what to look for when buying a used macbook pro
I got an interesting alphabetic character from a reader who wanted to save some money buying ii Mac laptops for his college-historic period twins:
I am currently shopping for MacBooks... My twins are in the Junior year of college and information technology's fourth dimension to replace their Asus Chromebooks (2011) and MacBooks from like 2003... So...which model? Which 'year' of structure? What is the ideal merchandise off for refurbished Mac functioning at 'gotta buy two' pricing?
Unfortunately, my correspondent didn't particular why he wanted to motion from Chromebooks to MacBooks. His 2011 Chromebooks are a bit long in the molar, just there are some quite fine 2022 Chromebooks to be had quite inexpensively.
My correspondent also didn't specify why, specifically, he was interested in MacBooks rather than Windows laptops. It could exist his kids prefer MacOS, or it could be that they want some features or applications unique to Mac laptops. Since graphics and video production are some of the Mac's strengths (and Chromebook's weaknesses), I'm going to assume that the kids need some video and graphic capability -- and machines that tin handle that load.
Buying used
Let'due south cut to the chase: Buying used gear can salvage you money but can be risky as heck. That certainly applies to eBay, Craigslist, and Facebook Marketplace purchases. With eBay purchases, y'all generally won't be able to see the unit of measurement (or units) until they arrive at your door. The potential for outright scams is high.
The scam potential is there as well for Craigslist and Facebook Market place, simply since you're likely to exist able to put your hands on the machine before yous buy, you stand a better risk. Of course, in these days of the pandemic, going face-to-face with a seller, fifty-fifty if you're both masked, carries its own adventure. Additionally, to do a purchase this way, you lot accept to be very comfortable with your ability to validate product model year and features, and the seller has to be willing to let you spend time with the machine.
To be quite honest, though, I'd avoid those channels. The risk of spending a lot (especially for MacBook Pros) and non getting what yous need or expect is quite high.
Understanding model year calculus
1 of the more interesting challenges in buying used MacBook Pro machines is understanding which model year yous're buying. When buying a used auto, you e'er want to know its model twelvemonth, just oddly enough, many Mac resellers (both the commercial ones and private ones) seem to gloss over the production year in favor of specs.
There is a huge difference between buying a 16GB MacBook Pro from 2015 and one from 2009.
That said, you lot need to exercise a certain corporeality of Os calculus. According to Apple, the new version of macOS (called Monterey), which was released in October 2021, supports MacBook Pros and Airs going back to 2015, as well every bit iMacs and Mac Minis going back to 2014. If y'all're looking to buy a used MacBook or iMac from these years, chances are they're running macOS Mojave. If that'due south the example, be warned: Apple tree'due south support for Mojave ended on Oct 22, 2021. This means that while yous tin yet utilise your MacBook or iMac for everyday tasks, you won't be able to receive software, firmware, or security updates. Big Sur supports MacBooks and iMacs going as far back every bit 2013, so if you lot're ok with using a slightly older version of macOS, you tin selection up an older Mac on-the-inexpensive and notwithstanding get regular software and security updates.
If you aren't sure which version your Mac is running, Apple has a handy support page with step-by-pace instructions for finding not only what OS the device is running, but also the version number (handy for keeping track of updates) and what hardware it's using (which is peachy for confirming the seller is being truthful nearly the build they're trying to get y'all to buy).
While Apple has never officially published their timetable policy for ending support for older Mac devices, the general rule has been a maximum lifespan of nigh 7 years post-release. And so, you can presume that certain models volition drop off the OS support listing each year. Y'all tin check if the used Mac you've got your middle on is supported with the Big Sur and Monterey compatibility lists. This way, you can become a better idea of how long you'll be able to utilise your older Mac and plan for when you'll demand to buy another i.
For case, I ain ane 2011 motorcar, which I couldn't upgrade when Mojave came out last year. I take three more than 2012 machines, which I can upgrade now but will hitting OS obsolescence in later on this year when MacOS 11 Big Sur is released. There are hacky ways to featherbed Apple'due south OS limitation, simply they're still hacks.
And then there'south the newest elephant in the room: Apple's movement off of Intel x86 processors to Arm (or what Apple tree calls "Apple tree Silicon"). If you lot haven't been following along, Macs running Intel processors are going to be phased out over the adjacent two years, and Macs based on Apple tree's own fries will supersede them. That puts an obsolescence countdown clock on every Intel-based Mac.
That said, Apple tree will be supporting Intel Macs for a long fourth dimension, and if you got a kid in school, they're not going to want to wait years for Apple tree to fully examination out a brand new architecture. Get an Intel Mac now-- only become the latest and with the fastest processor and most corporeality of retentivity you lot can afford.
Come across: Which Mac to buy? 10 tips to help you make up one's mind
I reached out to OWC, which sells refurbs, and it told me a lot of folks are running somewhat older OS versions. But beware. It's not just the Bone that obsoletes. I got hit with Chrome not upgrading on a too-old machine. Even when using other browsers, Gmail wouldn't piece of work. Apparently, Gmail also checks the OS version.
One of the problems with Craigslist, eBay, and Facebook sellers is they oft won't specify the year of the machine you lot're buying. I spoke to several sellers who claimed they had no idea. If you see a seller who claims no cognition of the model, inquire for a series number (it's available on the unit or in the Well-nigh this Mac dialog under the Apple tree bill of fare), and then run the number through Apple's Cheque Coverage page. Information technology will generally give you model year information as well as some other details.
If a seller doesn't give you whatever details earlier you see the auto, avert them.
Checklist for buying a used machine
So, permit's say you lot decide to ignore my advice and buy a machine from a local seller. You lot're going to want to practice some hands-on testing. Here'south what you should do.
Stride 0. Mask upward. And bring an extra mask for the seller
Remember, safety outset. You may try to proceed socially distant, but a face-to-face sale is almost always going to reach a point where you have to motion inside the six-foot social altitude bulwark. Make sure you lot and your seller are fully protected.
Step 1. Before the road trip, get an About This Mac snapshot
Every bit mentioned above (and as yous should know if you're braving ownership a used Mac locally), About This Mac is a small screen located nether the Apple menu. Have the seller take a photo of that screen and text it to you. That should give you lot model, serial number, amount of RAM, OS currently running, and type of storage. If any of those specs bother y'all, stop correct hither.
Step 2. Make a bootable USB bulldoze
Knowing the model year of the device your considering will aid with this step. Yous'll want to choose a USB 2.0, 3.0, or USB C-based drive, depending on the age of the device. Generally, MacBook Pros earlier 2012 supported USB 2.0, from 2012 to 2015 supported USB 3.0, and those afterward supported Thunderbolt 3 and USB-C. Have my advice, though: Don't buy a Mac that doesn't back up USB iii.0 or later. Information technology'll just be besides slow.
If possible, use an external SSD drive. If you lot don't take one, you can use a large pollex drive and follow these instructions from Apple.
Here's a quick note: If you don't accept a Mac already to make this external kick drive, that's OK. Y'all'll just accept fewer backup tests you can run when considering the Mac you lot're looking at ownership.
Footstep 3. Pack your bootable USB bulldoze, an SD card, a ready of headphones, a CD, and a DVD
You'll want to bring a basic examination kit with you when yous go to see the device you're considering. First, bring the external drive with a pre-configured version of MacOS. Side by side, bring a set of headphones (preferably with a headphone jack, rather than a USB connectedness). This volition allow you to test external audio. Pack an SD card to test the internal SD menu slot, if 1 exists. Finally, if you lot're looking at a 2008 to 2012 MacBook Pro, bring a CD and DVD with you to test the internal bulldoze.
Footstep four. Once yous arrive, advisedly look over the car
Hither'due south where you lot're going to do a thorough physical inspection of the auto earlier booting it up. You desire to discover whatsoever dents, scratches, and, especially, whatsoever obvious damage. Look at each of the ports to see if any is out of alignment or crushed. Examine the screen for scratches or impairment. Some MacBook Pros have visible screws. Check to make sure they're all in place and non stripped or missing. If the machine looks besides beaten up, y'all might desire to give it a pass. That said, some scratched up Macs still piece of work dandy, and the scratches could well salvage you some bucks.
Footstep 5. Cheque the power adapter and boot the beast
Make sure the power adapter is plugged in and boot the machine. This is a good time to examine the power cable. Brand sure it's non badly kinked, aptitude, or cracked. Power adapters are available elsewhere to purchase, just they're not inexpensive. If the machine boots on external power, but the adapter looks crappy, ask for a discount.
You should be able to kick into the motorcar through to the desktop. If the auto won't kick, and y'all don't have an external startup disk, walk away now.
If you lot do have an external startup disk, first thinking about how much you lot want the seller to discount the machine. So, adhere your external drive to the Mac, hold downwards the Option central (and keep holding it) until you lot see the Startup Manager, choose your drive, and see if the machine will boot using your drive.
If y'all can't boot the machine using either approach, walk away. This deal is a bust.
Step 6. Check network and brandish
The simplest way to make sure the network is running is to go to YouTube. Don't worry nigh running Chrome here. Just launch Safari to make sure you can get to YouTube. If the seller says in that location's no available network connection (or if y'all're in a public location), try setting up Wi-Fi. If you lot can't examination the network, period, then walk away.
If you tin can test the network, go to this YouTube video. Calibration it to full screen and run, looking for stuck pixels or dots on the screen. This examination runs through a bunch of basic colors and should assistance tell you if in that location'southward discoloration or missing or stuck pixels. If y'all take screen problems, walk abroad from the deal.
Stride seven. Check the keyboard (especially on tardily-model MacBook Pros)
I like using the keyboard viewer, just you can also open Notes or TextEdit. Blazon a lot of text, cheque caps, caps lock, function keys, and repeating keys. Make sure the keys that repeat stop repeating. Also, check the trackpad to brand certain it tracks with your fingers as expected.
Step 8. Check drive, ports, and camera
If there'south an optical bulldoze, take your test disk, insert it to see if information technology plays. Plug in your SD card to see if the machine reads it. Test your external drive in each of the USB ports. Try your headset to brand sure it works. Fire upwardly FaceTime or Photo Booth to make sure the MacBook's camera works.
Step 9. Bank check drive status
It used to be that you could cheque the Southward.Thou.A.R.T. status of hard drives. With Apple'south new APFS and SSDs, S.M.A.R.T. is pretty much obsolete. I prefer to use Disk Utility to run First Aid on a drive to see if any errors show up. Errors on the drive could be caused by a bad drive (which is replaceable) or bad drive controller chips (which are not). I'd recommend walking away from any machine that fails the First Help scan. If the seller doesn't want you lot to run a scan, run away.
Step 10. Bank check the health condition of the battery
Apple details a serial of unproblematic steps for making sure the battery still has life in information technology. This includes a await at the Mac'southward perception of the battery's condition and its cycle count. Pay attention to the max cycle count listed for each model on this page, and and then the cycle count yous discover on the machine you lot're considering. If they're too close, don't buy the machine. Y'all'll need a costly battery replacement sooner rather than later.
Footstep xi. Run Apple Diagnostics or Apple Hardware Examination
Depending on how old the machine is you're looking at, yous should consider running Apple Hardware Test or Apple Diagnostics. I wrote an article on how to exercise that here.
Step 12. Be sure you have an Administrative login, and the Firmware password is disabled
If you made information technology this far, you're probably considering buying the machine. Make sure you have an administrative login to the auto. You can check this by shutting down, booting dorsum upward, logging in with what y'all think is your administrative business relationship, and looking at Users & Groups in System Preferences to make certain the account yous're logged into says "Admin."
Finally, make sure there's no firmware password. Apple details how to plough on and off a firmware password, and here'south a brusque guide for what to do if you tin't disable the password. If yous tin can't turn off the firmware password before you buy the machine, don't buy the automobile.
I notwithstanding don't recommend buying a Mac from a local seller that doesn't honor returns. But, if y'all must, the higher up list should help you make a successful purchase.
Commercial sellers who will honor returns
My recommendation is to simply buy a used machine from a commercial seller who you know will award returns. These include Amazon'south Renewed plan, OWC, and Apple Certified Refurbished machines. When you get your auto, you'll take seven to thirty days to fully test it out. Make sure you know your return period. Once you get your machine (or machines), load them up fully and exam them rigorously.
When information technology comes to Amazon, you lot can practice a search for used MacBook Pros past model year, but the visitor doesn't listing them that fashion. Instead, it lists the model number of the Mac, which makes information technology harder to know what you're looking at.
If y'all're going to exist buying a used Mac laptop, be sure to bookmark these pages:
- Identifying your MacBook
- Identifying your MacBook Air
- Identifying your MacBook Pro
These are Apple's pages. They list both model numbers and supported OS versions.
What to buy
Depending on your upkeep, I'd recommend a 2014 or 2015 MacBook Pro or -- if you accept the budget, a 2020 or 2021 motorcar with Apple'due south renewed M1 chipset. Avoid 2016 to 2018 machines, which take had notorious keyboard reliability problems, and you won't salvage that much on a buy.
MacBook Arrogance are fine machines, but they tend to be a little underpowered. Until 2019, they had older-way screens. I'd also stay away from basic MacBooks considering they're bloodless out the gate.
Here's my guide for making trade-off decisions on new purchases. The TL;DR version is I recommend getting a MacBook Pro with at least 16GB RAM, an M1 processor, and an SSD of at least 256GB (but you lot could limp along on 128GB).
A sample search
Last month, I searched for used MacBook Pro models. My goal was a xiii-inch 2015 i7 MacBook Pro with 16GB RAM. Here's what I found:
On Craigslist in my area, I found 3 Mac laptops for sale. They included an "iPad mini and MacBook Pro" for $700 with no indication of either model year or configuration, a model listed as 2013 MacBook Pro (as well with no configuration information) for $400, and a 2011 MacBook Air with an i7 processor, 256GB SSD, but simply 4GB RAM for $247.
The last motorcar is not bad, except that it's already at max memory with 4GB. With today's workloads, y'all'd exist hard-pressed to get much done with such limited memory.
On Facebook, in my expanse, I found a 2012 MacBook Air for $400 with no configuration information. I also found a $300 2012 15-inch i7 MacBook Pro, but it also had only 4GB RAM. The casing was a fleck dilapidated, but the good news is that for well-nigh $50 to $75, it would exist possible to upgrade this unit to 16GB. Another $50 or and then would upgrade the hard drive to SSD. So, if yous're adventurous and willing to accept a hazard, yous might get a moderately good motorcar (once upgraded) for nearly $400 to $450. That'south non bad.
On Amazon, I found two maxed out 2015 13-inch MacBook Pros for $ii,049 each. These were not office of Amazon'southward Renewed plan, so returns are a large question mark.
On OWC, I establish a 2015 xiii-inch i5 MacBook Pro containing 8GB RAM and 128GB SSD for $739. The company offers a $60 SSD upgrade, which would take the machine to 256GB. I'd recommend that. While most folks can get past on 8GB, the 2015 MacBook Pro has RAM soldered onto the motherboard, so upgrades aren't possible.
Apple's refurb page didn't have whatever xiii-inch MacBook Pro models before than 2017. They had an 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD i5 unit of measurement for $1,019. That's sixty bucks less than the OWC unit from two years earlier, but with the more problematic keyboard and fewer ports. If I wanted 16GB RAM, I would accept had to take a 2018 unit with a 1TB wink drive for $2,249.
At present, let's compare these used/refurbished models with a new 2020 purchase. A 2019 i5 13-inch MacBook Pro with 256GB and 8GB of RAM is $i,299. A more than ideal, longer-lasting configuration with 16GB RAM takes the auto upward to $1,499.
Is used worth it?
At that place's a lot to like nigh some of the older MacBook Pro models, most specifically the wide range of ports built into the machines. Equally you lot get to 2016 through 2018, you're express to a few Thunderbolt three ports and a keyboard notorious for its bug. From 2019 on, depending on the model, most of the keyboard problems have been resolved. With the latest 2021 MacBooks, Apple brought back the SD carte slot, HDMI port, and more than, though you'll have to pay a petty more for the convenience.
For a professional person similar me, used is probably not worth it. As we've seen, at that place's about a iii hundred dollar savings buying used from a reputable dealer, but your option of configurations is less than you'd have if you bought new, straight from Apple.
But I don't have twins in higher. When faced with that kind of expense, the power to save three hundred bucks -- twice -- adds upwards rapidly. Information technology certainly seems worth trading a few years of OS upgradability downwardly the line (presumably once the twins are out of school and buying their ain computers) for expenses right at present.
The 2012 machine I plant on Facebook was also intriguing. If yous're willing to spend the time testing and upgrading something old, information technology's possible to save a lot and still become a good auto. Back in those days (before the butterfly keyboard), Apple tree mostly made laptops that lasted as long as a tank.
The bottom line, as always, has to be knowing your unique needs. Is the longest possible upgrade life more important than saving a few bucks now? Is having an integrated photograph card reader and some USB 3.0 ports more of import than a agglomeration of Thunderbolt ports? Is saving $600 worth some possible hassles down the line?
I tin't really respond any of those questions because I don't have twins in college. I can't imagine what information technology takes to rest the stress and pride of that situation. All I can do is wish my contributor (and anyone else in his position) the best of luck.
Annotation: This article has been updated for 2022.
Y'all can follow my 24-hour interval-to-day projection updates on social media. Be certain to follow me on Twitter at @DavidGewirtz, on Facebook at Facebook.com/DavidGewirtz, on Instagram at Instagram.com/DavidGewirtz, and on YouTube at YouTube.com/DavidGewirtzTV.
Source: https://www.zdnet.com/article/buying-a-used-mac-laptop-how-to-avoid-scams-and-find-the-best-deals/
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