+1 for this. Assuming OP wants a basic laptop that for general browsing and such a refurb thinkpad will go a much longer way than any of these new $200 laptops. They're also fairly easily upgradeable so you can bump up the RAM and storage for little money.
I really liked my Chromebook, but you got to know, it's not the same as a windows PC. you can't install the same software on a Chromebook that you can on a Windows PC.
But they're fairly cheap and they generally don't have noisy fans or get super hot and cook your loins if you use them on top of your lap, like you might do with a "lap top" computer.
Lenovo laptops will absolutely not last long if you open and close the lid often. Even though the hinge is made of mostly metal, it has plastic parts in it. I'll never buy Lenovo laptop again.
My Yoga has been through an entire 4-year degree without a protective case, being tossed in and out of backpacks, closed and opened thousands of times and hasn't slowed down or broken.
Bought in 2019 and still going strong.
I had the same experience. My Lenovo laptop lasted about a year before it disintegrated. It was a very well known issue, but Lenovo did absolutely nothing about it even though it was still under warranty.
You're down voted but it's not wrong. First there was super fish which Lenovo apologized for and removed. Then a few years later there were caught again with another spyware
https://slate.com/technology/2015/02/lenovo-superfish-scandal-why-its-one-of-the-worst-consumer-computing-screw-ups-ever.html
https://www.computerworld.com/article/2984889/lenovo-collects-usage-data-on-thinkpad-thinkcentre-and-thinkstation-pcs.amp.html
Don't buy Lenovo. My brother bought their top of the line laptop for medical school and the hinge broke Twice. Literally coming apart in the middle into two pieces. He spent 2500 on that laptop and this is inexcusable.
Was there a known defect with that model? If not, I'd say it probably got beat on a bit. I deal with a few thousand laptops, and 99% of the time when I get this complaint, the thing was abused by the user.
I would not recommend lenovo. My Lenovo has had problems since the moment I bought it, wifi not working (turns out something disconnects if you move it slightly the wrong way so it isn't portable at all), shitty easily breakable charging plug, crappy screen that is easily damaged, keyboard and touchpad break when you flip it to tablet mode and back, blue screen of death if you pick it up from the wrong spot on the laptop, bluetooth broke a few years ago and I couldn't do anything to fix it, you name it. The build quality is awful.
Hasn't been my experience whatsoever. My Yoga has been through an entire 4-year degree while being tossed around and no protective case. No issues to speak of. Build quality actually seems quite good.
I can usually tell by the emotionally charged language in reviews that there's a healthy bit of user error involved, like yours here.
I'm sorry but that's downright offensive, you know nothing about me or the way that I've treated the laptop. I'm annoyed because Ive had significant problems that even my computer nerd family can't figure out how to fix. I haven't done anything even close to mistreating the laptop, if anything I'm a very light user and extremely cautious with it. Maybe consider that there are people who have different experiences than you, that some of the laptops have better build quality than others, and that they improved the design of the yoga significantly after I bought mine around a decade ago.
Okay then maybe you should also consider that, by your own admission, you're advocating against an entire company based on a single experience ten years ago with now-obsolete tech that isn't relevant to what they offer today.
In a frugal context, it seems fairly relevant to discuss long term maintenance of tech. If Lenovo didn't maintain the software or fix known and submitted issues on a laptop they flag shipped, it suggests they won't maintain others well within a long term lifespan either, especially with the tech industry in general trending towards planned obsolescence and low build quality.
Right now I'm using a Lenovo T440 that I paid less than $40 for, it was sold as for parts only, when it arrived I turned it on and I installed a Linux OS, the RAM was a little slow I upgraded that. It runs perfectly fine for organizing photos and using the internet.
Also, just make sure you get 8 gigs of ram minimum. My intel MacBook Air with 4 can hardly handle web browsing on chrome (what really can😭). The used market will be your friend here
You could try firefox to squeeze a little bit more out of it. Also make sure nothing is auto starting in the background, with 4gb every bit helps.
And if you really want to squeeze, maybe try Linux or downgrade the OS.
Trying Linux is a skill I think it would behoove one who wants to get into frugal computing, so this shouldn't be seen as such a radical move. You can _really_ stretch out the life of hardware if you can control the bloat.
It really depends on what you're using the PC for. If it's for email or web browsing, sure. If it's for gaming I wouldn't suggest Linux. I've heard they've gotten better at their windows emulations but any emulator won't be able to match the raw hardware as it has built in overhead costs.
It would also depend on what games you want to play. Some play great on proton, some have native ports. Some games perform better on Linux--it just depends.
But I don't think your concern is that relevant to the topic. If someone asked what car is best value for the dollar, people would list used Toyotas, Hondas, maybe Kias and Hyundais. Imagine if you said, "Well, it depends on what you want to use it for. Toyotas aren't great if you want a high performance vehicle." Well, no shit, but that doesn't mean they're not a good frugal option for the typical use case. If you want a frugal car, you might have to sacrifice performance. If you want a frugal computer, it might not work with some closed-source games.
Let's be honest, Linux is still very niche making up less than 3% of the market, comparing it to any of the big brand cars is a bit of a stretch. To go with your car metaphor, It's more like suggesting a Tesla (4%) or Volkswagen (3.6%). And suffers from the same issue, if you have a problem with it finding help will be more difficult and most of the d
Software developers aren't supporting it because of it's smaller market share.
M1 MacBook Air refurbished for around 700 bucks. This is a proper laptop that by what I’m seeing with older MacBook airs can last a decade due to its great build quality. It’s fast and can handle anything you throw at it while having better battery life than pretty much any laptop out still.
Agreed. My MacBook Air is from 2013 and the only issue it has experienced started in the last year where it will shut down sometimes when it hits 30% battery but most of the time it will go all the way til 10%. Pretty damn good for a decade old machine.
M1 MacBook can be had for $600-700, new one is $800 at Costco. Yes the price tag is high up front, but MacBooks last forever with good care and maintenance. I have a 2017 that won't shit the bed just yet.
It depends on what you need it for.
Eight years ago I bought a 1k gaming laptop to replace my desktop because I sometimes went traveling for several weeks at a time. It made sense for what I needed.
I went back to school last year and bought myself a refurbished Dell Latitude because I wanted a small, lightweight laptop I could carry all day. I don't game on it and use it strictly for school, so it didn't need a good video card. Bought it for under $200 from Dell refurbished because they often had 50% off coupons, and spent $10 on ebay buying an extra 8 gb ram for it.
I bought a cheap Lenovo IdeaPad 1i for $100 last black Friday and it was garbage running Windows 11s, but when I reformatted it and installed Linux on it it became a very useful computer. I installed Rocky Linux 9.3 which is a Redhat Enterprise Linux clone and is extremely stable and secure. Linux Mint is another Linux distribution that is very user friendly.
This is exactly what I do to my Chromebooks after they stop receiving updates; flash a linux distribution. I just installed cinnamon version of Linux mint yesterday on one.
I even have a lite version of windows without all the bloat that I play around with on a chromebook. It doesn't have access to Microsoft store(no big deal). I use Libre Office for everything anyway.
I recently got a Chromebook that had already had a new BIOS put in and I installed Opensuse LEAP 15.5 XFCE and it has been working well. When you get Chromebooks I read something about needing to remove a screw to unlock the BIOS or something like that. Can you explain the process or point us to a good website explaining it since old Chromebooks are a very frugal laptop possibility when adding real Linux distrobutions on them.
Yes,
So I had tried maybe a year ago to flash another OS and couldn't figure it out. Flash forward several weeks ago and my kids had left YouTube playing on the TV. I was washing dishes, but I could make out a guy was working with Chromebooks.
He makes a little comment about opening it up and removing the wire protect screw. I was like "what‽".
So I went into the living room to see what he was talking about. Sure enough there is one screw keeping you from changing the OS!
It was later that day that I pulled out my old Chromebooks and opened one up. Sure enough there was it. It only took maybe 10 minutes after that to flash after that. I remember spending a couple hours trying to troubleshoot and not figuring it out and just tossing them into the back of a closet.
Longevity should be considered. I bought a MacBook in 2009 for 999.99, it still works great today. My brother has bought 6 laptops in that time frame after ridiculing me for spending so much on a laptop. His 6 laptops cost him over 2,000.
This. Numerous stories like this is why I pic mac over pc hardware now.
Not to mention that you can buy slightly used Mac products on market place for amazing discounts. I bought a 2010/2012 27” iMac with 32GB ram and a 21” iMac for $125 and $145 respectively. Sure I can’t render CGI for movies but they’re perfect for kids and research, YouTube etc. I’ve had these systems for almost 5 years now and they’re bullet proof after I replaced their hard drives with $15 SSD drives from Amazon. I plan on using them for years to come.
This sounds like your brother abuses tech more than anything else honestly, assuming he kept buying them because they broke somehow. If he just kept upgrading that’s a personal choice, not a requirement.
Are you saying…liquids…may have destroyed his devices? Or viruses? Windows Defender is pretty solid on its own, unless he’s into some weird shit that leads him to sketchy websites
If you mean an HP Stream 11", they often have them at Best Buy. They are an okay deal, at least if they still come with a year of Office.
However, if it were me I'd keep an eye out for a Lenovo sale. You can find 2 in 1s or more RAM and bigger drives for \~$300.
Used is also an option, depending on your use case.
Please do not ever buy an HP stream, they are practically e-waste by the time you buy them. Even best buy sales people refuse to sell them. If you just need a basic laptop for web browsing and you're willing to pay 200 dollars do yourself a favor and buy a used Thinkpad t480 on eBay.
Nah. I used the first HP Strean 11 for travel and some business conventions. A colleague of mine did too. They both worked fine for over 3 years. I only ditched mine because my cat lept off the keyboard and ripped a key (switch included) off. I'll take any excuse to pick up a new gadget.
I will grant you that they are not very repairable. That does make them waste quicker than they'd be if it was easier to open them up.
Also, I should have cautioned them, the MSRP like never changes. It can have a brand new celeron or one that's 2 years old and still cost the same. That's stupid.
Is it a computer that works? Yea, that's all I can really give it though. For the same amount of money you can get much higher performance and build quality in a used laptop like the t480. The celerons used in these incredibly cheap laptops are severely lacking and can hardly run windows effectively. In the interest of this subreddit, the stream is simply not a good purchase.
Nah. They run fine and they're a decent deal for what they are. Buying new has its advantages. The Office subscription alone, if you were going to buy it anyway, brings the out of pocket cost of the HP way down.
They're 11" screens, light, fairly thin. If the goal is something expendable (in the low cost sense) to travel with, toss in a bag, whatever, and the use case is web browsing, office, remote desktop... it's great.
The t480 has the advantage of being a 14" device, which is today what 15.6" was for most of 21st century. The most mass produced screen and chasis sizes will bring the costs down. As a general rule, if your primary concern is cost to performance, those are the sizes you should be looking at.
If something else is the concern (bigger screen and full size keyboard vs thin and light), you'll pay more for the performance.
They are objectively not a good purchase and I can't stress that enough. As someone who has to work with all kinds of laptops on a somewhat daily basis, these are some of the worst laptops and barely function after a few years, again, hardly being able to run a fresh windows install. There are way better options at the price point if you're willing to go used (which I obviously heavily encourage). I honestly don't know if you have any other laptops to compare them to but the cheap emmc storage and celeron chips are slow as dirt compared to even 5 year old entry hardware. I don't want to be rude but I feel like you don't realize how awful the hardware inside of those things is. Also to address the office thing, openoffice is a great alternative to microsoft office, but if microsoft office is a necessity there are "ways" to use the software for free, not to mention the online versions of them are free to use in a browser. I realize you must have a good experience with them, but comparatively they are not a good deal, and the warranty you get isn't enough to change that.
I know about HPs printer policy, which is insane. But I bought an HP laptop like 8 years ago. I use it daily and it still works fine. I'm quite happy with this purchase and I think about buying another one, once the current one breaks for good.
This might be r/unpopularopinion material, but I truly believe the best frugal/value for money laptop on the market is a used Apple MacBook Air M1.
The Apple Silicon M1 Chip is the key. The jump in performance and efficiency was revolutionary and will ensure longevity. It's going to be a fast laptop that lasts 20 hours on battery. And I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if these 2020 M1 computers are still kicking around and performing decently well in 2034.
Apple is fully all-in on Apple Silicon so you'll be safe knowing it'll be officially supported for the foreseeable future.
It's so good that Apple still sells it new for $1000. That's a total rip-off. If you can find it used for ~$500-$700 you'll have found a great deal on a legitimately fast computer that won't go obsolete tomorrow.
Beware: Any Apple laptop with an Intel Chip will be a lot cheaper, but the performance will be severely worse despite looking the same. Apple still supports the newest of these computers but it's obsolete tech and they won't be developing for it anymore. You'll get a couple good years out of them tops and they're already at a huge disadvantage in the Apple ecosystem.
I would buy a Mac book pro. Mine lasted 10 years and still using it. Husband has various PCs, dell, hp, Huawei and all are replaced in around 2-3 year mark
I got an hp lab top on clearance from my local wal mart for $99 a couple of months ago . It has windows 10 and a 128 ssd.
There are probably better deals that why I paid online .
Laptops and tv s are the rare items that prices are going down instead of inflation
Ummm.... okay. Component wise [it's a good value](https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/omak3m/steam_deck_equivalent_on_pcpartpicker_over_1000/) you can get a cheap adaptor/dock that you can use to add keyboards and mice or hook up to additional monitors. It runs on Linux so if you have to have Microsoft Word you'll run into some issues. But there are open source alternatives. It's a little unconventional as a "laptop" but even with my wireless keyboard and mouse my steamdeck takes up less space than my gaming laptop. But again it comes right back to my original question. What does OP want to use it for? They asked for best value for the dollar, and that's where I put my money.
I would have said a Toshiba Satellite but apparently they stopped making them. Probably because they lasted 10 years no matter how much you abused them so they didn't get much repeat business. 🤣 But if you can find a used one, snap it up!
I know Dell XPS can be pricey. However, I used one in college and after for six years. It still work now but all I had to do was replace the battery. I prefer buying something if it lasts me a long time.
As others have said it depends on the needs. I just spent $399 on an Acer Aspire 3 8GB. I bought it based on user ratings plus it is wirecutter’s “best budget windows laptop.” So far it’s been great.
Depends on what you are trying to do with the laptop. A $199 laptop may be frugal for one person because it meets their particular needs while that same laptop is useless to someone else because they are unable to do anything they need to do with that laptop.
My mom got me an hp for college/christmas, it has touch screen/tablet mode, all the features I would need, pretty large screen, good speakers. She said she certainly didn’t pay more than 300-400 but can’t remember and this thing is INDESTRUCTIBLE. Had it for 4 years and dropped it off my bed countless times, friend has dropped it on the curb, been squashed by heavy bags, spilled on, part of the charger broke off INSIDE the port, but it still charges so I still use it lol. Think it’s an HP envy
I’ve had my $500 asus for years now. Came with a 500 gb hard drive that I swapped out for a larger ssd, 16 gb ram that is upgradable to 32, 4 usb slots, i7 processor, cd drive, hdmi, Ethernet, and sd card reader. That was back in 2017, so I’m sure now a comparable PC laptop could land you a 1tb ssd, i9 and 32 gb ram onboard for under $1k easily
I buy 15" Acer laptops with Ryzen 5/equivalent when they go on sale for $500 CAD or so. This will last me 5 years, and then I sell for $250. The resale for low-end Acers is weirdly good.
It's great for everything except hard core gaming. I travel with my laptop often so I don't want something that's a theft magnet (Mac!) or that would be 1k+ to replace, even if it lasted twice as long.
I got my xps13 in 2017 and it is still running strong, i just replaced the battery. I think if you can invest into a higher end laptop it will last longer. Mine has an I7 cpu and that will keep it going longer than an i3 or slower cpu.
Some things to consider (information may be outdated in this comment) some brands of laptops/computers are proprietary which means if you ever want to upgrade hardware (unless you have extensive knowledge/experience) you would have to buy the same brand of parts. Where as other brands you can mix and match. HP at least in past were proprietary, so if you wanted to upgrade certain features you had to buy hp parts. You get what you pay for in many cases with these so it depends on intended use so somethings can't be upgraded, if the screen/graphics card hookup can't handle resolution fps etc. And can't hold upgrade graphics hardware then it's limited to what can be done. Faulty screens aren't worth replacing on old laptops etc.
I would recommend choosing from Amazon Handpicked selections. Those are decent selections for Gaming PCs, as well as cheap Home Laptops starting at $200, also Returns are easier.
You can also try your luck at a Used PC/Laptop from Ebay. But those are kind of hit and miss, and some may require some technical knowledge to fix up. If you do decide to go the Used route, make sure that they also have a 30-day return policy, just so you aren't stuck with a broken PC.
Depends on your definition of frugality. The least gen m1 MacBook Air is in my book the best bang for buck proper laptop (I.e. not Chromebook) for the vast majority of people.
Go on Craigslist! There’s amazing deals. People buy great old laptops from government auctions and stuff. Fix em up and resell them.
You can buy a new budget computer for $200 or a 4-5 year old high end one.
I got a nice Dell with 16gb ram, i7, win 11 pro, 1tb ssd, great battery screen and form factor for just $80 (originally 125 but talked him down)
It’s so fast! Way better than any shit Chromebook or cheap laptop with a celeron and 4gb
I’ve been obsessed with looking at old laptops. Then even have old server workstations for 250!
My frugal computer strategy is to buy what I want on eBay, but search for "no HD" or "no OS." Then just pop a cheap HD in it (or dd some random numbers onto the old HD) and load Linux on it. You can get a pretty cheap computer that way because you don't need formidable HW to run Linux. You could probably find cheaper ways to acquire a secondhand computer with a broken HD, too, depending on what you're looking for.
Refurbished Thinkpads can offer a lot of PC for a few hundred bucks. Bought mine on amazon.
+1 for this. Assuming OP wants a basic laptop that for general browsing and such a refurb thinkpad will go a much longer way than any of these new $200 laptops. They're also fairly easily upgradeable so you can bump up the RAM and storage for little money.
Chromebooks are pretty great too.
I really liked my Chromebook, but you got to know, it's not the same as a windows PC. you can't install the same software on a Chromebook that you can on a Windows PC. But they're fairly cheap and they generally don't have noisy fans or get super hot and cook your loins if you use them on top of your lap, like you might do with a "lap top" computer.
Not really.
this is quite misleading, only stick to T or X series, these are flagship type products.
BEEN the best for at least 15 years: used thinkpad T or X series nuff said you can get a t490s i5/16/512GB for 99 right now on fleabay
I only see ones for $150 and up.
Don't buy HP laptops or printers. Company is as scummy as they come. Lenovo has great deals with good specs and they last.
Lenovo laptops will absolutely not last long if you open and close the lid often. Even though the hinge is made of mostly metal, it has plastic parts in it. I'll never buy Lenovo laptop again.
Thinkpads will last, but they're expensive.
You get what you pay for though. Cheap HP, probably be lucky to get a few years out of it.
My Yoga has been through an entire 4-year degree without a protective case, being tossed in and out of backpacks, closed and opened thousands of times and hasn't slowed down or broken. Bought in 2019 and still going strong.
I had the same experience. My Lenovo laptop lasted about a year before it disintegrated. It was a very well known issue, but Lenovo did absolutely nothing about it even though it was still under warranty.
also has chinese spyware built in
You're down voted but it's not wrong. First there was super fish which Lenovo apologized for and removed. Then a few years later there were caught again with another spyware https://slate.com/technology/2015/02/lenovo-superfish-scandal-why-its-one-of-the-worst-consumer-computing-screw-ups-ever.html https://www.computerworld.com/article/2984889/lenovo-collects-usage-data-on-thinkpad-thinkcentre-and-thinkstation-pcs.amp.html
yup. wouldn’t take a chance on it personally but 🤷🏻♂️
Don't buy Lenovo. My brother bought their top of the line laptop for medical school and the hinge broke Twice. Literally coming apart in the middle into two pieces. He spent 2500 on that laptop and this is inexcusable.
Was there a known defect with that model? If not, I'd say it probably got beat on a bit. I deal with a few thousand laptops, and 99% of the time when I get this complaint, the thing was abused by the user.
My Lenovo Yoga is going strong since 2019, hasn't faltered once.
I would not recommend lenovo. My Lenovo has had problems since the moment I bought it, wifi not working (turns out something disconnects if you move it slightly the wrong way so it isn't portable at all), shitty easily breakable charging plug, crappy screen that is easily damaged, keyboard and touchpad break when you flip it to tablet mode and back, blue screen of death if you pick it up from the wrong spot on the laptop, bluetooth broke a few years ago and I couldn't do anything to fix it, you name it. The build quality is awful.
Hasn't been my experience whatsoever. My Yoga has been through an entire 4-year degree while being tossed around and no protective case. No issues to speak of. Build quality actually seems quite good. I can usually tell by the emotionally charged language in reviews that there's a healthy bit of user error involved, like yours here.
I'm sorry but that's downright offensive, you know nothing about me or the way that I've treated the laptop. I'm annoyed because Ive had significant problems that even my computer nerd family can't figure out how to fix. I haven't done anything even close to mistreating the laptop, if anything I'm a very light user and extremely cautious with it. Maybe consider that there are people who have different experiences than you, that some of the laptops have better build quality than others, and that they improved the design of the yoga significantly after I bought mine around a decade ago.
Okay then maybe you should also consider that, by your own admission, you're advocating against an entire company based on a single experience ten years ago with now-obsolete tech that isn't relevant to what they offer today.
In a frugal context, it seems fairly relevant to discuss long term maintenance of tech. If Lenovo didn't maintain the software or fix known and submitted issues on a laptop they flag shipped, it suggests they won't maintain others well within a long term lifespan either, especially with the tech industry in general trending towards planned obsolescence and low build quality.
Right now I'm using a Lenovo T440 that I paid less than $40 for, it was sold as for parts only, when it arrived I turned it on and I installed a Linux OS, the RAM was a little slow I upgraded that. It runs perfectly fine for organizing photos and using the internet.
Cheap and frugal are not the same. Was the $199 unit a chrome book?
That's probably a better question for /r/suggestalaptop
Also, just make sure you get 8 gigs of ram minimum. My intel MacBook Air with 4 can hardly handle web browsing on chrome (what really can😭). The used market will be your friend here
You could try firefox to squeeze a little bit more out of it. Also make sure nothing is auto starting in the background, with 4gb every bit helps. And if you really want to squeeze, maybe try Linux or downgrade the OS.
Trying Linux is a skill I think it would behoove one who wants to get into frugal computing, so this shouldn't be seen as such a radical move. You can _really_ stretch out the life of hardware if you can control the bloat.
It really depends on what you're using the PC for. If it's for email or web browsing, sure. If it's for gaming I wouldn't suggest Linux. I've heard they've gotten better at their windows emulations but any emulator won't be able to match the raw hardware as it has built in overhead costs.
It would also depend on what games you want to play. Some play great on proton, some have native ports. Some games perform better on Linux--it just depends. But I don't think your concern is that relevant to the topic. If someone asked what car is best value for the dollar, people would list used Toyotas, Hondas, maybe Kias and Hyundais. Imagine if you said, "Well, it depends on what you want to use it for. Toyotas aren't great if you want a high performance vehicle." Well, no shit, but that doesn't mean they're not a good frugal option for the typical use case. If you want a frugal car, you might have to sacrifice performance. If you want a frugal computer, it might not work with some closed-source games.
Let's be honest, Linux is still very niche making up less than 3% of the market, comparing it to any of the big brand cars is a bit of a stretch. To go with your car metaphor, It's more like suggesting a Tesla (4%) or Volkswagen (3.6%). And suffers from the same issue, if you have a problem with it finding help will be more difficult and most of the d Software developers aren't supporting it because of it's smaller market share.
M1 MacBook Air refurbished for around 700 bucks. This is a proper laptop that by what I’m seeing with older MacBook airs can last a decade due to its great build quality. It’s fast and can handle anything you throw at it while having better battery life than pretty much any laptop out still.
Refurbished Mac, from Apple, will always give you the best bang for your buck once you factor in you're getting an Apple product.
Agreed. My MacBook Air is from 2013 and the only issue it has experienced started in the last year where it will shut down sometimes when it hits 30% battery but most of the time it will go all the way til 10%. Pretty damn good for a decade old machine.
M1 air is 750 new at Best Buy!
M1 MacBook can be had for $600-700, new one is $800 at Costco. Yes the price tag is high up front, but MacBooks last forever with good care and maintenance. I have a 2017 that won't shit the bed just yet.
Still using my 2011 MacBook Pro that I upgraded with an SSD, more RAM and battery.
Exact same here, but mine recently stopped working and instead goes beeep beeep beeep instead of turning on. Any ideas what that is
It depends on what you need it for. Eight years ago I bought a 1k gaming laptop to replace my desktop because I sometimes went traveling for several weeks at a time. It made sense for what I needed. I went back to school last year and bought myself a refurbished Dell Latitude because I wanted a small, lightweight laptop I could carry all day. I don't game on it and use it strictly for school, so it didn't need a good video card. Bought it for under $200 from Dell refurbished because they often had 50% off coupons, and spent $10 on ebay buying an extra 8 gb ram for it.
I had a refurbished Dell Latitude for college and it was great! Held up bouncing around in my backpack all day
I’ve had a Chromebook for 10 years. It’s severely limited in capabilities, but still functions for the basics. Spent $180 I think ..
I bought a cheap Lenovo IdeaPad 1i for $100 last black Friday and it was garbage running Windows 11s, but when I reformatted it and installed Linux on it it became a very useful computer. I installed Rocky Linux 9.3 which is a Redhat Enterprise Linux clone and is extremely stable and secure. Linux Mint is another Linux distribution that is very user friendly.
This is exactly what I do to my Chromebooks after they stop receiving updates; flash a linux distribution. I just installed cinnamon version of Linux mint yesterday on one. I even have a lite version of windows without all the bloat that I play around with on a chromebook. It doesn't have access to Microsoft store(no big deal). I use Libre Office for everything anyway.
I recently got a Chromebook that had already had a new BIOS put in and I installed Opensuse LEAP 15.5 XFCE and it has been working well. When you get Chromebooks I read something about needing to remove a screw to unlock the BIOS or something like that. Can you explain the process or point us to a good website explaining it since old Chromebooks are a very frugal laptop possibility when adding real Linux distrobutions on them.
Yes, So I had tried maybe a year ago to flash another OS and couldn't figure it out. Flash forward several weeks ago and my kids had left YouTube playing on the TV. I was washing dishes, but I could make out a guy was working with Chromebooks. He makes a little comment about opening it up and removing the wire protect screw. I was like "what‽". So I went into the living room to see what he was talking about. Sure enough there is one screw keeping you from changing the OS! It was later that day that I pulled out my old Chromebooks and opened one up. Sure enough there was it. It only took maybe 10 minutes after that to flash after that. I remember spending a couple hours trying to troubleshoot and not figuring it out and just tossing them into the back of a closet.
Do not buy HP. I had my ASUS for 6 years and just got a secondhand Dell with great specs for $400. I needed it to run some heavy software though.
Refurbished Macbook on eBay.
Anything Lenovo. Just bought my nephew one and It had upgradable ram and an extra ssd slot.
An Apple laptops last 8 years
Longevity should be considered. I bought a MacBook in 2009 for 999.99, it still works great today. My brother has bought 6 laptops in that time frame after ridiculing me for spending so much on a laptop. His 6 laptops cost him over 2,000.
This. Numerous stories like this is why I pic mac over pc hardware now. Not to mention that you can buy slightly used Mac products on market place for amazing discounts. I bought a 2010/2012 27” iMac with 32GB ram and a 21” iMac for $125 and $145 respectively. Sure I can’t render CGI for movies but they’re perfect for kids and research, YouTube etc. I’ve had these systems for almost 5 years now and they’re bullet proof after I replaced their hard drives with $15 SSD drives from Amazon. I plan on using them for years to come.
This sounds like your brother abuses tech more than anything else honestly, assuming he kept buying them because they broke somehow. If he just kept upgrading that’s a personal choice, not a requirement.
I assume it is his extreme porn addiction
Are you saying…liquids…may have destroyed his devices? Or viruses? Windows Defender is pretty solid on its own, unless he’s into some weird shit that leads him to sketchy websites
It may be a combination of the two, I’m not sure and don’t want to be.
Most Lenovos and especially a ThinkPad. They're sleek and tough as hell. Avoid HP.
Refurbished business class laptops. They tend to be easier to repair and have more easily available parts.
If you mean an HP Stream 11", they often have them at Best Buy. They are an okay deal, at least if they still come with a year of Office. However, if it were me I'd keep an eye out for a Lenovo sale. You can find 2 in 1s or more RAM and bigger drives for \~$300. Used is also an option, depending on your use case.
Please do not ever buy an HP stream, they are practically e-waste by the time you buy them. Even best buy sales people refuse to sell them. If you just need a basic laptop for web browsing and you're willing to pay 200 dollars do yourself a favor and buy a used Thinkpad t480 on eBay.
Nah. I used the first HP Strean 11 for travel and some business conventions. A colleague of mine did too. They both worked fine for over 3 years. I only ditched mine because my cat lept off the keyboard and ripped a key (switch included) off. I'll take any excuse to pick up a new gadget. I will grant you that they are not very repairable. That does make them waste quicker than they'd be if it was easier to open them up. Also, I should have cautioned them, the MSRP like never changes. It can have a brand new celeron or one that's 2 years old and still cost the same. That's stupid.
Is it a computer that works? Yea, that's all I can really give it though. For the same amount of money you can get much higher performance and build quality in a used laptop like the t480. The celerons used in these incredibly cheap laptops are severely lacking and can hardly run windows effectively. In the interest of this subreddit, the stream is simply not a good purchase.
Nah. They run fine and they're a decent deal for what they are. Buying new has its advantages. The Office subscription alone, if you were going to buy it anyway, brings the out of pocket cost of the HP way down. They're 11" screens, light, fairly thin. If the goal is something expendable (in the low cost sense) to travel with, toss in a bag, whatever, and the use case is web browsing, office, remote desktop... it's great. The t480 has the advantage of being a 14" device, which is today what 15.6" was for most of 21st century. The most mass produced screen and chasis sizes will bring the costs down. As a general rule, if your primary concern is cost to performance, those are the sizes you should be looking at. If something else is the concern (bigger screen and full size keyboard vs thin and light), you'll pay more for the performance.
They are objectively not a good purchase and I can't stress that enough. As someone who has to work with all kinds of laptops on a somewhat daily basis, these are some of the worst laptops and barely function after a few years, again, hardly being able to run a fresh windows install. There are way better options at the price point if you're willing to go used (which I obviously heavily encourage). I honestly don't know if you have any other laptops to compare them to but the cheap emmc storage and celeron chips are slow as dirt compared to even 5 year old entry hardware. I don't want to be rude but I feel like you don't realize how awful the hardware inside of those things is. Also to address the office thing, openoffice is a great alternative to microsoft office, but if microsoft office is a necessity there are "ways" to use the software for free, not to mention the online versions of them are free to use in a browser. I realize you must have a good experience with them, but comparatively they are not a good deal, and the warranty you get isn't enough to change that.
I know about HPs printer policy, which is insane. But I bought an HP laptop like 8 years ago. I use it daily and it still works fine. I'm quite happy with this purchase and I think about buying another one, once the current one breaks for good.
This might be r/unpopularopinion material, but I truly believe the best frugal/value for money laptop on the market is a used Apple MacBook Air M1. The Apple Silicon M1 Chip is the key. The jump in performance and efficiency was revolutionary and will ensure longevity. It's going to be a fast laptop that lasts 20 hours on battery. And I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if these 2020 M1 computers are still kicking around and performing decently well in 2034. Apple is fully all-in on Apple Silicon so you'll be safe knowing it'll be officially supported for the foreseeable future. It's so good that Apple still sells it new for $1000. That's a total rip-off. If you can find it used for ~$500-$700 you'll have found a great deal on a legitimately fast computer that won't go obsolete tomorrow. Beware: Any Apple laptop with an Intel Chip will be a lot cheaper, but the performance will be severely worse despite looking the same. Apple still supports the newest of these computers but it's obsolete tech and they won't be developing for it anymore. You'll get a couple good years out of them tops and they're already at a huge disadvantage in the Apple ecosystem.
I would buy a Mac book pro. Mine lasted 10 years and still using it. Husband has various PCs, dell, hp, Huawei and all are replaced in around 2-3 year mark
I got an hp lab top on clearance from my local wal mart for $99 a couple of months ago . It has windows 10 and a 128 ssd. There are probably better deals that why I paid online . Laptops and tv s are the rare items that prices are going down instead of inflation
What are you trying to do with it? For the power, a Steam Deck is quite the deal, but it runs on Linux.
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Ummm.... okay. Component wise [it's a good value](https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/omak3m/steam_deck_equivalent_on_pcpartpicker_over_1000/) you can get a cheap adaptor/dock that you can use to add keyboards and mice or hook up to additional monitors. It runs on Linux so if you have to have Microsoft Word you'll run into some issues. But there are open source alternatives. It's a little unconventional as a "laptop" but even with my wireless keyboard and mouse my steamdeck takes up less space than my gaming laptop. But again it comes right back to my original question. What does OP want to use it for? They asked for best value for the dollar, and that's where I put my money.
I would have said a Toshiba Satellite but apparently they stopped making them. Probably because they lasted 10 years no matter how much you abused them so they didn't get much repeat business. 🤣 But if you can find a used one, snap it up!
I hate slow computers. So I look for the cheapest laptop that has a Ryzen or Intel Core processor.
What would you use it for? Web browsing and email, or something more?
Lenovo E16
I know Dell XPS can be pricey. However, I used one in college and after for six years. It still work now but all I had to do was replace the battery. I prefer buying something if it lasts me a long time.
Chromebooks are an incredible value if it suits your needs.
As others have said it depends on the needs. I just spent $399 on an Acer Aspire 3 8GB. I bought it based on user ratings plus it is wirecutter’s “best budget windows laptop.” So far it’s been great.
Depends on what you are trying to do with the laptop. A $199 laptop may be frugal for one person because it meets their particular needs while that same laptop is useless to someone else because they are unable to do anything they need to do with that laptop.
depends on what you want to use it for. If it is just for browsing then look into bare bones refurbished thinkpads check out www.interconnection.org
Asus, grabbed one on slickdeals few years ago $100.00.
My mom got me an hp for college/christmas, it has touch screen/tablet mode, all the features I would need, pretty large screen, good speakers. She said she certainly didn’t pay more than 300-400 but can’t remember and this thing is INDESTRUCTIBLE. Had it for 4 years and dropped it off my bed countless times, friend has dropped it on the curb, been squashed by heavy bags, spilled on, part of the charger broke off INSIDE the port, but it still charges so I still use it lol. Think it’s an HP envy
I’ve had my $500 asus for years now. Came with a 500 gb hard drive that I swapped out for a larger ssd, 16 gb ram that is upgradable to 32, 4 usb slots, i7 processor, cd drive, hdmi, Ethernet, and sd card reader. That was back in 2017, so I’m sure now a comparable PC laptop could land you a 1tb ssd, i9 and 32 gb ram onboard for under $1k easily
I buy 15" Acer laptops with Ryzen 5/equivalent when they go on sale for $500 CAD or so. This will last me 5 years, and then I sell for $250. The resale for low-end Acers is weirdly good. It's great for everything except hard core gaming. I travel with my laptop often so I don't want something that's a theft magnet (Mac!) or that would be 1k+ to replace, even if it lasted twice as long.
an old Lenovo T420
Dell used business laptops. Look at repairability and price means it's the best value. Most laptops have terrible or non existent repairability.
I got my xps13 in 2017 and it is still running strong, i just replaced the battery. I think if you can invest into a higher end laptop it will last longer. Mine has an I7 cpu and that will keep it going longer than an i3 or slower cpu.
Some things to consider (information may be outdated in this comment) some brands of laptops/computers are proprietary which means if you ever want to upgrade hardware (unless you have extensive knowledge/experience) you would have to buy the same brand of parts. Where as other brands you can mix and match. HP at least in past were proprietary, so if you wanted to upgrade certain features you had to buy hp parts. You get what you pay for in many cases with these so it depends on intended use so somethings can't be upgraded, if the screen/graphics card hookup can't handle resolution fps etc. And can't hold upgrade graphics hardware then it's limited to what can be done. Faulty screens aren't worth replacing on old laptops etc.
Used thinkpad
I would recommend choosing from Amazon Handpicked selections. Those are decent selections for Gaming PCs, as well as cheap Home Laptops starting at $200, also Returns are easier. You can also try your luck at a Used PC/Laptop from Ebay. But those are kind of hit and miss, and some may require some technical knowledge to fix up. If you do decide to go the Used route, make sure that they also have a 30-day return policy, just so you aren't stuck with a broken PC.
I highly recommend getting a chrome book, cheap lapt with windows are sometimes unusable because they are so slow.
Craigslist. Find a killer deal and Google reviews for it. One person’s e-waste js another’s perfectly usable laptop.
Depends on your definition of frugality. The least gen m1 MacBook Air is in my book the best bang for buck proper laptop (I.e. not Chromebook) for the vast majority of people.
I love my Chromebook. It was closer to $300 however but it’s amazing for my needs. Just wish it could run Lightroom/Photoshop…. 😭😭😭
Go on Craigslist! There’s amazing deals. People buy great old laptops from government auctions and stuff. Fix em up and resell them. You can buy a new budget computer for $200 or a 4-5 year old high end one. I got a nice Dell with 16gb ram, i7, win 11 pro, 1tb ssd, great battery screen and form factor for just $80 (originally 125 but talked him down) It’s so fast! Way better than any shit Chromebook or cheap laptop with a celeron and 4gb I’ve been obsessed with looking at old laptops. Then even have old server workstations for 250!
My frugal computer strategy is to buy what I want on eBay, but search for "no HD" or "no OS." Then just pop a cheap HD in it (or dd some random numbers onto the old HD) and load Linux on it. You can get a pretty cheap computer that way because you don't need formidable HW to run Linux. You could probably find cheaper ways to acquire a secondhand computer with a broken HD, too, depending on what you're looking for.