Hello Comrades,
I am overwhelmed! have to get a new laptop for work stuff. And everything is horribly riddled with AI and unwanted features and planned obsolescence, etc. I am feeling so old and lost; and stuck with paralysis! Can someone help me with just a simple recommendation on a laptop or laptop series or something? Need: video calling, decent battery life. Wants: could play RDR2 (I realize now this ask is too much- the purchase will be a write off so, I was being greedy and trying to treat myself)or some equivalent. This felt so simple 10 years ago! Stupid Crapitalism grumbling old man noises
Edit: Wow, thanks so much, this is so helpful! Guess, I’m realizing I’m gonna need to start on windows and hopefully switch over to Linux next year(going make time to start a 30 day intro mid Jan). And, looking at Thinkpad T series. All the new ones have MD ryzen ai pro processors- does anyone have thoughts on these??? (I’m really wary of ai on the computer because I work with HIPPA compliant stuff, so I just generally want to avoid it because if it isn’t managed right its a potential violation.)
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An m4 MacBook Air starts at a grand and will do what you’re asking, including rdr2 through parallels. I recommend upgrading to the 24gb of ram model especially with memory prices going through the roof and they havent raised prices despite the memory costing 4x as much as when the computer was launched.
Genuinely there is no better time to switch to a mac if you’re trying to escape ai and windows 11. There’s a virtual machine system built in that lets you run linux as a guest os and the skills you learn running linux and macos have a good amount of crossover.
You will also have enough horsepower to run old games from the teens and back in VMs and dos/3.1/95 exopacks are 1tb of classic gaming.
If you are gonna buy used then t series thinkpads and dell precision and latitude laptops are good. For maybe the first time in my life im gonna actually recommend you not do this though because the big platform laptop market is insanely clapped out right now.
Right now in the US they actually start at 750. The SSD and memory upgrades are still very expensive for what you get though.
Less now than maybe any time in the storied history of comparing macs and pcs imo.
Thinkpad T series or P series. Latest T series isvery repairable with official ifixit guides, compoennts will be produced 15+ years from now on, arguably the less shittier laptop of them all
thank you! I like the look of these T series, a lot! Seems like most of them could go to Linux pretty easy(gonna try and start learning in jan!) any take on this AMD ryzen ai processor? I’m especially concerned about AI stuff, because work stuff has to be HIPPA compliant and if I cant manage the ai correctly, thats a felony- so i’m mostly just trying to totally avoid out of abundance of caution
I was pretty dissapointed in the p14s gen 2 build quality considering thinkpads reputation and past quality. I returned this due to potential hardware issues, but it could have been an amdgpu driver on linux or lenovo bios issue. I got the T14 gen 3 for the magnesium bottom chassis but build quality was actually worse. In any case, if I were you, I’d consider the T14s which supposedly uses more premium materials. Lenovo laptops are confusing… But pretty sure these are also supposed to have better battery life. Although they aren’t upgradable.
There’s also a few laptop brands built specifically for Linux. I’m aware of system 76, framework, and tuxedo. You could look into these as well.
I think the “AI processors” are just the AMD marketing department jumping on the bandwagon. MAYBE they have caches sized appropriately for certain workloads. They don’t change anything about the relationship between the operating system and the hardware it’s running on. They don’t make software behave any differently. They are just ordinary amd64 (a.k.a x86_64) CPUs.
All bets are off with Microsoft Windows however. They seem hellbent to cram Copilot into every nook and cranny of the operating system.
“AI series” just means it has an NPU for on device inference. This can be ignored.
I have a thinkpad t14 gen 5 intel and it’s working wonderfully, hands down the best laptops. I also use Linux. The “AI” processors just mean it has a NPU to make running LLMs and such, easier it doesn’t have a literal built in “AI”
I recommend macbook air with m4. Great battery life and portability. Not too expensive etc. Can be used for lightweight development (anything not using too much docker essentially), unless you need reverse debugging. Well supported compared to Linux laptops in general. Then you can get a base model gabecube later for your gamés.
It depends on your price range and how much will you’re willing to go up to, you can try a premium ultrabook like a framework 13 which should be able to play rdr2 which goes for around $1350+.
You can also get a second hand macbook (m1 or m2) which can do all your needs extremely well (though the wants are are severely lacking minus any linux that you put onto it). These macbooks should be good for about 5-8 years at least and can be found under $1000 (I got a fully specced macbook air m1 in mint condition for 750).
Otherwise you can go with the big box option of a mid-range thinkpad from 3-4 years ago, not going to do your want but its the cheapest option.
Don’t recommend going for a “gaming” laptop as those are riddled with invasive BIOSes, poor heat management, very low battery life and also weight issues. If you want to play demanding 3D games just get a steam deck separately.
Don’t recommend going for a “gaming” laptop as those are riddled with invasive BIOSes, poor heat management, very low battery life and also weight issues. If you want to play demanding 3D games just get a steam deck separately.
100%. Gaming laptops are a trap for all the reasons mentioned, PLUS you’re paying at least 3 times as much for the performance compared to a desktop. PLUS the way GPU acceleration is implemented in laptops is by rendering certain windows on the dGPU and having them composited on the iGPU. This is done for power consumption reasons, but the architecture is a lot more complex then desktops where the CPU sends commands to the GPU which sends a signal to the display. It is a lot more prone to intermittent issues like video latency, tearing, applications not using the appropriate GPU, etc. You still WANT a dGPU, but expectations for the ideal gaming experience should be limited.
A laptop is supposed to be a portable computer. That comes with trade-offs, but (in my humble opinion) portability is non-negotiable. That is the reason you are getting a laptop, instead of getting more than twice the performance for the price in a desktop. If you are buying a laptop it shouldn’t be 20 inches long and weigh 30 pounds. Get something with a high resolution 15 inch screen without a numpad. Get a bluetooth numpad if you really need one. It should be able to fit COMFORTABLY inside a bag. You get a big laptop which barely fits in your bag and guess what? The corners of your laptop now define the profile of your bag. Every time you put your bag down you are dinging the corners of your laptop, fucking up the hinges and cracking the thin parts of the case in-between the USB ports. You don’t want a CD drive/burner either. That shit just takes up space and makes the thing nearly half and inch thicker for NO REASON. Nobody uses that shit anymore.
One thing I can say is that the build quality on a laptop is very important. A lot of people shop for laptops like they’re shopping for any other computer - by specs. What CPU does it have? How much memory does it have? While this is all important, It needs to be housed inside a case that can actually endure the wear and tear of mobile use. Somebody IS going to trip over the power cable and send the thing crashing to the floor. It is going to be thrown around inside a backpack repeatedly, crushed against surfaces on busy buses, subways, elevators, or airplanes. Build quality is very difficult to discern when shopping online, so ensure you can put the thing back in the box and refund it in the event you open it up and it seems flimsy. It is only going to get worse with wear.
If you’re concerned about AI running in the system you should delete Windows from the computer before ever logging in.
The “Ryzen AI” brand is just what AMD decided to call their current lineup of CPUs, they are all called that and it doesn’t really mean much or guarantee that you can run a model locally.
used thinkpad
linux
Do you have a take on the AMD Ryzen AI PRO processors vs whatever they were using before?
Looks like all their 2025 models have themNot true, I just got stuck on a certain model
almost all of them are bad, but look for business-grade laptops. they are made to last longer than the crappy regular ones marketed to us plebs.
Any refurbished business class laptop. All the stuff made for the personal home market is garbage.
could play RDR2 or some equivalent
So a gaming laptop?
You could try finding a gaming laptop with a dedicated AMD graphics card. AMD’s drivers are open source, so their devices work much better with Linux than NVIDIA’s, in case you want to install Linux (you can even buy Lenovo laptops with Linux preinstalled, at a reduced price for some reason, but maybe not the gaming models). You can play a lot of Windows games on Linux, but you can also always dual boot and use Windows when you want to play a game (I do this with a desktop computer, a bit of a PITA though, and might be more of one if the laptop BIOS user interface is clunky).
you can even buy Lenovo laptops with Linux preinstalled, at a reduced price for some reason
because they are not including the price of a Windows license, when you buy a laptop or prebuilt desktop, you are also paying for a Windows license as well essentially
The thing is as far as I know the Windows license is only like $30 for OEMs.
Yea, Microsoft gives OEMs a fairly large discount on licenses, but this is capitalism after all, may as well charge the full $150 or whatever Windows costs these days! I’m surprised they even give you a discount for choosing Linux in the first place to be honest.
Yeah, I really appreciate how you said that cause on reflection I guess I don’t actually want a gaming laptop- I think I just wanted to imagine having one. dedicated AMD graphics card sounds like a great idea, I am swamped right now- but hoping to start learning linux in Jan, so it would be great to be able to move a laptop over to Linux next year, thanks for the input!
AMD and Intel integrated graphics also work great with Linux. And they also make beefy laptops aimed at video editing and stuff too, but they’re just as expensive as gaming ones I assume.
from an IT/help desk perspective, i don’t like Macs. But their battery life is so much better than the Thinkpads at my job. If you buy a used Macbook, look to see if the seller lists how many cycles the battery has gone through. Its also something you can find in the settings.
i have a Legion 15ach6 that has a RTX 3050 ti, which would probably manage to run RDR2 but it might not look great.
Thinkpad
Windows/Mac/Linux?
Edit: Deleted because my recommendation was on the BDS list
I feel compelled to mention that HP is a primary BDS target
Shit, my mistake, I wasn’t aware
Thank you for mentioning this!
In that case - just because I haven’t seen anybody else suggest it, have you thought about the steamdeck? It is a computer, just get a small bluetooth keyboard and mouse and bam, it’s essentially a laptop
I love lenovo laptops, but IMO only buy from them during their big annual sale (I believe it happens around this time each year) and avoid the “businessman” lines (like x1 carbon). I had an e220s (thinkpad) with a low wattage processor and it served dutifully for over 7 years (my older HPs, dells, etc only ever lasted around 3 years before shitting the bed). There may be other good options these days. If you are looking to spend $, I would get look for a professional “workstation” style notebook with discrete graphics rather than a gaming one. If you really need windows for work stuff, use massgrave to activate Win 10 LTSC for free
