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Refurbished tablet?


stevec

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How risky is it to order refurbished tablets? Apple does a real refurbish with new parts, etc, others are cheaper, bbut not specific about what they do. Also some offer real short warranty, like 30 days. Any experience I can learn from? Do I need to pony up the $$ for Apple?

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I have ordered refurbished from Dell but those are Windows tablets. My Dell Venue 11 Pro older model was refurbished and still doing great in our second year of ownership. They go through them all too but the Dell refurbs have a new 1 year full warranty.

 

At the moment they also are clearing out their brand new Venue11 Pro 10.8" tablet that pretty much has it all for $349.99 new: http://www.dell.com/us/p/dell-venue-11-pro/pd?oc=ftdnd02h&model_id=dell-venue-11-pro I have one of these that has been great for the last two years and this one has a much faster and upgrade processor. Mine has the Z3770, this is the Z3795 which is much improved. It has full HD, a full size USB 3 port, a separate micro USB charging port, HDMI, a micro SDXC card slot that can handle up to 128 GB cards. It is a very fast and pleasing tablet for us.

RV/Derek
http://www.rvroadie.com Email on the bottom of my website page.
Retired AF 1971-1998


When you see a worthy man, endeavor to emulate him. When you see an unworthy man, look inside yourself. - Confucius

 

“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” ... Voltaire

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I just got this one: http://www.amazon.com/Asus-Transformer-10-1-inch-Detachable-Keyboard/dp/B00PHIWOAO/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1441929591&sr=1-1&keywords=Asus+Transformer+Book+10.1-inch+64GB+Detachable+2-in-1+Touch+Laptop%2FTablet+T100TA

Its actually a 2-in-1 laptop/tablet. ($225.00)

Basically bought it to run Streets & Trips along with a Bluetooth GPS receiver. No problems and works like a champ. In fact the GPS Bluetooth is the fastest most reliable of any laptop that I had in the past.

Photo: http://www.truckcamperforums.com/uploads/monthly_09_2015/post-327-0-90407600-1441661050.jpg

 

I also got a refurbished Mac Pro through Apple's friends and family program (years ago). Later found that the video card needed to be reset in it's socket to correct a problem with the video. I think that was the problem with the machine originally. . .the repair shop probably simply replaced the video card - which was not the real problem.

Anyway, it still works and the problem hasn't recurred in over a year.

 

Lance-white-sands-500.jpg

~Rich

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  • 4 weeks later...

Most manufacturer refurbs are a safe buy, but buy direct and make sure you're really saving money; sometimes retail is just as cheap. I've bought a Mac Pro, Mini, iPad Air, and probably an iPod or two from Apple, never had a single problem. Now that upgrades are more incremental than in the past, I've been buying old models when the new ones come out. If you time it right, you can get a discount because it's an old model, and a discount because it's a refurb.

 

Dell seems to sell a lot of refurbs through dealers, I once had trouble registering a laptop I bought that way. That's why I say to buy direct, to eliminate doubt; there's a record of it in the mfr's system.

 

Buying from a major online vendor like Amazon, B&H, NewEgg, etc. is relatively safe; just make sure it's really manufacturer-refurb'ed, and that you're buying through the main vendor. I avoid Amazon Marketplace vendors and the like when buying refurb'ed.

 

The warranties may be shorter, but if you always buy refurb and set aside the savings to cover repairs, it will have a positive balance when you retire.

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I almost always buy refurbs or used from the original purchaser face 2 face. Agree with all bobkd said. I find many Dell factory refurbs to have a one year warranty just like new. I was never one for extended warranties but I have renewed this Del XPS 2720 warranty until 2017 last year for ~300 for three years, The entire unit has been replaced four times under warranty and just one MoBo repair would cost more than that with the i7 quad core in it at almost $1000.00 original price when they bought them. I also take decent laptops and desktops in trade for my repair and set up servic3ees if they are at least Windows 7 native in the factory restore partition, and DDR3 although I have one now that took DDR2 and was only $28.00 on eBay for 4GB of matched DDR2 RAM. The reason I do that is that even the slower ones turn into scream machines when I max out RAM and install an SSD along with my own tweaks. Those simple upgrades for now under $100.00 if caught on sale increase the value of a "meh" used laptop from a $100.00 unit to a definite $200.00 sale. I set them up to boot on opening the lid and get under ten second boots with a software setup. One is now my test bed for Windows new features. So used when you can refurbish yourself as well as good refurb deals with factory warranty are great deals. I am not a fan of five year old systems from lease returns labeled as refurbished when all that was done by "brown box refurbishers" was to test that it booted.

 

Source is everything.

RV/Derek
http://www.rvroadie.com Email on the bottom of my website page.
Retired AF 1971-1998


When you see a worthy man, endeavor to emulate him. When you see an unworthy man, look inside yourself. - Confucius

 

“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” ... Voltaire

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