In search of: Cheap, Business-Class, Portable-ish, Refurb Laptop

[tuxborg]

1. What is your budget?

$400

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?

I think 13-14'' is a sweet spot, but any size will be considered.

3. What screen resolution do you want?

Doesn't matter much.

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?

Needs to be portable, but doesn't have to be ultra-light. I have a strong back.

5. How much battery life do you need?

3 hours would be a minimum.

6. Do you want to play games with your laptop?

Nope.

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop?

It will be used for light office work, browsing, and skype while I travel.

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?

I'll quite likely replace any existing HDD, so that's not a big deal.

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.

http/www.ebay.com/sch/dell-official-store-usa-refurbished/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p3686

I've been hunting a while and these are about as cheap as I can find in business class laptops.

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?

I keep my laptops forever.

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?

Don't really need any of them. USB drives are incredibly cheap.

12. Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.

I prefer Lenovo, Dell, and HP because they have (in my experience) the only business class laptops that last and are worth purchasing refurbished.

13. What country do you live in?

US

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.

I've been keeping my eye on the Latitudes coming on the outlet and ebay listings because the Lenovo and HP off-lease stuff is harder to find in one place.

My primary concern is buying something that I can work on easily. As I said, I keep my laptops working forever and usually retire them to server duty or donate them to a local student in need.

The last fixer I purchased was a thinkpad T61 and it was extremely nice except for the fact that opening it up to work on the fan/heatsink required pulling out the keyboard and everything else and the battery life was poor (~2h).

I have worked on some Latitude models (not my own) which were opened with a single screw (heavenly) so that kind of access would be ideal. I don't see many business class hp laptops, so I have no clue what kind of situation their chassis are going to be.

 

[Brett928S2]

Hi

We NEED AN ACTUAL figure FOR YOUR BUDGET.... to help...

All the best Brett

 

[tuxborg]

Fixed that, thanks Brett.

 

[Brett928S2]

Fixed that, thanks Brett.

Hi

For that budget, I think you are looking at the right sort of refurb lappies....

I am UK , so cannot help with precise links, but a Dell Latitude or possibly a Dell Vostro (lovely machines) if you can find one...

Hope this helps

All the best Brett

 

[tuxborg]

Good to know at least that I'm on the right track. Thanks Brett.