Good place to buy Win 11 cheap laptops
- Thread starter SeniorNoob
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The problem with used laptops from eBay is in my experience, scuffs, worn out keyboards, possibly worn out connectors and mediocre battery life. There are decent options available starting for around $100. (at least 4 core processor, 8 or 16 gb ram, at least 128gb ssd and included win10/11 license). But how would you ever trust a laptop from eBay if those from Amazon are already suspicious?
Dellrefurbished.com has often pretty good deals. Not sure about the quality of the batteries in their refurbished laptops.
Dellrefurbished.com has often pretty good deals. Not sure about the quality of the batteries in their refurbished laptops.
You can definitely find decent used laptops on eBay capable of running Windows 11 (and not just people throwing it on old Intel laptops using workarounds that will break with later updates).
Look for something like the Lenovo L14 AMD Gen1. Can be found in decent condition for under ~$175. Watch out for laptops with soldered RAM you can't upgrade later. psref is your friend.
But maybe $175 doesn't fit your definition of "cheap"
I would look more for AMD laptops because Intel laptops of this era (10/11th gen) are only 4 cores versus 6 for AMD and have much worse perf/watt.
Don't buy from sellers who have generic photos. Buy from a seller with good feedback (>99%) and who has real photos of the device and if they have multiple quantity, a low multiple quantity not 10+. There are loads of people who get a small quantity of off-lease laptops and resell them. I would avoid these huge accounts that have no photos of actual used hardware showing the general condition and who sell like 20k items per year. These are the kind that will bait and switch you with some garbage; look up the YouTube videos of the MacBook refurbishers, e.g.
Look for something like the Lenovo L14 AMD Gen1. Can be found in decent condition for under ~$175. Watch out for laptops with soldered RAM you can't upgrade later. psref is your friend.
But maybe $175 doesn't fit your definition of "cheap"
I would look more for AMD laptops because Intel laptops of this era (10/11th gen) are only 4 cores versus 6 for AMD and have much worse perf/watt.
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I have acquired several Thinkpad T14 g1 machines (10th gen Intel) with 32GB of memory for around $225, some in nearly new condition. The one real issue is at that price the sellers don't usually specify whether the system comes with an embedded Windows license, but every one I have checked has one.
Most recently I got good Thinkpads from Security Measure | eBay and Security Measure | eBay, they both seem to do a fair volume of off-lease office computers. Of course the good prices are all auctions and so you may need to watch for a while to get a good deal.
We'd really need to know your budget and requirements. I know that our Walmart had decent laptops on clearance, but they were behind a counter because they were afraid of theft. The periodic markdowns would continue in a vacuum. You'd have to ask a clerk to show you what they've got. I only found out because my son was working in electronics.
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Requirements are the big key.
I wanted a "laptop" that was fairly lightweight and easily portable. It would only be used for web browsing, watching movies, and maybe some office apps. No 3D, no games, no compiling Linux, etc. For me, a Surface Pro 8 with 16GB of RAM and 512GB SSD for $629 was "cheap" for what I got (good hardware specs, aluminum case, very portable, good battery life, true tablet mode).
OTOH, you could get close to the same spec of CPU and RAM in an HP EliteBook G8 for less than $300 (most listings don't come with SSDs any more). For me, the weight, the poor construction, and the worse battery life made me completely ignore laptops like it.
But, if you want to run games, or some sort of 3D modeling or graphic intensive program, neither one of these would be a good choice, and "cheap" would probably start at $1,000.
A few months back I picked up a Lenovo Thinkpad T740 from eBay for 100 bucks. It's nothing special but it's light and does all I bought it to do. It came with a 500GB SSD. I think I upgraded the memory to 16Gb but I'm not sure. But this was back when prices were still reasonably sane.
Make that a T470.
Make that a T470.
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I’d agree for anything 4 cores and up. My intel i5-8365U has held up fine for my windows specific needs. Although I have switched to an M1 MacBook for most things. I think once you throw an ssd into the mix as well you should be set unless you have more specific workload needs.
Not sure what altered means to you, but easy enough to buy a cheap win 11 laptop online anywhere and reinstall Windows 11.