Used Laptops

jayship

I wish to take a used Laptop abroad and use whilst travelling.Will give it away to a deserving student to whom it would be useful but cannot afford to buy. Looked around sunday markets and found re-furbished ones for around £70. Unfortunately in the past have returned home with products and found either not working or unreliable. Can members suggest a cheap and reliable source to buy. Have been looking at local adverts but no success so far.

Hammyman

Ebay - Dell Latitude D610 or IBM Thinkpad T42 - both are fairly bombproof for low rent second hand ones. Ones I sell have decent batteries but budget £30 for a new battery which should be the only thing you need to change on them.

Donnie

You just missed the 10in screen netbooks from Argos Outlet at £124. Full warranty. An extra cheap laptop will possibly be more trouble that it's worth. Poor batteries, low RAM. Likely just slow and heavy. The Netbook will give you maybe three hours off mains as opposed to perhaps 30 mins or less from an old inefficient laptop with a well used battery. No warranty.
With the Netbook you will have a full 12 month warranty.
Old laptop. Perhaps only USB 1.1. New Netbook, USB 2.0.

I could go on...

Hammyman

The Argos ones are dire if its the one I think it is. Seriously dire to the point that one of my auctions was flooded with 1000 of them that CPW couldn't sell and they went for £40 a pop. As for cheap ones being more trouble than they're worth, the ex-corporate Dell D610s I sell for £140 (P-M 1.86GHz, 1GB RAM, 30/40GB HDD, 1400x1050 screen, Wifi, Bluetooth, DVD/CDRW, XP Pro) have batteries that do at least a couple of hours and over 3 if Wifi and Bluetooth is disabled and are like new with most of them not even having any smooth areas on the keys or spacebar they've had so little use. I do a 3 month guarantee on them for that as well because they never fail. And I'm not the only one selling them from the same source I buy. So not all cheap ones are carp. Under £100 then you have a point.

Donnie

Hammyman wrote: »

The Argos ones are dire if its the one I think it is. Seriously dire to the point that one of my auctions was flooded with 1000 of them that CPW couldn't sell and they went for £40 a pop. As for cheap ones being more trouble than they're worth, the ex-corporate Dell D610s I sell for £140 (P-M 1.86GHz, 1GB RAM, 30/40GB HDD, 1400x1050 screen, Wifi, Bluetooth, DVD/CDRW, XP Pro) have batteries that do at least a couple of hours and over 3 if Wifi and Bluetooth is disabled and are like new with most of them not even having any smooth areas on the keys or spacebar they've had so little use. I do a 3 month guarantee on them for that as well because they never fail. And I'm not the only one selling them from the same source I buy. So not all cheap ones are carp. Under £100 then you have a point.

Nice advertising....

Of course I'm not referring to your product, as if you sold the product about which I describe to someone here your name would be mud.
No of course I am speaking of the £70 rubbish with no warranty.

As to the Zoostorm, I did read about problems with the 8.9" screen model, but no so much about the newer 10" screen model.
Nevertheless, the full warranty should take care of most problems. Any glitches within the first seven days and the thing can be returned for a full refund. Even within 28 days if the thing is actually faulty.

Usually I would prefer a laptop over a Netbook, but as the OP is speaking of travelling...

Both options are viable, if above the OP's apparent budget.

jayship

Thanks to everyone who has responded so far and will have an open mind and keep looking. Are the ones sold by traders on e bay refurbished? What r the experience of other members? Those on sunday markets are sold as refurbished and ex schools and colleges. Cannot verify unfortunaely.

Donnie

There is a huge difference between a machine that has been returned as unwanted but then cannot be resold as new and a computer that is years old and has been well used.

Argos Outlet stock is generally in the first category.

Though as Hammyman has alluded, it is possible to obtain a low priced and functional laptop for £140 from the second category.