Image description:
Shopping for a laptop as a Linux user:
Screenshot from the Simpsons where Otto is talking to Marge and Homer standing next to a window in their house with a caption “Oh wow, windows!.. I don’t think I can afford this place.”
Image description:
Shopping for a laptop as a Linux user:
Screenshot from the Simpsons where Otto is talking to Marge and Homer standing next to a window in their house with a caption “Oh wow, windows!.. I don’t think I can afford this place.”
Buy used
I would not buy a laptop used
Why? There are plenty of cheap well built laptops that will easily outlive some new garbage PC.
Not really, most laptops lack upgradablity and you have no idea what state the battery is going to be in.
And a new computer wouldn’t have the same upgradeability issues? Batteries don’t normally degrade that quickly, at least not the ones in good computers.
There’s plenty of 2-3 year old thinkpads or other business machines for nothing out there. Most are upgradeable, and even if they aren’t you can just look for one that meets your requirements.
You can get a laptop with a i3 or N series and it will have better battery life and thermals. If your taking about a [mini]pc that makes sense but buying a old device when there are new devices that aren’t to expensive doesn’t make sense.
N series CPUs don’t even compete with a few gen old i5s. The N100 in my router is roughly scores 1000/1800 in geekbench (minus a few exceptions like this heavily overclocked one) while the i5-10240u in the Thinkpad T14 that I got a year ago for $200 scores about 1300/3000. N100 devices are surprisingly rare too. You’re much more likely to see the older n5105 which is horrendous and scores like half that.
12th gen i3s would actually give 10th gen i5s a run for their money, but you’re much more likely to see an i3 in a machine that’s liquid garbage, has poor cooling (and can’t sustain those speeds for long), and falls apart in a few years. We have a few of those machines at work and they SUCK. There’s a reason older Thinkpads are the laptops of nerds on a budget everywhere.