Are refurbished laptops worth for purchase?

[jonathanashley]

its prices and the features looks good, but I worry about the quality. Has anyone bought a refurbished laptop and if so what was your experience with it?

 

[tlmck]

What you have to watch out for are things like batteries on their last legs and can you even get a new one if needed?, CD/DVD running OK?, and so on. It all comes down to the price and what you want to do with the laptop. Basically all i do with mine anymore is surf the web. It is an older model I got on clearance a few years ago. I loaded up Linux on it and it still runs like a champ.

Once again, depending on what you want to accomplish, you may be better off going for one of the low end $299 deals you see at various stores. They are surely to be more powerful if nothing else.

 

[shadamus]

I've owned one Dell refurb, and referred them to several others as well (from their "outlet" website) over the past 10 years or so, all to good effect. Dells may be a bit different though, since many of the ones they sell on the outlet site are ones that were returned having never been used (corporate customers over-buy, then return what they don't deploy, etc...).

I haven't used any other brand's refurbs, but would be perfectly willing to pickup an ASUS if I needed a new one.

The only negative thing I can say about refurbs is watch out for the Macbooks that are available for $400-$500, since they are usually in very bad shape (read around the web, you'll see what I mean).

Good luck.