Best refurbed Mac laptop

Hi everybody

I've just hit the update wall, very frustratingly, as I only spent money on jazzing up an old macbook pro a year ago. Oh well.

So I'd like to know your thoughts on what might be a good option, ideally refurbed, in order to get more bang for my buck, that will do me right for another few years.

I'd also like to know if it will be straight forward to swap my existing SSD drive over to the new machine as well as update Logic without having to purchase it anew.

Cheers

BobPersonal

What's your budget?

Beyond non-retina 2012 15-inch laptops, everything is either soldered or non-upgradable.

So no use for your SSD on anything newer than 2012.

The last few years of Mac laptops use the unreliable "butterfly" keyboards (google it). The 16" Macbook Pro and the new 2020 13" MB Pro and MB Air that just started shipping have the new, more reliable "Magic" keyboard. So until those models show up as refurbs, you are taking a risk on the keyboard failing. I normally buy refurbs, but since I needed to replace a 10 year old MB Pro ASAP I just paid full price for a new MB Air (not yet a week old) on which I am typing this.

Now that nothing can be replaced, buy as much RAM and SSD as you can within reason. I'm more worried about batteries, I self-replaced the battery in my MB Pro twice over that ten years, wondering how long this MB Air wil go before the battery bellies up.

You can update Logic Pro X free. I have 10.4.8 loaded on my2012 iMac. When I checked the App Store from my MB Air, 10.5 showed up as a free download.

As far as the SSD, just buy an external enclosure for it, that's what I've done. Mac Sales has USB 3.0 enclosures for about $15. Then you can run Migration Assistant to populate the new laptop from the external SSD. Keep in mind you might run into some weird issues....going from El Capitan to Catalina, M.A. screwed up both my mail and iCloud settings. I had to set up my iCloud and Internet accounts again, then manually import all my mailboxes off the external SSD Other than that, it was a smooth transition.

Fellas, apologies for the slow reply, for some reason I didn't get an email notification of your replies.

Thank you for the information. I don't have a specific budget, per se. I'm doing serious work (production and increasing mix work) so I need a machine that handle it. I just want to avoid spending money unnecessarily. I don't care about new and shiny, I just want things to work well, hence wondering about refurbed options. That doesn't sound viable though by the sounds of it.

Regarding Logic on a brand new machine, you're saying I would migrate everything over as it is now, then upgrade to Catalina before upgrading Logic? Sorry for basic question the computer side of things really isn't my strong point!

Do you *have* to have a laptop? You can get more bang for your buck with a Mini or iMac.

This.

I'm doing serious work (production and increasing mix work) so I need a machine that handle it. I just want to avoid spending money unnecessarily. I don't care about new and shiny, I just want things to work well, hence wondering about refurbed options. That doesn't sound viable though by the sounds of it.

You have options, but they all depend on the budget.

If we know how much you're willing to spend and what specific peripherals you need, we can give you a better suggestion.

£1000 would be my limit ideally.

Anything later than 2012 would have non-removable HD and Ram.

I would look for quad-core i5 or i7 as a starting point and see what you find.

BobP,

Typical life of OS compatibility for a Mac is about 7-8 years.

My just retired 2009 MB Pro topped out at El Capitan (10.11)...Sierra (10.12) dropped in fall of 2017.

My 2012 iMac on which I run Logic topped out at High Sierra (10.13)...Mojave (10.14) dropped in the fall of 2019.

You always get the longest OS compatibility out of a Mac that shipped shortly after the current OS dropped. Unless Apple drops support for Intel CPUs altogether, I should be good out to OS 10.22 (or whatever OS drops in 2027).

Thats still quite old, will I not simply encounter the same issue of not being able to support new updates of OS?

You're gonna get a fairly new and powerful laptop for a thousand pounds. They are expensive.

Again apologies for slow reply, I do really appreciate you all giving advice.

So if you categorically had to give a recommendation, with £1000 budget and looking to improve performance as well as renew life-span, what would you guys go for? Macbook or Mini, refurb or brand new?