2y ago

Best <$400 USD Ultrabook for Debian 12

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

31 comments

To be clear, you need it to cost more than $400?
- I meant under $400, I am an idiot
- Can’t be seen with anything under $400. Rich millennials nowadays..
  /s fam, but how can you code and not understand less-than/greater-than symbols 🤨
  
  So real, it was honestly a dumb-fuck moment and I am more than a little embarrassed. That’s what code reviews are for!

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 with Thinkpad any S series. More portable and compact (thanks to the lightweight compensation than other series). Also thinkpoint is the main point of Thinkpad laptop that brings you joy to the fullest on this machine.
  
  The connectivity is also nice. The RJ45 socket is especially important for me, so the laptop couldn't be thinner anyway.

Well, while I presume you meant to say less than 400$, if you really did mean more then I would highly recommend getting a Framework laptop. They are amazing fully repairable and upgradable ultrabooks, and they have mostly excellent Linux support (you can even buy them without windows preinstalled!). I've had one for several months now and it's been great.
- I honestly love the idea behind the Framework laptops. If I had the cash that is what I would buy.
  
  Yeah, Framework definitely needs to eventually make a less expensive device (right now they aren't really price-competitive), but they are a small company with very limited resources, so it's perfectly understandable that they haven't yet. In any case, getting something like a used Thinkpad definitely still at least partially follows Framework's vision while being less painfully expensive (I had some trouble justifying the purchase at first given the high price compared to the competition, although ultimately it was definitely nessisary to replace my aging Zenbook, and it will probably age better than the competition) and would probably work well for you (their reputation didn't come from nowhere after all). Anyways, sorry for the long and somewhat rambling response (I need to work on cutting down all those parenthesis), and I wish you luck on your laptop-finding adventure!

I have had several Thinkpads. My current is the x1 6th gen and it's wonderful. Dell Laditiues are good too.

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'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.

Lenovo Thinkpad and Dell latitude laptops are usually great for reliability and repairability, ifixit has repairability scores if you're ever curious https://www.ifixit.com/laptop-repairability
EDIT: HP also scores high on a few of their products but I find the company to be quite annoying with their proprietary crap and general business practices (e.g. printer subscriptions)

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.

Back in my college days, I first used a T60 (not ultrabook) then moved to an x220 (nearing ultrabook). The X220 was perfect, removable battery, all day battery, good build quality, perfect for linux. I rocked mint with DWM for the 2nd half of my uni days.

I got a used HP probook 635 g7 for $300, I like business HP models as much as ThinkPad, but I like the metal chassis more

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.

31 comments