Kent is the rare Ohio city where the population nearly doubles every August. Around 28,000 people call it home year-round, and then Kent State University adds tens of thousands of students, faculty, and staff on top — filling the residence halls, the Esplanade, and every coffee shop from downtown to Eastway. It is a genuine college town on the Cuyahoga River, a Tree City with a walkable downtown that has been rebuilt around Acorn Alley and Hometown Bank Plaza. What Kent does not have — and what Portage County does not have anywhere — is an Apple Store.
No Apple Store in Portage County
The nearest Apple Store to Kent is at Summit Mall in Fairlawn, on the far side of Akron — roughly half an hour out SR-59 through Cuyahoga Falls or around I-76 and I-77, more when campus move-in traffic clogs Main Street. But honestly, it is not the drive. It is the math. A brand-new MacBook Air starts at $1,250 before tax. A warrantied refurbished MacBook Air M1 from LuxuriousComputers is $569.99, shipped fast to 44240 or straight to a campus mailroom in 44243. Same macOS, same build quality, less than half the money — which matters a lot when the other line items are tuition and rent on College Ave.
Current refurbished Mac prices (live inventory)
- MacBook Air M1 13" — $569.99. The default pick for coursework, browsing, and battery life that lasts a full day of classes.
- MacBook Air M2 13" — $974.99. Newer design, brighter screen, MagSafe charging — the sweet spot for most students and commuters.
- Mac mini M2 — $897.99. A desk-anchored option for an off-campus apartment or a home office — bring your own monitor.
- MacBook Pro 14" M1 Pro — $899.99. For the students and professionals whose work actually leans on the hardware: video, audio, 3D, big code builds.
Every Mac ships with our warranty, and you can browse the full current inventory here — stock rotates, so what you see listed is what is actually available.
Kent State students: which Mac?
Most of Kent State runs in a browser. Flashline, Canvas coursework, email, library databases — none of that needs more than the $569.99 MacBook Air M1, and its all-day battery is built for a Tri-Towers-to-library kind of day. Our college Mac guide walks the full decision, and if you are torn between the Air and the Pro, the Air vs. Pro for college breakdown settles it honestly: most majors should keep the extra $400.
The exceptions are real, though. The Fashion School lives in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop; digital media production, architecture, and the College of Aeronautics and Engineering push renders and simulations; music tech students stack plugins. If that is your major, the MacBook Pro 14 M1 Pro at $899.99 is the honest recommendation — still hundreds less than a new Air, with far more machine.
Kent State's College of Nursing is one of the largest in Ohio, and nursing students have their own checklist — ATI, proctored exams, clinical compliance portals. We wrote a separate guide for nurses and nursing students that covers what actually runs on a Mac and what stays on facility hardware.
Working in Kent
Kent is not only the university. Davey Tree Expert Company — founded in Kent in 1880 and employee-owned — runs its world headquarters here. Smithers has deep Kent roots, and the downtown rebuild filled Acorn Alley and the blocks around Hometown Bank Plaza with independent shops, studios, and offices. Add the remote workers who treat downtown coffee shops and the Portage Hike & Bike Trail as their campus, and there are a lot of laptops open in this town. If you work from home in Kent, our remote work Mac guide maps specs to the job — for most, the $974.99 MacBook Air M2 handles video calls, docs, and a big external monitor without complaint.
Teachers across Kent City Schools — from Stanton Middle School to Theodore Roosevelt High School (go Rough Riders) — live in browser gradebooks, Google Classroom, and lesson-planning tabs. The teacher Mac guide covers it, and the short version is the same: an Air does the job. Healthcare workers headed to UH Portage Medical Center in Ravenna or the DeWeese Health Center on campus can lean on the nursing guide above — charting systems stay on hospital hardware, so your personal Mac is for CE courses, scheduling apps, and everything else.
A town worth sticking around
Between the Kent Stage bringing national acts to Main Street, the waterfall at Heritage Park where the old dam was cut open, Standing Rock in the river north of town, and the PARTA buses circulating from the Kent Central Gateway, Kent has more going on than most towns triple its size. It deserves better than a half-day errand to Fairlawn for a laptop. Order it instead: fast shipping to 44240 and 44243, warrantied, and if something is wrong we make it right.
Already have a Mac that died mid-semester?
Broken screen, dead battery, will not turn on — do not let it rot in a drawer. We buy broken MacBooks and apply the value toward your next one. Start with the broken MacBook trade-in page and get a real number in minutes.
Nearby cities we serve
We ship everywhere, and northeast Ohio is home turf: Stow, Cuyahoga Falls, Akron, and Canton all have their own pages with the same live pricing.
Why buy from LuxuriousComputers
We are an Ohio company. Every refurbished Mac we sell is warrantied, honestly described, and priced against what the machine is actually worth — not against what a mall store charges for the badge on the box. No Apple Store in Portage County? For Kent, that is not a problem. It is a discount.