A lot of people are in a situation where they need a cheap laptop computer, and they do not necessarily have the kind of money where they can just walk into their local electronics superstore and plunk down their cash for whatever machine strikes their fancy.  They need to be a bit more creative than that, do a bit of research, and find a killer deal on a good machine.  This is certainly the case with most college students, but these days this scenario also applies to high school students and just about anyone else who uses a computer on a regular basis.  The laptop has become much more of a normal fixture in many people's lives, and it would be an inconvenience for many if they did not have access to one.  Therefore, there is a real need for people to find a way to get a good laptop at a low price. 

One solution for this is to take a look at buying a refurbished laptop computer.  Now obviously if you are looking to buy a refurbished computer then you are also looking to buy the computer based on price.  If this is the case then here is the process that you should go through in order to find the lowest price possible on a machine that you can live with.

First of all start with out with the Netbooks.  These are the new mini computers that have sort of taken the world by storm and seem to be all the rage these days.  Just about every notebook manufacturer makes them and pretty much all of them are decent little machines.  Now the real test that you have to find out about before you can take the netbook plunge is: "Can I get real work done on this machine?"  If you have a friend who has a netbook then take it for a quick test drive.  If not, then head on over to that electronics superstore and ask them if you can demo a few netbooks.  Try them out and do some real typing on them.  You might find that the 10 inch netbooks are fine but the 8 inch ones are too small for real work.  It is also possible that neither size netbook is any good for you and is just unnacceptable. 

The reason for doing this testing is because you are going to get the best price if you buy a refurbished netbook rather than a refurbished laptop.  So it pays to do your homework and figure out exactly what your needs are in a machine and do the testing and see what is acceptable for you.  If the smaller machines work for you then this is great, you have found your cheap solution.  If not, then you will have to take a look at slighly more expensive and larger machines.

After you have determine what size laptop you can live with, it is time to check out a few prices.  I suggest that you start with the major manufacturers such as Dell, Toshiba, Lenovo, HP, and so on.  Go to their shopping websites and find their outlet or refurbished section of their shopping website.  All of them have this.  Then simply shop around and take down some prices and see what you can find that is cheap and matches up with our needs.  Features are not going to be a big deal in this case; the main issues are size of the keyboard and operating system.  Some netbooks are so cheap that they come with Linux, others have various flavors of Windows on them.  It is all about matching up to your needs of course. 

I would suggest that you find comparable machines at all of the major manufacturers and then compare prices.  When you find the best one, you are still not quite done yet.  You need to be a bit more patient now and wait for the outlet sale.  Yes, all of the major manufacturers run sales on their refurbished invetories.  So if you really want the best deal, and you really want to buy at the lowest possible price, then you are going to have to do your homework and also wait for the right sale.  This should not take long though because most of them have a sale of this nature every month or two, and if you are scoping out different brands and have several buying alternatives then you should be able to find a killer deal fairly quickly. 

So basically, figure out exactly what you need in a laptop and do some hands on testing to determine what your limits are.  Buy the least amount of machine that you can get away with and do your homework thoroughly.  Wait for a sale on refurbished products and strike when the timing is right.  That is how to get the best deal on a refurbished laptop computer.