Why it matters to you
A refurbished 2017 iMac from Apple can offer good savings over buying new, and they all come with a one-year warranty.
Apple has now begun selling refurbished 2017 27-inch iMacs on its web store, marking the first time fans have been able to get their hands on one of these all-in-one systems from an official channel without buying new. Although all of them pack Intel Core i5 CPUs, there are options for memory and graphics chip, at prices that offer decent savings over new models.
Although Apple hardware regularly lands at the top of our lists for reliability, like any electronics range, there are occasional problems. When those crop up, Apple often refurbishes them and packages them back up for resale and that’s where you can really save some money if you want to buy Apple without the high price tag.
There are a lot of different refurbished models available through Apple’s online store, but this is the first time that the 2017 iMacs have been put up for sale there. Priced between $1,530 and $1,950 depending on your selection of hardware, there is plenty of choice across the range, but all of them come with significant savings over buying new. As MacRumors reports, with the right choice you could save yourself upwards of $300.
If you have a particular model in mind though, you’ll want to get in there soon, as stock will fluctuate once people begin buying them up. At the time of writing, there are only a handful available, though you do have your pick of a few different configurations. The lowest cost version comes with the standard 27-inch, 5K retina display, powered by a Core i5 CPU at 3.4GHz, 8GB of DDR4 memory and a Radeon Pro 570 graphics chip. Storage-wise it offers 1TB of hard drive space with some flash cache storage.
If you have deeper pockets, you could opt for the 3.8GHz model. It still uses a Core i5 chip, but has a higher clock speed and a more powerful Radeon Pro 580 with 8GB of video memory. It also comes with an expanded 2TB of storage space.
There are a few intermediary models with different clock speeds, some offering 16GB of system RAM, too. However, be wary when looking to buy any of them. The new iMac models are listed alongside much older variants from 2015 and even 2014. As good as those were, their internal hardware will offer much less bang for your buck.