Thoughts on Lenovo refurb laptops?

Allnamestaken · 28 Apr 2025 at 18:14

I am looking to get my mom something that is nippy enough not to feel slow doing general work with documents/spreadhseets that sort of thing. Emails a bit of browsing.

Are refurbs recommended? My budget is around £300 and it seems Lenovo are popular in this price bracket.

Disco_P · 28 Apr 2025 at 20:07

Ex corporate thinkpads or hp elitebooks are perfect for your needs and budget.

I got my Dad an elitebook 840 G7 as I was familiar with them from work. It was about £200 with 16GB of RAM and quad core i5 with hyperthreading. Build quality puts consumer grade to shame and I'll never go back.

The only things installed on it are drivers, office, chrome with ublock origin, and the HP battery protection software so it flies.

randal · 28 Apr 2025 at 20:10

Not to mention thousands of the things were made so if you ever need spare parts they’re easy to source for not much bucks.

Delta3D · 28 Apr 2025 at 20:10

What kind of spec/model are you seeing around £300 with Lenovo?

radderfire · 28 Apr 2025 at 20:11

There's also the Dell Outlet for official Dell refurbs.

Philtor · 28 Apr 2025 at 20:25

radderfire said:
There's also the Dell Outlet for official Dell refurbs.

Was going to post this also. Well worth a look.

Allnamestaken · 29 Apr 2025 at 23:45

Delta3D said:
What kind of spec/model are you seeing around £300 with Lenovo?

There were a few I5's with 16gb ram that sort of thing. Refurbed ofc.

Allnamestaken · 29 Apr 2025 at 23:50

radderfire said:
There's also the Dell Outlet for official Dell refurbs.

What are good dell laptops I should look for?

Allnamestaken · 29 Apr 2025 at 23:51

Disco_P said:
Ex corporate thinkpads or hp elitebooks are perfect for your needs and budget.

I got my Dad an elitebook 840 G7 as I was familiar with them from work. It was about £200 with 16GB of RAM and quad core i5 with hyperthreading. Build quality puts consumer grade to shame and I'll never go back.

The only things installed on it are drivers, office, chrome with ublock origin, and the HP battery protection software so it flies.

What model should I be looking for when looking for corporate thinkpads. The G7 seems nice.

CaptainCrash · 30 Apr 2025 at 00:37

Disco_P said:
Ex corporate thinkpads or hp elitebooks are perfect for your needs and budget.

I got my Dad an elitebook 840 G7 as I was familiar with them from work. It was about £200 with 16GB of RAM and quad core i5 with hyperthreading. Build quality puts consumer grade to shame and I'll never go back.

Completely agree with this - a couple of years ago I bought my OH a refurbished Thinkpad T480 for her coursework (I paid £180 IIRC), a Gen 8 i5 so Windows 11 compatible, 8GB of RAM which I upgraded to 16GB for another tenner, 14" 1080p IPS screen and a 256GB NVME SSD. Very pleased with it, performance is fine for her use (MS Office, Teams, web browsing, YouTube etc), and it's stood up to a substantial amount of, umm, indelicate handling without batting an eyelid.

If you google the model you'll see they're generally very highly regarded, particularly for their build quality, reliability, robustness and repairability.

I'm sure the equivalent HP line (EliteBook) is also very good - I once had a much older EliteBook 8560W "mobile workstation" and that thing was built like an M1 Abrams tank (and weighed nearly as much).

Disco_P · 30 Apr 2025 at 07:54

Allnamestaken said:
What model should I be looking for when looking for corporate thinkpads. The G7 seems nice.

T series would be my go to.

ZXSpectrum · 30 Apr 2025 at 09:40

I have a T15s Gen2 and its fantastic. Purchased from another member. Previously i had a T450s... they are built to last and absolutely worth the money "Refurbished"

You should be able to get a T14s for around your budget which is AMD APU so great for all round use.

Please be aware thought that on some of the recent thinkpads they have opted for completely soldered memory so non upgradable. There are still some about though that have one 8gb/16gb soldered then a free socket to upgrade.

radderfire · 30 Apr 2025 at 10:13

Allnamestaken said:
What are good dell laptops I should look for?

Dell Inspiron range will be fine, just above your budget. 8GB RAM will be fine for your Mum's requirements, but 16GB will mean the machine is nippier and you can have more apps going at once.

Disco_P · 30 Apr 2025 at 12:31

radderfire said:
Dell Inspiron range will be fine, just above your budget. 8GB RAM will be fine for your Mum's requirements, but 16GB will mean the machine is nippier and you can have more apps going at once.

Unless something has changed, inspirons aren't in the same dimension for quality as the professional laptops being considered.

radderfire · 30 Apr 2025 at 13:59

Disco_P said:
Unless something has changed, inspirons aren't in the same dimension for quality as the professional laptops being considered.

I've got an Inspiron 2-in-1 and it's been very good, and the build quality is good too.

CaptainCrash · 30 Apr 2025 at 14:54

Disco_P said:
Unless something has changed, inspirons aren't in the same dimension for quality as the professional laptops being considered.

The Dell equivalent to the Thinkpad or Elitebook would probably be the Latitude or Precision ranges, the Inspiron is targeted more at the "home" user.

Fluffybob · 30 Apr 2025 at 15:18

Lenovo are a solid brand in my opinion, you will usually get a 12 month warranty on a refurb, but HP and Dell will still be more than adequate for general use.

ZXSpectrum · 30 Apr 2025 at 16:36

Just had a thought. You can get an Asus Vivobook 16 (One with the AMD 7530U think the model is M1605YA)
for only a small amount more. Nice little laptop for general use. They used to be £279 in places but think the cheapest i saw recently was £329.

Allnamestaken · 30 Apr 2025 at 22:55

ZXSpectrum said:
I have a T15s Gen2 and its fantastic. Purchased from another member. Previously i had a T450s... they are built to last and absolutely worth the money "Refurbished"

You should be able to get a T14s for around your budget which is AMD APU so great for all round use.

Please be aware thought that on some of the recent thinkpads they have opted for completely soldered memory so non upgradable. There are still some about though that have one 8gb/16gb soldered then a free socket to upgrade.

How would i get one of those?

Most of the ones I am looking at simply state they have 16gb ram.

ZXSpectrum · 1 May 2025 at 08:52

If you get the model number then go to the likes of Crucial or Kingston and search for the model it normally tells you the memory configuration (As in what is soldered and what is socketed) like this:

Lenovo ThinkPad P15s Gen 2 | Memory RAM & SSD Upgrades | Crucial UK

Crucial Memory and SSD upgrades - 100% Compatibility Guaranteed for Lenovo ThinkPad P15s Gen 2 - FREE US Delivery.

uk.crucial.com