Approaching Normal

1. My MBP runs 1440×900 on the lcd and 1680×1050 on an external 22inch widescreen HP monitor. I think the higher resolution may be nice for graphics but the lower does the job just fine for me.

2. I know a few people who have gotten refurbs from Apple and they have had no more problems than I have had with any of my new ones(Which are few and far between).

3. Textmate, CSSEdit, Colloquy, Skitch, VMWare Fusion(for running Ubuntu).

Hope that helps.

1. Personally I think that the resolution bump is worth the extra money but that’s really a personal preference

2. Never bought apple refurb so no opinion.

Bonus: Some of my favorite apps – Textmate (for coding), Adium (for instant message), QuickSilver (application launcher / automation), Ecto (for blogging), Google Reader Notifier, OmniGraffle (diagramming), Keynote (presentations), YoJimbo (for storing copies of webpages offline).

I’d say if you can save a significant amount on the refurbished model, go for it. I do recommend to anyone who’s highly dependent on their machine to make sure you have a backup system available should you need to send it in for repairs.

Personally, I don’t understand the appeal of the 17” model, but I know some people really love it. My methodology is much more centered around being more portable and hooking up to my big LCD when at my desk. So I think 15” + nice big LCD is a better way to go than 17” for the same money. But that’s just me.

I’ve heard that if you sign up for a certain Apple Developer Connection (ADC) membership that you get a substantial discount on one development machine per year. You might want to look into that.

Carl, It looks like the ADC membership is $499 though… that would have to be a heck of a discount to make it worthwhile. The refurb is $400 off the retail price, so that’s looking like the best option.

I’ve ordered a refurb 17in high res MBP. A friend is bringing it for me from the US to India, so I have to wait a couple more weeks to get it.

I feel that the higher res screen is worth the small difference, especially as I think that a sharper screen should cause less eye-strain if you work long hours on it. (My opinion, I’ll be able to test it out only after I get it).

Have previously purchased a refurb MacBook for my dad, and haven’t had any problems with it.

I did myself a research like this a month or so from when that laptop came out. My findings were that the extra resolution isn’t worth it except you are going to do video editing. Although I still think it would be cool I went with normal res.

About refurbs, I am used to change my computer a lot and I had mixed experiences with refurbs. Some came flawless and some where pretty damaged. I won’t talk about the flawless, so let me tell you about the last time I bought refurb.

This happened when they changed the MBP from Core Duo to Core 2 Duo. There were some stocks of Core Duos really cheap and I wanted to take advantage of it. In particular there was this model with the standard CPU but with higher ram and roomier HD. I bought it and the logic board was broken so when I called Apple they said they had no replacement for it and they had to send my money back. I spend a while with them in the phone and they sent me the upgraded model.

That one was also faulty (the screen wouldn’t close properly) and they were out of stock of this too so again same story “money back”-> a while in the phone -> Core 2 Duo model.

After this whole process I ended with a very nice computer but after 2 months of my original purchase!

Anyway most of the times it goes right. Have luck!

My 2 cents. I have a new 15” MBP. It is quite large. I think the 17” is too big unless you don’t plan to carry it around anywhere.

One of the big recent improvements in the MBP line is the LED backlighting (introduced in June/July 2007). With a refurb, you will likely get a unit that does not have the LED backlighting. Not only does LED backlighting improve battery life, but the brightness of the display stays the same over the life of the laptop where the older style fluorescent backlighting faded over time making your display less bright.

I’m typing this on a refurbished MacBook Pro. We also own a refurb MacBook, a refurb iBook and two refurbbed iMacs. For my wife’s birthday, I got her a refurb iPod nano. Never had a problem with any of them. All looked brand, spanking new when they came (although not always in the original packaging).

Unless I absolutely have to have the newest Apple item, with the cost savings, I’ll always buy refurbished.