Consumers continue to save money with refurbished laptops

If you’re in the market for a laptop, and are put off by paying the retail price for brand spanking products, how about you consider refurbished laptops?

They’re like laptop Marmite, you either love them or hate them. Yet it seems most haters have no foundation for which to place that negativity; a refurb laptop may in fact be the ideal solution for all your computing needs.

Refurbished laptop computers are attainable for a significantly cheaper price than brand new models and come with a minimum of one year’s guarantee. They are readily available online and have been scrutinised and analysed by top technological and mechanical boffins to ensure all is ticking over nicely.

For more info and pricing on refurbished laptops, head to Laptopshop.

Refurbished laptops – they might not even have been used

What are refurbished laptops? The categorisation can mean many things.

Sometimes the original buyer whips off the packaging, prises open the box and then feels “buyer’s remorse,” and simply decides to return it. They may not have even used it yet. A reputable seller will take the item, then send it to the manufacturer to be checked for defects. Once it’s determined to be operating normally, it will be confined to the refurbished laptops category.

Alternatively, the initial buyer may have had a legitimate problem with the product. Manufacturers then repair the laptop and put it back on shelves as refurbished. Sometimes manufacturers also take back older models of a product from store shelves to replace them with newer versions. The older version may be sold at a discount as refurbished.

“You really have no idea why the product has been designated as refurbished,” says Paul Eng, Web Editor for electronics for ConsumerReports.org.

“Refurbished products can be a great deal in certain situations. Sometimes a new model of a laptop, phone, or TV isn’t rated higher by reviewers than the model it replaces. Or the new features may not be important to you.”

Another claim for the world’s thinnest laptop

Dell laptops have finally launched its wafer-slim Dell Adamo XPS in time for the Christmas market, to give arch-rival Apple’s MacBook Air a run for its money. And the launch follows in the wake of super-thin machines such as the Sony Vaio X range.  

Billed as the world’s thinnest laptop, the Dell Adamo XPS is just 9.9mm thick, and weighs in at less than 1.5kg. And this latest product shaves nearly 5mm off the size of last year’s Adamo. It also features a slight stand at the back of the machine which slants the keyboard at an angle towards the user and rests on top of the battery – good to prevent overheating but not totally conducive to being placed comfortably on your lap.

Some of the other grumbles already being heard about this product centre on the life of the battery – at around two and a half hours it won’t keep you working for long without mains power. Some have described the Adamo XPS is a triumph of style over substance.

Don’t expect it to fall in the cheap laptops category, with an RRP of £1,099.

Compaq Presario 4010f joins the cheap laptops market

The new Compaq Presario 4010f is to be launched next week. HP laptops is trying to position Compaq as a cost-effective laptop option, with their RRP of just £199.

It’s a boost for the laptop market, with such super cheap laptops expected to help revive people’s interest, rather than opting for cheap netbooks or tablets.

Expected onsale October 22.

Once the largest supplier of personal computing systems in the world, Compaq existed as an independent corporation until 2002, when it merged with Hewlett-Packard.

You don’t need to blow the student loan to grab a great laptop

Freshers’ Weeks all around the country have pretty much ground to a halt now, so it’s time (reluctantly) to look towards your studies. If you’ve not blown your whole student loan on a week-long alcohol binge, you could consider grabbing yourself a great deal from a whole host of cheap laptops on the market at the moment.

Of course, the portability of laptops is what makes them so popular. Instead of working until the early hours in the Uni library, having a laptop can enable you to work anywhere – such as under the covers in bed!

First year students often purchase laptops because they plan on taking their computers to class with them and being able to do their studies anywhere on campus – and laptops are no longer an expensive luxury, with fantastic models available from as little as £200.

HP strike up student laptop deal

As thousands of freshers begin their higher education drinking spree, three things will be ranking high in their minds – cheap food, cheap drinks, and cheap laptops!

With this in mind, HP laptops have struck a deal with 3 to coincide with the new student year and offer the great unwashed mobile broadband laptop deals. What this means is that new 3 mobile broadband customers can purchase a CQ60 Compaq Presario Laptop at £80 off the suggested retail price or a Compaq Mini 110 Netbook at £40 off.

The offer is “open to all new mobile broadband customers” as well as students.

Samsung R519 laptop hits the shelves

Cheap laptops seem to be getting cheaper, which is truly great news for consumers in the global recession.

And for £380, this is emphasised with the excellent new Samsung R519 laptop which hit the shelves recently. Apple Macbook it ain’t, but it does provide an awful lot of laptop for a low price.

Unlike most laptop deals, however, it provides a much more usable screen and user interface, decent office performance and an optical drive. If you’re in the market for a bargain-basement new laptop, then the Samsung R519 is a very decent choice.

Cheap laptops turns buyers into beasts

Several people were injured in a stampede during the sale of cheap laptops at a large electronics retail outlet in Moscow, Russia – emphasising the lengths that people go to to secure a pocket-friendly deal.

The Youtube video can be seen here.

An official spokespeople for the company said that the batch of the special offer laptops was too small. The cheap laptops were priced at 9,999 rubles (around £175) but after the doors were opened, sales assistants had to call the police to halt the foaming-at-the-mouth crowd.

The laptops, believed to be Acer 17-inch dual core processor notebooks with 3gb Ram and 250 GB HDD, were at the centre of pure carnage as two young men were hospitalised with injuries as a result of a stampede. A woman also lost consciousness and collapsed in the crowd because of a lack of oxygen. Meanwhile, sales assistants were climbing up the counters to escape the crowd.

All 250 laptops sold out in less than an hour.

Mobile phone giant Nokia enters laptop market

Nokia, the world’s largest mobile phone manufacturer, is spreading its wings and entering a fiercely competitive, but fast-growing laptop market.

Its debut netbook, the Nokia Booklet 3G, will use Microsoft’s (MSFT.O) Windows software and Intel’s (INTC.O) Atom processor featuring up to 12 hours battery life, and weighing in at 1.25kg.

Netbooks are becoming more and more popular, seen as cheap laptops optimised for web browsing and performing other basic applications.

Research firm IDC expects netbook shipments this year to grow more than 127% from 2008 to over 26 million units, outperforming the overall PC market that is expected to remain flat and a phone market which is shrinking  by 10%.

“Nokia will be hoping that its brand and knowledge of cellular channels will play to its strengths as it addresses this crowded, cut-throat segment,” said Ben Wood, director of research at CCS Insight.

“At present we see Nokia’s foray into the netbook market as a niche exercise in the context of its broader business.”

Nokia said it announce the finer details of its new netbook on September 2.

Dell unveil new Inspiron laptop

Dell’s Inspiron 11z laptop is here at last, with a basic £209 RRP and going skywards from there.

Some specs include: 1.2GHz Intel Celeron 723 CULV processor, Intel GS45 integrated graphics, 11.6″ display at 1,366 x 768 resolution, 2GB RAM, 250GB hard drive,Wi-Fi connectivity, and 1.3-megapixel webcam.

It runs Windows Vista Home Premium operating system and in addition to the decent looking spec so far, you’ll get 3 USB 2.0 ports, a 3-in-1 memory card reader and HDMI output for watching high-def videos.