My newest laptop is a Thinkpad W541 with Linux purchased used a few of years ago. That is just as good as any new laptop made today.
The Old T430 I got from a relative who went to a MAC is also quite adequate for daily use. I have NetBSD on it and just finished upgrading to 10.1, so this was typed on that T430.
So unless you are a heavy duty gamer or work on complex 3d graphics professionally, any recently used laptop will work just as well.
As someone who works on complex 3D graphics, I'm utterly bewildered by people who buy overpriced, overheating laptops for this purpose (more recently for AI stuff), leave them plugged in 24/7, and then complain about performance, heat, bad keyboard layouts, noisy fans and poor value for money.
I had to replace a perfectly good T450s because of terrible performance when using external 4k monitors. I had it for 6 years, upgrading everything I could, and it could probably last for at least another 4 hears if not for the outdated CPU. Replaced with a ryzen elitebook because RAM is expandable to 64Gb, hoping it will last for up to 10 years. The difference in performance is staggering compared to the old core i5, well worth the cost of a base model.
I accidentally tested the battery today, I forgot to plug it in :)
So, just shy of 2 hours the level was at 5%, I usually run at Frequency 2200, the range is 1200 -- 2601. The lower the frequency, the longer the battery life. You can set on NetBSD freq. using:
For resolution via the laptop screen is 1366x768, that is the highest on the Laptop monitor. As you can see it is a bit odd for some reason. On my external monitor I can go to 1920x1080 at about 60Hz. I think there were various models of the T430 and some had higher resolutions.
Note: The battery is original and is the larger Thinkpad battery. You can find new batteries on the WEB. I always use the T430 plugged in.
Ouch. That is unworkable for me, and would be very hard to deal with.
> For resolution via the laptop screen is 1366x768
Oh wow, that is a very low resolution, and wouldn't be good enough for editing photos and video.
> I always use the T430 plugged in.
I'm always shocked to see this. What is the point of a laptop you just use plugged in? Lower quality (and res) screen, bad thermals, lack of cheap expansion, and you're just tied to a desk anyway. It seems a basic desktop would run rings around it.
The Old T430 I got from a relative who went to a MAC is also quite adequate for daily use. I have NetBSD on it and just finished upgrading to 10.1, so this was typed on that T430.
So unless you are a heavy duty gamer or work on complex 3d graphics professionally, any recently used laptop will work just as well.