On Wednesday, Apple began offering refurbished M4 Mac mini models in its store, with prices starting at $509 for the basic model. This was a positive development, but an issue was raised by MacRumors on Thursday: a similarly configured M2 Mac mini would be priced at $50 more than the M4 model, despite having an older design.
Apple has since addressed this pricing discrepancy by reducing the costs of refurbished models by a minimum of $100.
Prior to this adjustment, the pricing for refurbished Mac minis was structured as follows:
- M2 Mac mini with 256GB SSD/8GB memory: $419
- M4 Mac mini with 256GB SSD/16GB memory: $509
- M2 Mac mini with 256GB SSD/16GB memory: $559
This pricing logic was quite perplexing, considering that consumers would end up paying more for outdated hardware with identical specifications. Furthermore, even if you were inclined to choose the older model, you would only save $90 while sacrificing half the unified memory. Apple places a value of $200 on an additional 8GB of unified memory, making a $90 savings for an older computer seem illogical.
However, as noted by Tech God on X, Apple has revised its prices for refurbished Mac minis, cutting costs by approximately $100:
- M2 Mac mini with 256GB SSD/8GB memory: $319
- M2 Mac mini with 256GB SSD/16GB memory: $459
- M4 Mac mini with 256GB SSD/16GB memory: $509
This revised pricing is considerably more reasonable, positioning the older Mac mini models as attractive options. It’s hard to find fault with an Apple Silicon Mac priced just above $300.
You can visit Apple’s refurbished Mac store here.
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