Hey all, I need a new laptop and don’t want to spend much money. It just needs to run Linux/Debian, have a functioning battery and be able to play internet videos, nothing more. I have an old Lenovo Thinkpad X220 right now and I’ve heard that Thinkpads are still okay, but does anyone have more concrete suggestions? Thanks in advance!
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Get a refurbished enterprise or business grade laptop. Brand doesn’t really matter much, but Amazon has some awesome AMD HPs on their renewed store that run Linux like a dream. Probably around $300 but new they’d be over $1000 and are much more repairable.
Edit: I have this one. Bought it years ago and still works great. It was even still under warranty when I first got it. Probably not anymore: https://www.amazon.com/HP-EliteBook-Business-Processor-2-3-4-2GHz/dp/B0CRVF3GRR
in the past when I need a cheap laptop fast, I would search the scratch & dent return inventory at the dell factory outlet site. never say yes to any add-on, downgrade/no install all the software and support, and I would be holding something decent for $300 in 2 days.
I haven’t tried to do that in maybe 6+ years, but it used to be reliable and cheap.
This is what I did in the past and it always worked out good for me. A number of these even had decent GPU’s for some light gaming.
Dedicated GPUs in laptops are always a red flag for me. I don’t trust the thermal or cooling systems. Anything integrated is probably fine but I wouldn’t expect to play anything other than small indie type games. If you need real power, better to stick with desktops or consoles.
T480 is the standard thinkpad recommendation. It will jump you 5-6 generations of processor forward in time from your x220 and if you avoid the “s” model then both ram slots will be replaceable.
I just looked and the going eBay rate is ~180 for an everything installed/8gb ram example and ~<$100 for no ssd/os. That’s important if you have an ssd in your 220 that’s compatible and can backup and steamroll over it in your new pc. A good set of 2x 16gb 2400 sodimms is about $30.
So you could be up and running on your old ssd with the maximum amount of memory your new system supports for $130 out the door. Pretty cool.
The t480 can also accommodate the google (nee coral) tpu for accelerated onboard machine vision processing and other torch stuff.
Thinkpads after that one generally have one or both ram slots soldered, which isn’t as much of a big deal as people make it out to be.
Other recommendations in the same vein are hp and dell business class laptops, but I don’t know them well enough to point you one direction or another.
Because you’re running Linux already: if you can swing it, consider getting an m1 macbook air. They’re cheap and fast and it’s one more tool in your toolbox.
Beware with HP business laptops back in the day they had serious security and you could not reset the BIOS if the password was lost without contacting HP for a special unlock code and going through this whole thing. They shut down providing those (and if you bought it used you almost certainly couldn’t provide the documentation to get them to help anyways) so probably models made in the past few years are okay but if you get anything older make sure right away you can access the bios and it’s not PW protected before the return period is up or that could cause problems.
I don’t have any direct experience, but the CHUWI CoreBook X 14 gets pretty good reviews, and they make even cheaper laptops than that with similar memory and processor, but cheaper chassis and 16:9 screens.
I know an informatics guy, and he says thinkpads are good. He gets them from the electronics trash at work.
Used think pads on eBay or government auctions
Honestly, get a steam deck. Best priced laptop for the specs. Get a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard and you have everything you need for desktop functions
Search used ThinkPads on eBay. I got mine for about $120. It came with Win10, but it’s on Mint now.
I just picked up a relatively recent refurbished thinkpad with an ssd for a couple hundred off newegg. They have a few on there as low as $130.
I have a framework laptop that I put together, really repairable so if something explodes the whole thing doesn’t become ewaste. But only do this if your use case requires somewhat modern hardware there’s a ton of like 10 dollar laptops on sale on ebay that are 10 years old and good for only web browsing or remote desktop and will run fine with an install of fedora atomic or whatever
And yeah just put Linux on your current laptop it’ll run like a dream. Personally Ive got like 10 laptops around my place from family that didn’t want them and they all run great with fedora atomic. I prefer fedora atomic for these because updates don’t break if I don’t mess with them for a long time
The best new laptop is the one sold by your local ewaste recycler after being checked over and refurbed with a fresh install of Mint! If you don’t have one of those shops handy then buy refurbed online. I hear Thinkpads are good though. My shop has never had one when I’ve needed new gear.
Put debian on it. thats the concretest of advice.
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chromebooks are cheap af and they can run linux containers…
Oh yeah, you said cheap but what’s your actual budget?
I can make better recommendations if I know what you’re working with.
Thinkpads in general are good, durable under physical stress and cheap, I have a e495 I got for around 100. If you’re willing to gamble and have some technical repair aptitude ebay/goodwilluctions can be a good place to snag cheap laptops along with recycling places or even the curb before trash day if you live in a city. Otherwise, refurbished is just fine and if you watch slickdeals or
's buildapcsales you may be able to find a deal on something newer, also you can always upgrade ram or ssd if you want to do some light gaming. Try for a min of 8 ram, 16 is ideal.
