Randall Garrett
Senior Member
- Joined
- Mar 6, 2004
- Professional Status
- IT Professional-Appraisal Related
- State
- Texas
Factory Refurb Q584s on the cheap.
For those of you who appreciate or need a device which is well sealed from the elements, Fujitsu has a few factory refurbished Q584s available for bid on their eBay auction site (link below.) This is a site which a lot of the Windows "pen" users know well and scour on occasion (like now, when certain models become available.) I have not used this source personally, but several people that I know well have and they claim it is a great place to pick up something at a great price - perfect when you want to (say) "dip your toe into the water" to try out something without paying the normal retail price. They tend to use it to pick up a secondary device, or whatever. I am told that the factory refurbished units come with a valid factory warranty (like new?) and that the vast majority of units which become available were not "broken" or faulty - they were simply units which were returned for whatever reason before the original purchasers' no-fault return period expired. (A lot of these guys purchase something just to try out, knowing they can return it for a full refund if bought through the proper channels.)
Some here may recall that the Q584 is the unit I demonstrated to our County customer in Maui by subjecting it to salt water - various pictures here: http://appraisersforum.com/showthread.php?t=191490&page=23
It also has various accessories available: http://appraisersforum.com/showpost.php?p=2490586&postcount=243 and http://appraisersforum.com/showpost.php?p=2491951&postcount=246
The Q584 is a well made unit which can/will stand up to more abuse than you are likely going to willingly subject it to ;-). It is also one of the units which comes with 4GB of RAM, which I feel is important to most users here. I believe most of you would prefer the models with 128 GB of storage (vs. 64GB) so IF this sort of thing interests you, be sure to concentrate your efforts on one of those models. The prices are ranging from an unrealistic starting bid of $10.50 to a current bid of $177.50. Remember, this is a "bid" process, so you can expect the bids to escalate in frequency and price near the end of the period for each unit. One person I know got one for $347 while another went as high as $550. I understand that latter one was fully decked out.
Here is the link to the auction page (they also have other 2-in-1's and more conventional laptops there): http://stores.ebay.com/Fujitsu-Comp...&_sid=100217907&_trksid=p4634.c0.m322&afsrc=1
Anyway, IF this sort of thing interests you, I see that two units are nearing the end of the bid process:
64 GB model with 23hours left, current best bid of $126.39
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Fujitsu-STY...08794823?pt=Laptops_Nov05&hash=item566dc4b2c7
128 GB model with 1 day, 23 hours left, current best bid of $177.50
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Fujitsu-STY...00896254?pt=Laptops_Nov05&hash=item3f42a2a9fe
Note that in the descriptions, they mention the keyboard dock, but I sincerely doubt that this accessory is included, but again, I really do not know. Also note that, while these units come with 4 GB of RAM, they have the 32-bit version of Windows 8.1 installed, not the 64-bit version. Hence, the unit, out of the box, can really only (directly) address 2.94 GB of that 4 GB. I can, however, verify that that extra 0.94 GB of directly addressable RAM does provide a lit of extra "oomph" for running "legacy" applications compared to devices with only 2 GB, and one can install the 64-bit version of Windows 8.1 to gain access to all the available RAM. To do so, you need to go to the Fujitsu Support site and install the newest drivers, etc. after obtaining a valid Win 8.1 64-bit installer, etc.
All in all, this has been a great little device for folks who want/need a tablet like this. It is being replaced by a new model with a lower resolution screen (1920 x 1200 vs. 2560 x 1600, which is IMHO actually better for our purposes) which also has a semi-matte screen (yea!), but I have no word when it will become available in the retail channel, and you can bet it will not be a $500 device ;-) just due to the build quality and features (for a specific Enterprise type customer.)
Hope this helps! If anyone picks up one at a decent price, I think all of us would love to hear how things go!
-Randall Garrett-
+Apex Software+
/end/
For those of you who appreciate or need a device which is well sealed from the elements, Fujitsu has a few factory refurbished Q584s available for bid on their eBay auction site (link below.) This is a site which a lot of the Windows "pen" users know well and scour on occasion (like now, when certain models become available.) I have not used this source personally, but several people that I know well have and they claim it is a great place to pick up something at a great price - perfect when you want to (say) "dip your toe into the water" to try out something without paying the normal retail price. They tend to use it to pick up a secondary device, or whatever. I am told that the factory refurbished units come with a valid factory warranty (like new?) and that the vast majority of units which become available were not "broken" or faulty - they were simply units which were returned for whatever reason before the original purchasers' no-fault return period expired. (A lot of these guys purchase something just to try out, knowing they can return it for a full refund if bought through the proper channels.)
Some here may recall that the Q584 is the unit I demonstrated to our County customer in Maui by subjecting it to salt water - various pictures here: http://appraisersforum.com/showthread.php?t=191490&page=23
It also has various accessories available: http://appraisersforum.com/showpost.php?p=2490586&postcount=243 and http://appraisersforum.com/showpost.php?p=2491951&postcount=246
The Q584 is a well made unit which can/will stand up to more abuse than you are likely going to willingly subject it to ;-). It is also one of the units which comes with 4GB of RAM, which I feel is important to most users here. I believe most of you would prefer the models with 128 GB of storage (vs. 64GB) so IF this sort of thing interests you, be sure to concentrate your efforts on one of those models. The prices are ranging from an unrealistic starting bid of $10.50 to a current bid of $177.50. Remember, this is a "bid" process, so you can expect the bids to escalate in frequency and price near the end of the period for each unit. One person I know got one for $347 while another went as high as $550. I understand that latter one was fully decked out.
Here is the link to the auction page (they also have other 2-in-1's and more conventional laptops there): http://stores.ebay.com/Fujitsu-Comp...&_sid=100217907&_trksid=p4634.c0.m322&afsrc=1
Anyway, IF this sort of thing interests you, I see that two units are nearing the end of the bid process:
64 GB model with 23hours left, current best bid of $126.39
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Fujitsu-STY...08794823?pt=Laptops_Nov05&hash=item566dc4b2c7
128 GB model with 1 day, 23 hours left, current best bid of $177.50
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Fujitsu-STY...00896254?pt=Laptops_Nov05&hash=item3f42a2a9fe
Note that in the descriptions, they mention the keyboard dock, but I sincerely doubt that this accessory is included, but again, I really do not know. Also note that, while these units come with 4 GB of RAM, they have the 32-bit version of Windows 8.1 installed, not the 64-bit version. Hence, the unit, out of the box, can really only (directly) address 2.94 GB of that 4 GB. I can, however, verify that that extra 0.94 GB of directly addressable RAM does provide a lit of extra "oomph" for running "legacy" applications compared to devices with only 2 GB, and one can install the 64-bit version of Windows 8.1 to gain access to all the available RAM. To do so, you need to go to the Fujitsu Support site and install the newest drivers, etc. after obtaining a valid Win 8.1 64-bit installer, etc.
All in all, this has been a great little device for folks who want/need a tablet like this. It is being replaced by a new model with a lower resolution screen (1920 x 1200 vs. 2560 x 1600, which is IMHO actually better for our purposes) which also has a semi-matte screen (yea!), but I have no word when it will become available in the retail channel, and you can bet it will not be a $500 device ;-) just due to the build quality and features (for a specific Enterprise type customer.)
Hope this helps! If anyone picks up one at a decent price, I think all of us would love to hear how things go!
-Randall Garrett-
+Apex Software+
/end/
I also purchased a 7" version (no 4G but same memory and storage, etc.) for testing the next version of MobileSketch - "MS8" and it runs just fine - I just would not expect it to be very snappy is you load it down with a heavy (i.e. "desktop" application, do a lot of multi-tasking, etc. I am also told that you can, of course, purchase more data time, but we've never done that. Of course, it has WiFi and that's how you'd likely use it when it is available, but the free 200 MB on tap could be handy when out in the field. Also included is a year of MS Office 365 Personal with 1 TB of MS OneDrive cloud storage 