“Checking the apple certified refurbished store, M1 16in was listed at 1979$ which was outrageous since my budget was under 1500$”

You’re getting an actual factory warranty with Apple. With Amazon you’re not getting an Apple warranty so the Apple Store will not honor any type of “warranty” given by Amazon since the only place that sells actually Certified Refurbished Macs is Apple. Amazon’s “refurbs” are nothing more than customer returns. Just verify your warranty with Apple by giving them your serial number.

“Most people buying from woot received a sealed apple certified refurbished product which is 99.9999% a new product. You get the one year warranty and everything. Even after choosing woot it’s safe to say it was a bit of a gamble (a little safe though).”

Then the retailer wouldn’t call it refurbished if it was sealed. I don’t see how they are giving you an Apple factory warranty on a product that is the first generation and is no longer for sale by Apple. Make sure to check with Apple to verify your warranty is active, because when something goes wrong you want to make sure you’re covered. Don’t take the 3rd party retailer’s word for it.

“Also those who are wondering about the price, 1379 was without tax, it became 1500 with tax, which is still a great deal.”

Again, check out the warranty, battery cycles and anything else, because $1379 for a machine that you say is 99.9999% new sounds too good to be true.

the pros have fans so i have never bought a macbook that wasn’t a pro.

Before the M1 AIR existed all AIRS, the original MacBook and every iBook before it had fans.

16GB of memory would future proof it so it lasts you longer.

There’s no such thing as Future-Proofing. Apple can come out with a new product that has a specific feature that works only on M3/M3 Pro/M3 Max. That leaves M1/M2 users in the cold. Pumping up specs such as more memory or a bigger SSD does nothing to “future proof” a machine.

But let’s say there is such a thing as future-proofing, 16GB ain’t gonna do it. LOL.

OP for the love all man kind, don’t listen to a single person here telling you to install these silly utility tools that make a Mac run more like Windows. Don’t get Alfred, or Bartender or apps that give you the “Windows” experience of split screens. It’s all nonsense. Your Mac does everything those apps do. You really should take the time and discover what it does instead of instantly installing a lot of BS. Then you’ll see why Apple puts so much time into the Mac and MacOS. You’d be surprised everything it’s capable of.

The Mac comes with a very good office suite but if you need MS Office then get that. It also has a very good photo editing suit but if you need something more get Pixelmator or PS. If you need to do video editing it does include iMovie but if you need more then install Apple’s Final Cut Pro X or Adobe Premiere.

If you want the best adblocker then get WIPR. It’s ~$2 USD and it’s absolutely the most powerful. It can’t get everything but it’s better than the other free ones.