[Pogomwg]

Ive been looking at ibooks for a while now and im pretty close to making my purchase. My question to eveyone is should i buy the new one or get a refurb. Has anyone had good/bad exp with refurbs? Thanks for input.

-Kyle

[harrisjamieh]

I bought a refurb iBook about 2 months ago, and overall I am very pleased with my purchase. It was the previous generattion model, so the 1.2 ghz, 256 RAM, 30 GB HD etc (12"), but for £150 less than the list price, this small performance decrease was worth it.

The only problem I had was when it was first delivered - it wouldnt turn on at all, even though it was charged. I arranged for the ibook to be sent back to apple, but before they collected it someone told me to take out my battery for 15 minutes and put it back in. Voila, it works, and I haven't had a problem since.

If I were you, i'd go refurb (so long as you are getting a substantial price drop from new -->. refurb)

Good luck with your purchase

[Duracell]

Originally Posted by Pogomwg

Ive been looking at ibooks for a while now and im pretty close to making my purchase. My question to eveyone is should i buy the new one or get a refurb. Has anyone had good/bad exp with refurbs? Thanks for input.

-Kyle

While I can't speak from personal experience, I have asked this question before (when I first joined) and it was pretty much 99.9% good feedback.

Just think of it this way,

Do you mind the possiblity of not owning the box or perhaps having a few scratches?

Apple won't ship an item that hasn't passed the same tests as a new one, it'll work fine just maybe not look great.

Hope you get what you're looking for regardless of how you do it

[TerryJ]

I always buy refurbs and I have never had the first disappointment. I think Apple's standards are high enough to make their refurb/refreshed units higher than what we are used to seeing as refurbs from other companies. I trade up either PowerBook or iBook models about every six months for little or no $$$ out of pocket due to what I can buy a refreshed unit for from Apple after selling the prior unit online or elsewhere. I just sold my 15" PowerBook/1.25 and purchased a refreshed 14" iBook 1.42/SD and actually ended up coming out about $200 ahead. I am entirely pleased with this iBook, even more than I was with the PB with less cosmetic worries and the performance is essentially equal in my eyes. If the iBook had the backlit keyboard, it would be the perfect machine for me but it is 99.99999% there even without it.

Anyway, don't fear the refurb/refreshed. You will end up saving a ton of money, get the same warranty, same accessories, same everything except the outer box.

[GWS]

Kyle, you don't say where you're from, but at least here in the US, Amazon today listed their 12" and 14" iBooks with an instant $100 manufacturer's rebate. That's in addition to Amazon's own $100 (12") or $125 (14") rebate. The instant and mail-in rebates drop the new iBooks from Amazon down pretty close to the refurbs from Apple. Plus, Apple will charge sales tax, whereas Amazon doesn't; depending on your tax jurisdiction, this can be a sizable sum.

Not knocking the refurbs, I've been looking at them myself. But if the price is the same, or very close to the same, I'll go new.

Hope this helps you with your purchase decision.

Gary