The normal opinion about Macs is that they are expensive. Indeed some of them are. Some are VERY expensive BUT there are some old but good ones that are cheap enough to buy for pretty much anyone. In 2012 apple made some big changes to their range making the computers sleeker in design and putting SSD drives in all the laptops  The Operating System (OS) at the time was Mountain Lion 10.8 but the machines from 2012 would go on to update through 5 OS versions to High Sierra in 2017. There they stopped as  the next system was just too much for them. High Sierra however still works reasonably well and I see many Macs still running it today. The main issue is with the Safari web browser which could not update other than with the main OS so was left behind by the internet. Step up FIREFOX ESR which will happily  update to cope with today’s websites regardless of the old OS . Older versions of other programs like Office  also continue to work. I’m not saying they can do everything and you won’t find the odd issue, but if you need a very cheap Mac It may be an answer for you. 

Hardware wise they are still going strong. The iMac comes in a 21.5” screen size and a massive 27”. The MacBookPro in 13” and 15” and  the MacBook Air in 11’ and 13” . Pretty much all of this range can be found for around the £100 mark

There are two Issues to consider if you are looking for one. They need an SSD inside instead of the original rotational drive. This makes them as fast or faster  than  many current PC’s Secondly the iMacs had one weak spot ,which was its graphics chip. This was a regular repair for many years, but now is not cost effective. However if the picture is good and stable then it’s likely that  by now it would have gone if it was going to. I always sell these with an SSD fitted and with 3 months warranty.

Do bear in mind they are great for homework, emails and internet and they have a built in DVD player. But they are not by any stretch of the imagination a games machine, Minecraft works but its not that fast in its reactions.

So if you want a Mac (and you should) but cant afford the next level of used Macs at around £250-£300 then this is a starting point.

Talking about the next level, there was another “sea change” in 2020 when apple introduced their own M1 silicon chip so there is another whole story of the Macs between 2012 and 2020 with some bargains to be had there to.

To see my current stock go to the Used Apple Page and have a browse.