There are many cheap laptops and/or refurbished laptops to choose from, but which cheap laptop and/or refurbished laptop is best for you? Usually cheaper may not always be better, but when it comes to cheap laptops and/or refurbished laptops, the choice will involve much more than price. Laptops with a few years quickly get out dated and lose their value.
The first thing that we will focus on is performance. Each cheap laptop and/or refurbished laptop has a processor, and these processors differ in each laptop. Some now have duo processors, which enable the laptop to work as if it has two processors. Now picking the right processor depends on the research you will do. You should research each type of processor and determine which can offer you more, and which processor will not go out of date within that year.
Second when choosing a cheap laptop and/or refurbished laptop you should look at the RAM, which determines how fast your computer works (opening different types of programs, running the programs, and closing them.) The RAM starts in most laptops with 512mb. I would suggest that whichever cheap laptop and/or refurbished laptop that you decide to buy, make sure that the RAM can be easily upgraded. This is important because if you wish to save money at first you can buy a laptop with 512mb. Then if you feel like buying more RAM, you could easily add and upgrade it to 2 GB, which many laptops do offer. Remember that the more RAM the laptop has, the more expensive it will be.
Third I would look at the Memory. Now the memory of cheap laptops and/or refurbished laptops varies and again the price of the notebook goes up with more memory. Now something that you should know: If you are the type of person that needs a mass amount of memory because you download many files, pictures, or videos than a bigger memory hard drive would be good.
But if you are buying a cheap laptop and/or refurbished laptop for web browsing and some basic work, then a notebook with standard memory (60 GB) is good. Also know that you can also buy an external hard drive. Many external hard drives are small, compact and portable. So if you're the type of person that would rather save picture or other things else where than your notebook, don't waste your money on useless memory. Here is more cheap laptops and/or refurbished laptops information.
What is required in a cheap laptop and/or refurbished laptop today for the average user? For starters, you have to decide whether or not battery life is important to you. I don't care about battery life with cheap notebooks, I don't want to be working anywhere I can't actually plug in. Would you really take your cheap laptop and/or refurbished laptop to the beach? If you do, go at night because you'll never see the laptop screen for the glare. Laptop battery life is a function of two things: model and options. Some models have notoriously bad battery life, certainly the two older Toshiba Satellite's I've owned have both been horrible, but since I don't really care about sitting around outdoor cafes (and indoor cafes have wall sockets), I don't even consider this.
Cheap sony laptops and/or refurbished sony laptops have a pretty good reputation for battery life, but they aren't cheap. There's also the option of buying a longer life or additional battery for many refurbished notebook models. Keep in mind that following this advice will turn your lightweight 4 pounder into a heavyweight 8 pounder, but laptop battery life is always a question of compromise. Think hard about whether or not you really need to use your cheap laptop and/or refurbished laptop in places where you can't easily plug in, and if that's the case, put battery life at the top of your list when you read laptop reviews. BTW, the laptop batteries in my latest refurbished toshiba laptop have been working as promised for over a year now, I usually get 3+ hours of life.
The next issue for most people is screen size. In my estimation, smaller screen sizes are actually better for working on, but unfortunately, cheap laptop and/or refurbished laptop tend to come with larger screen sizes. That may sound counterintuitive, but the only point of a large screen on a laptop is for watching DVD movies, and I don't watch movies. However, what happens with a large screen is at normal sizes the text stretches a little too much and the letters lose blackness and sharpness. My current cheap notebook has a 15.5" screen and I almost took it back before I got used to the way the screen looked. For me, a good screen size is around 12", though some high end mini-laptops have 10" screens. 17" screens are just gross, makes it difficult to carry the thing around, they won't even fit in standard laptop shoulder bags.
Laptop connectivity is the most important technical issue for most people. Another bit of advice is don't buy a cheap laptop and/or refurbished laptop that requires add in cards. Nobody really uses the add-in cards anymore, whether PC cards or PCMCIA or any other alphabet soup, they all suffer from fragile connectors. Not the card edge within the laptop, that works fine, it's the external connector for the modem, network, antenna, etc, that will be a lifelong headache. That's why I was so set on getting internal 802.11G wireless connectivity in my current notebook, but the truth is, those USB wireless adapter are pretty bullet-proof, unlike the add-in cards.