£400 Laptop for University Work - Used, Refurbished or New

[xxHAPPYxx]

Hey¬!

I'm in need of a daily runner £400 laptop preferably smaller (13 inch) for Uni work. I'm a chemist so my workload is very excel and word/ pdf heavy, alongside a lot of chrome tabs. No gaming required, I have a rig for that .

Used, Refurbished or New does anyone have any suggestions?

-Harry

 

[punkncat]

The new "$400" laptop space is dominated by inferior machines that are missing 'just this, or just that' type thing. There is always some tradeoff to keep the system price that low, be it storage, memory, feature, or simply build quality.

In that situation I would try to locate a used/refurb as new as or newer than 8th gen Intel or 2xxx AMD and something that was in one of the higher model lines. I have often found that selecting B grade is a good trade off for the pricing to some pre-existing damage that is usually pretty inconsequential. Have to check your seller and product reviews to see how other customers have felt about it.

Expect the battery to be in less than optimal condition, this seems to be pretty run of the mill for this space and price point. It is a good practice to check out availability, pricing, and accessibility of the (battery) swap before purchase where possible.