Does this item include Apple’s standard AppleCare Protection Plan (90-day telephone and 1 year limited warranty)? Does it qualify for the optional extended 3 year warranty?
Per the Features:
Warranty: 90 Day ComputerLand
You can also pick up an extended Square Trade warranty through the widget at the top of the Features tab.
You’d have to get in touch with Apple to see if they’d extend their warranty. I’d assume not, though, as this is a refurbished model, not a factory reconditioned model.
What is involved in the refurbishing process? How thorough is it?
We don’t have specific information. Here’s our definition for refurbished.
“Refurbished” covers everything from buyers’ remorse returns and products whose defects have been repaired by the pros to damaged packaging and discontinued items. If you can accept their checkered past, refurbs have a lot of love to give.
Is this Apple refurbished? or 3rd party refurbished? I believe there is a significant difference between them.
3rd Party; we list “Factory Reconditioned” when the manufacturer does the refurb.
Is this one of the apple models with the thermal paste issues? To my understanding it has been a major deficit with any of the macbook pro’s (even Retina models) that don’t have integrated graphics cards between 2010 and 2013.
If anyone has information on whether this may be one of those sketchy models, please inform. Thank you!
Wow… this was a $2,200 computer 2 1/2 years ago.
I have the model one rung below this one, with just the Intel integrated graphics. It’s an amazing workhorse, and is both fast and rock solid stable.
This one does NOT have the problematic AMD discrete graphics card that plagued the 2011 model.
2011 Model
Apple 15.4" Macbook Pro Retina Laptop
Top quality
No, this machine is part of that entire “recall” - graphics card extended warranty. It was the solder that was the issue and as such, the issue is GPU-Vendor-Agnostic. Beware if you are thinking of buying one of these units - your extended Apple service initiative on the defective GPU is over at the end of this year (Dec. 31st, 2016).
See this:
and this:
"While the 2011 iMac and MacBook Pros use different GPUs, both systems use GPUs from AMD’s Radeon HD 6000M series, with the iMac using the higher-end 6970M while the MacBook Pros used the 6490M, 6750M, and 6770M GPUs.
However throwing a wrench into any common thread between these systems, the last of the MacBook Pros covered by the repair program, the first generation 15” Retina MacBook Pros, used NVIDIA’s GeForce GT 650M instead. There is also the matter of differences in construction – iMacs used MXM cards, MacBook Pros use GPUs soldered on to the logic board – and even differences in operation. Namely, while the iMac used its dGPU exclusively the MacBook Pros all used switchable graphics, which means that the MacBook Pros are often being driven by their iGPU rather than their dGPU." - Anandtech.
While 8GB is perfectly useful for most use I find I can push that to its limits at times. My “Early 2011” has socketed RAM but can’t go past 8GB and that is the only thing about it to cause my eye to wander looking at newer machines. Be aware Woot’s machine’s memory is soldered to the MB and not upgradable.
If your machine is indeed the 2011 model, you can upgrade your memory to 16GB in total. Apple officially advertised only 8GB max at the time, but the system fully supports 16GB. See this:
All 2011 Macbook Pros supported 16GB (by testing through OWC and users), from memory.
Does refurbished mean not used and now being cleaned up and resold? I would want to know how much use the keyboard and the hinges have had. Does Woot sell used products? Is there a difference between used and refurbished? Thanks.
They are likely used then refurbished. I can’t tell you anything about the use because it will vary from unit to unit.
Here’s our official definition:
“Refurbished” covers everything from buyers’ remorse returns and products whose defects have been repaired by the pros to damaged packaging and discontinued items. If you can accept their checkered past, refurbs have a lot of love to give.
Apple does sell AppleCare on the refurbs bought directly from them.
hmm. So we are either getting a 3rd party refurb or macs that have come off a business lease. Well time will tell if we all got screwed…woot is not the same it once was.
Meh.
I have a Macbook Pro from 2006 that won’t shut down by using the power-down menu, so I leave it on in the sleep mode when not in use. Also it won’t run any OS beyond Lion, and won’t run many newer apps. However I’m keeping it because as a trade-off Apple provides newer machines with the barely noticed Retina screen, but did away with the DVD player/burner, which is more important for me. And Apple is stingy with USB ports for adding an external DVD drive. So, although this offer is tempting, it appears that I have to hold on to my MB Pro till it dies. Sad.
But this one is essentially used and cleaned up by…somebody. Kinda like a used car.