Laptops - New vs Refurb

[mdrabble]

So after a number of years talking about laptops and after a meeting yesterday, been given the green light to look at Teaching staff going down the laptop route from September.

 

Looking at potentially 100 laptops (75 Teaching staff -Full & Part time, Supply Staff, Trainees and Support staff who may need them if working form home - and some spares for emergencies)

 

This will also benefit me as I can finally shutdown RDS! as an on prem access can be made via VPN.

 

 

The ideal is to stop 3 or 4 staff all logging onto the same PC in the morning, loading up everything for the day for when they teach in that room and then switching user! (I did remove the Switch user option but the backlash was unreal!!)

 

Got to he point where I am fed up and staff moaning about things running slow - and I do point out time and time again this is due to to 3 or 4 users all logged on and each user having upteen browser tabs open, several PowerPoint files open, plus sim.net open!

 

 

Laptops are to replace the desktop in the classrooms, as well as the removal of desktops from the staffroom and teaching staff offices - as staff would now use their laptop in any location - which would also save on the number of desktops that would need replacing to become Windows 11 compliant.

 

Which brings me to my question (sorry for the waffle)

 

 

 

So after going on mission to Bett, and spoke to a number of people about laptop - it has now ultimately come down to Budget (not been given specif about as yet but I need to work on as little budget as possible)

 

initially, I am going to get 5 refurb laptops and dock to help form a working party to help drive things forward and get staff on board - as we all staff who love or loath laptops.

 

I will set them up via Intune, with how I imagine them to work, and then wait for feedback from the working party and make changes etc.....

 

 

• Refurb laptops, such as the Dell 5410, 10th Gen CPU, 16GB Ram, 256GB NVMe, 14" Screen for a good price of £275 (using ICT direct as an example)
  Or
  
• New Laptops - Lenovo V15 G4 15.6" AMD Ryzen 5 7430U, 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD - 15.6" Screen - for £299 (probably slightly less if I manage to use the trade in offer)
  

 

 

 

Not had a massive look around as yet - but new laptops ideally 16gb RAM for not much more money ideally and CPU can be AMD or Intel.

 

In my head, I am thinking CPU wise, you wouldn't really notice the performance difference from the 10th Gen to the latest Gen CPU - were as the amount of RAM would significant be noticeable.

 

 

Would need some kind of USB-C Dock for Ethernet and HMDI and Speaker output - again either £40 for HP G4 docks from ICT Direct or new at ££££££

 

I have an ideal world laptop, which allows user serviceable parts, rugged etc but in reality it will be done "Can I do this spending as little money as possible"

 

So I'm looking at £400 for laptop, dock, bag.

 

What are people thoughts, opinions and laptop choices.

 

Cheers

[ITGuyNW]

Quality refurbished from the likes of ICT Direct will serve you for many years.

 

We use the HP Elite 840 ones. Rarely have an issue.

 

We just need to be mindful when we next upgrade as G7 onwards have no built in ethernet port.

[simpsonj]

As @ITGuyNW mentioned, make sure you have the required adapter to provide an RJ45 port if required. Most new, or even refurbed, laptops do not have an RJ45 port as standard, and I've yet to be successful building through a USB-C hub though YMMV.

 

I've gone through 5 cycles of staff laptops, both new and refurbed, and both have benefits and drawbacks. Some general advice:

 

Check the WiFi spec, in my experience Intel cards are far more reliable than other brands.

Always buy spares, roughly 10% if you can, especially if you do go down the refurbed route as there is always a few that don't work the way you expect, or develop faults a month or so after distribution.

Staff here have really embraced using laptops to wirelessly connect to their boards, so this might be a consideration in the future.

I've found that 16GB RAM is the new minimum when using Windows 11. 8GB machines really chug with minimal usage.

Weight is an important issue for staff, so lighter is generally better, and 15.6" seems to be the sweet spot.

New laptops can have issues with drivers, where as refurbed laptops tend to have gone through the pain points and have reliable drivers from the off.

Reliability is king, but is very hard to guage from specs. Refurbed machines tend to have proven their worth, which is why those makes and models have been chosen to be refurbed. That said, refurbed machines are more liekly to have issues with batteris and general wear and tear.

[MrEprise]

We did this fairly recently and bought all the kit from ICT Direct to boot - HP Elitebook 840 G6 + 8GB RAM upgrade (total 16GB), the G4 USB-C dock & an additional 22" Dell monitor for each teacher.

 

It has worked fine for the most part and most of our teachers were just able to plug in and go with it but we have had a few hiccups. We have 4 problem rooms where the docks don't seem to work for the teachers who use those rooms and we're not yet quite sure whether it's the docks or user error. Also, as the docks are effectively "refurbished", we've had a few of these die where we think they've just reached that point of having some internal failing components, couple of USB-C cables that have also stopped working for whatever reason, 2 failed PSUs, etc... but I think that's the risk you take with refurbished kit sometimes. The laptops on the other hand have been just fine.

 

It's no sleight on ICT Direct as they're dealing with refurbished kit which could have come from anywhere, plus they've been excellent with replacements but it's something to take into account.

[Norphy]

There are advantages to either laptop but let me break it down how I see it.

 

The Dell you linked to is a corporate laptop. It is well understood and supported, it has a good range of accessories and spare parts, software and BIOS support is good and will continue to be good for the foreseeable future. You have tools like the Dell Command Suite to manage driver and BIOS updates too, and to integrate it into management packages like SCCM. HP and Lenovo have similar tools, although from what I've seen they're not as good. It is, however, a four-year-old laptop at this point and will have four-year-old components. Wear isn't as bad as it used to be, but there are still consumable items in a laptop (SSD and battery immediately come to mind). Wear still happens and there's only so much a refurbisher can do to address this.

 

The new laptop will be new but, in my experience, anything Lenovo that doesn't have a Thinkpad badge on it tends to be variable at best. This laptop is aimed at the consumer or at best SOHO so probably won't have things like driver bundles and won't work with Lenovo's corporate tools. They're generally built down to a price and have flimsier chassis, hinges and the materials they're built from aren't as nice unless you getting something that costs a lot. Warranties on consumer facing goods tend to be messier too. This goes for all consumer lines (So Inspiron/Vostro, Pavilion and anything Acer/Asus/MSI etc). Cheaper to buy, yes, but ultimately more expensive to run.

 

On balance, I'd choose the refurbished laptop if my budget was that stretched. But I'd also be contacting Dell and HP if large numbers were a possibility because they can often bring costs down to a level that you can swallow.

[mavhc]

1.5 years ago I paid £395 after trade in for 30 HP PB455 G9 amd ryzen5-5625U (15.6") 8gb, 256 ssd

[PotNoodleTech]

I'd go used Dell maybe HP laptops - let someone else waste 50% of their budget and then you come in and grab some bargains off them.

 

50% cheaper = double the amount of equipment from your budget, right?

[strawberry]

Look at your lifecycles.

 

New - Go for Dell education. Accidental damage warranty gives you total cost of ownership for the lifetime. Models look the same from year to year, always going to be easy to work on and parts largely interchangeable. Single brand allows you to manage the estate more easily. accidental damage warranty saves time logging as well. Just phone them up and tell them it's been in a fire and they'll send you a new one.

 

DEll Latitude 3550 Laptop - £900 ex vat business price. Will be cheaper for education. 5 years no quibble warranty excluding batteries. Batteriwes are about £40 and a few screws on the base.

 

 

refurb - ICT direct but accept that some will die along the way and you'll have a mixed estate.

Edited January 31, 2025 by strawberry

[mavhc]

Main problem is non accidental damage.

 

Do new laptops last longer? What's your average laptop lifetime?

[Brummytech]

I personally can only see the value in refurb if staff look after things, the wear and tear on a teaching laptop from bieng unplugged to connected to docks is suprising, if the budget is there you need to swap them round as soon as they hit end of warranty - A lease could be better value based on this.

We always find stone i5 16gb ram pro book to be reliable and next business day can cover a lot. 3 Year warranty which covers pretty much everything other than accidental damage they are also very good with warranty. This is included with the purchase and they are quite flexible

 

Stone are also a bit behind so they stock 12th gen instead of 14th but every thing works as expected, and if the is a issue google has the answers other than attempting to fix.

 

You also have a purchasing power based on a 100 units so things will work out quite a bit cheaper than 1 unit. I think you would be looking at just above your budget but you will save more in less hassle.

 

 

A brand I cant mention as soon as accidental damage happens even if you get repaired at your own cost at there centres voided rest of the purchased warranty -

 

 

Bags - We found staff just leave them in the classroom, dock Ugreen/Ankeer new off amazon when they are on sale (Best to have ethernet, 2/3usb, pd and HDMI)

Edited February 1, 2025 by Brummytech

[FN-GM]

Something to consider, you need to ensure you get security updates for the hardware. Such as BIOS updates, Drivers and Firmware. With refurbished you’re potentially reducing the time you can obtain these updates. It could mean they are obsolete quicker.

 

I have found Dell seem to be good at providing these fixes way beyond “end of life”.

[Davit2005]

Get policies agreed by SMT.

 

Policies for lost power supplies, damage, usage (i.e. only for the staff member use not siblings or other family members) etc.

[paulellam]

Another thumbs up for ICT Direct for laptops and desktops! Edited February 3, 2025 by paulellam

[yac2016]

Agree with this under £500 and you can get a Dell Lattitude, 15, 16gb, 512ssd 5 year warranty...covers it all sopeace of mind over refurbs.

 

Look at your lifecycles.

 

New - Go for Dell education. Accidental damage warranty gives you total cost of ownership for the lifetime. Models look the same from year to year, always going to be easy to work on and parts largely interchangeable. Single brand allows you to manage the estate more easily. accidental damage warranty saves time logging as well. Just phone them up and tell them it's been in a fire and they'll send you a new one.

 

DEll Latitude 3550 Laptop - £900 ex vat business price. Will be cheaper for education. 5 years no quibble warranty excluding batteries. Batteriwes are about £40 and a few screws on the base.

 

 

refurb - ICT direct but accept that some will die along the way and you'll have a mixed estate.

[robslack]

In my experience when buying refurbished laptops, the battery life is not great as they are 3-year-old batteries. Then Staff complain that only got 2-3 hour use before needing charging.

[Dan2025]

Agree with this under £500 and you can get a Dell Lattitude, 15, 16gb, 512ssd 5 year warranty...covers it all sopeace of mind over refurbs.

 

Could I ask what model you went for to get this?

 

Thanks

[strawberry]

Main problem is non accidental damage.

 

Do new laptops last longer? What's your average laptop lifetime?

 

Dell accidental damage is a misnomer. It should be called present a remnant warranty. So long as you have the remains of the device they will honour it. We've had house fires and laptops run over. The phone call takes about a minute as you pull out the warranty card , you can get all cosmetic parts replaced yearly and if you give them enough reason they will straight replace it with a similar new model.

[Oaktech]

I've been a 100% refurb guy for nearly 15 years now, but I'm seeing more and more issues with batteries and keyboards. Usually refusrbishers will only give 3 months on a battery, and it's still only 1yr on a new battery.

 

I've got over 150 HP Elitebook 830,840, 850 G5&6 in circulation and the oldest are cracking on 5years old now and I'm seeing a steady stream of out of warranty battery faults.

 

Fortunately I can still get quality branded batteries for this particular model but I'm replacing at least 1 battery a month at £40 a go, put this alongside replacing reprinted keyboards that staff have scuffed up at about £75 a time on about a quarter of them, it's taking the shine off the savings.

 

With a bit of group buying power we can bring in a Latitude 3450 a shade over £500+vat & a base model Thinkbook 14 Gen7 at a shade over £300.

 

Still 100% on refurb desktops.

Edited February 7, 2025 by Oaktech

[PotNoodleTech]

I mean your gonna struggle with batterys even on new devices anyway as they are going to go downhill year 3, 4 and 5.