Where to buy a refurbished laptop

[mexmon]

Hi everyone.
I need your advice on where to buy a refurbished laptop that comes with a warranty. I will be starting an online postgraduate program in the fall and I will need a simple laptop that allows to write papers on Word, connect to internet and the usual stuff a Uni student needs.
Thank you!

[Flat Hunter]

You can find a small shop in any of the computer malls selling refurbished laptops. Don't expect a long warranty on them.

[pin]

https://www.apple.com/hk/shop/browse...ecialdeals/mac

[jgl]

At the other end of the price and service spectrum, go to this place. Pick up an older thinkpad. An X or T series from 5 or so years ago (as long as it's running a Core i series CPU).

This should cost you about 1.5K (vague guess).

Get the RAM upgraded to at least 4GB (secondhand from the same store) and an SSD to replace the hard drive (you can do this yourself with a jewelers screwdriver in about 60 seconds).

Caveats:

You're not going to get a warranty on this, maybe a week?

Lenovo support over in Lai Chi Kok for a copy of the restore CDs to blast the SSD back to the Leonvo original condition, but you're going to be stuck possibly with Win7 (unsupported by Microsoft these days) unless you end up with a model that came with Win8.

https://www.google.com.hk/maps/@22.3...7i13312!8i6656

[answerer]

I refurbished laptop probably isn't a good deal. Consider getting a new laptop from Pipo/Onda/Telcast for ~2000. It will come with Windows 10 and likely be better than a refurb.

PiPO 品鉑 W9 Pro價格、規格及用家意見 - 香港格價網 Price.com.hk

ONDA 昂達oBook 11價格、規格及用家意見 - 香港格價網 Price.com.hk

[timonoj]

I completely agree with jgl. The biggest improvements in computers in the last few years have been storage speed and RAM (amount, speed didn't improve that much either). So, getting a laptop with a CPU of the last 5-8 years (any Core i3-i5 will do), and upgrading it the RAM to 4GB as jgl mentioned, plus giving it a current SSD drive instead of the sluggish old HDDs they used, and you have a pretty workable machine.

Regarding recovery software, I'd just skip it and install Win10 on it. There's a slight chance some component might not get immediately detected (such as the touchpad or similar), but there will be downloads or workarounds for sure.

[jgl]

I refurbished laptop probably isn't a good deal. Consider getting a new laptop from Pipo/Onda/Telcast for ~2000. It will come with Windows 10 and likely be better than a refurb.

Urgh, I would never recommend a laptop of that type (super-budget generic Chinese running minimally capable parts) to anyone who would rely on it as a main machine. It might be okay for someone experienced to buy on a whim just to play with or someone who wants a spare web browser.

Both are limited to 64G drives, so once Windows has been installed (around 25-30G fresh, my Windows directory is currently at 60+ which is weirdly bloated) you don't have much space left for anything else. And you can't upgrade this drive either- it's eMMC which means it's directly soldered to the motherboard, and it's slower than SSD. These things also run Atom processors... not a problem for a light use machine, but they are not comparable to daily driver laptops, these things are more like tablets with keyboards.

Much more importantly for a laptops is that the warranty support will be practically non-existent. Once you buy it, it's your problem if anything breaks, and with these machines, something is much more likely to go wrong.

Laptops in general are more likely to fail than desktops, and once they fail they are also much harder to fix. So something that is easily self-repairable (for the so-inclined) or backed up by a proper support service is important.

For the OP:

If refurbed and cheap, forgo a warranty and go the Thinkpad route. Don't do this if you're completely daunted by IT and not willing or afraid to learn (e.g. you need to use a small screwdriver to open a plastic slot to replace the hard drive, you need to use CDs to reinstall the operating system).

If you need a warranty, get a cheap Dell laptop. a 14" Inspiron 3000 series will cost you 3.5K and come with a 3 year warranty (as well have having a spec that makes it a serious laptop instead of a casual tech toy). Good build quality, good warranty support.

If you need a warranty and have excess cash (which I am guessing you don't, from your post about refubs) then get a refurbished Apple. Good build quality, good warranty support (but only 1 year instead of 3). Or even an iPad Pro with a keyboard.

[jgl]

I completely agree with jgl. The biggest improvements in computers in the last few years have been storage speed and RAM (amount, speed didn't improve that much either). So, getting a laptop with a CPU of the last 5-8 years (any Core i3-i5 will do), and upgrading it the RAM to 4GB as jgl mentioned, plus giving it a current SSD drive instead of the sluggish old HDDs they used, and you have a pretty workable machine.

Regarding recovery software, I'd just skip it and install Win10 on it. There's a slight chance some component might not get immediately detected (such as the touchpad or similar), but there will be downloads or workarounds for sure.

If that second paragraph was a reference to me mentioning the official recovery CDs: The reason for it was that it gets you the operating system reinstalled on the new drive for free (the CDs are free last time I checked with Lenovo CS). I'm inferring from the original poster that he doesn't have a load of cash to spend on buying a laptop plus a fresh Windows license.

[timonoj]

Hmm...I recall Lenovo SELLING those damn recovery DVDs, that's why I mentioned it. But yeah, if you get them somehow, you might get a free Win7 or Win8 installed. There's still some ways to get that upgraded from there to Win10 for free.

[vmlinuz]

I think we may still have a couple of spare Thinkpads knocking around the office, couple of years old, cheaper than regular second-hand market rate...