vlindsay wrote:Might not be everyone's cup of tea but the last one I bought around 5 years ago was reconditioned from this website and its still going strong. Its the site that most universities recommend to their students and I've never heard bad reports.
http://www.ukstudentlaptops.com/main/vmchk.html
I have bought exactly (1) new laptop in my entire life. It was around $1600 + tax and extras and it was trashed 2 years afterward, but at least I got some reimbursement from Toshiba as a claimant in a class action lawsuit against them for knowing their design of the notebook allowed it to overheat, yet distributing it anyway.
Every other laptop that I have purchased has been refurb models. The most current one is a Dell latitude 1.9 ghz p4 pre-loaded with XP pro. I purchased it for approximately $450 4 years ago. The modem went out on it, but the built in wifi card in it works. It's not the latest and greatest, but it's plenty late and great for all of the productivity software I use (though I wouldn't try running excel solver function with too big of a matrix, also the downside is the hard drive is only a 20gig unit (tiny by todays standards).
Bottom line: refurbs are the way to go for desktop replacements or portable business machines if you don't need something out of the ordinary.
The next one I am going to buy is along the lines of a netbook - either Asus or Acer model. Whatever the smallest sized one with the largest specs are for less than $500, new. Nothing else is needed other than a fitted padded case, some office supplies to go, a several gig flash drive and a small mouse in which the cord auto winds. That would handle all of my needs while en route.
Life is short. Eat, Drink & Be Merry!