Probably too late (been a very hectic week, missed opening day of the thread).
As you know from my history here, I always prefer "business grade computers" over "residential grade". I'll skip typing a few pages on the differences between them, but I realize good "business grade" computers are usually above the budget of residential users. When new!
...
Enter the "factory outlet stores" of the major brands. Since I'm an Lenovo fan, I'll link theres...but Dell also has one.
Your daily destination for exclusive offers, overstocks and closeouts. Discounts on laptops, desktops, tablets and more. Get it before it is gone!
www.lenovo.com
It can be a challenge for some to navigate and search, I know Bri will figure it out.
Choose your product line/family, screen size (if laptop), and...scroll through the offerings.
There are Yogas and Ideapads, as well as Thinkpads...of all models. I always prefer the P, T, and X models of Thinkpads...but to be honest, the L series is decent, and some of the Yoga models are pretty darned good too, esp the Thinkpad based Yogas and Yoga Pros (there are some Ideapad based Yogas too..a little less good).
Price wise, as you'll see...you can easily land some SWEET Thinkpads with GOOD SPECS for well under a thou, under 900, under 800 even...often less.
For over 15 maybe 20 years I've leveraged that site ..to even get laptops for myself. Even though I can purchase brand new laptops wholesale myself, I've gotten higher end models...for far less money...from this site. Example...my prior laptop was the cream of the crop of all ultrabook laptops...the coveted Thinkpad Carbon X1. The model I bought from the factory outlet was MSRP of around $1,750.00. I picked it up for $860.00.
The factory outlets, this is where they unload production overruns, demo models, some returns, and...most of them are actually computers which came off lease. Many big companies will lease truckloads of computers for short term projects, like 6 months or 9 months or a year or maybe two. At the end of the lease, all the computers go back. The factory will take those..."refurb" the ones that were opened and used...and sell those. STILL with a warranty. And...often there will be a good percentage of those truckloads of computers that were never even taken out of the box. They'll sell those at the factory outlet as new....however, still with a nicely reduced price.
Recommend check 'em out. Bookmark the site. For many clients of mine with low budgets, who have a hard time springing for new computers, I'll send them links to computers I choose from that site. They purchase them, I receive them...prep them, and...put them into use. I'd rather my clients use a factory refurb good biz grade model over consumer grade junk...any day of the week, because I have to support them. And I practice what I preach (because I've bought myself probably a half dozen computers from that store).
