Apple's Refurbished Mac Mini Pricing Has a Problem
Apple this week began selling refurbished Mac mini models with the M4 chip for the first time, but this has led to a pricing conundrum.
In the United States, Apple is offering a refurbished Mac mini with the base M4 chip, 256GB of storage, 16GB of RAM, and Gigabit Ethernet for $509, down from $599 new. This is the standard 15% discount that Apple offers on refurbished Macs.
The issue is that Apple continues to offer a refurbished Mac mini with the base M2 chip, 256GB of storage, 16GB of RAM, and Gigabit Ethernet for $559. This means a refurbished Mac mini with an M2 chip is currently $50 more expensive than a refurbished Mac mini with an M4 chip, despite other key specs being equal. That's a bad buy.
The underlying reason for this situation is that Apple increased the minimum amount of RAM included in Macs from 8GB to 16GB last year, at no additional cost. When new, the Mac mini with the M2 chip started at $799 when upgraded to 16GB of RAM, whereas the latest Mac mini now comes with 16GB of RAM by default for just $599. Apple has not revised its refurbished Mac mini prices enough to account for this difference.
Popular Stories
Apple has removed more desktop Macs from its online store as the global memory shortage continues. Mac mini models with 32GB and 64GB of RAM are no longer available for purchase, nor is the M3 Ultra Mac Studio with 256GB RAM.
The M3 Ultra Mac Studio is now available only in a 96GB RAM configuration, with higher-tier options eliminated. Both M3 Mac Studio and M4 Max Mac Studio models have...
New models of the Apple TV 4K and HomePod mini are "nearly ready to go," according to the latest word from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.
Both devices have been ready "for months," but Apple is holding off on launching them until the more personalized version of Siri is available, he said.
"I am told the hardware for the next Apple TV...
The iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max's all-new variable aperture lens will cost Apple 50% more than the camera unit used in current models, according to supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.
Variable aperture has been one of the most persistent iPhone camera rumors of the past few years. Kuo first flagged the feature in late 2024, and it has since been corroborated by multiple reports and...
