1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:08,340 In this box is what I think is the worst Apple product you can buy. 2 00:00:08,340 --> 00:00:11,420 It's not expensive, but it's overpriced. 3 00:00:11,420 --> 00:00:17,540 It's new, but it's outdated. If you're not careful surfing through Apple's online refurbished store, you might think 4 00:00:17,540 --> 00:00:21,620 that this $890 iMac is a great deal. 5 00:00:21,620 --> 00:00:32,660 But I don't think it is. Which is why I bought it. I want to see just how bad of a product Apple still thinks is okay to sell to you. 6 00:00:32,660 --> 00:00:36,220 I've always been fascinated with Apple's refurbished store. 7 00:00:36,220 --> 00:00:40,200 It's a place where you can find discounts on new and not so new models of just about 8 00:00:40,200 --> 00:00:46,740 any Apple device if it's in stock. And despite being refurbished, Apple treats them with the same warranty and return policy 9 00:00:46,740 --> 00:00:53,940 as new devices. So it's a 21.5 inch iMac from 2017. 10 00:00:53,940 --> 00:01:05,500 It's got a 2.3 gigahertz dual core 7th gen Intel chip that is actually for laptops. 11 00:01:05,500 --> 00:01:09,100 There we go. One terabytes of hard drive space. 12 00:01:09,100 --> 00:01:16,500 And yes, that is spinning hard drive space. And because this has a laptop hard drive, like it has a laptop processor for some reason, 13 00:01:16,500 --> 00:01:20,580 it only spins at 5400 RPM, which is the slowest. 14 00:01:20,580 --> 00:01:38,700 Let's see how this thing performs. I'm really curious. 15 00:01:38,700 --> 00:01:42,220 Screen looks perfect. The old iMac. 16 00:01:42,220 --> 00:01:54,700 All right, let's plug this thing in. 17 00:01:54,700 --> 00:01:58,060 The sweet smell of a new computer. 18 00:01:58,060 --> 00:02:01,660 New old computer. 19 00:02:01,660 --> 00:02:06,420 It genuinely does smell. If we had smell vision, that'd be great, but we don't. 20 00:02:06,420 --> 00:02:15,980 Let me explain why this iMac exists. In 2015, Apple upgraded the screen on the 21.5 inch iMac to a 4k panel, which is great, 21 00:02:15,980 --> 00:02:20,580 but that also upped the price. And Apple still needed a computer to sell to schools. 22 00:02:20,580 --> 00:02:26,020 And so what they did is they created a cut price version with the existing 1080p screen. 23 00:02:26,020 --> 00:02:32,340 So in 2015, it had a really slow processor from a MacBook Air and then this one slightly 24 00:02:32,340 --> 00:02:38,340 better in 2017. Oh my God, this is taking forever. 25 00:02:38,340 --> 00:02:42,140 I didn't put a stopwatch on, I should have done that. 26 00:02:42,140 --> 00:02:47,900 This is a pretty bad experience, but at least we didn't have to pay more for an overpriced 27 00:02:47,900 --> 00:02:51,980 RAM upgrade or a fancy screen, only to be in the same boat. 28 00:02:51,980 --> 00:02:57,860 I had the option between three, which all share the same problem, a spinning hard drive. 29 00:02:57,860 --> 00:03:01,060 There is no SSD at all. 30 00:03:01,060 --> 00:03:05,660 These drives ran at the glacial pace of 60 to 80 megabytes per second, hence the slow 31 00:03:05,660 --> 00:03:11,460 boot. If you want one of these older iMacs, I recommend paying the $40 extra and getting one with 32 00:03:11,460 --> 00:03:15,020 an SSD. Or if you need more space, there's one with a Fusion drive. 33 00:03:15,020 --> 00:03:19,820 And of course, external hard drives are always an option too. 34 00:03:19,820 --> 00:03:23,660 It's so slow. This is crazy. 35 00:03:23,660 --> 00:03:31,580 This iMac took four minutes to boot. A M1 Mac mini, by comparison, takes only 30 seconds. 36 00:03:31,580 --> 00:03:34,780 Installing Microsoft Office took just under 10 minutes. 37 00:03:34,780 --> 00:03:39,020 And on an M1? Well, that's only three and a half minutes. 38 00:03:39,020 --> 00:03:42,700 Because oh, yes. 39 00:03:42,700 --> 00:03:47,260 The models that come with an SSD, so that would be a Fusion drive model or one with just an 40 00:03:47,260 --> 00:03:51,500 SSD, they use an M.2 slot for the SSD. 41 00:03:51,500 --> 00:03:56,300 But this one just has the SATA port for the HDD and no M.2 slots. 42 00:03:56,300 --> 00:04:02,860 So even if you wanted to upgrade an SSD alongside the hard drive that's in here, you can't. 43 00:04:02,940 --> 00:04:07,940 You have to replace it with a SATA SSD in a two and a half inch enclosure. 44 00:04:07,940 --> 00:04:11,940 I can't hear anything. 45 00:04:13,940 --> 00:04:14,940 Oh no, there it is. 46 00:04:22,620 --> 00:04:26,580 So I'm starting to wonder if this computer is refurbished at all. 47 00:04:26,580 --> 00:04:32,620 I mean, just look at the sheer volume of choices from recently discontinued models. 48 00:04:32,620 --> 00:04:36,060 It really makes me think that the refurbished store might be the place where Apple sells 49 00:04:36,060 --> 00:04:39,460 its old stock. Take the iMac Pro, for example. 50 00:04:39,460 --> 00:04:43,740 That was discontinued last March, and yesterday when I last checked, there were 66 options 51 00:04:43,740 --> 00:04:47,540 still available. Oh, now there's only 19. 52 00:04:47,540 --> 00:04:53,700 That's weird. Anyway, with all the anticipation for an iMac with the M1 Pro and Mac's chips incoming, 53 00:04:53,700 --> 00:04:56,820 I don't see how there can be much demand for these. 54 00:04:56,820 --> 00:05:01,820 Now, to confirm my hypothesis, I tried to look at this iMac's hard drive history and 55 00:05:01,820 --> 00:05:08,420 the total hours it ran for before we started using it is about 186, which is a little over 56 00:05:08,420 --> 00:05:13,700 a week. More interesting still is that according to the serial number, this iMac was manufactured 57 00:05:13,700 --> 00:05:17,940 in 2017. So is this the same hard drive from that time? 58 00:05:17,940 --> 00:05:22,260 Did somebody buy this and use it for a week and return it? 59 00:05:22,260 --> 00:05:28,820 Was only the hard drive replaced? It's kind of hard to deduce what sort of life these refurbished Macs have had. 60 00:05:28,820 --> 00:05:37,940 If only computers had odometers. New or not, there are some funny listings in here, like these $40,000 plus Mac Pros. 61 00:05:37,940 --> 00:05:44,300 They are configured with a preposterous and unsellable 1.5 terabytes of RAM and 4 GPUs. 62 00:05:44,300 --> 00:05:48,900 It's a lot of power and a lot of money, and that's with a 19% discount compared to when 63 00:05:48,900 --> 00:05:56,740 it was new. Another open question is who's going to spend almost $3,800 on this 27-inch iMac, which 64 00:05:56,740 --> 00:06:02,220 is otherwise a base model except for the 128GB RAM upgrade? 65 00:06:02,220 --> 00:06:06,980 That's silly, especially since you can still buy a base model and easily upgrade the memory 66 00:06:06,980 --> 00:06:14,740 thanks to a little door on the back. Doing so with a kit bought online would save you over $1,400, plus you can sell the RAM 67 00:06:14,740 --> 00:06:20,180 it came with or save it as a backup. There's a whole slew of these with too much RAM. 68 00:06:20,180 --> 00:06:23,060 But what if you actually want to get a good deal from Apple? 69 00:06:23,340 --> 00:06:33,140 Well, you don't have to look far. An M1 Mac Mini is $589, adding an equivalent Mac layout keyboard, a Bluetooth mouse, 1080p 70 00:06:33,140 --> 00:06:38,020 screen, external hard drive, and a pair of speakers together is only a couple dollars 71 00:06:38,020 --> 00:06:41,180 more than our worst iMac. 72 00:06:41,180 --> 00:06:46,460 With more cables to manage, it's not going to be quite as clean and as beautiful of an 73 00:06:46,460 --> 00:06:53,580 install on your desk, but it will be much, much faster and last much longer. 74 00:06:53,580 --> 00:06:58,260 What also makes this iMac such a bad deal is that in the refurbish store, Apple doesn't 75 00:06:58,260 --> 00:07:04,860 believe in depreciation. I tried to find one of these on the used market and I found one for $550, which is closer 76 00:07:04,860 --> 00:07:10,060 to how much this computer should cost if it had an SSD instead of a spinner. 77 00:07:10,060 --> 00:07:14,300 If you venture into the Apple refurbish store, what you need to make sure you do is read 78 00:07:14,340 --> 00:07:18,780 the tech specs and know what they mean, because Apple will sell you something over-configured 79 00:07:18,780 --> 00:07:21,860 and practical or just slow. 80 00:07:21,860 --> 00:07:25,660 And you don't want to be caught with a bad deal when you're thinking you're getting a good one. 81 00:07:25,660 --> 00:07:28,740 That's not to say there aren't any good deals in the refurbish store. 82 00:07:28,740 --> 00:07:32,020 There are. And I want to see just how good a deal we can get in our next video. 83 00:07:32,020 --> 00:07:37,380 So get subscribed for that. Thanks for waiting for this Mac Address to load. 84 00:07:37,380 --> 00:07:42,020 If you've experienced the massive speed increase of an SSD upgrade, give this video a like. 85 00:07:42,060 --> 00:07:47,220 And if you have a computer in your life that still boots from a spinner drive, why not subscribe? 86 00:07:47,220 --> 00:07:50,700 I'm wondering what you think is the worst deal in the Apple refurbish store. 87 00:07:50,700 --> 00:07:53,020 Put the specs and the link in the comments below.