Used laptops can be in really various stages of their lifetime. There are people who sell their 2 months old basically brand new dell or hp laptop for 2/3rd of the price because the manufacturer announced a new model and they feel the urge to buy that right away and they don’t care about money all that much. These are the notebooks you will be looking for mainly, but notice that these are fairly new computers, so the price, even if relatively low, may be high for what you’re willing to pay for a ‘used’ laptop.

Second type is renew or refurbished computers we’re looking for. These are tested and repaired by the company that makes them. It’s pretty safe to buy a refurbished laptop, usually there was one former owner and they didn’t like it for whatever reason, or simply returned it to warranty repair and got a replace unit. I’d keep an eye open for cracks, scratches though and look up the model on various forums and reviews before buying, but that’s just me being paranoid I suppose.

Third category where people get their ideas about used laptops. These are second hand computers from the owner directly. There are shady people out there trying to sell everything they can put their hands on; make sure you have checked every little tiny detail down to the state of hinges, looseness of keys and general assembly quality. Cracking or whistling noises while the laptop is operating are not normal, you shouldn’t give money for such a laptop.

Cheap laptops can also be bought online, different sites deal with auctions or simply with selling used electronics. If a computer or any other electronic item is used does not necessarily mean it doesn’t work well. Some people sell what they own because they want to buy a more modern or new product. Of course it is not advised to focus only on the price when buying a laptop or computer. Usually cheap laptops are equipped with only one single-core processor, which can affect the performance of the product.

This can as well be categorized as a disadvantage, because a cheap laptop can be good as long as you use it for simple tasks, like web browsing and office applications, but if you are on the market for something with better multi-tasking performance and capabilities, it is better if you save up and buy something a little more expensive.

Also when buying a cheap pink laptop, especially if it’s bought already used, you can have problems with the hardware often and would have to change different hardware items inside, which sometimes can bring you up to a total cost of double or even triple the initial price you gave for the laptop. And it’s especially hard because being a laptop, it’s harder to exchange parts of it, usually it is better to take it to a service specialized in electronics, which means even more money spent.

So if you think about it, a cheap laptop is not that cheap if you count the money you will have to spend after you bought it and used it, especially if you are not the kind that knows a lot about laptops and computers and can take care of it, the proper way.

At the end of the day, if you can’t afford an expensive laptop and you want a performance enhanced one, you would probably be better off buying a desktop computer, at least you can configure the hardware yourself, and the parts are cheaper.