Ask HN: A good Linux laptop below 1000€

[csunbird]

Hello HN,

I have recently got rid of my Macbook pro and I am looking for a replacement. I thought, HN is the best place to ask, as there are many people here use linux laptops as their daily drivers.

I am looking for a good linux laptop for development purposes, with proper support from the manufacturer (e.g. officially supported).

The ideal price would be less than 1000€, but it is flexible.

Let me know of your suggestions, and thank you in advance!

Edit: My definition of good: A good CPU and good battery life. The integrated graphics card should be just fine, as long as it can drive a 4k screen.

[sigio]

New old stock Thinkpad T480's ;) Should be around 600-700

Though it seems they might be harder to find these days.

This also looks more then decent: https://outlet.bluelink.nl/product/20HJS0XA07?path=NOTEBOOK/

[nunodio]

Thinkpad T480S is not as good as it seems. It has throttling issues with linux. Besides that, the trackpad starts to flaking after some usage. I totally not recommend this laptop.

[amanzi]

I have a T480 and it's great. I run Pop!_OS on it and have no complaints. The fingerprint reader was the only thing that didn't work out of the box, but that can be fixed too.

[rurban]

Got a even cheaper E495 (Ryzen3!) for EUR 450, and upgraded to 16GB RAM. Much better than my old desktop i5 PC. 1TB HD, better than a 256GB SSD imho

[dsego]

Seconded, it's a good machine and everything works well with linux.

[csunbird]

Very interesting. I will definitely check it out.

[unknown_error]

The thinkpads. Their product lineup is super confusing. The r/thinkpad wiki is very helpful... https://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/wiki/intro

Also look for promo codes there. Never buy a thinkpad at MSRP, you can usually get them heavily discounted through various promotions (but still add on first party warranty and on site support if you need).

Their hardware quality isn't always the best but their support is good. Last time my screen hinge broke (a early foldable tablet thinkpad) and someone came out the next day to my house in a rural area and fixed it on the spot while I watched.

They're proper business / dev machines with a legacy going back to the IBM days.

Dell Latitude line is a close imitator/competitor also worth considering.

Razer gets you a lot of power but with tradeoffs in heat management and noise. If you don't need a GPU there isn't a good reason to choose them IMO. They are like MacBook wannabes but tailored for gamers.

I'd personally stay away from consumer laptops if I were you.

If I had to pick one, it would be the ThinkPad X1 Carbon.

[echlebek]

Stay away from the X1 Extreme lineup though. Mine is terrible and I would stay away from the entire segment.

[geoka9]

My only peeve with X1 Carbon is the 16 GB RAM limit. Otherwise it's a perfect Linux laptop (for me).

[csunbird]

Got a Thinkpad X1 Carbon today, thank you for the suggestion. I love it!

[Seirdy]

TongFang makes several laptops with AMD Ryzen processors and Radeon graphics that work well with Linux for well under uiur budget. The PF4NU1F is supposed to be a good one.

https://laptopwithlinux.com/tongfang-pf5nu1g-amd-ryzen-is-no... sells a version under $800 USD.

There are many other companies selling rebranded TongFangs with various configurations and prices; spend some time finding a good one.

An even better option is to buy used/refurbished. Used ThinkPads are a solid bet. See if you can find someone selling laptops nearby, in your area; you'll be able to hold/inspect/use/open it before you buy.

If you're not using Windows/macOS then avoid Nvidia. Handling their driver issues is a nightmare. With Intel and AMD, you basically never have to think about drivers.

For good official support, Lenovo officially supports upstream Fedora on some of its laptops. System76 and Slimbook are other good options for "official Linux support", but System76 can be pricey. TongFang laptops have a community of Linux users to help, but you won't get much "official" support.

For a very low-budget ARM laptop, the Pinebook Pro is a great option with lots of community support. Don't expect to play 1080p video on it without a few framedrops, though.

One of the biggest battery hogs is video decoding/encoding. If you plan on watching online video, your device should ideally support good hardware-accelerated VP9 decoding. AV1 might also be popular in a few years. That would mean that Braswell-and-older Intel chips are out.

[LargoLasskhyfv]

That laptopwithlinux-thing is an interesting site (for European customers). But how did you discover the TongFang option there? All it shows are the Clevos. TongFang only by search. How did you know?

[brightball]

I’m not sure why people aren’t recommending the Dell Developer Edition laptops.

https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/overview/cp/linuxsystem...

Fantastic machines we easy access to everything inside.

[worldsayshi]

Yes the XPS 13 has been one of my best work laptops. Feel like it's in close competition with Macbook pro in most metrics. Might be slightly over budget though.

[wink]

Because of stuff like this: https://f5n.org/blog/2021/dell-latitude-5130/

And I've heard the same stories from people with XPS. Same widespread coil whine, probably the same weird docking stations.

[Boldewyn]

I’ve got a Tuxedo laptop for four months now, which is a really nice piece of hardware.

https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/en#

Both software support and hardware quality are very good. Bonus points for having a Tux key instead of a Windows key ;-) . Maybe they’ve got something in your range?

[bmn__]

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23294417

[jedwhite]

Among friends the most popular options look to be Dell XPS 13 and on sale it can get close to that price point, and the Thinkpad T4xx models, which are good cheaper options refurbished.

System76 makes nice gear and I've heard good things about the Galaga Pro, but hardly any of their models are currently available.

I've been looking into this too. I'm running Ubuntu 20.04 on an older MacBook Pro and apart from the occasional kernel update sending CPU use through the roof, the experience has been good. But it looks like a less appealing option on the newer models with the touchbar sadly. I wish Apple would include regular hardware function keys as well as the touchbar. It would make the touchbar 10x more useful on macos also.

[Reason077]

According to leaks/rumours, the Touch Bar will be dropped in the next generation MacBook Pros, due this year.

[csunbird]

Unfortunately System76 gear are rare in Europe, I was not able to find any second hand or new online.

[ay]

I have seen the recommendation of X1, I can second that, with addition of x280.

The serviceability is great, Google “thinkpad x280 hardware service manual” gives excellent doc, from the vendor ! (In fairness the same true for most thinkpads I think).

I got a used X280 - very happy running Ubuntu on it. But the exact model I got had a bit bleak LCD screen and 8GB ram - via AliExpress I first upgraded the screen to bright IPS FHD screen (replacement part cost ~60 euro, half an hour and no tools needed to replace);

Then I got brave and got a 16GB RAM motherboard (vs the 8GB that it had). Was about 400 euro, and also relatively easy, though required a bit of gentle disassembly.

And then I wondered “rather than throwing away the old parts, how hard would it be to get all the missing bits and build yet another x280 laptop from scratch ?” - I grabbed the hardware manual and went shopping… I think the overall list turned out about 250-300 euro. Still awaiting for some bits, but based on my motherboard replacement experience the assembly shouldn’t be a big deal of a project.

[anewhnaccount2]

If you are looking to buy new IdeaPads have reasonable build quality beyond the basic specs. You can always add a bit more RAM if need be.

[sva_]

I got an IdeaPad back in 2014, and the keyboard was horrible. It wouldn't register keys if you don't push them right in the middle. Returned it and got an x1 instead. I'd avoid anything except X/T/W/P from Lenovo.

[csunbird]

That might be a good idea. I do not care about the graphic card, the integrated one should just do fine. A good battery life and a good CPU are all I need.

[truenamenofame]

If you go for a thinkpad, I advise going for a model that still uses the dual battery system. Some models I can think of: t480, x270, p51s, p52s. Since you'll be running Linux, you'll need all the battery power you can get and having dual batteries make hotswapping possible. Also avoid getting models that have an nvidia dedicated gpu if possible.

[TruthWillHurt]

I suggest you consider the warranty as well.

My Razer laptop works fine with Linux, but their warranty specifically states it holds for OS it came installed with. Multiple people reported Razer support demanding payment once they discover they had duel-booted Linux.

So either buy a laptop with Linux pre-installed, or be prepared to be "on your own".

[sva_]

I think their claim that installing Linux would void hardware warranty would be illegal in the EU. That seems insane to me.

[krylon]

I got an Asus ZenBook UX305 that cost ca. €850 in 2016. 8GB RAM, Intel Core m3, 13-ish inch 1080p display.

It runs openSuse Tumbleweed, and I am very happy with it. Bluetooth is a tiny bit flaky sometimes, and the backlight for the keyboard doesn't work on Linux, but otherwise it works well. Battery life is not quite extremely good, but I've gotten six hours out of it, having done no special tuning to optimize for that.

The touch pad is a wee bit too large for my taste, I sometimes touch it by accident with my palm when typing, but it can be disabled/enabled easily and has not been a serious problem.

It has no builtin Ethernet, but a USB-to-Ethernet adapter was included.

[Hasz]

A counterpoint to those suggesting thinkpads, specifically the pxx range. I have a p50 thinkpad -- It's a wonderful laptop, but as a linux machine, it's not great, yet. For one, I have a M2000 graphics card, which sometimes doesn't play nice with external monitors. I also have a 4k screen, which linux is NOT optimized for. My GRUB menu is microscopic, and I just haven't gotten around to fixing it. Ubuntu seems to handle this all OK, but it is by no means flawless. I also generally have terrible battery life, even with TLP and a bunch of hackery to disable the 2nd GPU.

[wanda]

Another vote for second-hand / refurbished Thinkpads, specifically Tx/Xx/Wx/Px series.

X-1 Carbons are good but avoid the touchbar (think it was gen 2), you want physical Fn keys.

I have an X-1 Carbon and a W520, W520 has a gorgeous keyboard, X-1s have chiclet keyboard which isn't as good as old school Thinkpads but still a step up from most laptops.

Thinkpads all good for Linux in terms of hardware. Probably avoid dedicated graphics cards on older models because they're not worth the hassle.

Just watch the screen resolutions and make sure there's no BIOS password problems when trawling eBay.

[wayneftw]

This is not a recommendation because they haven't shipped yet but I am looking forward to getting one of these - https://frame.work/

[csunbird]

Hey everyone, OP here. Just bought a X1 Gen 5, per your suggestions, and it is awesome. Thank you!

[CheezeIt]

I’m currently happy with a T14 Gen1 Ryzen with 8 cores. I don’t care about “proper support” though, and I don’t think you should either.

[41209]

What I do is buy a laptop from Best Buy or anywhere I can physically return it.

Get 2 usb drives , one to create windows installation media, and one to install Ubuntu. Then ether Ubuntu works or not. Normally it does, but generally a slightly older laptop will work better as more Linux support is available. Intel is miles better here

[ElijahLynn]

Thinkpad X1 Yoga - You can get an older one, like a 3rd/4th gen for well under $1,000 and they work great with Linux. I have a 3rd gen on Arch. It is a touchscreen with stylus and fully folds to tent and tablet modes too.

[halotrope]

Get a refurbished thinkpad x1 carbon. Great hardware, good ubuntu support out of the box.

[sva_]

I've also used a (2014) x1 carbon with Linux for a long time and can recommend that series. Just not the 2014 one, as it has a crappy touch bar instead of hardware F-keys. But the Linux support is great. I've often thought about upgrading, because of the non-standard keyboard layout, but the performance is still great so I can't really justify upgrading it yet. I bought it for around 1k euro back in 2014, so I think you'll probably find a later generation for less.

It's a great laptop, the only drawback is the fact that the memory is soldered on the Mainboard along with the CPU, so if it breaks or you want to upgrade, you'll be out of luck. My memory did fail after 2 years and 10 months, but I still had 2 months warranty with on-site replacement, which was great. I think they lowered it to 2 years now, and no on-site support, so keep that in mind. It's a real trade-off.

[SXX]

This. Year and half ago I bought myself X1 Carbon gen3 (model from 2017) and it had amazing 2K screen, fingerprint reader, 4G modem (even GPS works after flashing firmware). All works on Linux and cost me just $600. I recently gave it to my sis as gift, but it looked just like new when I bought it and still looks the same.

Of course Lenovo ruined Thinkpad for me a little, but still their x220i that I bought 10 years ago still running even after being tortured constatly and dropped so many times. So yeah best laptops for the price.

[degrews]

I agree. I did exactly this just last week. I got a refurb gen 8 (2020 model) from Lenovo for about $950 after tax (16GB, i5, 1080p). It looks brand new, not a single sign of use. I set it up with Ubuntu 21.04 yesterday and everything worked right out of the box. Much better experience than with the Dell 5530 I had previously.

Weight is 2.4lbs, 0.4 less than the Macbook Air. Some other people are recommending the T4xx series. My impression is those are a better deal if you don't care about the weight.

[christkv]

Second this a 3-4 year old x1 carbon laptop will still be a great and affordable but.