Did your laptop die out? Or perhaps you are in the market because you want to upgrade it to something with superior specs or a design that better suits your lifestyle. Whatever the reason be, selecting the perfect device that best fits your budget is no less than navigating a minefield considering the plethora of options available to you. However, with a little bit of forethought, you can simplify the process of buying yourself an affordable laptop without having to sacrifice your desired specs and features.
The following are some handy tips that will get you the best possible deal on your new machine.
Buy Refurbished
The term “refurbished” may be synonymous with old and outdated for some people, but that is far from true. When you buy a refurbished laptop, you get a pre-owned computer that has gone through a rigorous testing process and has been repaired and restored to almost-new condition.
Consequently, refurbished laptops are capable of performing many of the desired functions flawlessly. They come with warranties, which means you can be confident that you are not being tricked into a faulty product.
Buying a refurbished laptop can be a great way to get a high-end machine at a mid-range price point and save a considerable amount of your hard-earned cash. Many of them are at wavelengths with their brand new counterparts, and you can find a good selection of refurbished laptops online that perfectly align with your budget. For example, you can get a model with the same RAM and storage capacity as a newer laptop, but for half the price.
As refurbished laptops are pre-owned, you may expect them to have some dents, dings, or scratches here and there from the previous owner. Some of these markings are often impossible to remove. However, they do not impact the functionality, speed, or quality of the machine in any way. On the upside, these minor cosmetic defects can lead to an even bigger discount on the device.
Buy at the Right Time
Unless your previous laptop has died and you need to replace it urgently, you may want to wait for a little while, provided you are patient enough to do so. There are certain months where one can save good money on tech purchases, like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the back-to-school months. You can avail significant discounts on most laptops around these times. Another thing you must keep in mind is that when a newer model enters the market, the prices of its previous model will inevitably drop significantly.
Therefore, if you will be out hunting for a new laptop soon, keep an eye out for sales at reputed sellers like Best Buy, where you will often come across discounts and sales that could save you a significant amount of your hard-earned dollars.
Think About Your Intended Purpose of Use
Modern laptops come loaded with some of the most incredible features and applications that may be hard to resist for many prospective buyers. Backlit keyboards, mega-powerful graphic cards, and tons of storage capacity can all amount to a significant chunk of money.
But before you get blown away and set your eyes on a top-of-the-line notebook with these attractive features, think about your purpose of buying the laptop and ask yourself which features are necessary for your intended purpose of use and which are not. For example, if you will primarily use it for surfing the web, you do not need 16 GB in RAM size or a powerful graphics card, which is more apt for gaming laptops. If you plan to download lots of music, you should go for a laptop with a large SSD or HDD. Making the choice of what you need and skipping out on any of these features can save you a substantial amount of money.
Do Not Go Overboard On Processing Speeds
Sure, the processor is at the heart of every laptop and has a massive impact on its overall performance. But does that mean you should shell out more than a couple thousand dollars for a core i9 when you can have an equally pleasant user experience with something much lower and for half the price?
The processing speed of a laptop can make its price skyrocket. Therefore you must match the processing power of the laptop to your habits. If you are an average user and plan to do little more than email, browsing the web, and using MS office applications for work or study purposes, you do not need blazing fast processing speeds. Unless you are a heavy-duty gamer or a VFX artist, these top-of-the-line processing speeds are unlikely to make much of a difference in performance and your computing experience, if any. Accordingly, a dual-core processor laptop with 4GB RAM will give you the horsepower to meet your needs, all while saving you hundreds on the cost of your new machine.
Say No To Extended Warranty
While every laptop comes with a warranty of one year, some retailers offer an extended guarantee on the product. However, when you weigh the cost benefits, it turns out that you are better off saving your money and skipping the extended warranty. That is because the cost of out-of-pocket repair will more or less be the same as the extra coverage that you will pay for upfront or even cheaper.
Furthermore, if you are not prone to spilling something over your laptop or dropping it, you may not even need extended coverage for it. Lastly, extended warranties are often not as comprehensive as you think. They have lots of exclusions that do not make them worth the money. For example, it may not include accidental damage.
Wanting to buy a laptop with all the bells and whistles may be tempting. But what if you do not want to shell out a fortune? As you would know by now, buying the latest and fanciest laptop model is not always the right thing to do. We hope that these tips will enable you to buy a laptop that ticks all your boxes without spending too much.
