Comment by getcrunk
I’ve bought three laptops this year from eBay. The second was shortly after the first because I thought it was such a good deal.
A few months later the first laptops exhaust started smelling like burning plastic and i also discovered that if you move the lid/screen a certain way the laptop hard freezes. A few months after that same smell from the second laptop (different model/seller) that progressed into a proper burning smell. In both cases I’m out my purchase price and for the total could have bought new.
On a whim after coming across the thinkpad subreddit I bought a t480s recently. As soon as I got it paid attention to folding the hinges excessively and noticed it creaks sometimes and the exhaust also gets a little too toasty. So this one is going back.
I’m not against used. I’m a lifelong 2nd hand buyer. No problems with phones or even mini pcs.
I don’t recommend laptops anymore tho. Too delicate and can have hidden issues.
If you read this far. It’s not enviornmental cus my bought new laptop (4yo) doesn’t have any issues. And also I did take off the back cover in both laptops and didn’t see any obvious blown parts. And neither are overheating from sensor data even under p95
If you're not against supporting Apple, their laptops always seem to have the most longevity. I am still running my M1 with 8G of RAM and it out performs the latest "top of the line" Windows laptops my work are handing out.
Prior to this one I had a MacBook Pro for about 7 years and before that one the black plastic MacBooks from 2007.
So three laptops for the better part of 20 years.