Current recommendation for a cheap simple home use laptop

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and be secure.

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That's on you and the wife on not clicking on stuff you shouldn't, mostly.

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file storage needs

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Can you expand on this? Do you have storage on OneDrive, Google Drive, etc? that local storage will be backed up to?

Right now I just have a couple USB hard drives. I have one drive for work but I dont plan to use it for this (mostly picture) at least not now. Renting storage space pisses me off.

I dont think either one of us is much risk for clicking malicious stuff.

I was using my work laptop just to transfer stuff and do my banking, bills, etc but we've had a recent policy change and I wont be able to do that for much longer, along with stricter personal use limitations.

Also bought a Surface laptop for $350 on eBay. Mine has Intel. My wife has an older one. Both have been fantastic.

I like dellrefurbished.com, get a warranty and good deals/inventory...can pay fraction of "new" cost for whatever you want

Id have thought used or refurbished computers would be a major risk and now yall really have my cheap arse attention. Wouldn't have even considered it. Any other reputable vendors to shop?

amazon refurbished lap tops

You can buy a 2 year protection plan

Used Latitude 5430 with 1235u and 8-16 GB RAM ~$200-$220 on eBay in decent shape.

Refurb from OEM Acer Aspire 14 AI w/ 226v (16GB) $465 from eBay and other sites.

I can’t suggest anything without Thunderbolt or at least usbc alt mode because it will be a PITA to charge and prevent you from easily using your computer properly on a standard dock.

Need to read the descriptions. Big guys operate on tiny margins and can’t test super thoroughly but must test enough to reduce costly returns. eBay is very buyer friendly but the process is slow. Great for home use.

Big highly rated sellers are not scammers and misrepresenting products will cost them more money than they could make extra. It’s just a brutal business where they have to weigh testing against returns against the natural variance in used products from their various supply channels.

Just look for at least 500 good reviews. Those are shops that know they need to turn and burn inventory, and have the factory reset process down.

As a PC tech, I can tell you what to avoid, HP's cut every corner possible, most of the dead laptops I get are HP. A Dell refurbished is going to be a better deal, but check it out first. An SSD is a must, stay away from the old mechanical hard drives, they are just not as reliable.