The best refurbished laptop deals in Australia

The HP ZBook Studio G3 is a great all-rounder choice for the refurbished laptop purchaser seeking a good mix of price and performance. For around $1,200, you get a powerful Intel Xeon E3 processor and 32GB of DDR4 RAM to handle everything you can throw at it. There’s also a dedicated video card that’s good for playing older games or indie titles. There is average reported battery life, so keep a charger on hand or, better yet, treat the ZBook Studio G3 as a workstation. While it’s a shame this HP laptop ships with Windows 10, the easy workaround is to take advantage of a free Windows 11 update as soon as it’s available.

For alternatives, compare the ZBook Studio G3 against any similarly priced refurbished laptops from Dell, Acer, MSI or Toshiba.

The Dell Latitude 7290 has a great price tag for what you get, especially if you’re after a refurbished laptop that’s for study or other basic computing tasks. For just over $500, you get a Windows 11-powered laptop with good battery life and respectable performance. While the Intel Core i5 CPU and 16GB of DDR4 RAM are effectively entry-level inclusions, there’s a speedy 256GB SSD for storage. If you need more space, lean on cloud storage; alternatively, use the USB ports or MicroSD port for physical expansion. There’s a webcam for video calls, and the 12-inch screen also makes the Latitude 7290 a compact laptop that can easily slip into a bag for on-the-go computing.

Alternatively, consider refurbished laptops around $500 from HP, Lenovo, MSI and Toshiba (or just check out what’s available on Amazon at that price point).

Two-in-one laptops are great because they let users cut down on devices by rolling tablet and laptop functionality into a single device. And the HP Envy X360 is a great place to start your 2-in-1 comparisons. The display is a 15.6-inch touchscreen, which is a great midpoint between mobility and practicality. Fold it onto the back of the laptop for tablet mode. You may want to get a stylus, though, if you like to use a tablet for writing or doodling. Outside of the 2-in-1 features, there’s also great performance from the Ryzen 5 processor whose integrated graphics can comfortably run older games and newer indie titles.

For alternatives, compare the HP Envy X360 with refurbished 2-in1- laptops from MSI, Dell, Acer and Toshiba.

Choosing high-end components for a refurbished laptop doesn’t mean spending thousands, particularly in comparison to buying new. The Lenovo ThinkPad P51 boasts some speedy innards, including an Intel Core i7 processor (up to 3.9GHz speeds) and 32GB of DDR4 RAM to keep up with basic and more involved day-to-day tasks. There’s 512GB of SSD storage to play with, plus a dedicated Nvidia Quadro M2200 4GB graphics card for graphics-intensive tasks, including some gaming. It’s not a gaming machine, though, but you can expect all-day battery life to keep up with the other non-gaming tasks you use it for.

Alternatively, compare the ThinkPad P51 with available high-end refurbished laptop models from HP, Dell, Asus, Microsoft, MSI and Toshiba.

Gaming laptops are only going to get more expensive, particularly with the release of 4000-series graphics cards that are starting to bump prices to around the $5,000 price from brands like Razer. Go with something like the Asus TUF Gaming A15 to save thousands. Admittedly, the Nvidia 3070 graphics card isn’t as powerful as any of the newer 4000-series offerings. But the 1080p-resolution screen on the TUF Gaming A15 means you can still play all current popular games with good fidelity and a solid frame rate. Future-proofing concerns aside, the TUF Gaming A15 has powerful performance for other computer tasks, as well as great battery life for a gaming laptop.

For refurbished gaming laptops, consider available alternatives from Alienware, Acer, MSI, Razer and Toshiba.

As is the case with buying a new laptop, the best place to start is with what you want out of a refurbished laptop. If you’re after a laptop for school or university work, you can get away with cheaper options.

Choosing a 2-in-1 or mid-range refurbished laptop means you get better performance, but the price starts to go up. High-end laptops range from $1,500 or more while refurbished gaming laptops are around $2,000 or more. Remember that refurbished laptops tend to have limited stock, so it’s worth snapping up something if you like the look of it.

Whatever category you choose, it’s always worth checking out reviews before buying. Pay close attention to the evaluation of battery life, performance and the display. Ultimately, a good refurbished laptop can have just as long a life as a new one.

Collectively, our team has dozens of years of experience with laptops and PC hardware. We use that expertise to evaluate the dozens of refurbished laptops available online. But it all starts with finding reputable outlets.

Amazon, Kogan, Mwave and Rewned.com.au all have refurbished certification processes that ensure a refurbished laptop isn’t the equivalent of the average second-hand purchase off eBay. We also like retailers that offer warranties, limited as they may be in comparison to new purchases.

The latest available refurbished laptops at the time of writing or updating are then evaluated in terms of core categories. We separate based on price and laptop type (e.g. 2-in-1 and gaming), then either use our own hands-on experience or external review analysis to determine the top contenders.