I am looking for a cheap, light, tough, relatively fast laptop to replace my decade-old lenovo. It will be my daily computer for browsing, documents and occasional photo editing. I will install eitherUbuntu or Mint.
I am looking at thinkpad x13 gen 1. It looks like the processor has an impact on the way it will be running, with different performances between ARM AMD and Intel.
Can I buy either one or I there a real compatibility issue with intel?
Love my OG Lenovo Legion Go. I use it for everything.
The Dell outlet store also often has some truly kickass deals on certified refurbished laptops.
It will be my daily computer for browsing, documents and occasional photo editing.
On Linux, that does really not need much computing power or RAM nowadays. I use a thinkpad T490 with 8 GB RAM with Debian and Gnome / i3 on it. Runs like a charm. A friend of mine is working happily with a Thinkpad X220.
Help with choosing a compatible PC
Avoid Hewlett-Packard for an easier life.
Lenovo Thinkpads will still be a reliable choice. … But newer models are succumbing to being made against right-to-repair too.
May consider manufacturers/sellers making hardware with Linux as their first thought.
^ For some examples. Many of these are built with right-to-repair in mind, extending the life of the hardware, and increasing peace of mind.
Or could shop around on ebay or other marketplaces for newer thinkpads. May get a good deal on a refurb or used (at own risk).
I find AMD much more reliable performance CPU than intel. Though you wont encounter any compatibility issues with either (~ don’t sue me if you hit upon an edge case with something very new).
And AMD are more “straight through” effortless for GPU than nvidia (which some people have issues with (I never did), and afaia are still dependent on some proprietary software).
[Edit: PS, While looking for more tarballs to jam in my bedrocklinux, I just encountered this page, showing manjaro are selling hardware now too https://manjaro.org/products … cool. Didn’t know about that.]
Wow, thanks for the info! I’m definitely getting a refurbished Thinkpad
:) That’s what I replied from. :) / am typing on1. Refurbished Thinkpad. Is joyous.
Got a used one coming in the mail for about half the price and twice the spec of this one I got two years ago. Could buy each again at same price and still not be spending the same as new. Ample resources/spec headroom. Bought it in a hurry before ebayers realise DDR5’s skyrocketing in price.
Though… those Linux focused hardware companies products do appeal more, now that I think about it… They care more than Lenovo. Worth supporting. Will likely get something with less planned obsolescence.
1 Okay, technically I’m typing on an old Kinesis Advantage… but it is plugged into the refurbished thinkpad~ /pedantic quibble.
Just get anything with 16 gigs or more of RAM and 512 gigs of storage.
I would stay away from ARM, you’ll have much more compatibility with an x64 cpu from AMD or Intel.
In Sweden Lenovo are currently having a clearance sale 50% on the P14s AMD Gen 5 with 8840HS, if you have the same in your country it’s great value.
https://www.lenovo.com/se/sv/p/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpadp/lenovo-thinkpad-p14s-gen-5-14-inch-amd-mobile-workstation/21me002xmxWow, seems great. They sell those in my country too, without any OS. However, I am trying to stay away from new stuff. That’s why I was looking for an older by capable laptop
Aight, I would try to grab myself an AMD Ryzen with Radeon 780m igpu or at least 680m igpu to get relative strong graphics at a low power draw. The 780m is a beast of an igpu.
Out of curiosity, what dedicated gpu would a 780m compare with? Because that p14 deal is quite compelling.
Compared to a real dgpu it’s weak and I wouldn’t buy it if you want a gaming laptop but rather if you want a work laptop that can also run games badly.
The below benchmarks doesn’t use the same exact CPU but they use CPUs that have the same iGPU so it’s somewhat telling:
https://www.ultrabookreview.com/64396-amd-radeon-780m-benchmarks/#amd-radeon-780m-rdna3-gaming-performance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9cVC6rOeP0 - Gaming on Radeon 780M (Ryzen 7 8700G, Ryzen 7 8840HS, Ryzen 7 7840HS ect) in 27 Games in 2024 TestIt’s a tad slower than a desktop rx 480
AMD is generally better but compatibility wise both should be fine.
I don’t know anything about the specific computer you’re talking about, but usually the issues are with ARM.
Yes, I meant AMD… Thanks though
You can edit the original post.
ARMAMD
You don’t really need a fast laptop for this, anything that goes over 10000 points on the Passmark CPU test, is enough (and with an integrated Intel cpu, if you want the best support for video codecs).
In Europe, the cheapest way is to get a DELL that comes with Linux. They’re 99.9% compatible, with firmware updates supported via fwupd on linux, the only thing is hit or miss is palm rejection on the touchpad. Everything else works. In Greece these start at 600 euros with 16 GB of RAM, 750 euros for 32 GB of RAM. I bought one myself recently, with an intel cpu at 15k points on passmark. Plenty fast. Only thing that doesn’t work accelerated is Blender (it works in cpu mode only), as it requires non-integrated GPUs. Resolve works now with intel gpus on linux too, and so is kdenlive.
OK, thanks for the tip. I might buy a new laptop or no laptop at all (I’ve been battling for two hours a canon printer that won’t print anything but blank pages with my Ubuntu distro)…
Which model canon exactly? I personally use an epson and it works out of the box.
It’s the LBP510dw. Ubuntu uses a generic driver that sends the printing command to the printer but only blank pages and/or one line of gibrish are printed. I installed CUPS but I get a “cups_handleerror” message printed upon switch on
I think you mistyped your model, it’s 151, not 510. These are the drivers for linux that work in conjuction to CUPS: https://www.usa.canon.com/support/p/imageclass-lbp151dw After installation, if it doesn’t work, it’s because these drivers haven’t been updated since forever… The blame is on Canon.
Hurrah!!! It works!!! (Although it works better after I installed Synaptic; I am new to this…)
Yes, that’s the one. I’ll try installing said driver and will keep you posted. Thanks
You mean AMD or Intel? I can’t find any variant with an ARM processor. According to the internet, both the Intel and AMD version should work with Linux. My wife actually owns the Intel X13 Gen1. With Linux Mint Debian edition on it. Seems to work fine, she didn’t ever complain. Just be aware these are 5 year old devices. She paid 404€ for a refurbished one. We went with the 16GB RAM option, since that’s soldered and not upgradable. Also had an i7 processor at that price point.
Yes, sorry I meant AMD. Thanks for all the precious info!
I’m in a similar situation atm and have also been looking at Thinkpad x13 as well as x390 and older Dell XPS models. I’m a bit afraid that 8gb of RAM might be not enough in the future (afaik most of these have soldered RAM) but so far I did not run into problems with 8gb on my current laptop. Generally Thinkpads and XPS have very good Linux compatibility from what I heard.
ARM and Intel should both work well, I think (this might change for newer computers in the future since Intel let go a lot of their Linux devs in 2025 iirc).
