SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
While the pull to buy the latest and greatest device for yourself or your children may be strong, a far better choice, both for your wallet and the environment, might be to purchase an older model that's been refurbished, which can save you money and be a better use of resources.
The market for used previously owned electronics is quite large, and that may be good for consumers in some aspects, as there is a lot of choice, it can also be quite the minefield to navigate, because not only is there a big difference between a used device and a refurbished one, there is also quite a big gray area when it comes to the quality of the refurbishing. A used device sold directly by the original owner to another owner comes with no guarantees of any kind, and any assurances given by the seller that the device works great and has been well taken care of have to be taken with a grain of salt - after all, who's going to be able to sell you a gadget after telling you that it's basically been rode hard and put away wet?
One way to make sure you're buying a refurbished computer or mobile device that will work well and last long enough to pay for itself is to look for one that has been refurbished following the guidelines of the R2 Standard of Sustainable Electronics Recycling International (SERI). Computers and mobile devices that have gone through this standardized process are labeled as "R2 Ready for Reuse," which means that they have been tested and refurbished by a certified company, and have had a fully licensed operating system installed on them. In order to retain this R2 certification, these companies must undergo annual inspections to verify that their work adheres to "the highest industry standards for testing, repair, and data security."
To find a refurbisher that meets the R2 standards, and that sells direct to consumers, a list of companies selling R2 refurbished desktops and laptops is available on the SERI site, as well as a listing of R2 recyclers that can responsibly recycle your old electronics.
Our kids get our old laptops, surplus RPis, tablets we got for free as promos, because the death of the device is only one spilled glass of juice away. Guessing many other Soylentils do the same. Has anyone had experience with R2 certified devices?
(Score: 2) by meisterister on Saturday August 08 2015, @05:23PM
...I've found that the tech industry is in a rather interesting situation right now.
I don't think that there's ever been a time when a computer that is about ten years old could run the latest software perfectly fine for 99% of users. Not only that, but it also appears that it's the first time that most people are realizing that they don't need to buy a new computer every 3 years.
Anecdote time: I recently ran KDE, also known as one of the heaviest DEs on a 1.2GHz, low voltage Core2 Duo with godawful Intel integrated graphics. The fact that it was snappy and responsive on such a machine is really telling.
Anecdote bordering on numerical fact time: I also recently bought a secondhand Elitebook 2740p for a total of $90 (not including SSD and $5 power supply). This was originally a $2000 laptop, and that shows in how well it's built. In terms of CPU (i7 620M) speed, it can beat the crap out of the $300 laptop I bought in 2014 and generally compete with modern i3s and i5s. In terms of build quality, the keyboard, and mouse, there's simply no comparison. The 2014 laptop comes with a clickpad (unusable), a chicklet keyboard (also unusable), a 16:9 display (awkward to hold AND pointless for work!), and build quality to match its price.
Less anecdote, more sad reality: If anyone's cared to check, you can get the Xeon version of the i7 920 online for $4, or even an overclocking board with RAM and i7-9xx series CPU all for around $150-$200. Given that Core2 and K8 are plenty for what most people do, this is excellent. If a user isn't doing crazy floating point stuff, they should absolutely buy used over new, because we're at a point where buying something new just doesn't make any economic sense.
(May or may not have been) Posted from my K6-2, Athlon XP, or Pentium I/II/III.