Recommendations for refurbished laptops

Shooting Supplies : Ammo - Reloading - Firearms - Optics - Accessories
Donkey Basher

Donkey Basher

Well-Known Member
Supporter
My 12 year old PC is, to put it mildly, past its best so I am looking for a replacement.

I don’t need a desktop as I no longer is it for work, but I do need a machine that has MS Office on it as I use Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook (email) etc for stuff I do for my club.

I am looking for a refurbished laptop that comes with Windows OS as well as Ms Office installed.

Anyone got any recommendations based on purchases they have made please? I am aware of backmarket but they don’t say whether machines come with OS & Office.

TIA
 
Hi! Be aware that some laptops have very little permanent memory but use "the Cloud". That is why they appear cheap. The hard disc drives of old are now supplanted by solid state memory. That is what the cheaper Cloud storage computers have much less of. Hope it helps. For what it's worth new laptops from Argos are pretty cheap. And some will have the suites you want included. Especially end of line stock. I'd never buy from Curry's or PC World as their reputation stinks if you have a problem.
 
Donkey Basher said:
My 12 year old PC is, to put it mildly, past its best so I am looking for a replacement.

I don’t need a desktop as I no longer is it for work, but I do need a machine that has MS Office on it as I use Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook (email) etc for stuff I do for my club.

I am looking for a refurbished laptop that comes with Windows OS as well as Ms Office installed.

Anyone got any recommendations based on purchases they have made please? I am aware of backmarket but they don’t say whether machines come with OS & Office.

TIA
Click to expand...
I'm not sure how far back you'd need to go to get an old copy of MS Office as it's now all a lease subscription. If a laptop has been refurbished they usually wipe everything other than the OS off it so you may find it tricky to get what you want.
 
Picked up a refurbished 6 month old Dell XPS15 from eBay.

Made a huge savings and 6 years on has been worth every single penny
 
I've now moved over to the dark side and switched to a MacBook, but for a Windows laptop don't fret about how much hard drive storage space the laptop comes with - just buy a 1 Terabyte SSD like the SanDisk Extreme for £90 off Amazon:

SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD 1TB (up to 1050 MB/s read, 1,000MB/s write, USB-C, NVMe Solid State Performance, IP65 rated for dust and water resistance, Updated Firmware) Monterey : Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

Buy
www.amazon.co.uk

I've used these for years, after we switched to storing everything in the Cloud at work, and they are so much better than the old HDD's - smaller, faster, and more robust. I still use them with the MacBook.

Better to make sure the laptop has sufficient RAM (Random Access Memory, where it runs programs) - 16GB should be fine for MS Office use, but more (32Gb or even 64Gb) is better if you're doing things like editing photos.

So far as brands, with Windows laptops I've always used Dell or Lenovo as these are the ones work procures globally, and I have found both to be solid and reliable. I rely on my laptop for work all day, every day, and they have to be reliable - they get slung in a bag and bashed about in overhead compartments on planes, so they don't live an easy life. Other than one replacement keyboard over the years (I touch type) both these brands have lasted their expected lifetime before replacement (3 years). If they can put up with 3 years of my type of usage, they can more than put up with a decade of casual use!

So far as Office, as has been said, everything has switched over to the Cloud. You can probably find old license disks on eBay to let you install Office direct on your laptop, but to be honest so long as you have good Internet access at home you may as well just make the leap to using Cloud. I don't have any recent experience of Office-compatible open source lookalikes, but that might be another option. The only laptop I have with Office installed sits in my larder, where I have an ancient Dell notebook that I use, still running Windows 7 I think. It just has a spreadsheet on with all the cull/larder records, and the Brother labelling software. When that machine dies I'll simply switch to using the Cloud.
 
Last edited:
Amazon does decent refurbs but the best reason to upgrade is security - older versions of Office are wide open to robbing barstewards, so best get it done asap. I like the simplicity of MS Surface laptops - as used by high security Govt establishments.
 
MacBook Pro refurb from eBay and load it up with OpenOffice. Most of them will come with 12+ months warranty and in fairness, Mac OS has provided me with decades of trouble free motoring.
 
tarponhead said:
Amazon does decent refurbs but the best reason to upgrade is security - older versions of Office are wide open to robbing barstewards, so best get it done asap. I like the simplicity of MS Surface laptops - as used by high security Govt establishments.
Click to expand...
Are those the ones that send emails to the Taliban…..
Ken.
 
Last edited:
Donkey Basher said:
My 12 year old PC is, to put it mildly, past its best so I am looking for a replacement.

I am looking for a refurbished laptop that comes with Windows OS as well as Ms Office installed.
Click to expand...
PCs are so cheap in real terms nowadays, you might as well buy a new one.
Bear in mind that lots of computer people hate Microsoft and target MS Outlook especially, better to use something like GMail.
MS has stopped supporting Windows 10 !!!!!!!!
I recently bought a new Medion (I wanted a 17" screen) and use Chrome for a browser, ESET for security and GMail.
If you ignore the begging, Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook are free to use, it seems
 
There is a plenthora of options on BackMarket, mostly ex-corporate laptops that have been wiped. I bought one recently for my son for school - its actually far better than the one I get from my employer (who can afford the best!). Paid £170 I think.
 
Dell professional laptop from evilbay.
Does all I need and more ,used on my level 3 IT course .
Big memory, decent battery came fully loaded and didn't brake the bank.
Replaced my 12 year old Toshiba.
Windows 10 is dead but no current plans to replace 11 as its being " extended " from September 2025 .
And for work you can " split " screen 3 projects at once and it easily comes with the workload.
 

Attachments

  • Screenshot_20250726_000547_eBay.webp
    Screenshot_20250726_000547_eBay.webp
    66.9 KB · Views: 4
Donkey Basher said:
I am looking for a refurbished laptop that comes with Windows OS as well as Ms Office installed
Click to expand...

MS Office is now a perpetual lease [££ annual "Office 365" subscription] affair and no longer a suite you can buy and own outright. As stated above, your data is likely stored in the cloud rather than on your computer. And Win10 is no longer supported. The Win11 consumer OS examples I have seen are prescriptive on where you source apps - only MS approved stuff.

For these reasons, I would suggest that you make the move to a linux-based laptop running Libreoffice. This solution can be 100% freeware and mostly open-source. [distros like MX use some closed-source apps] More importantly, the linux experience is now pretty much a mirror-image of Windows and Libreoffice feels and runs like MS Office. Thunderbird is the match of Outlook, etc.

From a laptop hardware perspective [beyond specifying minimum CPU and SSD] be aware that replacing knackered batteries on secondhand laptops can be expensive. Maybe buy new?

These links to second hand and new came up in searches today. I cannot vouch for any of these outfits, but they give an example of what prices are out there:

Used Linux Laptops For Sale | Used Laptops

www.used-laptops.co.uk www.used-laptops.co.uk

Juno Computers - Laptops

Linux Laptops UK/USA
junocomputers.com junocomputers.com

starlabs.systems

StarBook

The StarBook 7 is a refined and efficient 14-inch laptop designed for seamless everyday productivity and portability. It boasts a stunning 4K IPS display with 100% DCI-P3 colour coverage and an impressive brightness of 625 cd/m². At its core is the Intel® N200 processor, built on an...
starlabs.systems starlabs.systems
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

IT Assistance ~ MS Outlook ~ Email Forwarding?
Replies
13
Views
266
Stuart Mitchell
Stuart Mitchell
Most efficient 4x4 for regular long commutes and stalking in between.
2
Replies
38
Views
2K
Chris Richardson
C
MS Outlook help needed.
Replies
10
Views
689
TringSaint
T
Bipod recommendations for Sako 85 / 90 (.308)
2
Replies
20
Views
545
BenBhoy
BenBhoy
Viable alternative to Sky TV? 🤬🤬🤬
2 3
Replies
57
Views
3K
kingstonandy
kingstonandy
1967spud Reloading Supplies Ltd - UK Suppliers for Reloading Equipment supplies, We also stock Bullet Heads and Bullet Cases Guns Cabinets, Night vision and much much more...
Back
Top