This page is exactly like my blog post, it is added for better site navigation/management.
Prices posted reflect June 2016 current rates.
Hello everyone looking for something portable? Computers in the 12 inch & below category is just that for you, there are notebooks, netbooks, tablets (slate & convertible) and even ultrabooks! We are gonna delve into some Android/iOS/WinRT machines too as its presumed that people get these sort of computers as an secondary or auxiliary device. Not to say these machines aren’t good for a primary, I used my X61 Tablet for years when I got it in 2011.
With that said, ultraportables kick ass! Especially so with an SSD inside. Seriously though, I love ultraportables, although some may be hindered by smaller heatsink fans they still have a good amount of power and if you got a /biz/ ultraportable you can rock the socks of ultrabooks in performance.
Not much information posted this time, kinda disappointed to be honest, there is a decline in laptops, or at least good machines.
I added a few tablets to make up of it! Scroll to the bottom if you’re interested!
Disclaimer: These prices posted are during the time I did research on current and trending market price! Supply & demand, Moore’s law, exploits, recalls and time will factor changes! I did not research extensively about reliability, feel, Linux/Windows 10 usability, or common problems on these laptops! Laptops at the lowest price point may or may not come with an OS, unlocked BIOS, or AC adapters. You might need to put some work into them if buying the lower priced units!
LISTING FORMAT
E.G Taichi – $250 – 340 // 450? ~ 29 v 39 – Asus Taichi 21 – Specifics & Info – Miscellaneous
- Taichi – The model, base family identifier or name most people know it by.
- $250 – This is the lowest price most people should get these if they want to get a good deal. Sometimes its based off it totally working w/ AC adapter, other times it may need a battery, ac adaptor and OS. You can get a perfect model in here just because of a craiglist or buy it now seller who wants to make cash. Sometimes people overlook auctions.
- 340 – This is the high price I see this trending for. This is due to better specs, better condition, timing or seller rating. Nothing wrong with buying a laptop at this price, as this is what they can go for. I aim at this number or higher when I refurbish computers.
- // 450 – This is the max price you’d pay for a laptop with a great warranty, new/flawless condition, upgraded and/or max specs. Its up to you if you want to pay this price rather than the high price. There are some computers that are sold higher than this number, but I have this here as it is the bar set for a GOAT tier unit.
- ? – On the prices, if I put a question mark on it, it is because I can’t find solid information on the price of the time posting and it is a guesstimate.
- ~ 29 – This is about how many I saw available online thru eBay at the time of searching. More numbers means more of a selection to choose from, which would hopefully mean better price selection, specs and conditions.
- v 87 – This is how many items were sold within the past 3 months using the search term on eBay. With more numbers I can get a more accurate number for prices, but with lower numbers, sometimes estimate what it can be. However there has been times when I’ve searched back that I cannot get the same results, or any results at all!
- Asus Taichi 21 – This would be the long name or specific model it is, this helps if you are looking for a certain model and don’t want to buy a precursor or successor. Sometimes I put the manufacturer’s name here on lesser known laptops. Everyone knows what an Elitebook, Latitude and ThinkPad are.
- Specifics & Info – This would have specific processor info, screen size, RAM.
- Miscellaneous – Random tidbits, like identifying if its an Ultrabook or if I had problems on the accuracy.
Mainstream
E6230 – $150 – 280 // 400 ~ 320 v 378
X230 – $150 – 300 // 450 ~ 201 v 578 – Parts can be got for $120, some still OEM wrty til 2017
2570p – $130 – 230 // 300 ~ 93 v 185
MD224LL/A – $290 – 420 // 560 ~ 18 v 90 (1.7GHz i5 or 2GHz i7, mid 2012, MBA 5,1) mixed data
MD845LL/A – $400? – 570 // 670 ~ 0 v 6 (2GHz i7-3667u, mid 2012, MBA 5,1)
P772 – $160 – ??? // 410 ~ 0 v 2 – Fujitsu Lifebook
- Oddly the X230 seems to be more abundant than the 2570p & E6230
- Interesting enough there are quite a few 2570p units sold in Italy, they actually made a good amount of the sold listings, nab them at $180+
- P772 might be budget/prosumer but it was marketed against the big 3 yet has a glossy finish.
- The MacBook Air identifier MD224LL/A has gotten me mixed information, both i5 and i7 models it is sold under, but I couldn’t find its own page under everymac or pinpoint it’s specs. It fetched unique results seperate from 2GHz i7 MBA & 1.7GHz models.
Tablet Convertible
XPS 12 – $180 – 350 // 500 ~ 20 – 75? – Dell XPS 12 9Q23 – Soldiered RAM, FHD
X230T – $160 – 330 // 500 ~ 59 v 169 – “X230 Tablet” in search, upgradable RAM, 720p
S230 – $130 – 280 // 400 ~ 48 v 100 – Lenovo ThinkPad Twist – Soldiered RAM, 720p
810 G1 – $100 – 250 // 350 ~ 21 v 81 – HP Revolve 810 G1 – Ultrabook
SV-D11 – $250 – 565 // 630 ~ 5 v 17 – Sony Vaio Duo 11 (SV-D1121X9EB) – i5, i7, FHD – Ultrabook
Taichi – $250 – 340 // 450 ~ 29 v 39 – Asus Taichi 21 – Switchable Dual FHD IPS LCDs – Ultrabook
U920T – $165 – 250 // 350 ~ 9 v 4 – Toshiba Satellite U920T-100
- XPS 12 was tough to pinpoint correct information, Haswell & Core M units get in search query. This XPS has the flipping bezel display
- 5 of these top dollar X220 Tablets were $700 and then some past that, I need to buy/sell and shill these.
- Soldiered RAM, I had one for a little bit, hated the performance on it, the i5 and 4GB stank or I had a shit install of W10. The display gets nasty rub marks from the keyboard.
- On the Toshiba, I cannot find any listings, I started part of this guide 3 months ago and now all supplies are dried up after checkin up on it!
- Vaio duo Units with bad displays are sold from $200… Pricey!
- Asus Taichi 21 I originally though it was nothing special but it has TWO FHD IPS displays! Now I get why there are $500 units and sold… Also the weirdest thing about this laptop is that it supposedly has an OS button switch to Android, but I cannot find any other info or citations about it.
- Dual Display on the Taichi means you’ll def want a case or sleeve to protect the outer half. Its a cool concept but there are some reliability problems about it.
- HP doesn’t have a true sucessor to the 12″ 2760p, its replaced by the 11″ Revolve 810.
- X230T is Lenovo’s last X series tablet with a swiveling LCD.
- When I had a ThinkPad Twist, it performed worse than the ChromeBook Pixel, its 16GB mSATA SSD & 2.5″ 500GB HDD combo sucked. When I upgraded to Windows 10, it couldn’t download the OS at first and was exceptionally slow to use.
Budget
X130e – $40 – 100 // 140 ~ 25 v 58
X131e – $65 – 150 // 180 ~ 50 v 184
U310 – 9 v 56 Lenovo IdeaPad, Ultrabook
2170p – $140 – 220 // 300 ~ 28 v 39 – HP Ultrabook CPU
MD223LL/A – $320 – 400 // 480 ~ 36 v 170 (1.7GHz i5-3317u, Mid 2012, MBA 5,1)
P702 – $??? – ??? // 382 ~ 0 v 1 – Fujitsu LifeBook
- Lenovo release the X130e in Februrary 2012, yet the X131e released in July 2012 and these laptops are basically a thicker, education oriented X120e…
- Both laptops can be equipped with a 2nd gen i3 or AMD processor, and can be either Windows or Chromebook based, I’ve yet to get my hands on a Chromebook X130/1 yet.
- X131e can be bought new, people pay $200+, you can get these in lots too. I like them but they have a cramped typing feel.
- P702 had only one unit sold on eBay was a new in box unit w/ no reserve auction.
- Not many laptops here… not researching Chromebooks. (〃´∀｀)
10″ Slate
iPad 3 16GB – $100 – 160 // 220 ~ 370 v 1427
iPad 3 32GB – $120 – 180 // 250 ~ 216 v 1060
iPad 3 64GB – $140 – 200 // 280 ~ 181 v 845
Surface Pro – $86 – 260 // 340 ~ 39 v 174 (Model Number 1514, 9UR-00001)
Tab 2 8GB – $60 – 140 // 219 ~ 38 v 145 – Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1, 2012
Tab 2 16GB – $65 – 120 // 230 ~ 141 v 664
Tab 2 32GB – $88 – 180 // 230 ~ 4 v 9
Nexus 10 16GB – $100 – 130 // 175 ~ 21 v 96 – Samsung Nexus 10, 2012
Nesus 10 32GB – $107 – 180 // 300 ~ 30 v 193
iPad 4 16GB – $165 – 260 // 300 ~ 420 v 2267
iPad 4 32GB – $175 – 265 // 360 ~ 246 v 1263
iPad 4 64GB – $175 – 300 // 380 ~ 123 v 680
iPad 4 128GB – $270 – 350 // 450 ~ 24 v 183
Galaxy Tab 3 – $80 – 180 // 260 ~ 95 v 419 – Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1, 2013
- These tablets can be wifi only, unlocked or bound by a certain carrier. Given most of the used market is just a WiFi only tablet, you shouldn’t have a problem with this then.
- A LOT of iPads, holy shit. Anywho, the ‘high’ price is what you can get for a new sealed in box unit, the lowest price are units with some scratches or dings on it.
- I believe the iPad 3 suffered from heat problems, I have no citation but I remembered a lot of customers were very upset that the iPad 4 was released 7 months later instead of the one year cycle.
- iPad 4 128GB model pricey, there are some lower priced than $270 but would have heavy wear it seems, a 64GB model can be had for cheaper and probably better condition, the capacity is is a big tax!
- Surface pro doesn’t get any more in depth in SSD size like the iPads, too many inconsistencies with 1st, 2nd, 3rd, & 4th gen. Sorry “:(
- The Samsung Galaxy Tab has pricing & specs everywhere… partially because there is S2, A, E, Pro models and sellers don’t clarify it. Not surprised, stereotypical Samsung buyers are dumber than iPadders.
- I mean, I could search for the specific model type but it’ll conflict with other dumb sellers and is a waste of time. （；￣︶￣）
- I do like the Samsung Nexus 10 a lot, I had it used it for ebay selling and it has a decent camera.
7″ & 8″ Slate Tablets
Mini 1 16GB – $88 – 180 // 215 ~ 689 v 4585 – iPad Mini 1st Gen, 2012
Mini 1 32GB – $110 – 160 // 220 ~ 135 v 732
Mini 1 64GB – $130 – 190 // 250 ~ 93 v 374
Tab 2 AllGB – $40 – 99 // 155 ~ 21 v 76 – Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0
Nexus 7 8GB – $30 – 80 // 125 ~ 33 v 187 – Asus Nexus 7 2012, 1st Gen, 800p
Nexus 7 16GB – $40 – 80 // 140 ~ 55 v 181
Nexus 7 32GB – $63 – 100 // 170 ~ 58 v 307
Mini 2 16GB – $125 – 200 // 300 ~ 533 v 3346 – iPad Mini 2nd gen, 2013
Mini 2 32GB – $160 – 240 // 320 ~ 148 v 804
Mini 2 64GB – $160 – 265 // 350 ~ 45 v 199
Mini 2 128GB – $180 – 300 // 400 ~ 53 v 156
Nexus 7 8GB – $44 – 100 // ??? ~ 1 v 3 – Asus Nexus 7 2013, 2nd Gen, FHD
Nexus 7 16GB – $75 – 130 // 240 ~ 61 v 273
Nexus 7 32GB – $80 – 187 // 280 ~ 86 v 618
- On these items I checked prices on new in box & seller refurbished and based my calculations on those prices because checking the used conditions wouldn’t of been accurate.
- My excuse is that in the used section, the fifth to last page there were still badly damaged units and would of taken too much time to sift through.
- Prices posted are ‘seller refurbished’ prices because it sorted out all the icloud locked and cracked devices. The ‘highest price’ is a fairly priced NIB unit, obviously you can pay more than that but don’t have to.
- Yeah, the 16GB iPad mini can be bought at a higher price than it’s better storage sized units.
- Searching for this Tab 2 7.0 is erratic, pretty garbage IMO.
- I had a Nexus 7 2012, it’s a bit slow noways & it has 800p display, it doesn’t have a forward facing camera though. Nexus 7 3rd gen not released at the time of this posting.
- You could still get an iCloud locked and cracked screen iPad mini at the lowest prices but honestly its just a waste of money unless you are gonna try to repair your own, I would not recommend to resell.
- Maybe the iPad 2 Mini shouldn’t be posted here as it was released during 4th gen Haswell systems became introduced, but its here to contrast the original mini & iPad 4.
Windows RT Devices
Surface RT – $60 – 160 // 200 ~ 37 v 310 (Model Number 1516)
XE500T1C – 90 – 200 // 240 ~ 36 v 67 – Samsung ATIV Smart PC 500T
Acer IconiaW510 – $75 – 155 // 190 ~ 16 v 31
HP X2 – $100 – 220 // 330 ~ 11 v 19 – HP Envy X2 “11-g010nr” in search
- I don’t have much information upon this territory so I can’t give real advice. I just remembered the Surface RT sucked against the Pro
- The Surface is probably better than the other tablets here, but again I didn’t bother with other computers/devices because I was a True ThinkPad FanBoy™ at that time. >:^)
- Real Talk, RT sucks as an operating system, mainly because most programs we are used to won’t work because they were not designed with ARM based micro-architecture. It confused new buyers and its just another reason to make people switch to Apple or Google based tablets.