Both have pros and cons.
There is no “better”, I’m afraid. Either can be great and either can be a nightmare.
It really depends on you, the resources you have available, and the specific stores — online or off — where you shop.
Online or in-store?
There is no single best place to buy a computer. Online stores can offer better prices and convenience; local stores give in-person support. What matters most is trust in the seller, the brand, and the resources you have for help.
Before we start
It’s important to understand the resources you have on hand already.
For example, when there’s trouble with your equipment, are you on your own, or do you have someone to call? That someone could be a company, I suppose, but think about friends, family, and community support. For example, you might turn to a knowledgeable (and available) family member when things aren’t working.
They might also be someone you can turn to for advice when considering your next purchase — both what you need and also which businesses to gravitate towards or avoid.
Another consideration is location. Are you able to take a computer somewhere should you need help? Again, that “somewhere” could be a local computer store, but it could also include services offered by local libraries or community/senior centers.
The more support you have in place or available to you already, the less dependent you are on getting help from the place you buy the computer.
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Related
What Kind of Computer Should I Get?
Buying a new computer can be confusing — laptop, desktop, tablet, or something in between? In this first part of the series, I’ll walk you through how to choose the right *type* of computer for your needs, so you don’t spend too much or end up with the wrong machine.#16789
Online
Online can be good if you:
- Select a reputable online store
- Purchase a quality product
- Are confident in your own ability to handle issues that come up
- Have local resources that can help should you need them
- Believe that you can get good assistance from the online store you purchase from
- Believe that you can get good assistance from the computer’s manufacturer
- Understand that some types of repair might involve shipping your computer back
Reputation and expectations are squishy concepts, I get that. But both are important considerations.
Purchasing from an online store you’ve used before with good results is different than purchasing from someone you’ve never heard of before. Similarly, purchasing a brand-name computer that has a good reputation online is less risky than purchasing a name you’ve never heard of before.
Brick and mortar
Brick and mortar can be good if you:
- Prefer in-person transactions
- Purchase from a store with a good local reputation
- Have confidence in the store’s ability to help you when issues arise
- Have confidence that the store will be around for a while
- Are willing to pay a little more
Many of the same concerns we consider for online purchases apply here. Once again, reputation and “having confidence” are difficult terms to nail down, but they’re still important.
Any store can promise the world, but what matters is whether they’ll deliver it when the time comes. That boils down to reputation.
It’s all about trust
In both cases, what matters most is your trust in the company.
Your local resources can make either choice a little less risky — for example, perhaps that local senior center can help when the store you purchased from suddenly goes out of business — but there needs to be a basic level of trust regardless.
Online or off, do your research. As best you can, learn from the experiences of others. There will be bad experiences no matter where you look, but take them in context: is it just a handful of negative reviews, or the majority? How did the business handle the feedback? Does what you find look like something you’d be comfortable dealing with if need be?
Do this
There are both good and bad experiences regardless of which approach you choose. The best choice isn’t where you buy, but who you trust and how ready you are when things go wrong.
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If you are lucky enough to have a local store of high quality, with knowledgeable people and a friend with good knowledge, I would look at both. But don’t cheat the store by having them teach you and buying their recommendation for a few bucks less online. They paid someone to teach you, let them get the cost of it back.
The store may have something not listed that is a great deal.
The computer I am writing this on was bought at the time when Win 10 was just coming out and some computers came with the option to keep 10 or roll back to 7. I was ready to get an open box computer with good specs that had that option but it was sold from inventory just before sales person could put in the purchase. He looked at the stock again and found an even better one without the roll back option. 4th gen i5, 12G memory, 2 T disk. After all these years, it has some issues and is not upgradable to Win 11. It is also a tower and I am finding I want to have a computer that is portable.
I am in the process of thinning the files saved on the computer so I can transfer it to a laptop I got online. Not bleeding edge but a reasonably recent gen i7 with ssd that is a lot more responsive and will more than fill my needs for quite a few years.
P.S. not 3 am. The system must think I am in California.
The time on comments is Washington State time where Leo lives. 3AM is Leo’s time.