WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.340 In this box is what I think is the worst Apple product you can buy. 00:00:08.340 --> 00:00:11.420 It's not expensive, but it's overpriced. 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 00:00:17.540 It's new, but it's outdated.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 00:00:17.540 --> 00:00:21.620 that this $890 iMac is a great deal. 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. 00:00:32.660 --> 00:00:36.220 I've always been fascinated with Apple's refurbished store. 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 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 00:00:46.740 --> 00:00:53.940 as new devices. So it's a 21.5 inch iMac from 2017. 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. 00:01:05.500 --> 00:01:09.100 There we go. One terabytes of hard drive space. 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, 00:01:16.500 --> 00:01:20.580 it only spins at 5400 RPM, which is the slowest. 00:01:20.580 --> 00:01:38.700 Let's see how this thing performs. I'm really curious. 00:01:38.700 --> 00:01:42.220 Screen looks perfect. The old iMac. 00:01:42.220 --> 00:01:54.700 All right, let's plug this thing in. 00:01:54.700 --> 00:01:58.060 The sweet smell of a new computer. 00:01:58.060 --> 00:02:01.660 New old computer. 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. 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, 00:02:15.980 --> 00:02:20.580 but that also upped the price. And Apple still needed a computer to sell to schools. 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. 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 00:02:32.340 --> 00:02:38.340 better in 2017. Oh my God, this is taking forever. 00:02:38.340 --> 00:02:42.140 I didn't put a stopwatch on, I should have done that. 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 00:02:47.900 --> 00:02:51.980 RAM upgrade or a fancy screen, only to be in the same boat. 00:02:51.980 --> 00:02:57.860 I had the option between three, which all share the same problem, a spinning hard drive. 00:02:57.860 --> 00:03:01.060 There is no SSD at all. 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 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 00:03:11.460 --> 00:03:15.020 an SSD. Or if you need more space, there's one with a Fusion drive. 00:03:15.020 --> 00:03:19.820 And of course, external hard drives are always an option too. 00:03:19.820 --> 00:03:23.660 It's so slow. This is crazy. 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. 00:03:31.580 --> 00:03:34.780 Installing Microsoft Office took just under 10 minutes. 00:03:34.780 --> 00:03:39.020 And on an M1? Well, that's only three and a half minutes. 00:03:39.020 --> 00:03:42.700 Because oh, yes. 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 00:03:47.260 --> 00:03:51.500 SSD, they use an M.2 slot for the SSD. 00:03:51.500 --> 00:03:56.300 But this one just has the SATA port for the HDD and no M.2 slots. 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. 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. 00:04:07.940 --> 00:04:11.940 I can't hear anything. 00:04:13.940 --> 00:04:14.940 Oh no, there it is. 00:04:22.620 --> 00:04:26.580 So I'm starting to wonder if this computer is refurbished at all. 00:04:26.580 --> 00:04:32.620 I mean, just look at the sheer volume of choices from recently discontinued models. 00:04:32.620 --> 00:04:36.060 It really makes me think that the refurbished store might be the place where Apple sells 00:04:36.060 --> 00:04:39.460 its old stock. Take the iMac Pro, for example. 00:04:39.460 --> 00:04:43.740 That was discontinued last March, and yesterday when I last checked, there were 66 options 00:04:43.740 --> 00:04:47.540 still available. Oh, now there's only 19. 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, 00:04:53.700 --> 00:04:56.820 I don't see how there can be much demand for these. 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 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 00:05:08.420 --> 00:05:13.700 a week. More interesting still is that according to the serial number, this iMac was manufactured 00:05:13.700 --> 00:05:17.940 in 2017. So is this the same hard drive from that time? 00:05:17.940 --> 00:05:22.260 Did somebody buy this and use it for a week and return it? 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. 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. 00:05:37.940 --> 00:05:44.300 They are configured with a preposterous and unsellable 1.5 terabytes of RAM and 4 GPUs. 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 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 00:05:56.740 --> 00:06:02.220 is otherwise a base model except for the 128GB RAM upgrade? 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 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 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. 00:06:20.180 --> 00:06:23.060 But what if you actually want to get a good deal from Apple? 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 00:06:33.140 --> 00:06:38.020 screen, external hard drive, and a pair of speakers together is only a couple dollars 00:06:38.020 --> 00:06:41.180 more than our worst iMac. 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 00:06:46.460 --> 00:06:53.580 install on your desk, but it will be much, much faster and last much longer. 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 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 00:07:04.860 --> 00:07:10.060 to how much this computer should cost if it had an SSD instead of a spinner. 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 00:07:14.340 --> 00:07:18.780 the tech specs and know what they mean, because Apple will sell you something over-configured 00:07:18.780 --> 00:07:21.860 and practical or just slow. 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. 00:07:25.660 --> 00:07:28.740 That's not to say there aren't any good deals in the refurbish store. 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. 00:07:32.020 --> 00:07:37.380 So get subscribed for that. Thanks for waiting for this Mac Address to load. 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. 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? 00:07:47.220 --> 00:07:50.700 I'm wondering what you think is the worst deal in the Apple refurbish store. 00:07:50.700 --> 00:07:53.020 Put the specs and the link in the comments below.