Used laptop advice 3 March at 11:03AM in Techie Stuff 9 replies 348 views

elsmandino

Hi there.

Just before lockdown, my wife's company were good enough to lend her a laptop for general use (i.e. for my children to borrow for home schooling) and it was so good that I ended up borrowing it and got rid of my old desktop PC - we never did have the room for it to begin with and the energy savings seem to be significant.

The issue, now, is the laptop may have to be returned within the next couple of months and so I need to think about buying one.

I am looking for something used and have a few initial questions:

1. Is it worth risking somewhere like Ebay or should I stick with refurbished laptop sellers only?

2. Which CPU route should I go down?  From what I have read, Intel upped their game on mobile from Gen 8, so I should try and get at least this if I go that route.

3. Any particular models or makes to consider?  Seems that Lenovo Thinkpads seem to get consistently good results as used devices.

gefnew

Something like this.
Grade A - Dell Latitude 5400 14" Laptop - i7-8665U / 512GB SSD /16GB RAM /Backlit Keyboard - £334.34 delivered Using Code @ Dell Refurbished | hotukdeals

flaneurs_lobster

elsmandino said:

Hi there.

Just before lockdown, my wife's company were good enough to lend her a laptop for general use (i.e. for my children to borrow for home schooling) and it was so good that I ended up borrowing it and got rid of my old desktop PC - we never did have the room for it to begin with and the energy savings seem to be significant.

The issue, now, is the laptop may have to be returned within the next couple of months and so I need to think about buying one.

I am looking for something used and have a few initial questions:

1. Is it worth risking somewhere like Ebay or should I stick with refurbished laptop sellers only?

2. Which CPU route should I go down?  From what I have read, Intel upped their game on mobile from Gen 8, so I should try and get at least this if I go that route.

3. Any particular models or makes to consider?  Seems that Lenovo Thinkpads seem to get consistently good results as used devices.

If you post up the make/model/spec of the lender then it might be easier to see what spec might suit.

Cisco001

What is your budget?
Check out price at CEX first due to 2 year warranty and physical shop which is easy return if something go wrong.

Lenovo ThinkPad E14/i5-10210U/8GB RAM/256GB SSD/14"/W11/B £225
https://uk.webuy.com/product-detail/?id=slaplentpe1425b&categoryName=laptops-windows&superCatName=computing&title=lenovo-thinkpad-e14-i5-10210u-8gb-ram-256gb-ssd-14"-w11-b&referredFrom=search&queryID=6095d23309cf0177a9f7e5ea1090d115&position=5

Lenovo ThinkPad E15 Gen 2/Ryzen 5 4500U/8GB RAM/256GB SSD/15"/W11/B £260
https://uk.webuy.com/product-detail/?id=slaplentpe15g298b&categoryName=laptops-windows&superCatName=computing&title=lenovo-thinkpad-e15-gen-2-ryzen-5-4500u-8gb-ram-256gb-ssd-15"-w11-b&referredFrom=search&queryID=6095d23309cf0177a9f7e5ea1090d115&position=9

Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen1/I5-10310U/8GB RAM/256GB SSD/13"/W10/B £300
https://uk.webuy.com/product-detail/?id=slaplenthx13g109b&categoryName=laptops-windows&superCatName=computing&title=lenovo-thinkpad-x13-gen1-i5-10310u-8gb-ram-256gb-ssd-13"-w10-b&referredFrom=search&queryID=6095d23309cf0177a9f7e5ea1090d115&position=13

elsmandino

Thank you - that Dell looks like a great deal for the money.  I was thinking of a budget of around £300.00 but would go over slightly for something really decent.

I was originally a bit put off by Dell laptops as I know a few people that have had quality issues with them - however, these were not business spec ones and would have been lower quality to begin with.

The current lender laptop has the current spec:

HP 255 GL with AMD Ryzen 5 2500U and 8GB Ram.

Seems to be pretty good but I have not really been able to mess around with it much (e.g. installing Linux, which I intend to do) as it is not mine.

I suppose another issue is that my desktop PC, that I got rid of, was a rather old i3-2105 so anything even slightly modern seems amazing by comparison.

flaneurs_lobster

That lender seems to have a 15.6" screen, is that going to be a requirement? To replace like-for-like Google says about £450 for new.

km1500

This new one would more than suit your needs

https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/laptops-2-in-1-pcs/inspiron-15/spd/inspiron-15-3521-laptop/cn32104sc365

TOP_CAT

Here is a used 14inch on hotukdeals that might be of interest .

https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/lenovo-thinkpad-t480-laptop-very-good-refurbished-core-i5-8350u-16gb-ram-256gb-ssd-fhd-ps23849-with-code-uk-mainland-at-4099791

A  similar lenovo 15.6in generally costs more but here is a past B grade deal

https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/refurbished-b-grade-lenovo-thinkpad-p52-notebook-156-display-intel-i7-8850h-core-i7-512gb-ssd-16gb-ram-ps256-with-code-at-itzoo-4037207

GrubbyGirl_2

Have you thought about asking the company if you can buy the laptop off them?

victor2

GrubbyGirl_2 said:

Have you thought about asking the company if you can buy the laptop off them?

That's not a bad idea. Companies often depreciate assets like computers to zero over a few years, so they might just let you keep it, or accept a small payment way below the current market value.