The Refurbished Laptops Guide » Refurbished Laptops

How To Buy A Refurbished Computer

GuestPoster — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 16:49:35 +0000

When you want a new computer and you want it now but have bad credit, it’s very easy to get into the trap of applying for a no credit check PC loan. The problem is that you can just end up making your financial situation worse. A lot of people are too impatient to wait to save up for what they want to buy and end up taking out a multitude of loans. So what happens if you lose your job and can’t afford to keep up the repayments? Well, it’s not good that’s for sure. So instead of taking out a loan, perhaps you will want to look at buying a cheaper computer that you can afford to pay cash for.

The obvious choice is to buy a refurbished model. You might wince at the thought of owning a pre-owned computer but there’s nothing wrong with buying refurbished products at all. It’s a truly amazing way of getting what you want at a low price. Just as long as the company is well-respected and really do refurbish it rather than selling you a PC which is all tatty and horrible.

Often businesses sell on their old computers to refurbishing companies. It’s not that they are bad machines or anything like that. Businesses just like to replace stuff a lot. A refurbished computer you buy might have been used as a demonstration model or simply surplus stock.

The strange thing about computers is that there are folks who buy them and then convince themselves that they are faulty in some way when in actual fact there is nothing wrong with them at all. Many shops will give refunds, no questions asked. So a perfectly good computer can end up being re-sold very cheaply.

When a computer is refurbished it’s put through a variety of different checks to ensure that everything is tip top. If any faults are found they are often very easy simple for them to put right. So you really don’t have to worry. Of course, if you do find anything wrong you should notify the company you bought it from in the way you would with any product you buy. Just because it’s refurbished doesn’t mean you should put up with poor quality.

Shopping:

Compaq Presario CQ5300F Desktop PC (Black)

HP 12c Financial Calculator (12C#ABA)

ASUS G51VX-RX05 15.6-Inch Laptop (Refurbished)

Compaq CQ4010F Black Desktop PC (Windows 7 Home Premium)

Panasonic Integrated Business Phone (KX-TS105B)

HP refurbished laptops: Some of the best

Brent — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 22:56:03 +0000

HP refurbished laptops are easily some of the most underrated laptops on the market. Most people who go HP are typically looking for discount laptops, but they fail to get refurbished. Instead they go for new laptops that really don’t have a lot of features in order to keep the costs down. Did you know that if you go for a refurbished (sometimes called “reconditioned”) laptop, you can get a lightly used laptop that blows a new laptop out of the water? Aaaand, you can get it for cheaper? Do you believe that? If not, read on. You’ll be surprised!

HP offers their own marketplace for their refurbished laptops on their main website, which is very handy for people who really don’t want to do a lot of “shopping around” for a computer. You know how it is: You have a busy life and don’t really have time to go out and do a lot of price comparison and testing. You just need something that will work, and you want it for cheap. Yep, that’s not a problem if you use their used marketplace. This cuts down a lot of the issues in finding a good HP laptop. Otherwise you’d probably have to go out from store to store. If you don’t mind waiting for shipping, it’s a great way to go.

One thing to keep in mind is that buying straight from HP may result in higher costs than if you were to go through a specialized authorized refurbishing company. Those companies tend to do their own laptop reconditioning and sell the same HP laptops you’re looking for, but don’t have such a high markup. HP themselves (and face it, just about any manufacturer) profits on the idea that the consumer trusts them more than most other companies. Thus, they’ll raise the price more than those other companies, even if it’s not exactly justified.

You can still get a perfectly good laptop from these third-party companies if you choose wisely. Go online and look for reviews, and especially search for the company’s name if you’re not sure if they’re trustworthy. People online talk; if they’ve had a bad experience with a company, someone will have posted about it. Pay attention to these reviews.

Sometimes on these HP refurbished laptops you can save upwards of 5-10% by going third-party instead of the manufacturer itself. That’s a pretty solid amount of savings; I wouldn’t pass on that just because the check isn’t being written to HP themselves!

Shopping:

90W Smart-pin HP AC ADAPTER LAPTOP CHARGER KG298AA#ABA ED495AA#ABA 384021-022 391173-001 PPPO14H-S Notebook Power Supply Cord

New Replacement AC Adapter Laptop Charger for HP Pavilion DV4 DV5 Series; HP G50 G60 Series

HP NW199AA Refurbished 90-Watt Smart-Pin Adapter

HP Pavilion G71-340us 17.3-Inch Laptop - Black (Manufacturer Refurbished)

HP nc6120 15" Notebook PC - REFURBISHED

Best times of the year to find refurbished laptops for sale

Brent — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 22:16:12 +0000

Finding refurbished laptops for sale shouldn’t be a giant chore. You can readily find some pretty sweet deals around if you know where to look, and almost more importantly, when to look. Yes, knowing when the best times of the year to find deals on these laptops is going to go a long way toward helping you get the laptop of your choice for the price you want. Want to be able to get a laptop for 40%-50% off? I bet you do; listen up and you’ll find out how to do it!

Naturally the best time of the year to find a great refurbished laptop is on Black Friday, that is, the day after Thanksgiving. Black Friday has been a bit of a shopping tradition for years now. I’m not exactly sure why exactly all the retailers have come out and decided why that Friday after Thanksgiving was the day to have all the crazy clearance sales, but it’s really no matter. All you need to know is that some of the best deals around can be found on that day. Don’t believe me? Well, picture this: A standard refurbished laptop has a markdown of anywhere between 5 and 20% based on the amount of use that laptop has previously seen. With significant discounts through the store (upwards of 20-30% on top of that), you can actually get laptops for half price. Yes, you can get a $1000 dual core 3.something GHz laptop for $500. That’s pretty amazing, isn’t it? Now, there are a couple cons to shopping on Black Friday. First of all, availability. If you’re not in line at some of these stores at the crack of dawn (some people even line up the night before), there’s a good chance that you’re not going to be able to get the merchandise you actually want. Secondly, you’re going to have to battle through throngs of people to get your laptop. Black Friday is the most popular time of the year to shop. Most stores are a zoo. Helpful hint: Want to save yourself some trouble? Shop online on Black Friday instead; you can often get the same discounts with none of the hassle.

The second time you should really be looking for refurbished laptops for sale prices is right after Christmas, but before New Years. This is a popular time for businesses to reduce prices due to the after-Christmas lull. You can definitely cash in your gift certificates and cash on a nice laptop after the holiday!

Shopping:

Dell Latitude D620 Notebook Computer Duo Core 1.66GHz 1GB 40GB CDRW/DVD WiFi

Dell Latitude D610 Laptop Wireless Computer (Refurbished)

Asus U50F Intel Core i3 Notebook PC ( Manufacturer Refurbished)

ASUS G51VX-RX05 15.6-Inch Laptop (Refurbished)

HP Pavilion G71-340us 17.3-Inch Laptop - Black (Manufacturer Refurbished)

Finding a refurbished laptop computer on the web

Brent — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 21:48:12 +0000

Are you one of the few people who don’t yet do their shopping online? Naturally it can be a bit of an overwhelming prospect if you haven’t done it before. After all, unlike going to the store and picking out your laptop right there (and being able to use it and test it out), most of the time you’re buying something online sight unseen. That is, the first time you open the box may be the first time you’ve actually used the product. Unless you have ready access to that same laptop beforehand, you’re just going to have to go on trust that what you ordered is what you’ll get.

That’s fine, though. Millions of people do use the internet to order laptops and other electronics every single day. Billions of dollars have been spent over the course of the years since the advent of the internet in online orders and shipping to send people merchandise that’s been ordered online. It’s really a fantastic way to shop, considering the prices you can get on the web are often much lower than if you were to go to a store. It’s really a great thing to know that you’ve spent 10-20% less than your friends for the same purchase, isn’t it?

Naturally in order to buy a good refurbished laptop computer on the internet you need to do some research first. Considering you may not have used this laptop beforehand, you’re going to want to read reviews first. See what other people are saying about it. One of my favorite sites for this epinions.com; you can find thousands of reviews for numerous different products, all written by the people who have bought them before you. Laptops are one of the more heavily reviewed product types, so go over there and check that out. Amazon also has a great review system that’s heavily used as well.

Of course the first thing you want to do is ensure that the online retailer you’re buying your laptop from is trustworthy. If you stick to the big name brands, New Egg, TigerDirect, etc., you’ll be just fine. They have a large assortment of refurbished laptops on their sites, and people have nothing but good things to say about both companies. Stay away from unfamiliar businesses until you know that they’re trustworthy. Again, going online and searching for that retailer’s name will tell you if they’re legitimate or not. Have no fear: Most of the companies are just fine. Just watch yourself when you go shopping for refurbished laptop computers. You want to make sure what you get is what you wanted.

Shopping:

Asus K50I-RBBGR05 15.6-Inch Widescreen Titanium Notebook - Black (Manufacturer Refurbished)

Asus U50F Intel Core i3 Notebook PC ( Manufacturer Refurbished)

Dell Latitude D610-1.73 Laptop Wireless Computer (Refurbished)

Dell Latitude D620 Laptop Computer System Dual-core Processor Wireless XP Pro

Dell Latitude D610 Laptop Wireless Computer (Refurbished)

Refurbished laptop computers on Amazon

Brent — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 20:52:31 +0000

Did you know that you can find some of the cheapest refurbished laptop computers on a site you probably didn’t know even sold laptops? Yep, that site is Amazon.com. Most people don’t realize until they’re out shopping for laptops that Amazon is much more than an online book store. Certainly they started out being known mostly for books (and still do sell a ton of them), but not anymore. Laptops, notebooks, components, peripherals, etc. are among the extremely varied warehouse of products they have in stock. And the great thing about them? Their prices are very low compared to the competition.

So, how do you go about finding refurbished laptops on Amazon anyway? Well, that’s simple enough: Do a search. When you first get onto the Amazon website you’ll see a big search bar at the top. The first thing you can do is go ahead and put in “refurbished laptops” in that bar and see what it comes up with. Now, the thing about Amazon is that sometimes you have to be a little bit more specific about your search before it’ll show you exactly what you want . Putting in “refurbished laptops” is probably going to return thousands of listings, which could be overwhelming for someone who doesn’t know what they’re looking for. Do you want a laptop for business purposes? Do you want one for gaming? How much are you willing to spend? Do you need one with a lot of power, a lot of hard drive capacity, or both? All of these are questions you’ll need to ask yourself in order to get the best experience from using their search engine. Honestly, it’s best if you have a brand in mind before starting your search. If you know you want a Dell, put that in the search bar. That’ll help narrow down your search results, which should get you on track a little faster.

Once you’ve found a laptop you want, go ahead and add it to your shopping cart. When you do that, you’ll be taken through all of the usual steps in order to purchase and have your order shipped to you. The nice thing about Amazon is that they often offer free shipping if you purchase over a certain amount in merchandise. This won’t be very fast shipping, however. This is usually their “USPS ground” shipping for those in the United States. That’s fine if you don’t need it right away, though. You’ll save a lot of money on shipping a laptop this way, trust me!

Let me know if you guys have any more questions about ordering refurbished laptop computers from Amazon!

Shopping:

HP Pavilion DV7-3165dx Turion II 17.3-Inch Laptop - Black (Manufacturer Refurbished)

Asus U50F Intel Core i3 Notebook PC ( Manufacturer Refurbished)

Dell Latitude D620-1.66 Laptop Wireless Computer (Refurbished)

ASUS G51VX-RX05 15.6-Inch Laptop (Refurbished)

Dell Latitude D610 Laptop Wireless Computer (Refurbished)

Cheap refurbished laptops online?

Brent — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 20:29:37 +0000

Hi everyone, welcome to another installment of the Refurbished Laptops Guide’s series on where and how to find a good solid refurbished laptop. As you might recall from some of our other posts, refurbished laptops lead the pack in price compared to their newly manufactured cousins. You can really get some awesome deals on refurbished models if you know where to look for them. Naturally some refurbished systems are cheaper than others; if you go to one store or website, you might not get as good a deal as if you went to another. Each and every retailers has its own ideas of how mark their products up in order to make a profit. A store that’s more efficiently run can give you some better deals on laptops than if you went to one that wasn’t so efficient.

So, the first thing you need to realize is that each retailer isn’t created equally. You’re going to find, nine times out of ten, that the brick and mortar stores (such as Wal-Mart, etc.) have higher prices than what you’ll find online. This comes down to how a physical business is run. When the retailer doesn’t own the buildings it resides in outright, it pays the bank or other company to occupy it through either a lease or mortgage. When companies have to do that, their profit margins go down. They have to kick up the price of their merchandise so that they can remain solvent and pay their bills. That’s typical of just about any store that you physically go to.

Now, online retailers are a little bit different. They generally don’t pay rent on many different buildings and stores; if anything, they pay rent for one building: The office building/warehouse where they actually keep their goods for distribution. Of course then they have to pay hosting for their websites and other administrative fees, but that’s far less than rent on multiple buildings. Since they do this, they can offer you great prices on your refurbished laptops. They can offer you prices that are just above cost because they don’t have to convert your money to pay off a pile of bills to keep the business’s doors open. When you shop online, you’re going to get some of the best deals out there.

Of course, most people don’t realize this. Most people don’t want to wait for their laptop to come to their door; they’ll go to the store because they want cheap refurbished laptops now. Don’t be one of those.

Shopping:

HP Pavilion G71-340us 17.3-Inch Laptop - Black (Manufacturer Refurbished)

HP Pavilion DV7-3165dx Turion II 17.3-Inch Laptop - Black (Manufacturer Refurbished)

Asus K50I-RBBGR05 15.6-Inch Widescreen Titanium Notebook - Black (Manufacturer Refurbished)

Asus K60I Dual Core Notebook PC (Refurbished)

Dell Latitude D620 Laptop Computer System Dual-core Processor Wireless XP Pro

Getting an HP Pavilion 17 inch laptop refurbished

Brent — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 23:29:40 +0000

Have you ever owned an HP Pavilion 17 inch laptop? If you have, you know that they’re solid laptops that do exactly what you need them to do. Some of the models are lower end stuff that really just let you surf the web and do other type of word processing tasks. Others are higher end laptops that really let you get deep into gaming. Those are the types of laptops that have been extremely popular these days: The ones that do have some power behind them and can really blow your gaming experience right out of the water. That’s especially true with these Pavilion laptops with the 17 inch screen. The cinematic and action sequences are amazing.

But, the thing about these higher-end Pavilions is the fact that they’re expensive. These can typically go for $500 or so more than the lower-end laptops, putting the high-end Pavilion laptops somewhere near $1000 USD. While that’s not a whole lot of money to spend for a really good gaming laptop, it’s still more than most people have sitting in their bank accounts right now, particularly with the economy being the way it is. You want to be able to get your laptop for cheap, don’t you? Well, I have the best way to do that: Get it refurbished. Yes, getting an HP Pavilion 17 inch laptop refurbished is actually quite a bit less expensive than getting it new. In fact, you could save upwards of 30% when you go for the refurbished model versus the new model of HP. That’s quite the savings, of course. Could you swing a higher-end laptop if you only had to pay $700 for it instead of $1000? What could you do with that extra $300 you now have your pocket? Buy a game or two? Upgrade the hard drive? Add an obscene amount of RAM? All of that is a possibility.

The HP Pavilion 17 inch laptop is very customizable. This is due to the fact that it has a large amount of different variants (like we talked about). You could most likely take a $600-$700 refurbished model and turn it into something that would normally cost you almost $2000 with just a little bit of work. You might need to dig into the innards a bit to really get the thing running how you like it (it may require a hard drive and motherboard replacement), but in the end you could take that extra saved money and make your laptop into something that screams. So, do yourself a favor and check out one of these refurbished HP Pavilion 17 inch machines today.

Shopping:

New Laptop Replacement Battery for HP Pavilion dv2000 dv2100 dv2200 dv2300 dv2400 dv2500...

HP Pavilion dv7-4060us 17.3-Inch Laptop

HP Pavilion G71-340us 17.3-Inch Laptop - Black (Manufacturer Refurbished)

HP Pavilion p6234f Refurbished Desktop PC

(12-Cells) Laptop Battery compatible with HP Pavilion DV9000 DV9100 DV9200 DV9300 DV9400 DV9500 DV9600 Series, PN: 432974-001, 434674-001, 416996-131, 416996-521

Acer refurbished mini laptops

Brent — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 21:33:25 +0000

So what makes Acer refurbished mini laptops stand out above all the rest? Is it the fact that they are naturally a little cheaper than their competition, thus making it easy for people to get really screaming deals on the refurbished variety? Is it because they’re easy to use for just about everyone? After all, just about anyone, including young children, can operate computers nowadays. Is it the ease that you can travel with a mini laptop? Personally, I think it’s really all of the above. The reason most people actually have mini laptops is because of the fact that they’re cheap and easy to travel with. No more do you have to lug around a huge laptop bag full of junk just to support that giant 17″ laptop you have in the bag. Taking it out for the TSA screeners at the airport is easy as well. It’s win/win for anyone on the road all the time.

Now, I’m not an Acer salesman, but Acer seems to put out the best refurbished mini laptops. Yes, companies such as dell and HP also put out mini laptops that do come refurbished, but Acer has been known for a long time in the mini notebook niche, right alongside ASUS. What really draws people to Acer above all the rest is the price. Acer laptops tend to be entry-level computers, in that they’re usually not very powerful, don’t have as much hard drive space, and tend to have a little bit less in the way of RAM and other fancy options. For people on a budget that’s just about perfect. The refurbished systems tend to be quite a bit less than the newer laptops as well, mostly about 10-20% less than what people paid for them right off the shelf. That’s not always correct, though; a lightly-used laptop will generally only hae a 5-10% discount, if that.

So what’s the most popular Acer refurbished mini laptop? That’s probably the Acer Aspire One. This laptop has been around for quite some time and has come in a variety of sizes and setups.

The 8.9″ screen “mini” is widely available refurbished for costs that are just ridiculous. I’m certain you could get one of the 8.9″ Aspire Ones for less than $300 as a certified reconditioned computer. Look around at the usual spots for these; you might want to start on the Acer website first to find what you can find, but then I’d go check the other sites such as Tiger Direct. They’re all good places to get these great deals.

Shopping:

40W Laptop Notebook AC Adapter Charger Power Supply for Acer Aspire One series and Dell Inspiron Mini 9 10 12 series Laptops [19V 1.58A 40W]

Replacement ACER Aspire One Liteon PA-1300-04 ZG5 AC ADAPTER zg-5

Car Charger for Acer Aspire One

Acer AO532h-2588 10.1-Inch Onyx Blue Netbook - Up to 8 Hours of Battery Life

Acer Aspire One AOD250-1151 10.1-Inch Black Netbook - 3+ Hour Battery Life

Where to get a pink refurbished laptop

Brent — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 00:11:29 +0000

As we all know, pink laptops are all the rage right now among girls and teenagers. They’re often seen as status symbols among the group; anyone who has one is instantly just a little bit cooler. The real issue is the fact that pink laptops are in such high demand that they’ve become difficult to find. Even when you do find one on the shelf, there’s usually such a high demand for it that the price is considerably higher than if you were to just buy a standard black laptop. Now, you can find these laptops online, but there may very well be a back order depending on the model. The newest pink laptops are going to be backordered for a long time.

So, what’s a better way to get a pink laptop without having to pay a ton of money or wait forever for it? Get a pink refurbished laptop. Yep, that’s been what I’ve been saying this entire time with this site, and it’s what I’m saying now as well. You’re going to save a ton of money by going refurbished, up to 20% or more. Now, for pink refurbished laptops that have high demand you still may be spending a little bit more than a normal reconditioned system, but that’s okay. You’re still paying a heck of a lot less than your friends who bought new. And, there’s a better chance you’ll be the first one in your group to actually get one. Another great thing is that since the laptop is used, you can feel free to put stickers and other kinds of decorations on it. You won’t feel guilty doing that like if you were doing it to a newer pink laptop. Feel free to go nuts on these things; they’re cheap, and they’re yours.

Okay, so now that we’re through all of the “why,” let’s get into the “where.” You’ll typically find a pink refurbished laptop online at the manufacturer’s site. I’ll definitely recommend checking out Dell (their Studio 17 laptops come in pink), and ASUS. ASUS has a large amount of colorful notebooks that will suit just about anyone’s needs, and they’re so cheap new that the savings will be pretty astronomical when you go refurbished. ASUS even has the Eee PC in pink, and yes, it comes refurbished should you want to go for one of those (though I recommend new; they’re really cheap). But, both are an option to you if you so wish.

Shopping:

Pink 7" Mini Netbook Laptop Notebook Wifi 2gb Hd Ce

CaseCrown Double Memory Foam Padded Laptop Case with Front Pocket (Alligator Pink) to Carry the HP G60-501NR 15.6-Inch Black Laptop

15 inch Notebook Laptop Computer / Apple MacBook Pro 15 Pink Sparse Tranquility Carrying Case Sleeve

ThermaPAK, Laptop Cooling Heatshift Pad, for 15-Inch Laptops, Pink

15.4" Pink Trim Zebra Pattern Laptop Case Notebook Bag

The Acer refurbished touch screen laptop

Brent — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 21:25:30 +0000

The Acer refurbished touch screen laptop has become one of the most popular refurbished laptops in the country for businesspeople, design buffs, and even personal computing. While most people don’t use these for personal computing reasons, some do, and they swear by them. Those that do any sort of drawing or graphic arts also swear by how easy it is to get the job done. Even better, being that these things are refurbished, they’re way lower in price than most other types of laptops. Touch screen laptops have been decidedly some of the more expensive and least equipped notebooks to hit the shelves, so now you can get the higher-end ones for next to nothing.

Since smart phones like the iPhone have come out, touch screen anything has been extremely popular. Gone are the days when you needed a special stylus pen to do anything on a computer. Nowadays you can use a finger, a hand, a toe, or whatever to do what you need it to do. Manufacturers have really gotten the touch screen technology down pat; if you’ve ever used one of these things, you’ll realize just how far they’ve come since the old days. You should go check one out at the store if you’ve never done that before.

While this isn’t exactly a refurbished system, there’s a new kid on the block coming soon: The Acer Aspire AS5738PG. This is one of the first Acer laptops to come with a touch screen, so you know that it’s special. At first look it doesn’t even look like a tablet. We’re all used to touchscreens being those little flat tablet things without even a keyboard attached. We know how clunky and difficult those are to use unless you really need one for whatever you’re doing.

No, this is a normal laptop, complete with keyboard, that happens to have a touchscreen interface as well. I personally think it’s pretty cool. It has an Intel Core Duo 2.2 GHz processor (pretty sweet), 4 GB of memory, and a 512 MB video card for all of your gaming needs. Even better is that you don’t have to deal with that pesky Windows Vista. This laptop will come with the new Windows 7 operating system straight from the factory. Again, while this isn’t a refurbished laptop (yet), it’ll still get you where you need to go. It’ll be priced right around $800 USD for anyone interested. Have a look.

Shopping:

USB External CD DVD RW Burner Drive For Acer Aspire one

40W Laptop Notebook AC Adapter Charger Power Supply for Acer Aspire One series and Dell Inspiron Mini 9 10 12 series Laptops [19V 1.58A 40W]

Acer Aspire 7720-6569 Refurbished Laptop Computer - Intel Core 2 Duo T5450 1.66GHz, 802.11a/b/g Wireless, 2GB DDR2, 160GB HDD, DL DVDRW, 17" WXGA+, Integrated Webcam, Windows Vista Home Premium

Acer Aspire AS5741Z-5539 15.6-Inch HD Wi-Fi Laptop (Black)

Extended Capacity Laptop Battery for Acer Aspire One A110, A150, AOA110 AOA150 ZG5 Series (Black, 9 cells)