On the hunt for a laptop for my son for school but can only afford refurbished with the specs required. So looking for recommendations of reputable sites you may have used in the past or know of. Thanks!
Reputable Refurbished Laptop Store Suggestions?
Heyitslei on 17/01/2026 - 20:42
Comments
I bought from GreenBox last year. Good service, product was as described, would buy from them again.
It might be an idea to state your general location .
refurbished only means they clean the case , wipe the hard drive & reload Win .
So they arnt refurbished at all .
In fact , a true refurb was possibly one that had a serious hardware fault repaired: ie avoidAlso , be aware that MANY old/used laptops wont meat the Win11 min spec , and the seller will put Win11 on a laptop
thats out of spec. This could cause issues with the next Win11 major Win update
Find out the CPU spec , then do a search to see if it actually meets the Win11 min specWinn11 compatabilty list
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/design/mi…This company is at least honest about Win11 Spec & the laptops they sell. I had a friend buy from them, he was happy with it
https://www.thunderstore.nz/category/laptops/windows-11-lapt…I second Thunderstore as I use them…they have a good range in specs + prices and ship free NZ wide.
If you have the ability, and a contact in Australia, then I suggest Dell refurbished products. Can get great deals but they don't ship to NZ.
What's the budget?
What are the specs needed?Try out HN Outlet website.
https://www.harveynorman.co.nz/computers/laptops/
For example:
HP 14" Laptop - Intel N150 4GB-RAM 128GB-UFS - Natural Silver (14s-dq6002TU) for 498 bucks:
https://www.harveynorman.co.nz/computers/laptops/hp-14-lapto…
Available in every store in Chch, for instance.
Give'm a try, plenty of deals, tbh…
Or there's another option, namely — AliExpress, certainly, with their good deals and free delivery to NZ:
Have a look:
I just found this on AliExpress:
NZ$642.42 | 14.1"Laptop Computer PC Intel Core i7 8650U Atom 3950 Ultra slim Notebook 12GB RAM 1TB 2TB SSD Office Study Windows 11 1920*1080
htt p s ://a.aliexpress.com/_mqZoSrR(You could customize it there, and the cheapest version would be smth like ≈435 bucks, roughly, including GST.)
Haven't purchased off them but saw this on ozbargain and they ship to NZ. Not sure how you'd stand if you run in to issues though.
I have bought monitor and mini pc from them last year. Very good price and both of them where in excellent condition. Only downside could be warranty even if it is 3 months as I am not sure if it is worth shipping it back. Though I have heard of good customer service so that's good. Also for the price, I don't think any nz store can compete with them.
At $296aud delivered it's a pretty good price for a refurb 11th gen i5 laptop. It would trounce any Chromebook in that price range. Hell the ram and SSD on their own are worth $150 at the moment.
If you aren't in a massive rush, there are users on Geekzone.co.nz that sell ex-lease business laptops for good prices.
I have just been through the same exercise buying a laptop for my son for school. I bought a Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon from a seller on TradeMe. Seller is zeppi1. Laptop was in excellent condition - almost like new. Chose that as it was slim and light with a long lasting battery and plenty powerful. That seller has some Gen 8 X1 Carbons on there at the moment priced from $395 with free shipping. Definitely worth a look - I would buy from them again without hesitation.
Current generation is Gen 13 and they are $3000-$4300 new depending on specs.
I buy refurb units for our production stations at work fairly often.
My usual go to; ptl computers, nzpcclearance, core, pbtech. Usually depends who has stock in the desired spec and price (found pbtech typically more expensive).