I came across a good deal on a refurbished late 2015 iMac MK482LL. The brand new price for this particular model is $2299 but I was able to get it for $1599, plus 10% eBay Bucks. The promotion maxes out at $100 but I still consider it an additional discount. I’ve seen them as low as $1499 – right after I bought it, too bad. Still a good deal. It is refurbished but it is refurbished by Apple. I checked the serial number to find that the warranty expires 1 year after I turned it on and logged in. Apple is selling their refurbished model for $1949.
I got it from eBay from a seller named mfilm. The rating is great and I checked recent transactions with iMacs and all have positive feedback. The shipping is through Fedex Ground. The box has foam that surrounds another box that contained the iMac. It’s very well packaged and protected. Upon opening the package, every thing was wrapped as if it was new. I didn’t notice any wear and tear damage. The screen is beautiful, 5K (5120 x 2880). The iMac comes with the Magic Keyboard and Magic Mouse 2. Both are rechargeable. I couldn’t connect right off the bat but I charged them up for an hour each and was able to do so afterwards. Now it only comes with 1 lightning adapter to charge, so I used my iPhone charger to charge them both at the same time.
I’ve also bought a Thunderbolt2 to DisplayPort cable so I can connect to my LG 34UM88C-P. Had I known I would be going back to Mac, I would’ve spent the extra money and got the Thunderbolt version. This monitor is nice as well and refurbished. I can dual display with 5K and 1440. So much screen real estate. I wish I had a better desk.
It feels good to be back using a Mac desktop at home. The additional cost to get the 2TB Fusion drive is worth it. Many on the internet highly suggested it. The 1TB Fusion drive uses 24GB of SSD while the 2TB version uses 128GB – and it’s a huge difference in performance. I found a Youtube video of someone doing a benchmark for the 1TB Fusion drive. The write speeds were around 330MB/s and the read speeds were 830MB/s.
I was using my 2016 MacBook Pro docked but it was a lot of work when I needed to connect/disconnect and power on/off. I had to open the lid, turn it on, connect the cables, close the lid. If I need to put it to sleep, I had to open the lid, unplug the cables, close the lid. I just couldn’t open the lid because the laptop would turn back on almost instantaneously. Not sure if my Apple Watch is waking it up or the external monitor won’t let it sleep. I figured I’ll just get a desktop and be done with it.
So far, the iMac is running smooth. I am considering a couple of purchases to make it better.
I’ve never been concerned about getting refurbished products, specially from the manufacturer. Just be aware if you have any problems, you will need to spend time taking care of it. It’s fairly similar process to buying new and experiencing problems but you can save a good amount of money.
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