HP 14" Intel Core i5 EliteBook Laptop Price: $249.99 Shipping Options:: $5 Standard Shipping Estimates: Ships in 3-5 business days. (Wednesday, Oct 01 to Monday, Oct 06) + transit Condition: Refurbished
Advertising this as just an “Intel Core i5” instead of “laptop from last decade” is pretty misleading. This puts woot on the same level as clickbait blog spam. Pretty pathetic.
I bought this laptop last time around because I wanted something small to carry to school and use for note-taking (MS Word 365). I really like it’s functionality EXCEPT I had to buy a NEW battery for it when it arrived!!! What was that about??? Oh, well. Be sure to add the cost of a new battery on top of the price of this laptop if you buy it.
I purchased this laptop last time also. Mine came with a dead battery. The charge indicator said plugged in but not charging. I emailed the refurb. company and they sent out a brand new battery free of charge. the laptop was a little beat up though.
I purchased this same laptop from Woot less than two weeks ago.
I think the correct word to describe the condition of the unit I received is “USED” and not “REFURBISHED”. And yes, there is a difference between those two terms and that difference is NOT subtle.
I wasn’t expecting a cutting edge, shiny new laptop, but I was disappointed when I opened the box.
I work for a large consulting company and these are just like the computers we leased several years ago. I bet these are computers that are off of lease instead of refurbs. I wouldn’t touch these with a 30 foot pole. We abused the heck out of them.
These are at least three generations old of HP Elitebook. They’re basically the first HP laptops to no longer say Compaq on them anywhere. When loaded down with corporate malware they were pretty sluggish.
Not a terrible deal for the price but don’t expect great battery life or performance.
First: Yes, these appear to be “off-lease” machines, so it’s a bit of a crapshoot as to how the previous user used or abused it.
Second: Woot should explain the term “refurbished” a little better. As someone explained during the last Woot for this item, these are turned around quickly. The drives are wiped and restored and maybe a few cursory checks are made, but they are NOT remanufactured.
Third: It’s a solid machine, feels rugged, and it’s cheap. $249. Think of it as a bigger and more capable netbook if that helps. I got mine to use for writing and maybe Internet stuff when I’m away from home. Gamers will laugh at you, and the Mac crowd will snicker, but they’ll also have a lot less money in their wallet and in a couple of years, their machines will be as obsolete as yours. It’s all about who has the last laugh, you know.
Forth: (Old computer geeks will get that one.) My machine wasn’t exactly restored to its just-left-the-factory condition. I had to hunt down the software for the fingerprint reader, for example. (Turns out that it was probably in the “swsetup” folder all along. Duh!) I still haven’t gotten the webcam up to speed, but the day is young.
Fifth: Here’s the discussion from the previous sale, which has links to the sale before THAT, as well as excellent advice on what to get and what to do.
I might add that you should install the HP Support Assistant (sp68058 in your swsetup folder, if it’s there) and run the battery check. It’ll tell you how many times your battery has been cycled, its current state, etc.
I also got this laptop last time around. I am happy with it, but here are the concerns to keep in mind:
Shipping will take for ever, without many updates until it actually ships (two weeks later for me).
Used Condition - mine was overall good, but came with a cheap vinyl sticker that is already peeling. I also have a couple dark spots on my screen, not a big deal to me because I am going to upgrade to hd+ 1600x900 for ~$60. Also I lucked out and my battery was OEM and works just fined ~4hrs of regular use on low performance, including office2010 & e-mail.
Check that all of the components are as stated, mine came with a dvd drive but it should of been dvd-rw. I contacted the refurbisher and they were a delight to work with and shipped a replacement right away.
I upgraded to ssd and will soon upgrade the screen to hd+ so for sub $400 you can have a very nice machine (upgraded). It currently boots within 20seconds and handles office like a champ. Not for gaming but very good for work, school or general use.
@Woody1, you must have had fun cramming in all those formatting tags! (If that doesn’t make sense to others, try “replying” to @Woody1’s original post to expose the tags.)
I haven’t done it yet so I cannot confirm 100% however, looking at the HP Parts manual all components are shared including the display cable between both screens, so it should be as easy as replacing any laptop screen, without any modification. Watching videos online it’s relatively straightforward and wont require to disassemble anything other than the top half of the laptop, unless you get a full display assembly, as opposed to just the screen. I would only do that if the assembly had the Webcam, otherwise I’ll just upgrade the screen.
Got the computer yesterday, and man was I disappointed. Refurbished is the wrong term for these computers. The packaging the computer was sent in was abysmal. A cardboard box with a shrink wrapped computer in the center. It is a “used” computer. The sound did not work, had to install the driver. There is a scratch in the center of the screen, the battery is DOA, the shortcut buttons do not work, and the plug is a cheap knock off. This was false advertising.
![[Preview 1]](http://d3gqasl9vmjfd8.cloudfront.net/dd4c3020-821e-4cac-8429-fc8123b4b138.jpg){kind=link}
