Generally speaking, it takes the latest generation of Macs two to three months to wend their way into the refurbished Mac channel. Apple began shipping Late 2012 21-inch iMacs in November and they’ve just now become available.

Although Apple’s 27-inch iMac delivers superior performance — the biggest numbers — the 21-inch iMac offers better bang for the buck. Fatten up that margin by getting a refurbished unit, which cost hundreds less than a new-in-box unit:

• [c] 21-inch iMac 2.7GHz quad-core i5, $1,099 (1299)
— 8GB, 1TB, GeForce GT 640M w/ 512MB

• [p] 21-inch iMac 2.7GHz quad-core i5, $1,189 (1499)
— 4GB, 1TB, SuperDrive, Radeon HD 6770M w/ 512MB
— Eligible for OS X Mountain Lion Up-to-Date Program

• [c] 21-inch iMac 2.9GHz quad-core Core i5, $1,269 (1499)
— 8GB, 
1TB, GeForce GT 650M w/ 512MB

[c] current 2012 generation, [p] previous 2011 generation

All of the above refurbished Mac models in stock when published.

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