Factory Refurbished Laptops: Why Would You Buy New?

Published on: 19 May 2017 Last Updated on: 04 September 2024

Technology evolves at mind-boggling speeds. And that makes us all scramble for the latest, newest, shiniest, ‘swaggiest’ gadgets. As a result, we end up sneering at any suggestion to buy second-hand or factory refurbished laptops.

But think about it. All the advantages of refurbished, pre-owned, for-sale-again, or reconditioned equipment.

They cost less
In good condition, refurbished dell laptops work just as well as new
The peripherals are almost always brand new
A good vendor can offer customizing options

On the other hand, buying new always costs top dollar. Plus, any psychological edge or swag wears off as soon as you purchase. There will always be something better, trending, or on the verge of being released. This is true for PCs, laptops, smartphones, smartwatches, and almost any other tech gadgets for personal or business use.

Buy “Like-New”

Have you ever bought your laptop and was excited to get it home and test it out. Then when you unwrap it you find something’s not right? Either it doesn’t turn on, or the screen resolution ain’t right, or a corner of the casing is cracked? Of course with a return policy, you send it back and the vendor promptly sends you a replacement.

Ever wondered where these rejects go? Well, it only makes business sense to sort out the issue and sell it again, right? But now, it can’t be sold as new. Yet it only required a keypad replacement, or a screen replacement, or maybe just a battery issue.

When you return your purchase, the retailer sends it back to the factory where it’s tested and if possible, repaired. It goes through the quality assurance stages once more, just like new, and put back on the shelves with an enticing discount and probably a renewed warranty. Would picking a brand new one offer any advantages over this sweet deal?

Get An Open-Box Deal

There are laptops that are returned even without hardly ever being removed from their packaging. Others are handled minimally before being returned.

Consider these scenarios: someone may return an unwanted gift. A retailer may ship 2 pieces for a single order. A customer may cancel an order. A laptop may lack one of its accessories or documentation in the packaging. There are many different scenarios where a laptop gets returned and can’t be sold as new.

For the second buyer, these factory refurbished laptops and refurbished desktop computers create an awesome opportunity for making huge savings without compromising on quality or making big warranty sacrifices.

Previously-Owned Bargains

As previously mentioned, w all love having the latest gadgets. This means lots of people trade in their gadgets for newer models. Some resell their almost new laptops for a competing brand. Whatever the case, factories find they have to reset and refurbish many almost-new pre-owned gadgets.

You can snag up a bargain on almost-new HP refurbished laptops that aren’t technologically too left behind. What most of these laptops require is hard disk formatting and resetting the operating system since the hardware and peripherals are still new.

What to Watch Out For

Don’t just go for refurbished laptops for sale. Go for a laptop that’s been refurbished by the original manufacturer or an established and reliable factory. Factory-refurbished laptops tend to have a higher QA standard rating than a laptop coming from a retailer.

Nonetheless, to avoid common pitfalls or being ripped off, there are some basic stuff you need to watch out for.

Limited warranty: Used laptops under 100 may come with shorter duration warranties compared to new units. The warranty may also cover less parts. Most factories and manufacturers will offer 90 days instead of the standard 1 year. Some manufacturers offer extended warranties at an additional nominal price.
Old Tech: While not always true, most refurbs tend to be at least one generation behind the current technology.
Battery Life: The previous owner may have mishandled the battery or charger. Battery life problems are usually not apparent when testing, and only become obvious upon multiple use.
Returns Policy: Go for a refurbished laptop that comes with a flexible return policy
Software: Make sure your refurbished laptop comes with original software, especially the operating system.

Factory Refurbished Laptops Vs Brand New: My Verdict

If you’re going for style over substance, then sure, get that new gadget and get your swag on. If you can’t stand the thought of using what once belonged to some stranger, then a factory refurbished laptop isn’t for you.

But if you want to get a practical machine that works as well as a new one and comes with a factory warranty/guarantee, then refurbished may be the way to go. If you want to get a tried and tested brand and model without bursting your bank account, you might want to consider factory-refurbished laptops. If you want savings to help you upgrade your laptop’s components, then factory refurbished will give you that freedom.

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The Complete Guide To Choosing VPS Hosting

What Are Virtual Private Servers? Virtual Private servers are hosting plans that most hosting providers offer- it is a 2 in 1 package - it offers features of a dedicated server and also the capacities of shared hosting accounts. This is done because shared hosting plans usually have limited capacities and a dedicated hosting plan might be too pricey. VPS web hosting plans provide top-quality performance at a lower rate and is a popular choice for medium sized websites that require a lot of resources. VPS hosting is done bay physical servers that are housed in data centres. This server is then divided into partitions to create each individual virtual server. When you purchase one of these sections you are the only with access to that part of the virtual environment - which means that you can use the resources available in a similar manner that you would on a dedicated server hosting accounts. In addition, the VPS area performs like a dedicated server even though it is part of a physical one. This feature makes it a good choice for websites that need resources similar to that of a dedicated server but do not have the budget to match. Who uses VPS hosting? A lot of website owners prefer VPS hosting because they get more control over their server environments. Even though they do not utilise all the system resources allocated to them, the control they have over resources is usually worth the extra expense. Website administrators who wants dedicated hosting but do not have the technical skills or cannot currently afford a plan, consider VPS hosting as a good starter package. Things to consider before choosing a VPS hosting provider 1.The content management system offered: acquisition, technology shifts or management changes can alter the value of a web hosting plan. 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However, with the increase in the popularity of managed hosting service, the user tackles this. Which means that if you have one, you can customise your VPS server in any manner that you desire. But you can also get the help of your web hosting provider to resolve any technical issues you cannot address yourself. What are the features of a VPS hosting plan? The features that would come with a VPS hosting plan will vary depending on the provider. However,there are a couple that you should be on the lookout for. 1.Managed data backups: like with any other hosting service, your VPS plan should come with a backup option for your data. Because anything can occur within your provider's network, we recommend that you choose a service that makes it possible for you to manually backup your data - in order to ensure that your website can be restored at any time. Thankfully, most VPS hosting plans offer an inexpensive way to get the flexibility, features, control and resources of the more complex and costly dedicated server hosting plans. With the rapid development and increased popularity, the price of VPS hosting is rapidly reducing so,it is possible for you to find a VPS solution that suits you. 2.Root access: with root access, you get complete control over your VPS account-software installations, configurations and so on. All these actions can be done from the interface of your control management system. 4.Multiple domain hosting: even though a lot of hosts offer multiple domain hosting with their shared hosting plan, most times they lack the required resources needed to guarantee smooth performance. Many VPS web host offer plans that make it possible for you to host multiple sites without compromising on performance. Typically, you can also set up - separate email accounts and allocates specific resources for every individual site you create. 5.Support and management: just like a dedicated hosting account, VPS hosting requires you to manage your own server. However, there are many web hosts that provide management and support services to help with administrative tasks. This feature is invaluable if you do not have technical skills. 7.Server monitoring: a good VPS service provider will constantly monitor network and hardware that your account is hosted on. Which guarantees the physical security of the server and guards against cyber threats such as DDOS attacks, hackers and malicious software. What are the benefits of virtual private server web hosting? There are many benefits of VPS web hosting but top on the list are: 1 Flexibility: you are free to choose the software and operating system you would like installed on the stock server 2.Stability: as opposed to shared hosting, increased activity and traffic will not adversely affect your websites 3.Dedicated resources: VPS hosting plans come with dedicated RAM, disk space and CPU. 4.Better performance: having your own dedicated resources allow your visitors to enjoy faster load times on your website. How to use VPS web hosting The web hosting data storage space on a primary virtual server is managed via a hosting CP user interface. There are tons of websites hosting CP tools on the Internet, so you are not limited to the one supplied by your web hosting provider. For example, cPanel can function on most servers OS. Apart from this, everything is pretty much the same as with shared hosting accounts -database management, file management, electronic mail management and so on. In most instances, web hosting control panels come with a reseller back-office tool which can be used to set up and resell web hosting plans to other individuals. This is a good way to generate money as there are a lot of web users who are looking for good quality web hosting service. Is VPS web hosting a great option for you? Sometimes, choosing the right hosting plan can be a challenge however, if you have a website that has outgrown a shared hosting plan and needs more resources, then VPS web hosting is a good choice. You will get enough resources to manage the increased load matter the type of website you operate.

5 Core Pillars Of Cloud FinOps

The current dynamic business environment requires companies to take a structured, proactive approach to manage, monitoring and predicting their cloud service costs. Doing so will help them to meet their financial goals. Cloud FinOps is a cultural shift and operational framework that brings finance, business, and technology together to accelerate business value realization and drive financial accountability through the cloud. At its heart, cloud FinOps enables businesses to understand the challenges and complexities of cloud information technology (IT) financial management. The core purpose of cloud FinOps is to optimize the business value generated from cloud services. It involves various techniques, like free credits, least-priced services, negotiating costs, and more. 5 Core Pillars of Cloud FinOps You need to know the core principles of the cloud FinOps design to successfully implement it. These design principles help build a cost-conscious, self-governing culture while fostering business agility and financial accountability in the cloud. The following are some key pillars of Cloud FinOps: 1. Enablement and Accountability This principle focuses on creating lean or centralized cross-functional teams. These teams may include application owners, architecture, operations, finance, and engineering. Establishing these teams enhances governance and sets guidelines for managing cloud expenditure. 2. Cost Optimization This principle requires stakeholders to identify the main cost-optimization drivers in the cloud environment. It is a continuous, iterative process that offers a consistent solution to managing cloud usage most cost-effectively. The following are the three common optimization areas: Architecture Pricing Resource 3. Realization and Measurement This principle involves creating core key performance indicators (KPIs), and business-value metrics will be utilized to evaluate the success of the transformation. In most cases, customers begin with a series of cost-optimization metrics. Afterward, business value or unit economics measurements, like cost per customer served or transaction. 4. Forecasting and Planning Proper cloud estimates and planning require the company to fully understand its cost drivers, assign cloud expenditure, and benchmark efficiency. Doing so ensures minimal deviations between the actual and forecasted costs. 5. Accelerators and Tools As you would expect, cloud FinOps requires you to employ proper accelerators and relevant tools. Doing so ensures effective monitoring and management of cloud spending. These tools may include: Automation scripts that set budget alerts and account guardrails Reporting dashboard for tracking value and managing cloud spend Cost management tools for analyzing real-time cost and billing data. How Do Cloud FinOps Work? This operational framework involves a three-step lifecycle to ensure teams remain focused on and organized to deliver business value and attain financial accountability. These steps include: Informing Optimizing Operation 1. Informing This stage involves informing the company about all cloud-related costs. It happens by providing 100% visibility and assigning cloud costs to relevant business units. Here, the goal is to let every team understand their cloud spending. Also, it involves benchmarking against the company’s internal objectives, like budgets and forecasts. Companies can visualize areas they’re attaining business value and where they do not, helping them determine their progress. 2. Optimizing Once members know the organization’s goals, costs, and achieved business value, they proceed to optimize costs. This step involves providing recommendations and actionable insights to the different teams. Here, companies cut off unnecessary services that increase their cloud spending. Also, they automate rightsizing of different resources and maximize the utilization of the available resources. As a result, it significantly reduces cloud expenditure. 3. Operation Once all costs are optimized, it’s time to architect the cloud environment to achieve and maintain minimal cloud spending. The company creates governance policies that help attain technological, business, and financial goals. The primary objective here is to achieve measurable goals and continual improvement. 4 Benefits Of Cloud FinOps: Adopting cloud FinOps best processes and practices helps enterprises achieve various high-level benefits, such as: 1. Cost Efficiency Cloud FinOps enable you to attain cost efficiency thanks to advanced tools and accelerators. These tools help you identify areas of optimization, track and optimize cloud spending, and hold every team responsible, reducing unnecessary cloud costs. 2. Positive Cultural Shift By holding every cloud consumer responsible and making their data on cloud usage and spending available, cloud FinOps helps optimize cloud consumption. As a result, it helps create a beneficial culture for all cloud-consuming parties. 3. Reduces Uninformed Decisions Uninformed decisions can be extremely costly. Without proper tracking of cloud spending and resources, your company may be spending significant resources on the cloud. Fortunately, cloud FinOps products provide real-time granular reports and insights, helping leaders to: Get service-level cloud utilization Track underutilized or idle resources Compare the business cloud resource usage by time Figure out business areas that need more resources. With such data, leaders are aware of which areas need what resources. Also, they are informed about their decisions’ financial implications. 4. Unifies the Company’s Ecosystem Every company often has a frustrating, complex, and invisible culture split between finance, IT, and DevOps teams. Requests, approvals, and processes vary from department to department, though they aim to achieve a common goal. Also, technical terms and jargon may not be understood by other teams. What’s more, the finance team often loses control of cloud infrastructure procurement when the cloud engineering team steps into the process. How does Cloud FinOps help in this case? Well, cloud FinOps help every team stay updated about their cloud costs depending upon their responsibilities. For instance, while the finance team views the cost reports and data, the engineering team can access the processor usage information. As a result, it leads to streamlined, effective, and unified operations. Challenges Of FinOps Although cloud FinOps is a great approach, it has its shortcomings. Many teams end up experiencing barriers to attaining business value. Some key challenges include: Difficulty understanding cloud costs One cannot trade off creativity and innovation for low cloud costs The DevOps teams may not exhaustively understand the financial processes Final Thoughts The cloud FinOps framework can significantly transform your company in all aspects. This operational framework enables you to optimize your company’s financial wellness while driving business value. However, to achieve the best results, you need to adopt the best practices and understand the principles and dynamics of this approach. Read Also: Top cloud security controls you should be using Hosted Mail Service That Runs on the Cloud Oracle & The Cloud: A Dream Team

9 Tools To Test If Your Website Is Mobile Friendly

Nowadays mobile traffic has extended as more and more people are using mobile devices to access the internet. And their choice of searching required information on Google ranking websites has also increased because of their mobile-friendliness. Hence to maintain such wide users is essential to develop and provide a fully functioning mobile-friendly website regardless of the screen size or device they are using. Before moving ahead it is important to understand what exactly we mean when we say a website is mobile-friendly and what Mobile Friendly Test is? Website mobile-friendliness is the overall performance of a website on mobile devices that provides a quality experience to mobile users. Thus enhancing website performance on any mobile is crucial because mobile device usage is growing day by day. Checking mobile friendliness without any assistance is difficult. That is why Google has introduced search calculation guidelines. With the help of this, it becomes easier to find out how user-friendly your website is and whether it is easily accessible or not. Mobile-Friendly Test is a special tool that helps to see how friendly your website is operating on different devices. It allows you to easily carry out a mobile site test and tells a website’s score in terms of its performance on all mobile devices. The test score will enable you to have an idea of whether your website is providing a good mobile user experience or not. It also says that the website falls into the mobile-friendly category and shows good results in the mobile-friendly test. With the help of this test, you will also get specific instructions on what on your site needs to be updated, fixed, or modified to make it work better on all mobiles. Making the site fast and good only on desktop but slow and not so good on mobile will not only lead to poor ranking but also to reduced traffic which ultimately causes less revenue. By making a website mobile-friendly, you will not only please your users, but you can also remarkably improve your search engine ranking by appearing higher in search engine positions. Google search calculation parameter has been confirmed as a part of the overall ranking criteria. This is a set of factors provided by Google that help in determining how convenient your site’s mobile version is to users. Previously Google has put a fine on sites that offer a poor experience to mobile users and gives much importance to the websites that take relatively less time to load and look good on all mobile devices. The more quickly you make your site mobile-friendly and ensure that Google recognizes it, the faster it can be ranked applicable by Google. However, testing your site on mobile devices can be time-consuming and expensive due to the availability of a large number of different mobile devices. But there is a way out of that. There are Mobile-friendly testing tools available online that measure how adaptive a website appears on mobile. Most of these tools can suggest ways to make your websites look better and faster on mobile. They also suggest needed adjustments in particular areas. The testing score will also give you an idea of your website's appearance on mobile and its performance for mobile users. Nine Best 9 Tools To Test If Your Website is Mobile Friendly Here we will discuss 9 such tools that can give you a brief about your website's mobile-friendliness. 1. Google Mobile-Friendly Test This is the most popular and easy-to-use mobile-friendly tester. This tool is developed and managed by Google. You just need to put your website URL and this tool will analyze your site on mobile. It helps you find out issues that prevent your site from appearing in the google searches on mobile. If your site is mobile-friendly and meets google standards it gives you a green signal. And in case it does not pass the test and fails it announces it as not mobile-friendly. This tool tells you if Google sees your page as mobile-friendly or not. If it says "no" then the page will be set down in the mobile search results and approve similar pages from other sites that are mobile-friendly. 2. MobiReady MobiReady is a very innovative and useful website testing tool that shows how a particular page appears on different mobiles. You can see how your site performs on multiple sizes of mobile devices at once. It compares your sites against popular websites and gives specific recommendations of areas you need to do well and need improvement to climb up. This tool also provides a detailed report of scores between 0 and 5 with 5 being the highest. The higher the score the more the web page is capable of performing and giving a great user experience on any mobile device. A low score indicates that the webpage is slow to load having components that can break the quality user experience. 3. W3C Mobile OK Checker The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) works to develop web standards. They have a handy mobile checker that provides specific recommendations on how to make your site more mobile-friendly and lets you know what changes need to be done. You don't require any special skills to use this tool. You just simply need to enter your URL address and a series of tests will be run on your website to determine how mobile-friendly it is. After completion of the test, you will get detailed information and analysis of your site whether it is low, medium, or severely critical. This helps in making necessary changes to improve the mobile-friendliness of your site. 4. Page speed insight Use Google’s page speed insight tools to test the speed of your website for both mobile and desktop. It helps in providing specific recommendations to increase your website speed on different devices. It shows screenshots of how your website looks on mobile and desktop as well as gives you speed scores for both mobile and desktop as well. analyzing your website in PageSpeed Insights will give you a detailed analysis of what needs to be fixed and things that have already been done correctly. 5. Google AMP testing tool AMP means Accelerated Mobile Pages. This tool is developed by Google with the goal to make fast-loading pages that look good on mobile devices and deliver the best possible mobile experience to its users. In today's time having mobile-friendly websites is very important for your online presence. Using the AMP testing tool you can check the validity of an AMP page. This test will also enable you to create mobile-optimized content to load instantly on all devices no matter what type of mobile devices you are using. It also finds out issues related to AMP that are preventing your site's appearance in search results. 6. Google TestMySite Speed matters in ranking no matter how fast your site is on the desktop. If the site speed is slow on mobile it may affect your ranking position. TestMySite is a mobile testing tool from Google that analyzes how fast a website is on mobile and it also provides ways to make the site faster and enhance users' mobile site experience. With the help of this tool, you can see the load time of your site on mobile. It also generates a personalized report to each audience with all major and minor details and also tells the next step to be followed. 7. Varvy Mobile SEO Varvy Mobile SEO ( Search Engine Optimization) is one of the most simple and useful mobile-friendly mobile SEO testing tools. It will test your site and help to know whether it is mobile-friendly and is complying with Google guidelines and SEO practices or not. This tool is simple to use, you just need to enter your URL and Varvy will provide you with helpful insights like page load quickly, the right security and accessibility, paid links, a page displaying well on mobile, and many more. Additionally, it gives recommendations of what is exactly wrong and what adjustments are needed to be done 8. RankWatch RankWatch is a simple tool to check the mobile-friendliness of your website. It provides descriptive information on whether the site is mobile-friendly or not, it also provides you with precise rankings of your website in popular search engines like Google, Bing, etc. Testing with RankWatch will give you the page score of your website. You can easily get the result containing information about the mobile viewport, its content, the size of text and links, and whether the buttons on the website are mobile-friendly or not. 9. LambdaTest’s mobile-friendly checker LambdaTest is one the most widely used tools to test a website's mobile-friendliness. It offers you an extremely handy mobile site test that allows you to check the friendliness of your mobile device. It helps you to assess your website's friendliness on a cloud of more than 3000 real devices, browsers, and operating systems on a wide range of different resolutions. Using the LambdaTest platform you can test and debug your mobile website on multiple mobile handsets of different screen sizes connected to a live mobile network in different locations. Once you run your website mobile test you will be able to see how your website is performing on a mobile device. After completion, it generates a website performance report that helps in identifying underlying issues affecting your website's performance. Hence helping you in making the required changes. Additionally, it provides you with the feature of recording the entire test session in a single video and capturing screenshots so the other team members can get access to the entire test session easily. Moreover, LambdaTest’s LT Browser helps you to view your mobile testing of websites on different preinstalled mobile device viewports. LT Browser is a developer-friendly browser that is more powerful than the default Android and iOS browsers and helps you debug and test any mobile website flawlessly. Read Also: Understanding The Role Of SEO In B2B Digital Marketing: Optimising Your Website For Success Interactive Website Tools: Exploring Strategies For Engagement And Conversion What Are Piracy Websites? | Top 10 Pirated Websites In The World

Factory Refurbished Laptops: Why Would You Buy New?

Buy “Like-New”

Get An Open-Box Deal

Previously-Owned Bargains

What to Watch Out For

Factory Refurbished Laptops Vs Brand New: My Verdict

Google Maps Marketing: Guides on How to Boost Brand Advantage

An Overview of an Intuitive Inventory Management

Content Rally

Content Rally wrapped around an online publication where you can publish your own intellectuals. It is a publishing platform designed to make great stories by content creators. This is your era, your place to be online. So come forward share your views, thoughts and ideas via Content Rally.

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Factory Refurbished Laptops: Why Would You Buy New?

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Factory Refurbished Laptops Vs Brand New: My Verdict

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Content Rally wrapped around an online publication where you can publish your own intellectuals. It is a publishing platform designed to make great stories by content creators. This is your era, your place to be online. So come forward share your views, thoughts and ideas via Content Rally.

Leave a Reply

Popular

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