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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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 08 2015, @09:54PM
As SDRefugee notes, "old" is relative.
In my book, hardware has been Good Enough(tm) for a very long time.
I have a Pentium 2 that can still do the things I need to do.
(Linux FTW.)
Of course, since I don't run Windoze, I don't need bleeding edge hardware.
That so many folks -think- they do need the latest hardware for email or photos or music is a testament to salesmenship and Lamestream Media.
{Comment about the bankrupt nature of The Consumer Society goes here.}
Joe Average should have a personal nerd to inform him of the wide range of options available.
...and, as I noted the other day, if all your guy knows is Windoze, you need a better guy.
Where I am, there are still places where you can find one of those in meatspace. [lalugs.org]
-- gewg_