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by andrei_says_ 1690 days ago
Louis Rossman has two videos discussing (and showing the boards of) refurbished Apple laptops.

I imagine the quality varies depending on the third party who does the refurbishing.

The videos contain some colorful language.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XaGHcBZjmWA

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YhpDs3AJOyI

3 comments

I doubt this is the same thing as "Apple Certified Refurbished" store[1] which in my anecdotal (but quite a number of samples) have sold indistinguishable from new products in a sealed non-retail box which is the same as retail except it is plain white, which seems to sell immaculate products (that in my guess probably are either store returns or possibly even new ones under discount without admitting such thing). The board that Rossman highlights is effectively a fixed board from an old unit under warranty, which is probably a completely different pipeline. These specific boards had a known manufacturing issue that Apple is basically papering over.

Best Buy, et al refurbished units are not quite the same.

[1]: https://www.apple.com/shop/refurbished

I have happily bought from Apple’s repair store, but may not do so with laptops.
My point was Rossman's use of the phrase "refurbished" really means "fixed under warranty". Whether a refurbished is worth the risk is of course, one's own evaluation, but the video is not a representative of Apple refurbished store processes.
I would expect computers from the Apple refurbished store are indistinguishable from brand new the vast majority of the time.

Third-party refurbishers would be a different ball game altogether.

Refurbished by Apple or by Best Buy etc?
The refurbishes he's looking at are all Apple-authorized or first party.
Any proof those are laptops Apple sold as refurbished? Rossman has been caught lying about a bunch of stuff in the past.
> has been caught lying about a bunch of stuff

Would you mind linking to some of those? He's not my cup of coffee, but I always saw him as a fair guy.

He got caught using counterfeit parts.
1. How is he suppose to get official parts?

2. He is using parts made by the same company that made exactly the same chips. Is that Counterfeit?

3. He is using parts he scrapped from other Apple Computer when those parts are not available.

Unless it is outside those three options, I dont see how it is Counterfeit.

He's openly admitted to that, since for the most part Apple will not sell him the official OEM components.
That’s a pretty quick jump to ad hominem / character association for very low stakes.

Rossman’s level of transparency and willingness to address errors is unparalleled.

Using non-original parts in the context of Apple actively making it impossible to obtain such parts - and loudly complaining about it while fighting for right of repair legislation is … not lying, that’s for sure.

Got any proof of that? Genuinely curious.
I hadn't heard about that, any pointers to what he did that about? TIA.