Buying guides

Four questions worth answering before you buy

No jargon and no upselling. Every guide ends with the stock that actually matches the answer, pulled live from our Watford warehouse.

On this page

Which grade should I buy?
i5 or i7 — which do I need?
8GB or 16GB?
Why business laptops make better refurbs

Which grade should I buy?

The question we get asked most.

Short answer

Buy Grade B unless the laptop is a gift.

It is the best value on the site, and after a week of use you will not notice the difference.

Our grades describe two things and two things only: how the laptop looks, and its battery health. They say nothing about how it performs. A Grade C machine has exactly the same processor, memory and storage as a Grade A of the same model, and both were tested on the same diagnostic software in the same Watford facility before they were listed.

That is the part people get wrong. A lower grade is not a worse laptop. It is the same laptop with more scuffs and a cheaper price.

Grade A

If it is a gift

Almost no signs of wear, screen free from scratches. Battery 80% or above. Pay the premium when someone else is opening the box.

See Grade A stock →

Grade B

For almost everyone

Light micro-scratches on the body, screen still free from scratches. Battery 80% or above. Most of our stock, and the sweet spot on price.

See Grade B stock →

Grade C

If price is the only thing

Visible scratches and dents, screen may have light marks. Battery may be below 80%. Buy it for a workshop, a spare, or a first laptop.

See Grade C stock →

On batteries. We measure battery health on every single unit rather than estimating it. Grades A and B are supplied at 80% health or above. On C and D it may be lower, so budget for a replacement if you need all-day runtime away from a socket.

i5 or i7 — which do I need?

Usually the wrong question.

Short answer

The generation matters more than the number.

A newer i5 will beat an older i7 at almost everything most people do, and cost less.

Every Intel chip has two parts to its name: the tier (i3, i5, i7) and the generation. In Core i5 12th Gen, the useful number is the 12. Intel has changed the underlying design several times, so a 12th generation i5 is a genuinely different chip from an 8th generation i5 — more cores, better power efficiency, longer battery life.

Put an i5 12th Gen next to an i7 8th Gen and the i5 wins on everyday work while running cooler and quieter. It will usually be cheaper too, because buyers fixate on the i7 badge.

Core i5

Office, browser, Teams

Email, spreadsheets, thirty browser tabs, video calls. This covers the overwhelming majority of business use. Aim for 10th generation or newer.

See i5 laptops →

Core i7

Heavy or sustained work

Video editing, large datasets, CAD, or running several demanding applications at once for hours. Worth the money if that is your day.

See i7 laptops →

Rule of thumb

How to compare two listings

Check the generation first, tier second. A newer i5 usually beats an older i7. If the generations match, then the i7 is the faster machine.

Browse all stock →

8GB or 16GB?

The upgrade most people actually feel.

Short answer

16GB if you keep a lot open at once.

Memory is what makes a laptop feel slow long before the processor does.

Memory is where your laptop holds whatever is open right now. Run out, and Windows starts shuffling data to storage to cope — which is the stuttering, unresponsive feeling people usually blame on the processor. Adding memory fixes it; a faster processor does not.

The honest test is not what you do, but how much of it you do at the same time. Word and a browser is 8GB work. Word, Excel, Teams, Outlook and twenty tabs, all day, is 16GB work.

8GB

One thing at a time

Browsing, email, Office, streaming, schoolwork. Perfectly capable if you close things when you are done with them.

See 8GB laptops →

16GB

Everything open at once

Teams plus Office plus a wall of tabs, all day, without thinking about it. The upgrade you notice most, for the least money.

See 16GB laptops →

32GB

Specialist work

Virtual machines, large datasets, heavy design or engineering software. Most people will never need this.

See 32GB laptops →

Some machines can be upgraded. A number of our listings have memory and storage options you can pick before dispatch — upgrades are fitted and tested here before the laptop ships. Look for the Memory & storage upgradable label.

Why business laptops make better refurbs

Why almost everything we sell is a Latitude, EliteBook or ThinkPad.

Short answer

They were built to survive five years, not two.

Which is exactly what you want from a laptop on its second life.

A consumer laptop is built to a price and an appearance. A business laptop is built to a specification set by IT departments buying thousands at a time, who care about one thing: how much it costs to keep the fleet running for five years. That produces a fundamentally different machine.

Metal or reinforced chassis rather than thin plastic. Spill-resistant keyboards. Hinges rated for tens of thousands of cycles. Components that are designed to be replaced rather than glued in. Long driver and firmware support from the manufacturer, because corporate buyers demand it.

That last point matters more than the specification sheet. A business laptop from 2020 still has current drivers and BIOS updates. Plenty of consumer laptops from the same year do not.

Dell

Latitude

The workhorse. Deep parts availability, easy servicing, and the range we stock most heavily, so there is usually a configuration that fits.

See Dell stock →

EliteBook

Well built and typically a little lighter. Good screens, solid keyboards, strong choice if you carry a laptop between sites.

See HP stock →

Lenovo

ThinkPad

The best keyboard on any laptop, and famously durable. What people buy when they type all day and intend to keep it.

See Lenovo stock →

Still not sure?

Tell us your budget and what you use a laptop for, and we will tell you what fits — including when the cheaper option is the right one.

Browse live stock →