Used to swear by cheap refurbished laptops until my Dell Latitude 5480 died mid-presentation in a conference room in Austin

I mean I always thought paying extra for a new laptop was a scam when you could grab a refurb for $250. Then mine blacked out right when my boss asked me to pull up the quarterly numbers. I dropped $600 on a new Lenovo ThinkPad that same afternoon. Anyone else have a public failure that made you rethink your whole budget approach?

2 comments

2 Comments

noahpark1d ago

Nah that's rough man, but honestly it's not just about the laptop crapping out - it's the timing that kills you. I had a similar thing happen with a refurbished XPS at a client pitch and I swear I could feel my credibility slipping away as I sat there mashing the power button. The thing is cheap refurbs are fine for personal use or for messing around at home but when you're in front of people who are paying for your expertise that machine is basically part of your professional image. A dead laptop in a meeting is like showing up with a pen that doesn't write - it makes you look unprepared even if you're not. I still think refurbs have their place for backup machines or for students but for anything where you need to look reliable you gotta spend the money.

ruby_foster931d ago

@noahpark My buddy's refurb died mid-zoom and he just pretended the wifi cut out lol.