There are many benefits to buying refurbished laptops, but the question that I hear all the time at the shop is this: what are the pros and cons of refurbished laptops? And the truth is that there are many pros and cons.
Some of the pros and cons of refurbished laptops are clear and some are things that you would never expect. When you are contemplating buying a refurbished laptop, you should be armed with as much knowledge as possible, so let’s get into some pros and cons of refurbished laptops.
Pro: refurbished laptops are less expensive
There is no denying that refurbished laptops are not as expensive as new ones. You can use this to your advantage when buying a computer. While everyone else pays the brand-new price for a laptop, you can save a lot of money by buying a refurbished system.
Con: refurbished computers can have minor scratches
This may be a deal-breaker if you’re looking for a mint condition laptop. Perhaps you want to give someone a perfect laptop as a gift. Perhaps you want everyone to know that you have the money for a brand-new computer. Either way, a refurbished laptop may not be for you if you can’t have any scratches or scuffs.
Of course, it is still possible to find a refurbished laptop withOUT any scratches or scuffs. This is rare, but you can give yourself an upper hand by looking at refurbished laptops before buying them. This is usually not possible to do when buying a computer online. The only way to look at a refurbished computer before buying it is to find a reliable local computer store. Most computer stores that sell refurbished computers will let you try them out first and examine them to look for scratches.
Pro: refurbished laptops can be as fast as new ones
At first glance, you may put down refurbished computers as being old and slow. But this is not true at all! A good refurbished laptop may only be a few years old, and if it has been properly refurbished, it will be faster than when it was new.
There are a lot of reasons a computer slows down as it gets old. Things like hard drives and unnecessary software can slow down a computer a lot. Check out our article on WHAT makes a slow computer so slow HERE.
There are many ways to speed up an old computer, such as upgrading it to a solid-state drive or SSD. Upgrading the old drive to an SSD can improve boot-up speed dramatically and make it feel like a new system.
Con: it can be hard to find a refurbished laptop with a warranty
One especially difficult part about buying a refurbished laptop is finding one with a good warranty. Most resellers like Amazon, Dell, and other manufacturers only offer 30-day or 90-day warranties. Unfortunately, many of these places still require you to send the laptop in by mail if it ever needs service, which can be a hassle.
This is better than most computer stores and resellers, who might not offer any warranty at all. The key is to find a friendly local computer store that offers a 1-year warranty and lifetime technical support. A year is plenty of time to put your laptop through its paces and make sure it holds up long-term. With lifetime technical support, at least you know you have someone ever after the warranty is over.