The laptop itself is decent, but my experience with Joy Systems was disappointing. It was sold in Excellent renewed condition, yet the genuine HP battery tested at only about 59% of its original capacity.
Joy Systems offered to send a replacement battery and pay return shipping for the defective battery. However, when I specifically asked whether the replacement would be a genuine HP battery, they could not guarantee it and told me the battery type could vary. I wasn’t willing to gamble on an unknown third-party/aftermarket battery.
What makes little sense is that a genuine HP replacement matching the battery already installed can be purchased for roughly $40–$50. Instead of providing a partial refund so I could purchase the genuine HP battery myself, they preferred to pay to ship another battery to me and pay return shipping for the defective one. Somehow that made more sense to them.
Also, don’t assume every feature shown in the product photos is actually included or functional. This laptop appears to have the fingerprint-reader area, but Windows did not recognize a fingerprint reader. Joy Systems later confirmed that this unit does not have one.
My advice to anyone buying a refurbished computer from this company: run your own diagnostics immediately. Check Device Manager, hardware functionality, and especially generate a Windows battery report and compare the full-charge capacity with the original design capacity. Don’t assume that because the computer was graded “Excellent,” everything was thoroughly checked.
Based on what I found with this computer, there appear to be gaps in their quality-control process. A battery at approximately 59% of original capacity should have been identified before an “Excellent” condition machine was shipped.
I’m busy and don’t have time to return a computer, set up another one, and continue going back and forth over a $40–$50 battery. I’ve decided to keep the laptop, buy a genuine HP battery myself, and fix the problem at my own expense. The computer itself is worth keeping; dealing with this company isn’t worth any more of my time. Their roughly 75% positive seller rating makes more sense to me now. I’ll handle the problem myself and write Joy Systems off.