It’s not always easy buying a gift for an adult – they often have all of the things they really need in order to get by, leaving you with the dilemma of whether to buy them something consumable, like wine or chocolates, or something that’s fun and frivolous.
However, one alternative could be to help them replace something they already have, but which is past its best – for example, an old laptop that no longer recharges properly, has a cracked screen or a broken keyboard.
This doesn’t have to cost the earth, either; you can buy refurbished laptops at very competitive prices, and they can be an excellent choice for novice computer users who know how to work with what they’ve got, but would be flummoxed if they were to upgrade to the latest model.
Why Refurbished?
Buying refurbished has several benefits, if you’re thinking of giving a laptop as a gift.
First of all, it’s cheaper, yet you still get an as-new, top-quality computer system, making it an ideal way to give a better laptop than you might otherwise be able to afford.
Secondly, you may be able to find older models in factory condition, meaning you can potentially give a direct replacement for your recipient’s existing computer, but in better working order.
Together, these combine to make for a very thoughtful, practical gift, that will help them to overcome the problem of their old laptop breaking, without having to get to grips with a machine that’s really too powerful for their needs and level of experience.
Thoughtful Touches
If you’ve bought a new system, there are a few thoughtful finishing touches you might want to make to it, to make it feel like a proper present. For instance, you might want to put some photographs on to its hard drive of you and your gift’s recipient sharing some happy times.
You could go so far as to set these as the desktop wallpaper, or use a slideshow of images as the screensaver – which may come as a pleasant surprise to your lucky recipient the first time they leave their system idle for long enough to trigger it.
Best Intentions
So if you can’t find a 100% perfect match for your friend or relative’s existing laptop, that doesn’t mean you, should give up hope.
Any similar model released around the same time should have broadly the same capabilities, including compatibility for the same software, operating system, file formats and so on.
That should also mean it should be fairly easy for your recipient to learn how to use their new machine – as it is primarily the operating system that determines how familiar the laptop as a whole will feel to them.
Other than that, just look out for the usual things – amount of memory, hard drive capacity and soon – and you can make sure you give the best possible laptop for your money.