Apple Expands Availability of Refurbished 2018 MacBook Air, Mac Mini to U.S. and Canada

Saturday February 9, 2019 9:49 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple has begun selling certified refurbished 2018 MacBook Air and Mac mini models in the United States and Canada for the first time, following availability in several European countries starting Friday.


In the United States, refurbished pricing starts at $1,019 for the base model MacBook Air, down from $1,199 brand new, and $679 for the base model Mac mini, down from $799 brand new. Various other custom configurations are available for each Mac with discounts up to 15 percent versus brand new prices.

While the refurbished higher-end ‌MacBook Air‌ models may be worth considering, the base model is worth passing over, as authorized resellers such as Amazon and B&H are offering it brand new in box for $999 in the United States.

Orders placed today are estimated for delivery by early next week. We recommend using Refurb Tracker to monitor inventory.

Apple says certified refurbished ‌MacBook Air‌ and ‌Mac mini‌ models are thoroughly inspected, tested, cleaned, and repackaged, with all manuals and cables included in the box. In our view, a refurbished Mac is virtually indistinguishable from a brand new one. They're also backed by Apple's standard one-year warranty.

A refurbished Mac's warranty can be extended to three years from the refurbished purchase date with AppleCare+.

(Thanks, Jason A!)

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon and B&H. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

Related Roundups: Mac mini, MacBook Air
Tag: refurbished
Buyer's Guide: Mac Mini (Caution), MacBook Air (Neutral)
[ 45 comments ]

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Mackinjosh
11 months ago
When the price to buy someone else's rejected hardware is more than the new price at Amazon, Best Buy etc there's a problem.
Rating: 31 Votes
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Pepe4life
11 months ago
Won’t get any MacBooks until the keyboards are redesigned

Won’t get any Mac mini until the Bluetooth issue is fixed

Won’t get any iMacs until they refresh them

Isn’t it sad that I have a hard time spending my money on Apple nowadays
Rating: 29 Votes
Avatar
mtneer
11 months ago
How is it a deal if your own official channel partners are selling brand new units for less??
Rating: 16 Votes
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AustinIllini
11 months ago
Yeah, I'm not sure these are a very good deal refurbished.
Rating: 11 Votes
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Yvan256
11 months ago

[edit: Good luck getting people to buy Minis with only 256GB—or worse, 128GB (which should never be sold on this computer)—options for storage, since they can’t be upgraded].

If I were to buy a 2018 Mac mini, I would get the entry-level model. I don't quite trust that T2 chip to not lose all my data, so I would only use the internal SSD for the OS and applications. And 128GB is more than big enough for that. The 2018 Mac mini has four extremely fast ports, connecting external drives to those should be nearly as fast as the internal, T2-locked-down SSD.
Rating: 6 Votes
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Spock
11 months ago

What is the issue with Bluetooth on the new Mac Minis?

[edit: Good luck getting people to buy Minis with only 256GB—or worse, 128GB (which should never be sold on this computer)—options for storage, since they can’t be upgraded].


I have a 2012 Mac mini with a 256 gig SSD and it’s almost empty because I store all my files on an external thunderbolt drive and that works well for me, so 128 gig would be fine for my needs.
Rating: 4 Votes
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Pepe4life
11 months ago

What is the issue with Bluetooth on the new Mac Minis?

[edit: Good luck getting people to buy Minis with only 256GB—or worse, 128GB (which should never be sold on this computer)—options for storage, since they can’t be upgraded].

There’s a design flaw with the hardware resulting in USB ports interfering with Bluetooth. Check the Mac mini forum for a huge thread on it
Rating: 4 Votes
Avatar
ibivibiv
11 months ago

Won’t get any MacBooks until the keyboards are redesigned

Won’t get any Mac mini until the Bluetooth issue is fixed

Won’t get any iMacs until they refresh them

Isn’t it sad that I have a hard time spending my money on Apple nowadays


This is where I am at right now as well. I'm a very active Apple customer normally but for now I'm going to pump the brakes until Timmy and pals figure "some stuff out". I think I'm good for awhile.
Rating: 4 Votes
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StarryNights
11 months ago

I can think of a couple of situations where the refurb is superior, but not many. Only two off the top of my head
[LIST=1]
* You don't live by an Apple Store so you can't just go out and add AppleCare+ to your machine without significant inconvenience (the only realistic scenario)
* You are, are friends with, or have a family member who is an Apple employee and you can get an additional 15% off the refurbished price AND get 15% off AppleCare. (small subset of people)

I bought a refurbished MacBook Air because of reason 2. It allowed me to get some amazing specs for a crazy low price. But that's just not normal for people.

Another reason some people prefer the refurbished Macs is that they actually have more thorough QA and inspection compared to an off the shelf brand new unit.
Rating: 4 Votes
Avatar
criticasm
11 months ago

Won’t get any MacBooks until the keyboards are redesigned



Won’t get any Mac mini until the Bluetooth issue is fixed

Won’t get any iMacs until they refresh them

Isn’t it sad that I have a hard time spending my money on Apple nowadays


Hey Haru, you forgot about the flex cable screen failure on MacBooks. That's the worse issue yet & surprised there's yet no lawsuits or Govt inquiries from consumer protection or even more focus by so called tech journalists for what was clearly designed to fail after a 1-3 years & require expensive repair.
Rating: 4 Votes

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