Well i started my B tech course this year, I am looking for a laptop for my use case. I am using linux as a main os for 3 years.

The laptop which i currently use is a Dell Inspiron N5110. Its a pretty old machine so i am currently looking for an upgrade.

Things which I do :

  1. Read documents
  2. Watch videos and listen to music
  3. Light coding
  4. Tinker with almost everything
  5. Try new software if i can.

I REALLY need a a laptop with good cooling and battery life like 5 hours is fine.

  • hexloc@feddit.nl
    121·
    1 year ago

    Just don’t get a modern HP laptop, or any old ones for that matter. They’re crap (personal experience). If you are not planning on playing modern AAA games then probably an older thinkpad would do. A friend of mine has an upgraded X1 Carbon gen 1, but i recommend something a little bit more modern for your usecases. I don’t know about battery life tho.

    • Skull giver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl
      2·
      1 year ago

      I have had great experiences with different models of HP Probooks, including many years of regular BIOS updates, which I can’t say for other brands.

      Tne trick with HP is to buy their business line (while also staying the hell away from their super thing ultrabooks or whatever they’re called these days). They’re chunky beasts, but in my experience they’re repairable, upgradable, and often well supported.

      Don’t buy anything from the HP consumer line. Consumer models are a lot cheaper and that’s not because of HP’s generosity.

    • Dotdev@programming.devOP
      0·
      1 year ago

      I don’t plan on an HP or Dell. I have had the worst experiences with them. ThinkPad even if refurbished come for a higher price than $ 600 here.

  • flashgnash@lemm.ee
    6·
    1 year ago

    ThinkPads are generally pretty good. Got mine for ~£450 on eBay and it’s got ridiculous specs for that price (4k display, discrete GPU, 2 nvme slots, 32gb of ram and an 8 core 3.6ghz i7)

    I think it lasts about 5 hours of light use on Linux but like many ThinkPads you can swap out the battery so bringing a spare charged battery with you is an option if need be

      • flashgnash@lemm.ee
        1·
        1 year ago

        Very high spec for the money, old hardware but still far more powerful than many modern laptops that are more expensive

        You’re not going to be running cyberpunk at 4k on it but for all of the things you mentioned it won’t even break a sweat

        Just make sure you pay attention to the specs because there are different builds of them with different amounts of memory, GPU and screen resolution I believe

  • rufus@discuss.tchncs.de
    2·
    1 year ago

    refurbished thinkpad or dell xps. (buying something like a business model could save you money on the long run, because you’ll be able to service the laptop later on. Instead of owning one of the new cheap consumer electronics that has everything soldered on and glued shut. And is generally made more cheaply.) Make sure to save enough money to afford a replaceḿent battery. The second hand one won’t be at 100% capacity any more.)

  • filister@lemmy.world
    1·
    1 year ago

    Maybe buys something that you can expand in the future by adding extra RAM, replace the storage and exchange the battery. A lot of the modern laptops don’t allow you to do any of those (planned obsolescence?). I know older ThinkPads are a good option but I think newer models are less serviceable. In Linux you can use tlp to tune up your battery usage and reduce the power consumption to the bare minimum. I would also recommend a second-hand ThinkPad, but just check if it is upgradeable.

  • TimeMuncher2@kbin.social
    1·
    1 year ago

    Search on Flipkart, there’s a few good laptops there. Don’t know if they are full Linux compatible.

    Take a look at this MSI Core i5 12th Gen - (16 GB/512 GB SSD/Windows 11 Home/4 GB Graphics/Arc A370M Intel ARC/144 Hz) Thin GF63 12HW-012IN Gaming Laptop on Flipkart

    With points and a 1000 off coupon it comes in your budget.

    I think you need to do something to make the GPU drivers work. See this reddit thread.

    Try running Linux os live usb on it and see if everything works. If you use Linux Mint, i think you need to install kernel 6.2 since it’s still on 5.xx kernel now.

  • frankfurt_schoolgirl [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Ok probably your best option is a used Thinkpad, or maybe a Chromebook with the Chromebook distro, but if you want to do something crazy you could try the Pinebook Pro. It’s a 14" arm laptop that comes with debian for $220. You might need some accessories, but it would still be <$400 for something new and interesting. However, it’s a bit slow, and arm doesn’t have as much software support. I think it could do everything a CS student needs, except browsing may be slow because web apps are so absurdly big and complicated now. Definitely would get more than 5 hours of battery.

    https://www.pine64.org/pinebook-pro/

  • auth@lemmy.ml
    1·
    1 year ago

    Check out Swappa.com for a used laptop… Got a very good deal on a thinkpad. Almost any laptop will work for what you do except for tinkering with almost everything which is kind of hard to define… Just avoid the Google Chromebooks

  • Little1Lost@feddit.de
    0·
    1 year ago

    i dont really know about laptops but maybe get a used or refurbished one?
    at least two people around me buyed refurbished ones and had no problem

      • lckdscl [they/them]@whiskers.bim.boatsEnglish
        3·
        1 year ago

        Consider refurbished or second hand, please don’t buy a brand new laptop as there is so much waste in the world already. If you buy from big brands, you might be able to buy replacement batteries. If not, install Linux and use TLP. You could also ask the seller to measure the battery life. I was patient and managed to score a used ThinkPad and the battery health was 98% when I bought it.