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Pick up a refurbished 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar to save some real money

Mark Coppock
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The most important new feature introduced with the 2016 MacBook Pro was the new Touch Bar OLED touchscreen. The new input mechanism is Apple’s answer to the touch display and is being used by more and more developers to provide task-based virtual function keys to popular MacOS applications.

The downside of the new machines is their price, with even the entry-level MacBook Pro 13 with Touch Bar coming in at a significant premium. One alternative for anyone who wants the new machine but can’t quite fit it into a budget is to pick up an Apple refurbished machine, which now includes the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, as MacRumors reports.

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The other members of the new MacBook Pro line were added to Apple’s refurbished lineup last month. Savings on those machines are considerable, with the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar that usually costs $2,399 being available as a refurb for $2,039. Other configurations offer up similar savings.

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Now, the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar rounds out the list of available refurbished machines. The list changes constantly, and so you’ll need to check on your desired configuration when you’re closer to making your purchase, but here are a few examples of the savings you can enjoy:

  • 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, 2.0GHz dual-core Core i5, 8GB LPDDR3 RAM, 256GB SSD, Intel Iris Graphics 550: Normally $1,799, refurbished price $1,529
  • 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, 2.9GHz dual-core Core i5, 8GB LPDDR3 RAM, 512GB SSD, Intel Iris Graphics 550: Normally $1,699, refurbished price $1,999
  • 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, 2.9GHz dual-core Core i5, 16GB LPDDR3 RAM, 512GB SSD, Intel Iris Graphics 550: Normally $2,199, refurbished price $1,869

As always, Apple stands behind its refurbished machines with its usual one-year limited warranty, and you can give your refurbished choice a try with the security of Apple’s standard 14-day return policy. These are the same policies that are applied to Apple’s new retail units, with the added benefit that refurbished machines go through an extensive checklist to make sure they’re in good shape.

Again, the Apple list of refurbished machines changes regularly, and so you’ll want to keep tabs on what’s available as you get closer to pulling the trigger. And in the meantime, you can start your planning process with the knowledge that you’ll be saving some serious cash by picking up a lightly used 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar at some serious savings.

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Mark Coppock
Mark Coppock
Computing Writer
Mark has been a geek since MS-DOS gave way to Windows and the PalmPilot was a thing. He’s translated his love for…
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