Is this a good buy for around 600 bucks?

[Orellana13]

It's an HP Envy 17 refurbished laptop. My only qualm is that it's refurbished and I have never purchased a refurb machine before. Do you think it's a good idea to buy a machine that isn't new.

The specs are the following:

Processor:Intel Core i7 6500U
Memory:16 GB DDR3
Storage:1 TB HDD
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce 940M 2 GB
Screen: 1080p IPS Touchscreen

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01BX275GA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Do you recommend a better alternative to this that isn't much more expensive than this. Say 650 or less? I would like a good processor (Quad Core or at least a Dual Core i7), Full HD IPS and backlit keyboard.

Thank you in advance for your help.

 

[geofelt]

Factory refurb is generally ok

Look at the Lenovo outlet for their Y700 gaming laptops.
Here is one that is a bit more expensive, but it is new, has a stronger processor, stronger graphics,includes a ssd
http://outlet.lenovo.com/outlet_us/itemdetails/80Q0001MUS/445

 

[Stallion__]

Certified Refurbished is usually fine. I've owned a Refurbished iPad Mini 2 from Apple for about 2 years now, and there's been no problems. Aside from that, what geofelt suggested is a good buy if you can go over your price, otherwise, I would definitely go with your choice!

 

[Orellana13]

Certified Refurbished is usually fine. I've owned a Refurbished iPad Mini 2 from Apple for about 2 years now, and there's been no problems. Aside from that, what geofelt suggested is a good buy if you can go over your price, otherwise, I would definitely go with your choice!

The problem is that I am not entirely sure whether to buy it or not because performance wise is very similar to my current laptop. I pretty much just wanted a better system with a better screen and a backlit keyboard but don't want to spend 1000 bucks on it.

My current laptop has a 5th gen i5 Processor so this one is only 20 percent faster at best.
The graphics card is virtually the same as my current laptop (I have the 840M 2 GB)

The only things I get are the following

Twice the RAM (16 GB vs 8 GB)
Backlit Keyboard
Full HD IPS vs 720p TN
Extra Speakers and Subwoofer
3D camera (not that it would be useful to me)
Fingerprint Reader
and a more premium design.

So I don't if it's such a good buy just for those upgrades. If it was 400 bucks it would be a no brainer but for 600 bucks I am not too sure.

 

[Stallion__]

Certified Refurbished is usually fine. I've owned a Refurbished iPad Mini 2 from Apple for about 2 years now, and there's been no problems. Aside from that, what geofelt suggested is a good buy if you can go over your price, otherwise, I would definitely go with your choice!

The problem is that I am not entirely sure whether to buy it or not because performance wise is very similar to my current laptop. I pretty much just wanted a better system with a better screen and a backlit keyboard but don't want to spend 1000 bucks on it.

My current laptop has a 5th gen i5 Processor so this one is only 20 percent faster at best.
The graphics card is virtually the same as my current laptop (I have the 840M 2 GB)

The only things I get are the following

Twice the RAM (16 GB vs 8 GB)
Backlit Keyboard
Full HD IPS vs 720p TN
Extra Speakers and Subwoofer
3D camera (not that it would be useful to me)
Fingerprint Reader
and a more premium design.

So I don't if it's such a good buy just for those upgrades. If it was 400 bucks it would be a no brainer but for 600 bucks I am not too sure.

Well, it depends if you need a huge upgrade or are just looking to get a new laptop. The full HD IPS screen would look so much better than what you had before, and twice the ram will help with multitasking quite a lot. The speakers would be useful to me, but I'm not sure if you listen to music much. The backlit keyboard is nice for typing in the dark, and most of the other features are just I-Don't-Need-It-But-If-I-Can-I-Will features.

It really comes down to the question. Are you buying this to play some sort of game or are you buying this just simply to have a better laptop?

If you're buying it to play a game I would go for a laptop with a better processor and GPU, like geofelt suggested.
If you're buying it to have a better laptop, go ahead and buy it! Its a good choice.

 

[Orellana13]

Certified Refurbished is usually fine. I've owned a Refurbished iPad Mini 2 from Apple for about 2 years now, and there's been no problems. Aside from that, what geofelt suggested is a good buy if you can go over your price, otherwise, I would definitely go with your choice!

The problem is that I am not entirely sure whether to buy it or not because performance wise is very similar to my current laptop. I pretty much just wanted a better system with a better screen and a backlit keyboard but don't want to spend 1000 bucks on it.

My current laptop has a 5th gen i5 Processor so this one is only 20 percent faster at best.
The graphics card is virtually the same as my current laptop (I have the 840M 2 GB)

The only things I get are the following

Twice the RAM (16 GB vs 8 GB)
Backlit Keyboard
Full HD IPS vs 720p TN
Extra Speakers and Subwoofer
3D camera (not that it would be useful to me)
Fingerprint Reader
and a more premium design.

So I don't if it's such a good buy just for those upgrades. If it was 400 bucks it would be a no brainer but for 600 bucks I am not too sure.

Well, it depends if you need a huge upgrade or are just looking to get a new laptop. The full HD IPS screen would look so much better than what you had before, and twice the ram will help with multitasking quite a lot. The speakers would be useful to me, but I'm not sure if you listen to music much. The backlit keyboard is nice for typing in the dark, and most of the other features are just I-Don't-Need-It-But-If-I-Can-I-Will features.

It really comes down to the question. Are you buying this to play some sort of game or are you buying this just simply to have a better laptop?

If you're buying it to play a game I would go for a laptop with a better processor and GPU, like geofelt suggested.
If you're buying it to have a better laptop, go ahead and buy it! Its a good choice.

This is reassuring. It is indeed a good choice then. The games I have played on my current laptop have played fine. I would buy it because I want a better laptop because performance wise I am happy with my current laptop and the new one is actually a bit faster. I do use my computer at night so the backlit keyboard will be useful and the Full HD screen could motivate me to replace the DVD drive with Bluray on that new machine in the future. Also, I am a huge music lover so having two extra speakers and a subwoofer would be nice. Windows 10 is a memory hog. More than Windows 8.1. I sometimes use 70 percent of my RAM just browsing the web (on 8 GB) so I could only imagine if I start doing a few more tasks. I will also feel right at home since my current laptop is an HP Pavilion and this one is an Envy. This laptop is also bigger than my current one (15.6") so the larger screen will be nice.

Too bad I made this a discussion and not a solution question since I would have given you best answer. Thanks for your help. This is what I was looking for.

 

[Stallion__]

No problem!