Best has a lot of sub requirements, and cheap goes against that notion. Need to be specific about use cases. No one has the best everything because there are always cuts on design.
If you want the most generic answer, an arbitrary lenovo thinkpad
sub requirements? im nkt following
Do you want something to surf the Internet, play games, software development, or something else? Do you want a small screen or large? Do you require a 10 key? There are a bunch of factors to consider when talking about the best laptop.
surf internet, software dev. screen size irrelevent. doesnt need to be 10 key.
Sorry, I don't have recommendations for you, I just want trying to clarify what some factors may be.
I do like Lenovo to back the other user's response. If Intel, I would go with an i5 or higher CPU. Get something with an nvme hard drive, and probably 16gb of RAM or more. Outside of that, find something comfortable.
As he said I have a lenovo thinkpad and it's amazing, except if I want to game. If the game is a bit heavier it will get super slow. Some games I can't even play. But for office/ internet stuff?! amazing! I even use fusion 360 and it works great
You can buy a Lenovo X1 carbon from a couple of generations back that still kicks ass for well under $500. I grabbed a Gen 6 with an I5 in it for under $200, slapped a m.2 SSD in it, and now I have an amazing daily driver that I don't have to worry about.
usb c?
Yep
t490 is usb-c
With the preface of "cheap", do not ever buy a laptop under $500. They are simply underspecced by the time they get that low, and will give a bad experience.
I would also recommend something like a Lenovo ThinkPad, they are pretty damn tough. Maybe a ThinkPad E14 Gen 5 Intel. Spec it out to 16gb of memory and even the i3 processor will get your job done fine in Linux, while landing in under $650. Plus they have removable M.2 SSD's that can be changed out for a higher capacity very easily, and much much cheaper than the $300 they charge to kit it with a 1tb drive...
This is a lot less true than it was five years ago. Web browsing and basic word editing has not become harder to do in the past ten years, but hardware has made some major leaps. (thanks amd) So as long as it has an ssd and a semi modern (within five years) processor, it will do a great job of handling homework and 4k video. With windows replaced with linux, it'll do all those things and feel snappy while it does it.
Avoid sub 100$ laptops, and keep a skeptical eye on anything between that and 400$, but it can absolutely be done.
I'm biased, but the dell inspiron laptops that businesses offload are perfect for this sort of task. They have connectivity out the wazoo (useful for that outdated projector in the seldom used classroom) and their batteries are easily replaced.
Basic word editing and especially web browsing absolutely has gotten harder to do in the past ten years. Word processors used to fit on a floppy disk, now they wouldn't fit on a Blu-Ray, and web pages are heavier than they have ever been, even basic text is some fucking java applet.
I'm sorry, but, no, you're not even close with the size comparison. Office 2021 is 4gb, libreoffice and office 365 are smaller than that. The cheapest bluray will hold 25gb.
Obviously office programs have not become easier to run (with libreoffice maybe being an exception), but processing power has vastly outpaced whatever new requirements they've gained.
Shit like teams needs a supercomputer to run well, and will be slow on everything else. There is no point in buying a top of the line laptop just to keep teams or a badly made website from lagging.
People haven't seriously used floppy disks for twenty years now.
Well my point was less of an indictment of modern computers, and more an indictment of web designers and to an extent application programmers, who are increasingly the same crowd with shit technology like Electron.
Seems like we had a lot of computing tasks SOLVED in the 90's, but they expand to take up their container. A Raspberry Pi will run laps around the PC I grew up with, but it's considered pathetically underpowered by today's standards.
My point is that for office tasks, a 150$ laptop isn't just an option, it honestly will run office tasks incredibly well. Telling someone to not spend less than $500 on a laptop because it will run horribly is almost ten year old advice, and not helpful in 2023.
The latitude 5490 sells for 150$ and has everything a person running office stuff would want.
To add to this, if $500 is actually your budget:
Get a good second hand laptop. I picked up a 2020 model X1 Carbon a few months ago for ๐ฆ๐บ$200 and paid another $90 for a new battery for it. Came to about $300 for a great little laptop.
This was for the kid to take to school, so I didn't want to be buying a $1,000 thing that he'd destroy.
Holy shit, that is a great deal regardless of where in the world you are. How'd you get it so cheap?
It had a dead battery. Didn't hold charge at all when you unplugged it. On the second hand market, that makes this laptop 'faulty'.
How is a laptop with a dead battery usable for school? Do they spend the whole time in a single classroom which has sockets?
They wrote they got a new battery for it.
Dang, lucky you! Though also what in the world did the previous owner do to it to kill the battery so dead in just 3 years.
My suggestion is to get a device that can do the stuff kids want, but just barely do the things they want.
I probably spent more time tinkering around the family computer than anything else as a kid just to get games way over-spec to run on it. Throughout that process I learned programming, hex editing, and some Linux system administration, which eventually led me to my current career.
These days, it's probably a lot easier to get started with a raspberry pi. But without something to motivate people to learn tech, why would they do it in the first place?
if you do go for a thousand thing get a framework, incredibly modular pc
To add to that, a used ThinkPad can be really good even under $500. Companies mass buy and replace them so they get sold for really cheap considering their specs
I've bought sub $500 laptops several times in the last 6 years or so, and they were all great. Lenovo puts (or at least used to put) out Ideapads with Ryzen processors that are crazy cheap, and fairly upgradable.
Any second-hand business class laptop, i.e. HP Elitebook/Probook/Zbook, Dell Inspiron/Latitude/XPS, or Lenovo Thinkpad.
Businesses tend to get rid of them after 4 years, even if they're still in good condition. Great bang for your buck and easily repairable if something does end up breaking.
Refurbs FTW! I scored a lot of good (but not cutting edge) electronics back in the heyday of TigerDirect.
Where's a good place/website (in the US) to buy used business laptops that are being disposed due to tech refreshes?
Don't really know about the US, sorry. eBay might be a good place though.
It generally is. Just make sure to know what model you want, and to make sure that the bios isn't locked (computrace basically bricks them if enabled).
Piggyback question from OP but can someone give me a QRD on what's so great about ThinkPads? I've seen them in a lot of recommendation threads but they don't seem like anything special to me. What am I missing?
They have great Linux support, generally are pretty repairable (they will have repair manuals and extra parts for you to order), and they are usually lease laptops, which means if you don't mind getting a used laptop you can get top of line laptops from a few years ago for a fraction of what they are worth. I've gotten thinkpads for years, generally only spending up around $200 on a laptop I use for a few years quite comfortably.
The repairability can't be overstated. I helped a buddy upgrade a ten year old HP laptop, and it took something like 20 screws, 8 ribbon cables, a keyboard lift and a mobo removal to upgrade the nvme drive, ram and battery. Overall time start to finish, including troubleshooting was 4 hrs, and that's after I found a guide for it.
I upgraded my thinkpad by removing 6 screws from the bottom cover. The ram,nvme and battery were all exposed and accessible. My upgrade took 10 min.
Yeah, it's huge. I recently replaced the screen of a friend's ThinkPad as a favour. I was a tad anxious because I've not done a repair on this scale before, but I said yes because of how famously repairable ThinkPads are.
The screen repair was way more involved than the upgrade you describe, but it didn't take me more than half an hour, and that was me being extra cautious. The great thing about a laptop that's known for repairability is the abundance of documentation you can find online, it becomes a self reinforcing cycle after a certain point
Still using my 2014/2015 model thinkpad (bought used in 2019), still feels brand new.
Durability is the game, and since they're usually for work/ bought by a company for the whole office they are usually taken care of when bought used.
They've been around for ages and are nearly synonymous with "enterprise" computing for a lot of people. I've had several through work. Although one, which is still my "carry around" laptop, was never great and still isn't, they've largely been solid. Even this one is going on 6-7 years.
Tough as hell, good to great keyboards, Trackpoints are the bomb if you do work in an enterprise environment (more text than graphics)
trackppints?
Some say they are Nokias 3310 among laptops.
From all the people I knew that ever had them, they still have, very often still use and eventually compare any other / newer laptops with them.
Love my X1 Nano (have had it since 2021), one brick for all my devices.
I'd probably go for a used ThinkPad, they're very sturdy and can take a lot of beating and on top of it it's easy to repair them yourself. That is what I did when I was at university and didn't have a company to sponsor a laptop for me.
Pinebook Pro
whats that??
I have a Thinkpad E14 AMD from work and it's fine. Zero complaints about the hardware. Got an extra USB C charger for it, but I've managed to charge it with my Nintendo Switch charger when needed.
You can always buy a USBC to barrel jack or whatever charger bit adapter. I did this with my surface, and work laptops for years. Just gotta make sure your USBC charger is up for the job. Got a 140w one now and works like a champ on my XPS, MacBook pro, steam deck, x1 carbon, surface book
there are some good convertible $500 chromebooks with core i3 + 8gb ram that are sometimes on sale for $400 or even $350. All Chromebooks support USBC charging and most $500 chromebooks will be convertibles and do video out as well.
ehich one specifically do yi tecommend
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