Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/03/08/microsoft-is-offering-recertif.html
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Where did the list price of $2499.99 come from? This machine can be bought today on Amazon for $879 which is $420 off the list price of $1299. What is the “good deal” here?
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It’s aspirational.
“Dress for the price point you want, not the price point you have.”
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BB should shut down the BBS. I never see anything worthwhile.
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The BBS is the best part of the site.
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BBS boing boing shop != BBS bulletin board system
no cigar
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I was thinking that might have been the original new price, but that doesn’t seem to be the case - it always seems to have been cheaper than that. Given that that price is very close to the “fully loaded” Surface, with a bigger screen, more memory, faster processor and much bigger hard driver, maybe that’s the list price for that unit, when sold refurbished? That would be… strange to compare the prices for two totally different machines.
It’s weird that the (not-at-all) “reduced” price for a used, refurbished unit is almost identical to the price for a brand new unit, much less an actually discounted new unit.
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The Surface brand is plagued by weird issues that require warranty repair. Unfortunately, warranty “repair” is replacement because they’re basically unrepairable. To make matters worse, MS appear to do a really bad job of testing replaced units for faults and tend to place them back into the warranty replacement pool with their original faults.
The result is that if you never have a problem you think they’re the best thing ever and tell all your friends. If you have a problem you tend to kind of get gaslit by MS as one unit after another doesn’t quite work right and you start to think it might be you.
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I was about to respond to your first paragraph “Totally not my experience” but your second paragraph is spot on. Got one when it was first released and couldn’t be happier. The most problem free laptop I’ve had. Or rather my wife has, since she adopted it very early on for her work with Rev, and used it many hours a day with that–until AB5 stepped in to nix her working for them anymore.
She did drop it rather badly once, forcing me to open the case and realign the touchpad, but that was user error to be sure, and everything else has been smooth. But, indeed we could very well be one of the good experiences! I wonder what the percentage of lemons are in the bunch.
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They had a lot of problems with the Surface and Surface 2 runs but supposedly the 3 and later models are reasonably reliable. But no, this price isn’t even slightly OK.
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I’m holding out for a resurfaced certify laptop.
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Keep in mind this is a Surface Laptop 2, which is much newer (2016) and very different than the Surface 2 - which is a tablet and came out in 2013. (As always Microsoft goes for the most confusing product naming possible.) While the paltry 8GB of RAM and 256GB hard drive don’t make this a powerhouse it’s a decent machine for someone with modest needs. The price is just ok.
My biggest objection to this laptop is that fucking Alcantara shit all around the keyboard. That’s just begging to get nasty in a jiffy.
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You run java apps, don’t you?
BoingBoing really has to do some posts making fun of their own store. This kind of goofiness really is perfect fodder for them.
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I’m assuming AB5 is Assembly Bill 5. But what’s Rev?
Sorry for the unexplained lingo. Yeah, AB5 is the California law that sharply restricts certain kinds of employment. Rev is a company that was based in the Bay Area that provides captioning and transcription work, with most workers picking their own hours, jobs, etc. Rev decided to cut out of CA and not use CA workers anymore because of the law. Didn’t pay all that great, but was immensely flexible and had other useful elements that worked well for us and others. My wife was really highly ranked so could have her picks of projects (many of which were really interesting and quite a variety).
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If these specs are what you’re looking for get a Dell Inspiron 5570 link to ebay listing for one at $400 same specs but $480 cheaper than that surface on amazon
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