HP 14.1" Dual-Core EliteBook Price: $229.99 Shipping Options: $5 Standard Shipping Estimates: Ships in 3-5 business days (Monday, Mar 17 to Thursday, Mar 20) + transit Condition: Refurbished
The reviews are from 2008. Why buy a refurb from 6 years ago when you can spend about the same or just a bit over for a new notebook. I just don’t see the value here.
LOL! I’m using this exact laptop right now! has a goofy keyboard light and a really aweful volume control.
I got it free, so I can’t complain, and its fast enough and can handle a ton of chrome tabs, so I use it to give browse and connect my xbox to wireless internet. I haven’t tried editing photos on it yet, that’s my next step.
feels pretty nice though, and it’s built really well. previous owner smacked the corner and it dented but still feels solid. screen isn’t bad, and the battery hasn’t given up yet.
definitely compare this to other similarly priced laptops, you might get more performance elsewhere by sacrificing on build quality. If you want a nice web surfer with good build, this is a nice choice I think.
not sure what else is out there though, never felt like looking.
I buy a lot of laptop computers and I’m pretty familiar with pricing. I’d like to know what you mean when you write that you can buy a new laptop for just a “bit” more then the price of this one. Frankly, I’d like to know! Perhaps you mean a Chrome or a non-brand laptop or perhaps the HP at Walmart (check out the video and processor). Until shown otherwise I do not know where you would buy a new laptop for just a “bit” more than this 6 year old model. Yes, it is a 6 year old model. However, there are some versions of this model that sell for less (add that shipping cost and tax where applicable), but they are not refurbished and are certainly not going to be of the quality you’d find in a refurbished model.
Is the 4gb ram that it comes with one 4gb chip or two 2gb chips? I’d like to buy it and upgrade that but wanna know if I’m gonna have to buy two sticks or just one. Thanks!
How about a whole handful of laptops in one of Woot’s own listings, right here right now?
THere’s another HP Probook, i5, 4GB, Win7 for only $40 more listed in the big laptop woot listing right now. THere’s also several i3’s listed. Any of those are better than an outdated Core2Duo.
I also buy/sell/trade/reoair a lot of laptops
This isn’t a BAD deal, but there are certainly much better options for a “little” more as the OP mentions.
If this was my own to sell, comparing to what you can find used or refurbed (especially on Woot), I would price this one more in the $180ish price range.
I had this laptop for four years, it was my work issued laptop and it was a tank. I used it in the office and on the road, in the office I had it connected to a docking station driving dual monitors and it was a champ through and through. We ran win xp on it and I’d have as many as three rows of applications running on the taskbar, mostly excel spreadsheets (some fairly large ones with macros and system intensive formulas), ppt’s, ie windows running company web apps, terminal applications, gimp (photo editor) snaggit, outlook, lync and more. Only problem I ever had with it was the hard drive died after about 3 years and had to be replaced, but all my data was backed up, so I was back up and running on it within a few hours.
I will echo the other comments that the volume control is a joke on it, it’s some bizarre touch slider thing, there are a couple of touch controls at the top, I never used them though, and there is a funny little keyboard light. I would recommend not using the keyboard light, I never had any issue, but co workers had them break and lose the ability to retract, which seemed semi annoying.
I was recently “refreshed” to a dell and I miss my elitebook. Thinking of buying one of these for old times sake.
It can run that SPSS with no problem- the hardware requirements aren’t that high. I think you would be better off spending about $300 and getting something with a new I3, USB 3.0, HDMI out, newer DDR3, bigger better HD. Keep looking
As before, run the comparison. None of them at the price level you are referencing have non-shared video RAM, battery, etc. Just because a laptop is “newer” doesn’t make it better. Price is only of value when you compare the legacy devices. Frankly, if I don’t when a Dell refurbished (I bid on it prior to the WOOT offering) I’m going to buy it.
6 year old Core 2 duo refurb is pushing it. Even though it’s a decent processor with a passmark of 1526 it accomplishes this using a max TDP of 25w whereas a newer I3-2377m has a passmark of 1854 with a max TDP of 17w. Can you be sure that the battery was refurbed- or are you running on a 6 year old battery? The screen technology is better now, the HD technology is better now (in addition there will be less wear on a newer refurb). DDR3 vs DDR2 for newer models. HD3000 (I3) has an avg 3D mark of 305, the Radeon Mobility HD 3400 did not have a rating but the rating on the Radeon Mobility HD 4550 was 181 (better chipset than the HD 3400). Then you have the newer conveniences like HDMI and USB 3.0. Tech ages really fast and to start with something already 6 years old is really pushing it.
If it’s factory refurbished by HP, then you are covered by HP. 90 days on hardware and the battery I believe. Also, these Elitebooks are built like tanks, discrete graphics of any kind are better than built in for RAM purposes, and if you are not video editing or trying to run Battlefield 3, these older machines are perfect for getting email, surfing, photo editing, etc.
Before I begin I want to make sure that the reader understands what TDP means. TDP is Thermal Design Power. It is simply the power consumption. Consequently, it is relative to the power available (battery) of the laptop. For instance the HP has a 6 cell battery while the Acer i3 only has a 4 cell battery which is far greater then the difference in the TDP. Also note that the ASUS Zenbook i5 only has a 3 cell battery! Unfortunately, you are not providing a complete picture of the video capabilities. For instance, the 3D Mark (rating for 3D graphics performance) does not take into account dedicated video ram. Most laptops in this price range do not have dedicated ram and so ram is shared with the ram used by system and applications. Dedicated ram, when available, means that the graphics are held in ram and do not have to be passed back and forth from the hard drive. In addition, it allows you to run the display at a higher resolution. Yes, technology does move rapidly. However, new isn’t better unless the new does something the old doesn’t do which you need. I have i7’s down to dual core (refurbished) and as long as I do not run unneeded software the dual core units do not run noticeably slower then the i7’s. If you plan to play the most demanding video games get a desktop and a good video card with lots of ram.
There is also the consideration of features. The webcam is of value to me as dealing with an add-on is a hassle. I would also value HDMI. Some of the better deals you mention on the Laptop selloff are nice but no webcam.
@gak0090, while I won’t quibble with the wisdom of avoiding this Woot’s older CPU chip, if one is looking for reliability and solid build at a cheap price, that larger 15 inch plasticy HP entry level refurb at your link might not be a good match.
Business grade laptops are worlds more solid and serviceable vs. consumer entry level laptops.
Off-lease laptops like today’s Woot but with 1st gen i5 CPUs are easy to find. The trick is finding a reliable seller with easy return policies in case you get a lemon.
![[Preview 1]](http://d3gqasl9vmjfd8.cloudfront.net/f1ae98f8-02a8-4677-b672-2458ff684954.jpg){kind=link}
