My current laptop, the Lenovo ideapad S540 which I bought around 2019, is about five years old. It is broken - and I figured out that repairing is just not worth it:
- The two speakers are blown up, thanks to the shoddy repair done two years ago, when I sent them to repair the melted BIOS/UEFI ROM
- About two month ago, I had to replace the DC jack four times in a span of few weeks (the new one works fine, however, but I don’t trust it)
- The battery is dead, I’ve tried searching for the same on the entire internet but to no success, and I’m at the mercy of a continuous power-supply, which is not a thing in my country
- The top panel (which houses the keyboard) was swapped recently, and was also an expensive replacement, but the new one is of an inferior quality, so one of my keys has a key-cap with a permanent damage
I am looking for a new laptop now, but since I can’t afford to buy a good one, I am considering to buy something cheaper with a loan of some sort. Here’s a few constraints I had in my mind:
- 16GB of RAM - no more, no less
- 512GB of SSD - no more, no less
- Don’t want the half-soldered + half-socketed configuration seen in most Intel-based laptops - it should be either completely soldered, or completely socketed - I would appreciate the latter, however
- Don’t care about the thickness
- Also, don’t care about the weight as long as it’s not heavy like some of those laptops that come with a metal panel (like my present laptop)
- RJ-45 port not a must, but would love to have one for convenience
- Will prefer a almost-no-bezel design
- WiFi driver should come with 5GHz support
- Comes with a web-cam shutter (physical or hardware-based, does not matter)
- No CPU + dGPU - I’m looking for a CPU+iGPU/APU combo
- AMD Ryzen processors preferably (I’m sick of Intel, and my experience with AMD Athlon, despite being a weaker CPU, was pretty good)
- Specifically the Phoenix (7040 series) lineup, but also open to HawkPoint (8000) and Barcelo-R (7030 series)
For now, I think that the target laptop should come with either the 7440U or the 7540U. 8440U and 8540U would be nice too, but they’re probably going to be expensive, and won’t be available, since they were launched about a month ago. But since Phoenix-based laptops are still not available even in 2024, I am open to looking for a 7330U and 7530U-based laptop.
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If you have budget constraints why not go for a used computer. I recently picked up a really nice used Dell XPS 15 for under 400€. Going cutting edge with budget constraints is rarely a good idea. Good hardware from a few years ago might outperform current budget hardware. What you should look into though is of it has recent bios support (I know Dell XPS are very good in that regard).
What’s country are you in?
Have you seen https://starlabs.systems/ ?
I did, actually. They’re pretty expensive, and cost more than the present device I am using. I got my Lenovo ideapad S540 for around ₹65k. StarBook Mk VI sells their cheapest Intel config at ₹1,01,716 - after the discount, it goes down to ₹88,972 plus shipping. I was looking for something as low as ₹30-40k. The MSI Modern 14 C7M-062IN seems to be around the price I was looking for, albeit a little on the expensive end - it cost about ₹64,990, but after a discount, it goes down to ₹44,990. The 15-inch variant - the MSI Modern 15 B7M-071IN - costs about ₹65,990, and goes down to ₹45,990 on discount. Although I like 15-inch, on second thought, I like the keyboard configuration for the 14-inch MSI Modern. But yes, MSI’s after-sale service sucks here - it’s horrible, perhaps, even worse than Lenovo or HP.
Have you taken a look at the steam deck? For its price it’s a really good deal (they expect to be selling you games, of course) hardware-wise.
Unfortunately, my use-case isn’t gaming, but more specifically, programming, compiling stuff on local machine and sometimes when I’m in the mood, then I love to play retro games made for Famicon and GameBoy Color.
As nitefox said already, you can start the steam deck on desktop mode and it’s already running Linux with KDE. My first thought when I read your post was also that Steam Deck could be exactly what you need. Plus they just refreshed it with better thermals, battery life, and display. A usb c dock would get you a pretty decent dev machine on a budget. Plus it’s great for retro gaming.
You can use it for coding, it’s better than any laptop you can get for the same price
I have an X1 carbon, for almost exact use case as OP, and I’m looking at the SD for a second dev machine. Perfect for retro gaming, and a general purpose computer at that.
I have an X1 carbon, for almost exact use case as OP, and I’m looking at the SD for a second dev machine. Perfect for retro gaming, and a general purpose computer at that.
Check out HP ProBook 455 G10, it should check most of what you want. Not sure about price, though. My colleague has model 2 generations back and uses openSUSE on it without problems.
A used framework 13 might be something for you
Again, the same issue with non-availability in my region.
Have you tried looking at used thinkpads?
Unfortunately, sites like Ebay, Quikr and OLX are filled with a lot of scammers. Some of these laptops are as old as 6th-gen Intel or 3rd-gen Ryzen.
What trustworthy options do you have for acquiring hardware?
It’s not cheap.
This one might be what you’re looking for. I’ve got a similar 13 inch model and I really like it.
acer Swift Edge 16 Thin and Light Business Laptop 16" 4K OLED CineCrystal 400 nits AMD Octa-core Ryzen 7 7735U (Beats i7-1255u) 16GB RAM 1TB SSD Fingerprint Backlit FHD Camera Win11 Gray + HDMI Cable https://a.co/d/dYBuMki
It doesn’t have all your wants, but most.
