| Why buy a used laptopBUYING A USED,SECOND HAND OR REFURBISHED LAPTOP ?
Are you planning to purchase a laptop or notebook (note that laptops and notebooks are the same thing) ? Then consider buying a used or refurbished laptop. Used or second hand laptops in general have come from a large corporate company and have gone through our extensive testing and reconditioning program in house but will have some signs of use. Refurbished laptops are used laptops that has been rebuilt by the manufacture or distributor and made to be like new again.
When buying a laptop you will need to first consider your needs in a laptop.
What do you plan to do with your laptop?
Do you your plans include the following?
Surfing the internet,Checking emails,Instant messenger,Writing papers,Printing Papers,Making spreadsheets,Slide Presentations,Playing Solitaire,Downloading MP3's,Listening to MP3's,Burning to CD's,Watching DVD's,Digital camera photo,Keeping bank figures,Small business use, The lists goes on...
Most used laptops will easily complete all of the above mentioned tasks for you. What's really great is that for most current applications on a refurbished laptop, you won't notice a performance difference compared to a brand new laptop.
How is that possible to not notice a difference in performance between a brand new laptop and a refurbished or second hand laptop?
That's a good question. The fact is, most current software for your computer is not designed to need the high performance of a brand new laptop. Computer manufactures are moving so fast, that software makers simply do not keep up. Most current software will run on a computer 4 times slower than the fastest laptops made. What does that mean for you? It means that it's not necessary to spend £700 or more on a top of the line laptop. Depending on your needs from your
laptop, you may be able to buy a laptop for as low as £150. A £150 laptop will perform all the necessary tasks for most people. However, if you are looking for a laptop that will burn CD's and watch DVD movies,expect to spend £199 - £300.
Be very aware of larger Laptop computer companies offering cheap and sometimes free laptops, they will get there money some how. These computer companies will either make there cheap offers very hard to find and buy (like buying a cheap Air flight ticket offered in the Sunday papers) or try very hard to sell you extra warranty or to buy expensive anti virus software and other extras. These companies are experts at making offers seem too good to be true and hiding the real cost. Also bear in mind that you get what you pay for and to be able to sell a laptop at a cheap price it will have to be built with cheap components bearly able to last the warranty term.
There are more reasons to consider a refurbished or a used second hand laptop.
Another aspect of buying a refurbished computer that should be considered is this:
Most refurbished laptops available are not the "low end" home user based laptops. Examples of home user laptops are: Compaq Presario, Dell Inspiron, eMachines, Hewlett Packard Pavilion, Sony Vaio, and Toshiba Satellite.
Refurbished,used laptops are almost always business model laptops that are off-lease from major corporations. Business laptops have parts available even long after warranty expires. Business laptops provide a better solution because they are the laptops provided by a company that are proven to work well. Examples of business laptops are: Compaq Armada, Dell Latitude, Hewlett Packard Compaq Mobile/Business Workstation, IBM Thinkpad and Toshiba Tecra. Home user laptops, believe it or not, are usually testing grounds for new engineering of laptop equipment. Home user laptops are typically given shorter warranty, and are designed to last until that warranty expires. After the laptop's warranty has expired, the newer "experimental" home user model available uses different parts. Since the older models are no longer under warranty, and they use "out of date" parts, the manufacture no longer stocks the parts.
Therefore, when your home user laptop has an out of warranty problem (which it will), the parts that are available to fix your laptop are very expensive, if they are available at all. This leaves the home user with the attitude to "throw away and buy new", which is exactly what the manufacture wants you to do.
Since business laptops use technology that is proven to work, their parts seldom change from model to model. Due to this fact as well as the fact that business laptops are leased to corporations, huge stock piles of parts are
kept at the manufacture for extended warranties as well as out of warranty purchases.
For example, you can still call Dell, Toshiba, IBM/Lenovo, Compaq/HP today to order parts for an out of warranty laptop that was manufactured in 1997 or 1998.
Business laptops are more expensive than home laptops (as much as £1500), buy used and save a ton.
Business laptops, due to their stability, are far more expensive than home user laptops. Using the Dell example, the cheapest Dell business laptop(Latitude), currently available are around £850. Many of the used second hand laptops being sold today for £150-£350 originally sold for £1500 or more. This means you can buy refurbished and save as much as 80% over buying new. Refurbished laptops can be slightly more money (As they will look as good as new).
Purchase a refurbished or used second hand laptop that will suit your needs and last for years, gives you great savings.
What all of this means is that if you purchase a refurbished laptop or used second hand laptop you can expect the following:
Able to complete all tasks necessary to an everyday user Half the cost of a brand new home user laptop Up to 80% less than a brand new business laptop Proven technology that will last for years Parts always available if your laptop has a problem Take control in your life, and put extra money in your pocket for other things that are important to you!
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