So today was my first experience with buying a used laptop. This was a totally impulsive buy. How it all started was I was looking for a really cheap new Lenovo so I could use it to experiment with Linux distros as well as Windows alternatives. I was thinking of an i5 with about 4GB RAM and maybe 250-500 GB hard disk space. Prices of Lenovo in the cheap range have got more expensive this year however and are in the range of 450-550 US$. That's a bit much for someone who already owns a laptop. I don't mind spending that much on my primary laptop, but for just playing with, I was hoping to spend less.
So for the heck of it I then checked up "used laptops" in a community Website, wondering whether there would be some fairly new models cheaply advertised, and this is how I arrived at the Lenovo ThinkPad. Specs of the Lenovo ThinkPad are i5, 8GB RAM, 320 GB Hard disk space with Windows 7 Profesional OEM. It's an old model of course, however these ThinkPad's are really well put together and last almost a life time. It's risky of course as one doesn't know how the owner treated it during its lifetime. I phoned the owner and then went to see him at a pre-arranged venue. The owner said the laptop wasn't used that much, but when I checked it out it was obvious that was not really the case. The keyboard and exterior of the laptop looked well used. It still looked in good condition and looked as though the owner cared about it. In the end I paid 190 US$. I offered less, but then the guy told me a sad story about losing his job and needing the money to be able to pay for a visa, so felt sorry for him.
Next I took the used ThinkPad to a laptop workshop and got it thoroughly cleaned. Was happy to hear from the workshop guy that the inside was very clean, and laptop including battery in great shape. The front shop of the workshop featured a beautiful up to date brand new ThinkPad X250 though. WOW! Would have been awesome to own one. But very VERY pricey. Around 1400 US$ for the i5. 1900 US$ for i7.
Here's what my Thinkpad X201 looks like - it comes with Windows 7 Professional - although I'm probably going to lose it as I'll be experimenting with other OSs - not sure when, but hopefully during the course of the year:
And a review about the X201:
[video=youtube]
So for the heck of it I then checked up "used laptops" in a community Website, wondering whether there would be some fairly new models cheaply advertised, and this is how I arrived at the Lenovo ThinkPad. Specs of the Lenovo ThinkPad are i5, 8GB RAM, 320 GB Hard disk space with Windows 7 Profesional OEM. It's an old model of course, however these ThinkPad's are really well put together and last almost a life time. It's risky of course as one doesn't know how the owner treated it during its lifetime. I phoned the owner and then went to see him at a pre-arranged venue. The owner said the laptop wasn't used that much, but when I checked it out it was obvious that was not really the case. The keyboard and exterior of the laptop looked well used. It still looked in good condition and looked as though the owner cared about it. In the end I paid 190 US$. I offered less, but then the guy told me a sad story about losing his job and needing the money to be able to pay for a visa, so felt sorry for him.
Next I took the used ThinkPad to a laptop workshop and got it thoroughly cleaned. Was happy to hear from the workshop guy that the inside was very clean, and laptop including battery in great shape. The front shop of the workshop featured a beautiful up to date brand new ThinkPad X250 though. WOW! Would have been awesome to own one. But very VERY pricey. Around 1400 US$ for the i5. 1900 US$ for i7.
Here's what my Thinkpad X201 looks like - it comes with Windows 7 Professional - although I'm probably going to lose it as I'll be experimenting with other OSs - not sure when, but hopefully during the course of the year:
And a review about the X201:
[video=youtube]
This is very good subnotebook. Only one problem under linux on this laptop is WWAN (Gobi 2000) but 15 minutes and it's work