Laptops for the Kiddies...time for school!!

08.07.10 | chickensoup

[smokingfrog]

A Dell XPS should be able to do everything you want.

[MississippiMan]

Although you’ve had a good experience with Acer, I have not. I’ve owned several over the years and every one of them was a subpar machine. You might consider yourself fortunate that you’ve had a good Acer experience and not push the envelope. ;-)

MM

[mnehring]

We have two Toshiba laptops and you couldn’t tell them from new other than the boxes weren’t branded. I usually buy most electronics as refurbs right from the manufacturer. The only time I recall a cosmetic defect was one power mac that had a small scratch. Usually they will disclose if there are defects like this in the description.

[Chickensoup]

I have 272 ACRES and NO CHILDREN. So, why should I continue to pay more in taxes than it cost me to buy it?
Explain it to me, please.

What?

[James C. Bennett]

Thanks! I’ve always thought refurbs offer fantastic value for money, but was apprehensive about receiving products with ugly physical defects.

[Chickensoup]

yourself fortunate that you’ve had a good Acer experience and not push the envelope.

Point taken.

But if Dell is left out and everyone tells me to avoid gateway and HP and Ibms old company Levino. What is left?

[Redbob]

". I usually buy most electronics as refurbs right from the manufacturer."

The only "refurb" I bought was an HP laptop I bought as new from Best Buy, it lasted the warranty period plus one month, when the motherboard crapped out. I didn't know it was previously sold until I contacted HP to register it, and found I wasn't the first purchaser.

I don't recommend HP nor Best Buy...

[Domandred]

Probably would avoid Gateway

Yea. Was a time when I worked in the personal computer industry 15 years ago that Gateway was one of the premier companies.

Now I want to take a baseball bat to the one I just bought a year ago. The other I bought on the same day has already been retired to the bone pile in my garage.

Been having various problems with them within a month after getting them.

[Domandred]

What is a professional DOWNGRADE in operating systems?

Has Vista on it when normally but was retrograded to XP at the factory. Lot of customers request this service, and some places charge extra for it.

[JRandomFreeper]

I have purchased refurbs personally, and professionally for the field techs I used to drive like hebrew slaves. Most of the time, there are 0 cosmetic defects on the refurbs.

Out of 25+ refurbs, 0 problems. I generally prefer the HPs and avoid Dells.

/johnny

[James C. Bennett]

Thanks!

[Chickensoup]

Hey Pharoh, where did you get those refurbs?

[JRandomFreeper]

Mostly online from the manufacturer or from the Tandy Warehouse in Ft. Worth. It was hit and miss what you would find at Tandy as far as brand and capabilities.

/johnny

[ransomnote]

Twice I have bought refurb from Dell. The Dell Outlet has a search engine that lets you check off boxes to select or avoid units that have cosmetic defects as opposed to other outlet products. Here’s the Dell Outlet to the highest level of laptop search. http://www.dell.com/us/en/dfh/notebooks/ct.aspx?refid=notebooks&s=dfh&cs=22
I don’t see the boxes displayed on the left there but I know they exist somewhere in the search procedure because I just bought a unit there.
Dell latitudes are indeed great but I believe they are on the expensive side compared with their Inspiron line. And I believe Dell still lets you customize the exterior of the laptop to colors or designs the kids can choose.
There’s an article on Cnet.com right now about a 2010 review of back-to-school retail computer options. Here’s the link: http://news.cnet.com/back-to-school/pc-reviews/?tag=topPanelArea.0

[Iron Munro]

i have not purchased refurbished but the estranged did for one of the other kids and it was little, fat and square.

That's really too bad - but what about the refurbished computer?
.

[RnMomof7]

Does you phone tech help speak english?

[Chickensoup]

That’s really too bad - but what about the refurbished computer?

You have made me laugh in the middle of a tough work weekend. Thanks.

[RnMomof7]

It sounds that you , like me, do not use your computer for work , gaming, or graphics ...

I know you do not want to spend much.. but as a basically computer dumb woman I have a mac book...

The mac tells you how to do everything or does it for you ..it is a great computer for the computer challenged and they are less likely to get a virus ... mac stores also have classes or you can make a free appt with a mac “genius” to learn a specific function.. also if it has a problem a trip to the mac store genius will help you..you do not have to talk to some jerk in India

They are expensive but they too can be bought refurbished or 2nd hand from craigs list

I can use my husbands HP , I have no problem with windows.. but i so like the mac user friendly system that I will probably continue to break my budget every 3 years or so to update.

[RepublitarianRoger2]

Sure, glad I could help with that. For your <= $850 price point, I think Cheetahcat’s suggestion is a good one. Something like a Dell Studio 15 with an I5 processor in it would meet your needs. I wouldn’t go less than 4GB of RAM if you want to run Windows 7 — and I would very much recommend running Windows 7 rather than XP.

[celtic gal]

You must be tired...it is MAC users..
Speaking of MACs, if there is a MACsuperstore near you, you might check it out. Ours here ( not to be confused with the Apple Store) does carry used MACs that have been reconditioned for modest prices. It might be worth a look see.