honestly speaking, is a refurbished laptop good enough??

brannsiu

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is it only a psychological reason for some people not to buy a refurbished laptop ??

honestly speaking, is it just as good as a new laptop?? if it doesn't, in what ways it 's worse than a perfectly new laptop?
 

glamdringfh

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It really does depend.

Here are a few common factors at play:

-Some companies refurbish their returned products better than others.
-Some problems that are 'fixed' are worse than others. If you have a repaired CPU for example that would be a much more significant repair than replacing a USB port.
-Some refurbished products have reduced warranties (not all, but some). This can be a deterrent for many people.

I have personally owned plenty of refurbished products in my time and not have issues with them. That said, I have been very careful about what companies I buy refurbished products from.
 
Most people prefer not to buy a refurbished laptop because they know it is not new and are likely concerned about blemishes on the laptop chassis itself. Also, some feel that if it is refurbished then it must have broken before and if so, then it would be more likely to break again compared to a new laptop. Refurbished laptops usually comes short warranties, but that is not always the case.

The current laptop that I have is a refurbished Dell Latitude 3540 with an i5-4200u, 1080p screen and Radeon HD 8850m (a little more powerful than a nVidia 940m and certainly less powerful than the GTX 950m) which I bought from ebay for about $500 + shipping. It was refurbished by Dell and sold by a company / person who had sold at least 5,000 items on ebay and had at least a 98% positive rating.

I bought the laptop in mid-January 2014. Doing a bit of research I found that in early December 2013 Dell was selling refurbed Dell Latitude 3540 with the same configuration I have for $350 in their outlet store. The natural conclusion is the person bought as many as he / she could, then simply sat on them for a short period of time before listing them on ebay. That would explain why I had about 11 months left on the warranty (which is transferable on Dell laptops).

A new Dell Latitude 3540 with the same configuration would have cost around $850 - $900 on Dell's website.
 

brannsiu

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A perfectly new laptop is tested to meet some standards before putting into the market.
A refurbished laptop should be also tested to meet some standards too

so they should both perform well enough in the hardware levels.

If a ''fix'' is not actually a good fix, how could it pass the test and put to sell again? Did you mean that some companies are just so careless about the test and just ....*sell??

Do you recommend newegg's refurbished laptop?


 

glamdringfh

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That is exactly what I meant, yes.



Newegg is a very reliable company. I've personally been doing business with them for years, and have purchased refurbished products from them that I am still using today.
 

wombat_tg

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Buying refurbished is like buying car. You have to proceed with caution, because you can get screwed, but you can just as often walk away with a really good deal.

Most people don't feel like they "know" enough to make the purchase, so they opt for new.


  • Buy your refurbished machine from a reputable vendor.

    Know and understand the return policy (refund, replacement, credit?)

    Know and understand what, if any warranty, applies and how to get warranty service and what the warranty includes.

    Research exactly what you're buying. What are common problems or issues with that particular make/model?

    Have a vague idea of how you'll take care of common repairs. If there is a warranty, what does getting warranty service entail? If there's no warranty, how will you get things fixed if you can't do them yourself?

    Know how old a given model is and where it falls on the technology curve. Know and understand how heavy your demands are. If all you need is something to check email and type papers, a toaster can do that. If you want to play games or do 3D renders, you might not get that much out of it before it starts to show its age.

    Decide what you can live with and without. Blemish-free refurb'd items command a premium. If you can live with issues like case scratches and scuffs, you might secure a good deal. Make sure you understand what a vendor calls "cosmetic" because there are vendors who consider screen scratches and dead pixels "cosmetic". I am always more leary of dents than scratches, because dents usually come from impact.

I'd personally buy a refurb'd machine from NewEgg without hesitation. They are a great company. I've bought tons of stuff from them, including laptops.

Be careful though: NewEgg's site also allows other vendors to peddle their wares, so make sure you know who you are buying from, and if it's not NewEgg, then research the vendor with care.