What to Pay for a MacBook Refurb

Several MacBook refurbs priced under $1,000 are now available at Apple’s Special Deals area with savings in the $170 - $200 range and some pretty decent specs.

For $929, customers can buy a Refurbished MacBook Pro 2.3GHz dual-core Intel i5 with a 13.3-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen display (1280-by-800 resolution), 4GB (2 x 2GB) of 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM, a 320GB hard drive (Serial ATA @ 5400 rpm), the 8x double-layer SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW) and Intel HD Graphics 3000 with 384MB of DDR3 SDRAM.

This MacBook Pro computer was originally released February 2011 and features a backlit keyboard, and a built-in FaceTime camera.

It’s not equipped with a Thunderbolt port, but it does provide much more value than the 11-inch MacBook Air for the same price with half the specs.

Then again, if design and portability are more important to you, the Refurbished MacBook Air 1.6 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo for $929 is just what you need.

Originally released October 2010, the ultra-slim laptop features Apple’s 11.6-inch LED-backlit glossy widescreen display, 4GB of memory, 128GB flash storage, NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics, and a FaceTime camera. No Thunderbolt here either (hardly anyone ever needs it).

A better specced Refurbished MacBook Air 1.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 selling for $999 might be an even better choice. It was originally released in July 2011 and, for the extra 70 bucks, you get the following specs:

11.6-inch (diagonal) high-resolution LED-backlit glossy widescreen display; 4GB memory; 128GB flash storage; Thunderbolt port with support for up to 2560-by-1600 resolution; FaceTime camera; Intel HD Graphics 3000.

Not to shabby for the luxury of transferring data at the speed of light (not really), a Core i5 Sandy Bridge CPU, and beefed up graphics.

Customers looking to take advantage of these offers (and other deals) are encouraged to place their order soon - supplies are usually limited. The offers are available exclusively to United States residents.