I’m trying to downsize from an aging gaming laptop to an ultrabook I can use for writing, web browsing, and JavaScript / Python web development. I understand an ultrabook will be a downgrade in the performance department, but I don’t need all the performance my current laptop offers.
I’ve been looking at ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 8 machines and they seem like a good sweet spot of price to recent parts/repair-ability. Anybody have other suggestions for Linux ultrabooks? Needs to be <$400 USD.
PS. For more intense tasks, such as training language models, I plan on renting cloud compute as I don’t have the space for a deep learning machine at home.
edit: meant under $400, I am a dumbass
To be clear, you need it to cost more than $400?
I meant under $400, I am an idiot
I mean, the world’s your oyster with price limit! Haha.
Not really an ultrabook, but the thinkpad T4xxS series is pretty great too and you would probably get stronger hardware for the same price than with an X1 carbon.
Edir: The xx meaning other numbers of course. I’m using a T470s for many years and am still happy with it. I’ve got a more powerful desktop computer as well though.
-1 on the S versions. they have soldered RAM and are negligible thinner but way worse for expansion, serviceability and don’t have dual batteries. ditto for the carbon in the OP, the T480 is a way better choice and way cheaper.
Citation needed. My T470s has dual battery, RAM is not soldered and it is easily servicable. I just upgraded the ssd not long ago. Also, I find the thickness difference significant enough. It’s just a bit easier to slide in and out of your backpack. And I also prefered the general haptics of the S when comparing them back then. The price difference for the same configuration was somewhere between 100-200€ back then and I decided it was worth it. Total price was 1500, it was on a discount though.
Edit: Oh you probably meant that one of the batteries is swappable from the outside. That’s definitely a nice feature of the ones without S. Also, the 480 might be already thinner and feel better than the 470 without S did…
was refering to T480 vs T480s, since they’re in OP’s budget. the former has dual batteries and can handle up to 64 GB whereas the latter is negative on both fronts and has either 4 or 8 GB soldered with one slot free.
T470 with and without S should be in the $150 range nowadays so not a very future-proof acquisition if they’re buying today.
Ok, dual battery where one is swappable is actually really nice as I said. It’s possible that one ram slot in my 470s is also soldered… not sure. But honestly imo that shouldn’t affect the decision at all. 24 gigs of Ram is enough, even today. 32 might be nice to have but very rarely makes any difference. 64 or more makes sense if you do video editing or the like, but apart from that is overkill. It depends on what you want, but I’d never sacrifice a plus in portability for the option to upgrade ram beyond 32 gigs in a laptop.
You could probably get a used x280 or x390 for that price. Both are great machines even 4 years later. Check local refurbishers for off-lease machines on the cheap.
I was rocking a revived Thinkpad W540 which probably cost me around that price after I upgraded everything I could. The only word of caution I’ll give you if searching the used market is that older NVIDIA cards are deprecated by newer drivers on top of NVIDIA Optimus being a royal pain in the ass on Linux.
I recently picked up a Dell latitude 7300 for less than $300usd. It has two sodimm slots (supports 32gb) and up to 1TB SSD. I’m pretty happy with it although it’s a touch older than the x1 carbon gen8. The 7400 is slightly larger with a 14” display and is the same generation otherwise.
I’m running Linux mint on it and haven’t tried your specific distro.
I just picked up one of those Latitudes too, and sent it back. I was not impressed with how dell “refurbished” it - it was chock full of dust and the display hinges were practically falling off. To top it off, the battery wouldn’t charge. Nobody spend 2 seconds looking over this dud before they shipped it to me.
I’ve got a Dell latitude 7390 that came from a refurb place. Was less than $400 australian, another $100 to throw a bigger nvme drive and more RAM in it.
Runs like a champ with zero issues on Fedora.
Got it initially to mess around with some different distros but have been using it almost exclusively instead of my macbook pro.
Which MacBook Pro do you have?
A 2018 13 inch, the first of their quad core i5 offerings in a laptop.
Spec wise it’s about the same as the latitude is currently. Of course the screen and general finish are nicer than the dell but for my current laptop use case, having the same OS and tools as my desktop makes up for it.
Ah nice! Tried Linux on the MBP? I just this week took the plunge with my 2016 MacBook 13,3. It was a MISSION to get everything working but I think later models have better support.