Hey you, thank you for clicking on this post. Today I will start my series with an introduction and what to do first. But firstly...
...why should I buy a used laptop?
I've been at many recycling centers and seen what people throw away. Next to the common things like old CRTs theres always a pile of laptops which mostly aren't that old. And after taking some of them home many were still working even though they had some scuffs and marks on them. Most of these people just throw them away because they are too slow or not portable enough or heythey just don't please them. And after that they go into a store buying a new one. To me and probably many others as well that's just a complete waste of resources and especially money. So when you buy a used laptop not only can you save yourself some money, which is always helpful if you are on a low budget, but you also help the environment.
The basics
Before you go on ebay or craigslist to search for a laptop you must consider first what you really need. And I'm not only talking about what you need what you need today but also for what you might need a laptop in the future. For example, when you need something very portable and you only need to type text or documents on it, having a good battery life and a nice keyboard to type on should be on top of your priority list. Examples for laptops matching to that are the Thinkpad X-series or 2-in-1 Tablets like the Microsoft Surface. When you actually want to do some work which needs more power you should consider a newer laptop and if you really need something beefy there are laptops out there with some pretty good NVIDIA GPUs. Disclamer: Most of the laptops which are sold on online marketplaces are not meant for gaming (and probably never were). If you want to game on a laptop, expect to play basic games and keep in mind that the displays of those laptops are standard displays which normally don't have a high resolution or a good representation of color. Also many "gaming" laptops sold online used are often heavily overpriced.
If you really don't know which laptop fits you best it is helpful to write down what is important for you. To start then, you can take a look at the big brands such as Lenovo ThinkPad, Dell Latitude/XPS and HP EliteBooks and their different series, for example here: Thinkpad Dell Latitude Dell XPS HP EliteBook. Just pick out one laptop and then compare its specs to another, maybe newer or a better one from the same time. If you want an affordable allrounder the years 2012 and 2013 are the best choices, for example the Thinkpad T420 from 2012. If you found a laptop which matches with your interests you can then look in forums if other people had a good experience with it, especially regardingg what your interests are. If there is for example a software problem with an earlier generation of a laptop it might have been fixed in a later patch. But if its a hardware problem like an overheating GPU there is always a risk that you get a laptop with that exact problem and if you do you would need to replace your motherboard, which would be expensive again. So if there is a chance that a model might have some faulty components I would not buy it.
You might have reached a point now where you say that you just can't find one fitting to you or there are just too many choices choices. So how do you find your laptop? Well, the process of finding your laptop isn't something which is done in a few minutes. To find the laptop you will be happy with takes several days, maybe even one or two weeks. But do not be put off because if you would just say "Screw it" now and buy a regular laptop from amazon you probably wouldn't be that happy with it especially if you are on a low budget. What you would get for 200$ on amazon is no comparison to what you would get if you buy a used one with the same money for the same amount of money.
To finish the first part of this series I would like to thank you for reading this introduction post I put a lot of afford in with the objective of showing you what you can get if you are on a low budget. If you need any help or have any questions, write them in the comments or contact me through my website.
In my next post I will explain how to properly buy a used laptop from an online marketplace and what to watch out for.