Apple is selling refurbished Mac minis for as little as $319, providing a cheap entry path into Mac ownership.
First spotted by Tech God on X and reported by MacRumors, the $319 model is an M2-based system with an 8-core CPU and 10-core GPU. It’s the entry-level model, so it only comes with 256GB of storage, which is the only serious drawback of this system, although it’s not difficult to add extra high-speed storage via the Thunderbolt 4 ports. This model comes with 8GB of RAM.
At the time of writing, the unit was out of stock, but it’s always worth keeping an eye on the Apple Refurbished store, as models frequently come in and out of stock.
If your budget can stretch a little further, the next model up with a much less restrictive 512GB of storage is available for $489, which is more than $200 cheaper than this model of the Mac mini was on sale for when it first launched in 2023.
The M2 is still more than powerful enough for day-to-day computing, and as you’ll see from my tests of the newly released Civilization VII on Macs, it should be capable of playing recent games too.
What Is Apple Refurbished?
Apple Refurbished is an excellent way to buy Macs or other Apple goods at a discount.
Many people shy away from the Refurbished store because of the perception it’s either selling second-hand or faulty goods. But all of the products stocked here have been fully refurbished and have gone through Apple’s tests to ensure they are (now) free from defects, and they come with the same one-year warranty as new goods bought from Apple. They can also be further protected with AppleCare+.
They’re all repackaged and come with all the necessary power cords or accessories you would receive with new equivalents. The only restrictions are that engraving and gift wrapping are not available for refurbished products, which is hardly a blow for most buyers.
Reviving Old Macs
Apple isn’t the only company refurbishing Mac hardware, of course. There are plenty of companies out there refurbishing used Mac hardware, giving it a second lease of life.
In 2023, I wrote about how I’d bought a 10-year-old refurbished iMac for $250, which is still in active service today as an entertainment system in my kitchen. The iMac wasn’t exactly a smooth runner under the old version of macOS that it shipped with, but installing Linux Mint on the Mac boosted its performance and has the extra advantage of still receiving security updates, which the obsolete version of macOS wouldn’t receive.
If you’re considering buying a refurbished Mac for day-to-day usage now, it’s probably best to avoid the older Intel-based Macs. The performance from systems based on Apple silicon far exceeds anything the Intel Macs can offer, and it’s highly likely that Intel processors will no longer be supported by the next version of macOS.
And when Apple is selling refurbished M2 Macs for just over $300, there’s very little reason to dip back into the Intel inventory.