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Laptop advice 21:23 - Dec 2 with 964 viewsRomeo4

Has anyone had any experience of buying a refurbished laptop? Good or bad?

High school aged daughter needs one but don’t know whether to go for a higher spec refurbed Dell or a more basic but brand new HP/Lenovo/Acer. Budget only around £200-£300.

I’m pretty clueless about techy stuff so any advice appreciated.
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Laptop advice on 21:31 - Dec 2 with 948 viewsjeera

Like you I tend to ask others [often on here!] as I'd rather take on board the advice and tips of those who know what they're talking about, so I'm of little help.

But one thing I will suggest is to get her to write a list of her expectations.

There's nothing worse than ordering one then realising it doesn't feature all the requirements you took for granted or simply forgot about. At least with a check list there's a good starting point.

Prime example for me is a numerical keypad. It's a must for me and I like to have a optical drive, that kind of thing.

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Laptop advice on 21:41 - Dec 2 with 931 viewswkj

As a first port of call I would contact the school and see if they have a specifications recommendation and suggested software guide, some do, some don't. I wouldn't imagine a high schooler would be using any specialist software, so you can get away with being modest with stats.

4GB RAM or above would likely suffice for web surfing and MS office (or OpenOffice which is free and online). For study on the go, as much as I hate laptops, I got one of these from Hughes

https://www.hughes.co.uk/product/computing/laptops/all-laptops/asus/x705ma-bx022

With 8gb RAM and 1TB of storage it actually a fairly good price for a respectable computing brand. Will it be able to play the big games? Not very well, but for a brand new laptop vs the price for high school, it is a pretty decent offer.

I often avoid referb laptops as I have had bad luck with them, but others have had more luck.

I hope this helps

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Laptop advice on 21:41 - Dec 2 with 933 viewsblueconscience

I saved £600 buying through the dell outlet site. No problems with the laptop, and have not yet spotted the “Scratch and Dent” specified in the listing.
[Post edited 2 Dec 2019 21:44]

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Laptop advice on 21:46 - Dec 2 with 914 viewsHARRY10

I have bought refurbished stuff off ebay from recognised 'refurbishers' and never had a proble, and if so most give a 12 month guarantee.

Oddly enough I had need for something cheap and cheerful as one was at work and the other had developed a problem with the power cable. Only place on a sundfay was PCWorld.... farken nightmare as they tried to sell me all manner of attached sh it then when I produced £20 notes the Generation Thick kid serving me looked me blankly, as if I had produced the Dead Sea scrolls and had to take me to another desk, wait for a manager to count said notes,

She didn't quite understand my point about not wishing for others to know what I purchased. She thought it was only her bank and they probably don't vheck every statement......... beggars belief.

Took me 25 mins from deciding on laptop to leaving the shop. However at £279 it does all I need as a back up and so I would recommend it. Though what your daughter needs will depend on what she does with it. For me it is mostly for the internet with no downloading, gaming etc.

So check and I'm sure wiser heads will direct you further, and apologies as it was me who down voted you by mistake.

https://store.hp.com/ukstore/merch/Product.aspx?id=7EC15EA&opt=ABU&sel=NTB
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Laptop advice on 09:57 - Dec 3 with 824 viewssoupytwist

This might help - https://www.theguardian.com/technology/askjack/2018/nov/22/best-under-200-laptop

The Ask ?Jack column on the Guardian website does have good answers to this kind of question.
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Laptop advice on 11:52 - Dec 3 with 787 viewsSouperJim

£300 doesn't buy you much and buying any sort of computer is a real minefield for the uninformed as there are so many aspects of the specification which effect performance.

Processor - the most important part, make sure you get something with multiple cores (probably an i3 at this price) at a decent speed, avoid the low end (celeron etc)

RAM - Windows 10 will run on 2Gb, but you need at least 4Gb for respectable performance

Hard drive - SSD (solid state) drives are light years ahead of traditional mechanical drives still used in many laptops. Whether you'll get a laptop with a SSD in it for your kind of money might be tough, but it makes a big difference to performance if you can. Don't worry so much about how big the drive is, you can always use an external drive if you need more space later.

Where I'd look to compromise is screen size (and resolution), how thin/light it is, battery life etc. These are all things which are a bit easier to live with being less optimal. No point in having a nice big screen if the hardware isn't up to scratch, it's like having a Ferrari with a 1L engine out of Micra in it. Look at processor and ram first and foremost. Google is your friend for comparing specifications, i.e. "intel celeron n4000 vs i3-8130u". You will get far more for your money if you buy refurbished/2nd hand.

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/156-asus-vivobook-x540la-fhd-i3-5005u-4gb-ddr3l-
https://www.scan.co.uk/products/14-hp-elitebook-8470p-hd-lcd-i5-3320m-8gb-ddr3-3
[Post edited 3 Dec 2019 12:07]

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Laptop advice on 12:59 - Dec 3 with 750 viewsNthQldITFC

Consider running Linux Mint (Cinnamon) instead of MS Windows, and you can pretty much take the cost of software out of the equation and put that money into the hardware.

Mint Cinnamon edition is pretty intuitive for anybody who is used to Windows, and is arguably faster, less bloated and more secure.

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