Need a spare laptop for basic use, mostly web browsing with some video playback and occasional image manipulation.
My budget is strictly $300 so I'm thinking refurbished with some warranty.
Edit… Larger screen is required 14" absolute minimum. Prefer 15" if possible.
Not much at this price point unfortunately. I did see some on eBay but not really much to choose from.
There was a post yesterday where they struggled to find something decent for $500… $300 isn't reasonably going to get you anything worthwhile. You're better off considering a tablet instead for basic use.
Yeah I'm struggling. The tablet is not for me, need a laptop.
This company is usually fairly reliable, a few options there:
https://www.ebay.com.au/sch/177/i.html?_ssn=bneacttrader&sto…
Of those would the Fujitsu Lifebook E736 be the best pick?
I'm not knowledgeable enough to comment really, I've never had any experience with Fujitsus… (or HP's)
My uneducated opinion. When it comes to refurbs I usually aim for business grade Dells because they tend to be fairly reliable and you can get aftermarket batteries fairly cheap… If I was buying one from that selection I'd probably stump up the extra $25, ($325 total with code PLSMAYY7 ) and go for this even though it has a HDD not an SSD (cheap enough to upgrade to SSD with a hand-me-down or a cheapie at a later date):
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/203912953415
Also Smartcom Online 👍
i'm a refurbished Lenovo carbon x1 convert.
Great value, durable, light, long battery, best keyboard in class.
Seems I can only afford a Gen 2 Intel of these Lenovos. Is it still worth it?
I have a gen 3 and it's great
Look out on gumtree/marketplace you should be able to find one easily
It's rare to see a laptop this cheap that's actually refurbished in anyway, likely it'll mean they did a fresh install of windows and cleaned the outside of it, it won't be a whole lot different to a used one (except it'll cost more). The two things to check are ask them to show the battery health and harddrive health, if those two are fine you're probably doing alright.
However I had have luck buying from renewd.com.au before, they have 40% off at the moment so that puts a few under $300. Just be wary that "good" condition means "shit" and I've never had to deal with a warranty return before (I bought two laptops with them a few years back that are both still running. They used to have really cheap macbooks, prices have been jacked massively though on the apple side).
Just had a look at those and found this one. Comes in at $300 in 'Great' condition.
ACER ASPIRE A315 15.6" LAPTOP - AMD RYZEN 3 2200 1TB HDD +128GB SSD/8GB RAM/WINDOWS 10
https://renewd.com.au/collections/laptops/products/acer-aspi…
Sounds like a good price? Should I go for it or is there something better?
Search for "Dell" in Ozb, then you will see some posts from either FuseTech etc. Go visit their websites to see if there any refurbished Laptop.
Most likely not for $300, even for that you probably end up getting a laptop which only fast enough to just visit Ozb.
So your options are to increase your budget or buy a desktop or just use your mobile phone.
Its funny how I come to realizations after doing research. I now know that a major requirement is large screen size as it will be used mostly inside at a desk. So I'm thinking absolute minimum is 14" but much prefer 15". The hunt continues…
Just get a PC. Small form factor PC's can be had for that sort of budget, you'd just have to hunt around for a monitor
What have you found so far?