Most of the time it will be pretty obvious once you receive the product, but not if you're looking at pics. I haven't bought anything refurbished from Dell, but from my experience with other companies, usually refurb products will have clear signs of wear. Some won't have tags or labels on the actual unit, but will have it on the manual or box. A lot of times refurbished items come only in plain brown boxes and/or without some of the accessories or documents.