NOTE: This guide focuses only on workstations and business-grade laptops. And don’t complain if I use USD since I don’t want to type in more than a million currencies

The components shortage has hit us so hard that even new laptops from popular brands are costing from 500$ upwards, which honestly hurts a lot. You see everyone using a business-grade laptop and what do you know about it? Depends.

Finding a new laptop under that is not easy either, since now apparently Intel N-series laptops now costs like ~300$ - 400$, crazy, right? Even worse, a good gaming laptop now costs like 800$ - 1200$

Well, enter the used market, you will find a lot of good deals there for older business-grade laptops that beat a lot of the new ones for either under these prices, but be sure to know the compromises.

Here’s also the questions that I made for myself:

Q: Do you recommend laptops based on value and performance?

A: Nope, value and performance are 2 things, but the most important is reliability. For instance, an HP ProBook 450 G7 may be weaker than an Acer Aspire 7 A715-75G (2020), but it has better materials since HP uses polycarbonate plastic with milled aluminium. That’s a dramatic change from the Acer’s weak plastic.

Q: Why do people buy used business-grade laptops?

A: Two words: reliability and works

Q: Why workstation over a gaming laptop?

A: You get your bang for buck since workstation laptops get so much depreciation, just like a Google Pixel. Which also means I could find an RTX A5000 laptop for ~800$, crazy performance for a good deal.

Q: What are the compromises should I be aware?

A: Battery health, SSD/HDD health, and experience

Now, try to adapt to this Q&A and you can have a baseline on how to buy a laptop.

“Okay, so WHAT laptop do you recommend?”

Well… I don’t really know the specific models. But here’s the good series starters:

  • HP ProBook and EliteBooks
  • Lenovo ThinkPads, T and P series
  • Dell Laditude and Precision
  • Asus’ higher-end Vivobooks, ZenBooks, ExpertBooks, and ProArt series (that’s a mouthful)

Pick your poison, then choose your preferences on it. For example, my personal one:

  • Must be Core i5 from 9th generation or up
  • Polycarbonate plastic + aluminum, full aluminium or magnesium chassis
  • Fingerprint reader required
  • At least 256 GB of reliable SSD
  • Must be in good condition, only slight scratches are allowed

Now, if you are trying to follow tutorials for buying laptops, I recommend watching Salem Techsperts. Specifically this video: