Laptop Recommendations

[Memory]

Hi everyone!

So, I'm thinking of getting a new laptop (or probably an older/refurbrished one). I have already a Windows 10 desktop that I use for games and any modern software I might need, so this laptop I mainly want to use just for web browsing, webweaving and making art.

I'm thinking of running either Linux or Windows 7 on it, I'm not sure yet (I would love to have something highly customizable).

If you have any good ideas for what I'm looking for, please let me know!

[Melooon]

New laptops are always fun to shop for There's a few questions id ask you if I were a laptop sales person! (I get very obsessed when I do laptop shopping)

How portable does it need to be? e.g. will you be carrying it lots?
How big a screen do you want? (very connected to how portable it needs to be) - (16:10 in 15" is the ideal size for me, but you might feel otherwise, what have you enjoyed in the past?)
Do you care about battery life or will it always be plugged in? - Older laptops prob wont be good for battery.
Annnd finally whats your budget?

For second hand stuff; Id find something that used to be top-of-the-line expensive but is now cheap, it will have aged well and should have a serious screen n stuff. For web design and art Id put all my focus on getting a great screen with good colour accuracy. Maybe a fancy business laptop - you can often get those cheap because businesses sell them off in bulk. Dell XPSs are almost always solid and very reliable (if a bit boring) :omg:k: Lenovo Thinkpads are good too because they are kinda chunky and retro, but often very powerful because their for professional use. (Id get a Thinkpad )

[Memory]

New laptops are always fun to shop for There's a few questions id ask you if I were a laptop sales person! (I get very obsessed when I do laptop shopping)

How portable does it need to be? e.g. will you be carrying it lots?
How big a screen do you want? (very connected to how portable it needs to be) - (16:10 in 15" is the ideal size for me, but you might feel otherwise, what have you enjoyed in the past?)
Do you care about battery life or will it always be plugged in? - Older laptops prob wont be good for battery.
Annnd finally whats your budget?

For second hand stuff; Id find something that used to be top-of-the-line expensive but is now cheap, it will have aged well and should have a serious screen n stuff. For web design and art Id put all my focus on getting a great screen with good colour accuracy. Maybe a fancy business laptop - you can often get those cheap because businesses sell them off in bulk. Dell XPSs are almost always solid and very reliable (if a bit boring) :omg:k: Lenovo Thinkpads are good too because they are kinda chunky and retro, but often very powerful because their for professional use. (Id get a Thinkpad )

Portability? Well I'm not looking for one of those really small light ones, but something that feels a bit more sturdy. I'm think I'll likely mostly use it at home but I may still bring it places if I need to. I'm just doing college now and not really any job atm so it's hard to say whether I will need it or not with that.

Screen size? Eh, I'm not really particularly interested in a big wide screen, I think I'd actually prefer something compact (when I browse the web on my desktop I actually keep my browser window in roughly a 4:3 aspect ratio because it makes pages easier for me to read). So yeah.. idk.. maybe 1280x1024 or maybe 1680x1050 like my desktop monitor?

A good battery life would be ideal, but I think I'm likely gonna have it plugged in most of the time. I don't think I'll be doing much battery-draining activity on it since I don't plan to game on it or anything like that
(except maybe for old DOS/PC games or something)

I'm looking for something that I can find for $100-$300, probably not over $500.

Lenovo thinkpad looks pretty cool. Are there any particular models you'd recommend?
Thanks for your response btw!

[Cele]

Lenovo products have failed me so I probably wouldn't pick one but I guess if you're mostly browsing the web it might work?

[Melooon]

Ok so it depends very much on where you live, prices can very wildly depending on location - if your in the US or UK those countries tend to get the best used deals.

Assuming your in the US and with a very quick search I found these two:

Thinkpad T570 15.6" - larger screen - ok processor

Thinkpad T470 14" - smaller screen - great processor

They are both well within your price; they both have FHD/1080p screens (which sounds like what your gonna be happy with) - I think they are both from 2017, thats old but still fine.

I'd pick the 470, its more compact like you said (I use a 14" laptop and it a comfy size) - 16GB of RAM is ideal, it has an SSD so it'll be fast, it has USB C for modern devices. Best of all it has a removable battery, so you can replace it really easy if you need too! The downside is that the screen quality is not amazing, but its fine - audio quality is not amazing but fine.

Lenovo products have failed me so I probably wouldn't pick one but I guess if you're mostly browsing the web it might work?

Maybe thats an issue, Iv never used their consumer laptops - this is a business one so they tend to be very sturdy.

Obvs this is just one recommendation; its the best I can recommend (based on what you've said, what I know, and 15 mins research) but it might not be perfect; so just take it as one option

[Memory]

Ok so it depends very much on where you live, prices can very wildly depending on location - if your in the US or UK those countries tend to get the best used deals.

Assuming your in the US and with a very quick search I found these two:

Thinkpad T570 15.6" - larger screen - ok processor

Thinkpad T470 14" - smaller screen - great processor

They are both well within your price; they both have FHD/1080p screens (which sounds like what your gonna be happy with) - I think they are both from 2017, thats old but still fine.

I'd pick the 470, its more compact like you said (I use a 14" laptop and it a comfy size) - 16GB of RAM is ideal, it has an SSD so it'll be fast, it has USB C for modern devices. Best of all it has a removable battery, so you can replace it really easy if you need too! The downside is that the screen quality is not amazing, but its fine - audio quality is not amazing but fine.
Maybe thats an issue, Iv never used their consumer laptops - this is a business one so they tend to be very sturdy.

Obvs this is just one recommendation; its the best I can recommend (based on what you've said, what I know, and 15 mins research) but it might not be perfect; so just take it as one option

Thanks for the suggestions! I'll keep those in mind.

I'm also looking at the T430, mainly because it has a DVD-R drive! Also Windows 7 Pro pre-installed. (although the one linked there might be a bit too low spec? I'm still deciding what I'll need). Hopefully that's not too old, anyway.

[Memory]

The most important thing for the laptop performance is the SSD. Even an older processor can act as quick as a flash with a quicker hard drive.

[Memory]

Especially on a budget, I'd definitely recommend a GNU/Linux system, like Linux Mint, over using ancient Windows versions that are unsafe, outdated and expensive. It'd run better, too, and it would be up to date.

[Melooon]

I gotta add a disclamer if you buy that T430! It’s from 2012 so it’s twice the age of the one I suggested. In terms of value it’s a really bad deal; it’ll struggle to use the modern web, YouTube in particular I think I would have a hard time; so if you need it to be useful for everyday stuff, you’ll find yourself replacing it much sooner. I don’t recommend it at all

[Memory]

I gotta add a disclamer if you buy that T430! It’s from 2012 so it’s twice the age of the one I suggested. In terms of value it’s a really bad deal; it’ll struggle to use the modern web, YouTube in particular I think I would have a hard time; so if you need it to be useful for everyday stuff, you’ll find yourself replacing it much sooner. I don’t recommend it at all

I had a 2012 Win7 laptop that ran just fine all the way to 2019, but yeah your argument is fair. Please forgive my computer stupidity.

Especially on a budget, I'd definitely recommend a GNU/Linux system, like Linux Mint, over using ancient Windows versions that are unsafe, outdated and expensive. It'd run better, too, and it would be up to date.

Good idea, I've used Linux a long time ago but maybe I should try it again.

[k4jtek]

I gotta add a disclamer if you buy that T430! It’s from 2012 so it’s twice the age of the one I suggested. In terms of value it’s a really bad deal; it’ll struggle to use the modern web, YouTube in particular I think I would have a hard time; so if you need it to be useful for everyday stuff, you’ll find yourself replacing it much sooner. I don’t recommend it at all

Actually, I won't agree with you. I'm not sure about the value, as I don't know current laptop prices too good, but T430 should be pretty good for browsing modern web, especially if you install some distro of Linux on it. Personally I use a budget laptop from 2015 and it's ok and member of my family uses T430 daily and is pretty happy with it - even with Windows 10 as the OS. You can even use an older laptop, just need to get an SSD and decent amount of RAM (for Windows satisficing experience starts from 8GB). What is also notable, older thinkpads are usually more expandable and easier to repair, keep this in mind.

For those not believing 10 year old hardware is still good I have a quite interesting video. Of course using laptops like the guy's from the video is already bit extreme and they are definitely not the best value, but gives some idea how slow hardware becomes obsolete these days.

I've read you post once more and I have to agree that T430 will require replacement much sooner, you got the point here. But it depends on the price you get it for.

[Memory]

Yeah, I was mainly looking at that T430 for the DVD drive. I guess I could just use a USB one though.
Hmmm... Maybe I'll go for the T470 and run Linux on it, and hopefully that will last me many years, that is if I take good care of it.

Thank you everyone for the feedback!

[Melooon]

Iv thought about this some more and I think the 470 looks like a really great computer and you should be really happy with it Both windows and linux should run well on it too!

Let us know how it goes whatever you pick!

[Melooon]

I feel like this is the perfect laptop for this thread! Its retro looking its got a disk drive and it runs all modern hardware  Iv no idea how you'd get one since its Japan only - but it's super cool!

[teatime]

I feel like this is the perfect laptop for this thread! Its retro looking its got a disk drive and it runs all modern hardware  Iv no idea how you'd get one since its Japan only - but it's super cool!

i love the look of this laptop! the inclusion of the disk drive and vga port makes sense - a lot of japan is using older tech (i recall seeing a headline that noted that the jp government still used floppy disks). the disk drive and ethernet port are definitely luxuries most modern laptops refuse to include. the video has links to an ebay search for this model :3 one thing i'm curious about is the process of setting it up to use linux - how much elbow grease will it take to make the gestures unique to its trackpad work?