Buying a refurbished laptop: what grade A means

A good refurbished business laptop can do the work of a new mid-range one for half the price. Our 14-inch refurbished models sell for ₹27,490 with 16 GB of RAM and an SSD. But the word refurbished covers everything from carefully checked machines to old stock with a wipe. Here is what to look for.

Grades describe the outside. Grade A means light signs of use only: no dents, no cracks and no deep scratches on the screen or lid, with a keyboard that shows little wear. Grade B has visible scratches or a shiny keyboard. We sell grade A only. Grades say nothing about the inside, so ask about that separately.

The battery matters most. A battery loses capacity with age, and a three-year-old laptop may hold only 60% of its original charge. Ask for the battery health figure. We replace any battery below 80% before sale, at our cost. Inside, we run five checks on every machine: a full storage health test, a memory test, a keyboard and port check, a screen check for dead pixels and backlight bleed, and the same 24-hour load test our new machines get. Each laptop gets a fresh, genuine copy of the operating system.

Finally, check the warranty and the return policy before paying. Ours carry six months from Byteshala on everything except physical damage, and a seven-day replacement if anything is faulty.