Thanks! I’ve always thought refurbs offer fantastic value for money, but was apprehensive about receiving products with ugly physical defects.
Twice I have bought refurb from Dell. The Dell Outlet has a search engine that lets you check off boxes to select or avoid units that have cosmetic defects as opposed to other outlet products. Here’s the Dell Outlet to the highest level of laptop search. http://www.dell.com/us/en/dfh/notebooks/ct.aspx?refid=notebooks&s=dfh&cs=22
I don’t see the boxes displayed on the left there but I know they exist somewhere in the search procedure because I just bought a unit there.
Dell latitudes are indeed great but I believe they are on the expensive side compared with their Inspiron line. And I believe Dell still lets you customize the exterior of the laptop to colors or designs the kids can choose.
There’s an article on Cnet.com right now about a 2010 review of back-to-school retail computer options. Here’s the link: http://news.cnet.com/back-to-school/pc-reviews/?tag=topPanelArea.0