Working on the assumption that Win10 being EOL is going to cause an influx of old hardware becoming available, I was thinking it might be a good time to start looking for a good deal on a laptop for travel. It doesn’t HAVE to be an old unsupported laptop, but saving something from e-waste is a bonus. Here’s the kind of thing I’m looking for.
- Something small-ish, around a 13" screen.
- Can install Linux. Generally a given, I know. But I think not always an option with Chromebooks? I’m OK with a Chromebook as long as I can replace ChromeOS with Linux.
- X86_64 preferred. For games, though obviously not a great platform for that. Not opposed to ARM, but the PineBook Pro is compelling as a small low-cost ARM laptop, it’d have to be a better deal than that.
- Somewhat serviceable. I’d like to have the option to replace the batteries, storage, and memory. Being able to replace the wireless card would be nice.
- Durable would be a bonus. It probably won’t see a lot of use, but it’ll get tossed around in a backpack or in luggage.
- Specs aren’t too important. I like my distros lightweight, and a web browser will be the most demanding thing it’ll run.
All of that might be too much of a unicorn, but if I can find a good deal that mostly fits, I’ll be happy.
Thinkpad X1 Nano. Great specs, approx. 920 grams, super lightweight. Decent CPU and RAM (I did some light video editing on mine and it’s great), and a 2k screen (13 inch).
I’m using Debian on mine, works out of the box (like all Thinkpads, in my experience).
A quick search suggests all X1 Nano models can run Windows 11, so they won’t be ultra-cheap because of that.
I just bought one used (Gen1) for 450 EUR, I’d consider that cheap for this kind of hardware.
Alternatively look for Thinkpad X13 (Ryzen), slightly bigger, great hardware and value.