Buying Used and Refurbished Laptops

Anyone who is interested in buying a cheap laptop should look into the following 2 segments of cheaper machines: used laptops and refurbished laptops. Both of these categories have both their pros and their cons. Let's take a look.

If you want to get something with a bit more warranty to it and a little more as far as reliability goes, then you should probably look into getting a refurbished laptop. The reason for this is because a refurbished machine will have a better chance that it is in like new condition, and probably also comes with a standard "new" warranty attached to it. This should give you added piece of mind when it comes to feeling secure about your new purchase.

On the other hand, if you find some decent used laptops for sale, you can probably get away with spending a bit less money. In fact you can save quite a bit of money over buying a refurbished machine. The downside of course is that you are not getting a "like new" condition, nor are you getting the "new" warranty that likely comes with a refurbished laptop. Instead you are taking a bit of a risk in buying something that could very easily stop working in a few weeks or even a few days. In particular, you have to realize that any laptop battery has a limited lifespan, and they can conk out at any time really.

Given these trade offs, it all comes down to how much money you want to save and how comfortable you are with taking a risk in order to save a bunch of money. Most people do not need the latest and greatest speeds on their portable computer, so buying an older used laptop is generally not a problem when it comes to performance and speed. It is likely that you are simply doing web stuff or office applications. So really you have to determine how much risk you want to take and if you are comfortable buying a used machine.

It is not really worth it to buy brand new if all you want to do is some basic computing tasks on the go. For most people this is all they really need so limiting yourself to a refurbished or used laptop should not be a problem. Pretty much anyone can find a decent machine that fits their needs if they are willing to put in the research.