we went for Apple Store. So our decision really saved us CAD $419 ($1764-$1345=$419) which we could use to spend on AppleCare if we don’t have confidence in the quality of this refurbished Macbook Pro.

Post Note:

If you are not on a tight budget, I still would recommend you to go for brand new Apple products especially you are buying them as gifts for someone important. However, I really need to point out, Apple’s refurbished products are great value. The one we bought was the current model; if you bought previous generations, you will save even more.

All returned products will be tested and re-issued a serial number if it qualifies for Apple Product Certification. Being granted a new serial number means the refurbished product will have the same warranty as a brand new model. If you are lucky enough like we are, maybe you could receive a free upgrade from Apple too.