My Microsoft guy is selling me these new for 1399 right now because they are on sale. That is new, not refurb.
The cover case is a better price, I get them for 117 new.
So… 100 bucks difference worth the refurb? I am not sure. We did have to send one back last week because it was doing screwy things new out of the box. All the rest of them have been great. We are switching over to the surface instead of laptops for every user at my company.