If you’re working cross-culturally, take a look at the discussion at…
Responses by Chuck, Kent, Tim, Melinda, Terry, and especially “GP” give real-world results with a variety of different lines. The comment by GP alone is over 700 words long. Be sure to log on and give your own greetings. And thanks, GP!
Following on the comment about outlets: they’re generally a good way of saving some money, but it’s wise to go carefully. Make sure you know the definitions the terms used (especially “reconditioned”), and what you’re getting (or not). The critical thing is warranty coverage. If you still have the full original warranty, then you should be in good shape. Beware of machines that are sold as “reconditioned” that are actually returned lease machines.
One other thing to be careful about is that what’s available through an outlet channel is limited to what is in stock. Thus, you may find a machine that may not have quite the features mix you want — although if you don’t like what you see, there will be others there, in a few days.
Apple’s Outlet is without equal, and I know Dell’s does well. Personally, I did well on a closeout model of a Lenovo ThinkPad at CDW. It was one with a few extra features than I really needed, and it was essentially an “open box” model. I don’t know if it had been powered on before, but the only “flaw” was that it had come back from the original customer without a printed manual or recovery media, both of which were easily replaced from Lenovo.