Lenovo Outlet

I'm looking for a highly portable laptop that can still handle most applications (no gaming). Since I'm a grad student though, I have a tight budget. I've been looking at the Lenovo Outlet and think I've narrowed my decision down to an Ideapad Yoga 13. First, does anybody have any experience with the Yogas?
Second, has anybody ordered a Scratch & Dent from the Lenovo Outlet and could share their experience?
Thanks.

I know that my father ordered my sister's Thinkpad off of their Outlet, but I'm not sure if it was "Scratch and Dent" quality. I was told the laptop arrived looking brand new, though.

Speaking from second-hand/somewhat direct experience, unless they have improved the quality of their non-Thinkpad series, I'd stay away unless you absolutely can't afford a T/W series Thinkpad. I had a friend/co-worker that bought an Ideapad (unsure on the specific model) and had nothing but trouble with getting it to work properly and getting support to get it working properly. He wasn't too happy about that, but I think he still has it.

I'd even go as far to suggest picking up a second-hand Thinkpad before their "main" lines.

Are you specifically looking for only Lenovo? I have experience with HP's Elitebook line of laptops and love them, they are pretty rugged for what they are.

I'm not specifically looking at Lenovo. I am looking for a 11-14" screen with x86 processor and SSD and good (5+ hours) battery life. It seemed like the Lenovo Outlet may be the best bang for the buck if I was willing to try my luck at Scratch & Dent.

And thanks Thideras, I'm going to do some more research on Ideapads to see if they're all trouble.

I ended up getting a Surface Pro on sale at Best Buy.

Just some info on the Lenovo Outlet if others in the future are curious. I've got a couple of their scratch and dent laptops with good results. The last one was a 14" Y410p, maybe 1 scuff on the lid if you tilted in the right way in the light, otherwise perfect.

The scratch and dent models are also refurbished with a full 1 year warrarny (with option to purchase an extension) they just have a higher chance of cosmetic wear/damage.

Best deals are with the scratch and dent, inventory changes often as do the prices, problem is the outlet is watched by ebay re-sellers so a lot of the really good deals get picked up pretty quick.

I've been watching trying to get a Yoga 11s for a good deal...
$552-595 gets you a Yoga 11s/i5-3rd gen/8GB RAM/256GB SSD...I want orange

hydrata said:

I ended up getting a Surface Pro on sale at Best Buy.

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i almost did the same before I realized that Surface and Windows RT in general is the ZUNE of 2014... It was a ballmer project and its gone now that ballmer is out.

usyed1 said:

i almost did the same before I realized that Surface and Windows RT in general is the ZUNE of 2014... It was a ballmer project and its gone now that ballmer is out.

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The surface and the surface pro run different OSes... The surface rt/2 both run windows rt, and the surface pro/pro2 both run full windows 8.