Good second hand/ refurb laptop ? around £300 budget

NiftyDigits

kobracai wrote: »

thanks for this breakdown, it'll be useful for me in the future. This morning I bought this one:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Toshiba-Satellite-15-6-Inch-2-16-GHz-Dual-Core-4GB-1TB-Laptop-Black-/331706805205?hash=item4d3b442bd5:g:s3wAAOSwGotWtU8K

I bought it 2 hours ago before looking at this thread in the later replies you mentioned this is a Dual Core and therefore quite poor... I don't think it matters because I can't afford to shell out more than £200 at the moment anyway (£300 was only if I could have paid by installments)

For £200, I would have gone for this DELL

Inspiron 15 3537

CPU
Intel Core i5 4200U 1.60GHz
Memory
4Gb
Hard Drive
500Gb
Video Brand
ATi
Video
Intel HD Graphics, 1Gb ATi Radeon HD 8670M
Screen Size
15.6″
Screen Resolution
HD 1366 x 768
Touch Screen
No
Webcam
Yes
Ext Video
HDMI
Optical
DVD-RW
USB
2 x USB 2.0, 2 x USB 3.0
Sound
Waves MaxxAudio
Card Reader
8-in-1 Media Card Reader
Bluetooth
Yes
WiFi
Yes

The problem being your stated budget changing. So impossible to advise if you suggest you can only afford £70 and then you spend £170 and then £200.

NiftyDigits

grumpycrab wrote: »

I'm sure it'll be fine but...the Lenovo for £240 is 3x faster (ish). Can you return a (ebay) lappy to any Argos for free? (or do you have to pay to ship it back).

Seems the OP isn't paying attention. Celeron N2830?? It is just an upgraded ATOM CPU with the processing power of my six year old dual core Celeron.

He can simply cancel and not bother to accept delivery. But he'll have to wait a few days for the refund. Goodness knows what he is thinking....

Fortyfoot

grumpycrab wrote: »

I'm sure it'll be fine but...the Lenovo for £240 is 3x faster (ish). Can you return a (ebay) lappy to any Argos for free? (or do you have to pay to ship it back).

I returned the same Toshiba Satellite free on the 10th February. Today, 12th, I received an email from ebay today as follows -

"Your return for Toshiba Satellite 15.6 Inch 2.16 GHz Dual Core 4GB 1TB Laptop - Black. has been delivered to the seller's address. The seller should issue your refund by 22 Feb, 2016. If you do not receive your refund by this date then you can ask us to step in and help."

There is a link on ebay under Purchase History where you can click on "Return this item". When you do this it leads to a return postage label free of charge. Brill service from ebay, Thanks.

Fortyfoot

kobracai

grumpycrab wrote: »

Same as this?
If you need more space (may have already been said) replace the CD/DVD drive with another hard drive. Easy change.

how would one do that ?

kobracai

grumpycrab wrote: »

I'm sure it'll be fine but...the Lenovo for £240 is 3x faster (ish). Can you return a (ebay) lappy to any Argos for free? (or do you have to pay to ship it back).

I already sent the Chromebook back, and it was free to ship it

£240 is too much of a stretch and I need to get some work done asap with a laptop. But I'll keep the Lenovo in mind for the future, thank you

kobracai

NiftyDigits wrote: »

For £200, I would have gone for this DELL



The problem being your stated budget changing. So impossible to advise if you suggest you can only afford £70 and then you spend £170 and then £200.

That link says "No Operating System"... so what is it supposed to run on ?! as I said, I'm far from a tech expert and this kind of things coupled with a suspiciously low price make me very dubious...

Budget was £70 if paid by installment. I didn't realized I had enough money till last week (I had a few enexpected payments come through), I should have mentioned £200 is as high as I can go now for one off payment

NiftyDigits

kobracai wrote: »

I already sent the Chromebook back, and it was free to ship it

£240 is too much of a stretch and I need to get some work done asap with a laptop. But I'll keep the Lenovo in mind for the future, thank you

Forget about the Lenovo B series and get rid of the Toshiba. You really need to stop buying rubbish.

kobracai

Samsonite1 wrote: »

Well, I guess you cannot undo what is done. Dual core is not a problem in most cases, but I would consider a brand new quad core for £300 is going to be a better investment. Having said that, I am not a fan of buying things on credit so it is sensible to only buy what you can afford or save up to afford something better.

something like this ?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Toshiba-C55Dt-B5128-15-6-Touchscreen-Quad-Core-4GB-500GB-HD-VG-In-Retail-Box-/201426338380?hash=item2ee5f2024c:g:YvUAAOSwuTxV8tHm

NiftyDigits

kobracai wrote: »

That link says "No Operating System"... so what is it supposed to run on ?! as I said, I'm far from a tech expert and this kind of things coupled with a suspiciously low price make me very dubious...

Budget was £70 if paid by installment. I didn't realized I had enough money till last week (I had a few enexpected payments come through), I should have mentioned £200 is as high as I can go now for one off payment

You don't need to worry about that...

Suspiciously low price? You feel better buying utter rubbish at what looks like a reasonable price?

kobracai

NiftyDigits wrote: »

You don't need to worry about that...

Suspiciously low price? You feel better buying utter rubbish at what looks like a reasonable price?

well, I don't know which laptops are utter rubbish, which is why I started this thread...

in my opinion, the link on the main site isn't that useful anymore:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/deals/cheap-laptop-deals

the old article had a list of specifications and examples of good £300 laptops. I found it was a lot more clearer back then.

what basic specs would you be looking for ?