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this post was submitted on 22 Oct 2026
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What keywords are relevant and help filter the sheer fuckton of machines floating around on internets?
I just go to e-bay and search for "refurbished lenovo thinkpad (model I want)" and look for sellers that have good ratings with the buy it now filter on because I don't have patience for bidding. If they have a warranty it should be fairly prominently featured on the page. Last time I got a 3rd gen touchscreen L14 for like $300 and it came with a 2 year warranty, runs Mint like a champ!
You just have to look for business class laptops: Lenovo Thinkpad, Dell Latitude/Precision, HP Elitebook, and such.
I would avoid Dell Precision, they're usually higher spec but they also seem to have problems much more frequently than Latitudes despite being "better".
My favorite for personal general use laptops has always been Thinkpad, but I am probably a little biased because of nostalgia and Linux friendliness.
I've had good luck with Thinkpad, Latitude, and Elitebook laptops. I've actually got a pair of Elitebook 8440p machines left over from an old IT job. One of them I maxed out with an i7-740QM, 8GB DDR3, SSD, 1440x900 display, Nvidia discrete graphics, and all the extra options (except the little nib in the middle of the keyboard, like the Thinkpad Trackpoint... I hate those things).
I love the nub. ThinkPads have been pretty solid for me. HP has been hit or miss, but their business line is definitely the way to go if you go with HP.
Fair, I'm not one to yuck someone else's yum. I just don't understand the obsession with it. But whatever, doesn't hurt me.
My daily driver laptop is actually a 15" HP Spectre x360, running LMDE7. Outside of the battery life (or a lack thereof), I love it.
Decent graphics or decent battery life: Can't have both in a laptop.
My gaming laptop is an Eluktronics Prometheus 17 and that's pretty pretty good (minus battery life, maaaybe 3 hours with light use, probably closer to 1 for gaming) but for regular use I stick to my L14 Thinkpad with Cinnamon Mint on default settings and it can do 4+ hours no problem.
I've got a Thinkpad T14 G1 stowed away, and that thing is pretty sweet... But being AMD powered, the best resolution it's capable of is just 1920x1080, which drives me absolutely insane on a small 14" screen. My Spectre runs a much nicer 4K OLED touch display (which I can't imagine helps with battery life).
I barely use the Spectre for gaming.
Edit: Honestly - after googling around a bit - if I can successfully install the missing SMD capacitors on the eDP connection, I will happily daily the Thinkpad.
1920x1080 seems pretty usable to me on a small screen but screen upgrades are fairly popular with old Thinkpads.
I vastly prefer 1440p at this point. The way I use my laptop, running at FHD just feels crowded.
That, and the fact that Lenovo artificially limited the display output of their AMD models to FHD is enough to make me mod it out of spite.
I just upgraded to 1440 on my desktop, that's probably a factor in my perception lol