I'm thinking of replacing my laptop with something a little more up to date. I got the existing unit about 5 years ago directly from Toshiba, a factory refurb Satellite model. It isn't and wasn't to be used for anything requiring zero to 60 in microseconds, and (with the supplied Vista) it can't and doesn't, and I've no problem with that feature. In fact, the real reason for thinking of replacement is W10, which like as not will be an expensive proposition if, and especially if, I don't get it on a new (vs. refurb) machine. (Not even thinking here of trying to get the existing machine to run W10 in the first place. I admit that I have not checked into W10 system requirements yet.) Has anyone else had experience with refurb gear, and how happy have you been? What to look for other than knowing if the hardware was done at the mfr's shop or someplace less diligent?
Haven't looked at refurbs recently, not when new Acers are available for 3 bills...not "gaming" quality, but quite acceptable for day to day use...come with W8, and free update to W10. (be very patient with the update) Just a thought...
Thanx. Noted, and yeah, I'm in no hurry, there's nearly a year before the freebies disappear and VISTA doesn't get the freebie. Patience, I have --
@techsar is right. Go new. If you've never had a mac before....now might be the time to try something different. Quick skim for laptops on amazon... Cheap: ASUS F555LA-AB31 15.6-inch Full-HD Laptop (Core i3, 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD) with Windows 10 Fair: ASUS Zenbook UX305LA 13.3-Inch Laptop (Intel Core i5, 8GB, 256 GB SSD, Titanium Gold) with Windows 10 Proper: Alienware 17 FHD 17.3-Inch Gaming Laptop (Intel Core i7 4710HQ, 8 GB RAM, 1 TB HDD, Silver and Black) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M with 3GB GDDR5 - Free Upgrade to Windows 10
Most of the stuff I get for my use is factory refurbs. Got a refurbed Sony camera last month that I love so far. My son frequently "jokes" about my propensity for refurbs, but I've never liked wasting money and 95% of the time find them at least as good as straight off the assembly line...I think they get checked more closely by QC for most companies. I am posting this on a 6 year old factory refurb MacBook Pro that saved me about $250 as I remember.
I second the "Christmas Sale Laptop". Last year we preordered a laptop from Dell direct but on black Friday, costco had a deal for the same box at $150 less. Canceled the order with Dell and went with Costco. Their Black Friday sales are actually pretty good.
I don't buy laptops any more. I use a full tower PC with dual monitors at home. If I need portable, I go with a netbook sized unit or tablet because they are portable, powerful and very affordable. Always buy new.
I think it depends on what you are doing on your computer. If you just answer a few emails and you dont use any of the Microsoft office products or game, then refurbish is fine as long as you reformat the hard drive to clean it. For most people who use more products, you need the extra ram and processing power to run the new programs.
@ghrit - How much are you looking to spend when the time comes? Do you prefer the portability of a laptop or are you fine with a desktop/tower? What all are you looking to use it for? That would help us help you find something appropriate (assuming you want any kind of help and not just the opinions).
Looking for opinions at the moment. My tower does the yeoman duties here abouts, the laptop is the traveler for both normal on line use and future use with ham radio applications (and file backups.) New is not out of the question, nor is there any hard limit on cost if I get the features I think I want. I am not particularly good at adapting to new OS (say like Linux or Apple) so M$ is sorta locked into my brain box. Given the troubles I have with touchpads, touch screens are immaterial. Luvs me meese, I do.
@ghrit I agree, I have a plug in mouse with my laptop, eventually the wireless mice as well as the pads hit a place you have to reset them by pluggin in a wired mouse to reset the hub. So I just went wired mouse the last time this happened.
More to come on this. There won't be a tablet, but there might be another laptop if I can deal with the economics.
I said the same thing 5 years ago. Now I EDC a tablet. Filling out inspection forms at work, email, web surfing. Can't imagine not having one at this point.
Had another reason to be out, so stopped off at Best Buy and queried the Geeks on duty. Their thinking is that upgrading my Toshi laptop from Vista to W10 is probably not economic. Uv cuss, as in everything, I trust them about as far as I could throw the 250 lb specimen of the pair. Time to do some investigations with the idea of substantiating their claims. At this point, I don't see a viable use for a tablet, but freely admit I know nothing worth mention about them. Thus, it's time to check the depth of my wallet to see if it can stand the hit of another machine. If it can, then real early thinking is that the old machine will possibly become a test mule for Linux and used entirely for ham radio purposes. Might have to try SDR or some version of fldigi. All that said, it'll be months, too many other projects hanging fire.
Judging by the size and capabilities of "smart phones" these days, there's not a big difference between those and a tablet, only a tablet isn't primarily a phone. Then again, "smart phones" aren't primarily phones, either... Just wait for the brain chip, then you will be good to go, Ghrit.
For computers (Desktop & Laptop) i prefer refurbs w/ warranty. The last couple of items I got were from TigerDirect. Yes they are a year or 2 old and not the tippy top, cream of the crop, but for what I do at home they suffice. When I need power/speed for work, well, I let the company pay for that! As far as tablets go, they have their place and can be quite useful. My tablet is a "crippled" tablet. I say crippled because it's an Amazon Kindle Fire HDX and there are some features that Amazon has specifically disabled with the hardware. Of course, I didn't find that out until after I got the tablet. With that said, my Fire does most of what I need it to do, and what it can't I use my laptop. A tablet with a good wireless keyboard can almost replicate a laptop, almost.
My vote is to drop 'phone' from the term smartphone. It's a pocket PC that can also accept calls. My iPhone 6 is large enough to do most things on.