Laptops Arena

Refurbished has become a term that put the “cheap” in the “cheapest”. Today we are going to check out some cheap refurbished HP laptops so you can see if there any of these models is smiling back at you.

But first, let us explain why you should buy a refurbished HP laptop. This manufacturer offers refurbished laptops in almost all of its product lines.  When a customer returns a HP laptop for any given reason then it is re-manufactured.  Lots of stores operate today on a no questions asked policy for those customers that want to return a HP laptop, notebook or PC. This means you could simply return the unit for any reason.  Some reasons are actually funny. The customer may discover that they don’t like the color or maybe they found the same unit with a much better price in another store. There may be some minor scratches or the laptop could have been damaged during shipping. Every such laptop is reviewed and repaired in order to bring them to their original condition. It seems to me that even if you but a refurbished laptop, it’s almost like buying a new one. All these units are tested before being resold and if tests show any damage on the parts, the parts are replaced and the unit is tested again.

HP will offer a 90 day warranty for their refurbished models. There is also the HP Care Pack which is available and it will extend the warranty period up to a maximum 3 years. Even if this costs extra, it still does not equal the price of the brand new laptop. The catch is that if you buy a refurbished laptop from HP, the price could be a bit higher that what specialized refurbished dealers have to offer. However, if you choose to purchase a HP unit from such a dealer, you have to check all the details of the return policy and the warranty and see if they suit you. Buying from HP may turn out to be a better choice after all.

Let’s see some examples of cheap refurbished HP laptops. The HP Pavilion G50-103NR refurbished laptop can be purchased at a price of $430. This 15.4 inch laptop has a 2.0 GHz  Intel Dual Core T3200 processor, 2 GB of RAM, 160 GB of available disk space and the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500M which can support up to 756 MB of video memory. Other features are the Altec Lansing speakers, the Windows Vista Home Premium operating system and the 6.4 lbs of weight. As for the ports and connections, this laptop has 3 USB ports, 1 VGA out, 1 HDMI port, an Ethernet jack plus a modem port, 1 headphone out and one microphone in. Even if the graphics card is not a killer, this laptop is still worth good money especially since you get a 6 months warranty with the unit.



Another very good deal is the refurbished HP Pavilion DV9410 which is available for a price of $495. The 1.8 GHz processor is an AMD Turion 64 X2 and it is combined with 1 GB of RAM, 160 GB of free disk space and the NVIDIA GeForce Go 6150 graphics card with 128 MB of shared video memory. The speakers are the same Altec Lansing that HP uses for most of the Pavilion models. Compared to the unit above, this one has a 17 inch display which means 2 things. It has a numerical pad that may come in handy for those that have to work with spreadsheets and due to the bigger screen it is also a good desktop replacement. Above the display, there is even a webcam with an integrated microphone. It’s nice to see you get all these cool features even if the price is really low. This laptop has 4 USB ports, one VGA port, one TV out (S-Video), one modem plus one Ethernet port, one Expansion port 3, a FireWire, plus the headphones out and microphone in jacks. It has the same Windows Vista Home Premium operating system and 6 months warranty for the unit.



How do these offers sound so far? Is the price low enough? Are the specs good? Would it surprise you if I told you there are even cheaper HP models out there? The next one is not that great considering the specs but the price is way lower than that of the 2 models we presented above. The HP Compaq NC6000 is available refurbished for $245. Why is it so cheap? Well, the components are not exactly very powerful. This laptop runs on a 1.6 GHz Intel Pentium M processor, is only has 512 MB (but my guess is you can upgrade), 40 GB of available disk space and the ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 graphics card which has 64 or 32 MB of video memory. The operating system is the Linux – Ubuntu and this may be a problem if you are used to Windows. Don’t worry, you can always learn how to use it and it may even seem more practical in the end. The laptop has 2 USB ports, 1 TV out, one parallel plus one serial port, an infrared option and the headphones and microphone jacks.

You have to pay an extra 40 dollars if you want the Wireless 802.11B option because the standard configuration only has the 10/100 Ethernet.  This unit has both a touchpad and a track stick. Even if there is a DVD optical drive, you can only use it to burn CD’s and this could be frustrating since in our days everyone uses DVDs to make backup copies of the files stored on their computer. Besides, a DVD burner could have come in handy especially with this unit that only has 40 GB of free space. Unlike the 2 models we spoke of earlier, the HP Compaq NC6000 only comes with 3 months warranty. This is because this laptop model is quite old and now HP success line is represented by Pavilion models and not so much Compaq laptops.