Update 27July16: The prices of some of these netbooks have been knocked back further, now starting from a low £71.99!
Argos have recently reduced the prices of their refurb netbooks - these used to be priced at £119 upwards, but many have been reduced recently to (from) £89.99 delivered with a full 1 year warranty. for anyone considering buying one. Two of these have been posted individually (only one is now available) but I thought it's worth posting the bunch together for comparison purposes and given that many more have now been reduced. **I have given due credit to these posters below**
Obviously refurbs are not for everybody but in my personal experience, having purchased at least 5 of these over the past 4 years starting with the older Atom D5XX/10 inch screen combos, Argos's refurbs have in most cases appeared new with little or no cosmetic or other blemishes, and when I needed a repair on one it was handled very expeditiously (a hard disk replacement).
The bulk of these come with an Intel Atom Quad-core Processor (Atom z3735f, BayTrail-T Platform, 4W TDP), a dual core Celeron N2840 (Silvermont platform, BayTrail-M, 7.5W TDP), or the newer dual core Celeron N3050 (Braswell platform, 6W TDP) coupled to an almost universal 2GB RAM (usually soldered and non-upgradeable with a few rare exceptions) and a soldered 32GB eMMC NAND Flash chip serving 'hard disk' duties. The latter is not user-upgradeable. Most run Windows 8.1 with a free update to Win 10 on offer until MS closes the window in July. Some do run out of the box with Windows 10. There are also two Chromebooks in the sale, as well as a few convertibles. All come with a microSD or SD card slot for expandable storage, at least two USB2 slots and the odd USB3, HDMI out and RJ45 LAN ports in some cases.
I started with the Acer ES1-131 (Celeron N3050, Windows 8.1, priced at £89.99) having rather high hopes for the newer Celeron Braswell platform, but found this quite slow for basics like Chrome and the build quality was really poor. Unusually, this actually has upgradeable RAM via an SODIMM slot, but I returned it (Argos ebay have a painless return process) for a Lenovo Ideapad 100S (Atom z3735f) and so far am very impressed by the speed (can have 5-6 Chrome windows + Spotify and YouTube open without lag), weight (under 1kg), battery life (7-8 hours) , keyboard (it's chiclet with decent travel) and build quality (it's plastic, but premium plastic compared to the Acer). It's a keeper and I use it every day when I'm not at my desktop, even bringing it to the office as it's feather light and I don't feel the weight in my briefcase.
These netbooks will not replace your 'proper' laptops or desktops, but if your requirements centre around MS Office, Social Media, YouTube, Spotify and you need something portable with a decent battery and a watertight 1 year warranty at a low price, you could do worse. For full reviews on most of these, try www.notebookcheck.net, a German review site which I must say is very comprehensive in their unbiased reviews.
Here are some of the options you have in the sale for under £100 delivered:
Acer Aspire ES1- 131 £89.99: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Acer-Aspire-ES1-131-Intel-11-6-Inch-2GB-32GB-Windows-8-1-Laptop-Black-/361527561621
(posted by DatAlbino at £81.99 previously, but this deal has expired)
Toshiba Click Mini 8.9 £89.99: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Toshiba-Click-Mini-8-9-Inch-Intel-1-33Ghz-32GB-2-in-1-Detachable-Laptop-White-/331823321067
HP Chromebook 11.6 £99.99: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HP-Chromebook-11-6-Inch-Intel-2-16GHz-2GB-16GB-ChromeOS-Chromebook-Silver-/351699264422
Top comments
hcc27
7 Jun 163#8
Yeah I'd think so. IMHO a quad core Atom from this list appeared significantly faster than a dual core Celeron N3050, but I don't think either will struggle with mission planner. The good thing about these net books is that they weigh between 1-1.3kg and are small and light enough to fit in a small rucksack without your feeling the weight or the bulk, compared to a full sized laptop.
hcc27
6 Jun 163#5
Hmm not really. It certainly won't rival a Core I5 ultrabook with 8GB RAM but it's 89 quid delivered and more than usable for browsing and many other things. I'm typing this on my Ideapad 100S, and as demonstrated by Lon Seidman on YouTube this little baby can play minecraft at 30-40FPS apart from being more than usable for browsing, 1080p YouTube playback and Office - see his full video review here:
You pays more, you obviously gets more but this lot is mostly 89 quid with a year's warranty.
All comments (26)
hcc27
6 Jun 16#1
Thanks niceroundpound, so much easier with clickable links :-)
Rob_B
6 Jun 16#2
I've had 3735f with 2gb on a tablet driving a 7 inch screen and performance was unbearable, this was for basic Internet usage, just a warning.
hcc27
6 Jun 16#3
I agree. I have this problem with an Asus tablet using the same processor as well. This processor is capable of operating at clock speeds between 1.33-1.83 GHz, quite a large margin. Tablet manufacturers tend to use aggressive throttling to reduce the thermal footprint as well as to gain a battery life advantage - in laptops, throttling tends to be more conservative. On the IdeaPad 100S which I now have, I can have around 5 Chrome tabs open while playing a YouTube video without the laptop coming to a halt. Not so on the Asus tablet with the same processor, albeit with 1GB RAM.
absulute2012
6 Jun 16#4
Does anyone really want these?
these will be atrocious even for basic web use.
hcc27
6 Jun 163#5
Hmm not really. It certainly won't rival a Core I5 ultrabook with 8GB RAM but it's 89 quid delivered and more than usable for browsing and many other things. I'm typing this on my Ideapad 100S, and as demonstrated by Lon Seidman on YouTube this little baby can play minecraft at 30-40FPS apart from being more than usable for browsing, 1080p YouTube playback and Office - see his full video review here:
You pays more, you obviously gets more but this lot is mostly 89 quid with a year's warranty.
happydeals
6 Jun 16#6
Thanks
jaydeeuk1
6 Jun 16#7
Nice, should all run mission planner just fine
hcc27
7 Jun 163#8
Yeah I'd think so. IMHO a quad core Atom from this list appeared significantly faster than a dual core Celeron N3050, but I don't think either will struggle with mission planner. The good thing about these net books is that they weigh between 1-1.3kg and are small and light enough to fit in a small rucksack without your feeling the weight or the bulk, compared to a full sized laptop.
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Opening post
Argos have recently reduced the prices of their refurb netbooks - these used to be priced at £119 upwards, but many have been reduced recently to (from) £89.99 delivered with a full 1 year warranty. for anyone considering buying one. Two of these have been posted individually (only one is now available) but I thought it's worth posting the bunch together for comparison purposes and given that many more have now been reduced. **I have given due credit to these posters below**
Obviously refurbs are not for everybody but in my personal experience, having purchased at least 5 of these over the past 4 years starting with the older Atom D5XX/10 inch screen combos, Argos's refurbs have in most cases appeared new with little or no cosmetic or other blemishes, and when I needed a repair on one it was handled very expeditiously (a hard disk replacement).
The bulk of these come with an Intel Atom Quad-core Processor (Atom z3735f, BayTrail-T Platform, 4W TDP), a dual core Celeron N2840 (Silvermont platform, BayTrail-M, 7.5W TDP), or the newer dual core Celeron N3050 (Braswell platform, 6W TDP) coupled to an almost universal 2GB RAM (usually soldered and non-upgradeable with a few rare exceptions) and a soldered 32GB eMMC NAND Flash chip serving 'hard disk' duties. The latter is not user-upgradeable. Most run Windows 8.1 with a free update to Win 10 on offer until MS closes the window in July. Some do run out of the box with Windows 10. There are also two Chromebooks in the sale, as well as a few convertibles. All come with a microSD or SD card slot for expandable storage, at least two USB2 slots and the odd USB3, HDMI out and RJ45 LAN ports in some cases.
I started with the Acer ES1-131 (Celeron N3050, Windows 8.1, priced at £89.99) having rather high hopes for the newer Celeron Braswell platform, but found this quite slow for basics like Chrome and the build quality was really poor. Unusually, this actually has upgradeable RAM via an SODIMM slot, but I returned it (Argos ebay have a painless return process) for a Lenovo Ideapad 100S (Atom z3735f) and so far am very impressed by the speed (can have 5-6 Chrome windows + Spotify and YouTube open without lag), weight (under 1kg), battery life (7-8 hours) , keyboard (it's chiclet with decent travel) and build quality (it's plastic, but premium plastic compared to the Acer). It's a keeper and I use it every day when I'm not at my desktop, even bringing it to the office as it's feather light and I don't feel the weight in my briefcase.
These netbooks will not replace your 'proper' laptops or desktops, but if your requirements centre around MS Office, Social Media, YouTube, Spotify and you need something portable with a decent battery and a watertight 1 year warranty at a low price, you could do worse. For full reviews on most of these, try www.notebookcheck.net, a German review site which I must say is very comprehensive in their unbiased reviews.
Here are some of the options you have in the sale for under £100 delivered:
Lenovo IdeaPad 100S £89.99: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lenovo-IdeaPad-100S-11-6-Inch-Intel1-83-Ghz-2GB-32GB-Windows-8-Laptop-White-/351712896881
Lenovo Miix 10.1 £89.99: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lenovo-Miix-10-1-Inch-Intel-Atom-1-33Ghz-2GB-32GB-2-in-1-Windows-Laptop-Black-/351713541355
(posted previously by spitfire51)
Acer Aspire Switch 10.1 £89.99 http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Acer-Aspire-Switch-10-1-Inch-1-33GHz-2GB-32GB-2-in-1-Windows-8-1-Laptop-Pink-/361417522015
Lenovo S21E-20 £89.99 http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lenovo-S21E-20-11-6-Inch-Intel-2-16GHz-2GB-32GB-Windows-8-Laptop-Silver-/361417522102
Acer Aspire ES1- 131 £89.99: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Acer-Aspire-ES1-131-Intel-11-6-Inch-2GB-32GB-Windows-8-1-Laptop-Black-/361527561621
(posted by DatAlbino at £81.99 previously, but this deal has expired)
Toshiba Click Mini 8.9 £89.99: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Toshiba-Click-Mini-8-9-Inch-Intel-1-33Ghz-32GB-2-in-1-Detachable-Laptop-White-/331823321067
Acer V3-112P Pink Touch Screen £99: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Acer-V3-112P-11-6-Inch-Intel-2-16GHz-2GB-32GB-Windows-8-Touch-Laptop-Pink-/361428435729
HP Stream 11 Pink £99.99: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HP-Stream-11-D009NA-11-6-Inch-2-16-MHz-32GB-2GB-Windows-8-Flash-HD-Magenta-/361428433068
HP Stream 11 Blue £99.99: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HP-Stream-11-D000NA-11-6-Inch-Intel-2-16GHz-2GB-32GB-Windows-8-1-Notebook-Blue-/361405175792
Acer V3- 112P Touch Screen £99.99 http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Acer-V3-112P-11-6-Inch-Intel-2-6GHz-2GB-32GB-Windows-8-Touch-Laptop-Silver-/361417522077
HP Chromebook 11.6 £99.99: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HP-Chromebook-11-6-Inch-Intel-2-16GHz-2GB-16GB-ChromeOS-Chromebook-Silver-/351699264422
Top comments
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Gsf6jcfHWE
You pays more, you obviously gets more but this lot is mostly 89 quid with a year's warranty.
All comments (26)
these will be atrocious even for basic web use.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Gsf6jcfHWE
You pays more, you obviously gets more but this lot is mostly 89 quid with a year's warranty.