I am looking at couple of the sub-$150 offerings at Amazon–first choice from what is available is a Lenovo, but Compaq and Dell are among the options too. Do I need to be nervous about getting a dud, or do they tend to be okay?
Second thing to check is whether these are from the manufacturer’s recond pool. Some have Amazon store fronts (I know Acer does). Those are nearly as reliable as new ones.
The first thing to check is if it has anything to do with Woot (which is now an Amazon subsidiary). Those are notorious for having problems. Most people get an okay refurb but the percentage of bad ones is high enough I don’t recommend them at all.
So it comes down to who is selling it. If Amazon is selling you a returned item you’re taking a chance and you can re-return it easily enough. But there’s a window in which to notice a problem. If the problem comes up after that then it’s a much bigger hassle since you go thru the maker’s warranty system.
If it’s a “slightly used” one or some such from a no name affiliate seller, I’d pass.
Do you know how to run a new computer thru a bunch of tests to see if everything is working? I do. Most don’t.
i got a Lenovo certified refurb from Micro Center …couldn’t be happier except for the Windows 10.
My previous was a MacBook, also a refurb from Micro Center…lasted 7 years for 250$
ymmv
I’m thinking of something like this. I have a budget of $500, and want to buy two of those (not necessarily that exact model) a 7-inch tablet, and some Micro SD cards and flash drives.
I’ve built my own computers from scratch ever since buying my first PC in 1992, but it has been a long time since I upgraded, and those sub-$150 refurbs are twice or more as fast as my old Phenom II 810.
Refurbished stuff directly from manufacturers is almost always as good as new. That is, they have a battery of tests that they put new devices through, and they put the refurbished ones through the same tests.
Refurbished stuff from 3rd parties is a lot dicier. Could be a similar process with solid testing and QA, or could be someone who bought 100 broken whatevers and swapped parts until they ended up with 70 not-obviously-broken whatevers.
I guess they have good products.
Their tablet for $50 is great.
But it has gigabytes of advertising. I guess their products are under-priced with profit being generated from advertisement.
link to the tablet?
not what I’m looking for in a tablet thanks tho
This is the tablet that I plan on buying–all I want it for is reading comics and manga (which I currently read on my 5.5 inch phone) so it doesn’t need crazy specs. (I was going to buy a refurb Lenovo Tab 4 8" for $60 but read really disturbing things about how it treats Micro SD cards.)
Lot of corners cut. E.g., smallish HD and no SSD. Dual, not quad processor, etc. The DVD drive is a ROM. But who needs to write DVD’s these days? The “twice or more” part is too modest. It will be a lot faster than that.
Lenovo is not on my list of trustable companies. That install too much spyware on their PCs.
Two absolute deal breakers: The actual seller has a 92% review rating. That is not good. And it has no USB 3 ports! Forget that. Amazon itself it showing comparable systems that have USB 3. This is an old (well used) system.
(Amazon math: 5 reviews. 4 5-star. 1 2-star. So the %s of each are 75 and 25 not 80 and 20.)
Not a computer, but I bought a certified refurbished HP Laserjet that’s worked well for the past 10 years or so.
So part of my order arrived today (but not the computers.) I bought 4 Micro SD cards for various devices. No problem with the two 64 GBs or the 128 GB, but when I tried to remove the 256 GB (a Lexar) from the plastic shell, it shattered into 3 pieces! Hopefully Amazon will replace it.
My computers arrived today. I went with a pair of these at $127 each. They are in good cosmetic condition, the hard drives and fans aren’t grinding and the HDs test good with SMART. I’m currently copying files from older computers to the new ones and so far so good. I wasn’t confident that the computers would come with WiFi adapters and keyboards/mice (the descriptions were ambiguous and contradictory) so I ordered 5 buck USB adapters and $15 Logitech keyboard/mouse sets just in case. Turns out that they didn’t come with WiFi adapters but did come with two brand new wired keyboards and (only) one new wired mouse but I’m not bothered enough to complain.
So for my $500 budget, I got the 2 computers, 4 keyboards, 3 mice, a 7" tablet, an 8" tablet, two phone cases, two tablet cases, 4 Micro SD cards, a 256 GB USB flash drive, a set of Micro USB and USB C OTG adapters, and a drive adapter kit.