Reman laptops 'meet office needs': study

Remanufactured laptops perform almost as well as new ones for most basic tasks, but are considerably cheaper, according to an academic study. The paper, Circular computing performance comparison for office tasks: new vs. remanufactured, was written by Mauricio Alva Howes of Cranfield University, and compared new and reman versions of various well-known models to gauge the differences. Howes found that remanufactured models’ general performance was 93-97% that of new models – but that there were some pronounced differences. While there was parity on tasks such as word processing and browsing, spreadsheets and video conferencing systems showed a performance of around 90%. This dipped lower when it came to batteries, with new laptops providing 64% more power life. New laptops were also slightly more consistent in terms of performance – but reman laptops sold for as little as half the price of new, which suggests that they are a good deal for many companies. Remanufactured laptops for the research were provided by A2C Services. The ‘office needs’ tested during the project were defined as 22 potential uses for office users, grouped into four main categories: text management, data management, multimedia and internet-based tasks. Howes suggested that concerns may arise in the future as new management of information systems and new technologies appear, which could “significantly” accentuate the difference in performance.