A week ago I was set on getting the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13, but realized I don’t need that level of extreme thinness and would rather put that money toward a bit more performance. The Gen 14 sounds awesome, but it’s way out of my budget as of now. (I would still love to get it if actually meets my requirements :') )
Long story short, I’m a dev building my own company and plan to work outside and move around. So I am trying to figure out a solid alternative and wanted to see what you all think.
Here is what I’m looking for:
Use Case: Software development, running on Windows, occasional cafe work, and maybe some very light video editing down the line. (I’m not a gamer though, so nothing too much).
Battery Life: Around 3–5 hours under kind of heavy use would be great.
RAM: Minimum 32GB (higher is always welcome).
Thermals/Noise: Needs to stay cool and quiet enough, my old Razer Blade 15 felt like a jet engine and a hot plate, and I’d love to avoid that.
Screen & Portability: Around a 14" size (max is 16", but I would rather stay as close to 14" as possible) and close to 1.6kg (3.53 lbs) or lighter would be ideal. A great screen is a nice bonus, but since I have an iPad to double-check colors and an external monitor at home, I’m flexible here.
Budget: Max $1,750 USD, ideally hunting for a deal on eBay.
Any specific ThinkPad models or other Windows laptops you’d recommend checking out on eBay that fit this sweet spot? Appreciate any suggestions!
I know that Ebay deals might look tempting but remember that you’re giving up on warranty AND in this day and age you have to check the SSD status as soon as you get a second-hand laptop.
I’d look for Intel Ultra series 2 or 3, AMD’s HX 370 (or 470, they’re the same for all intents and purposes), maybe avoid the thinnest lines of products (Zenbook S, Yoga Slim) and instead look at Thinkpad X9, HP Elitebooks or Yoga Pro 7 / 7I. You might even manage to cram an HP Omen 16 or Legion 5 in there though if it has an Intel chip whose name ends in HX (again, Intel and not AMD) don’t expect battery life out of it). Gaming laptops so thicker and they have a GPU in them but the sheer size of the heatsink means you should have very little fan noise for most mid CPU tasks.
Thank you! I will keep a look out for these laptops and eliminate the thin/slim lines.
As for the warranty, to be honest i will not have warranty regardless. It is either i special order it and pay almost double or that i just buy it on my own and pay almost half off.
If you want to know why here is the long explanation of why, you can skip it if you want.
So I actually live in Kurdistan/Iraq. And anything that i would buy from stores are double the price or that they don’t have it. They either bring heavy gaming laptops or very budget friendly ones with like only 8-16gb of ram or the lowest options of a line. To special order it i would have to pay like 30-45% more because of shipping and a few months of warranty that is limited.
But if i were to buy it myself i can use my international card which calculates the dollar to dinar at a much lower rate and the third party shipping company will charge me 15$ per kg and around 5$ for taxing. So if i were to buy a laptop that weighs 2.3kg they will ship for me for 41.4$ dollars. (they Also offer repackaging to make the weight as low as possible without damaging the device with shipping).
for reference 1$=1560 IQD locally. And the banks or internationally it’s 1$=1320 or 1380.
So when/if i buy something locally it has to meet the standards and price. I am tired of paying double of its original price. Every single thing we buy is double its amount. People outside think that we are rich because of oil and petroleum but we are not because iraq(and politicians) takes the money and government working class are not paid for 3-4 months of their salaries each year. That no one has gotten a raise in a long, long, long time and inflation is right now killing the economy. So if USA for example gets an inflation, we get doubled the amount of inflation. I’m not trying to talk politics. I’m just talking about the real world and how it is and why I would prefer to buy outside instead of locally.
Ps: if I’m breaking any of the rules, please let me know. I didn’t find where I can read the rules.
Oof sorry, I saw unaccompanied dollar signs and assumed Americanness.
Then in your case yes, 2nd-hand might be a good bet looking at seller reviews as well as product reviews.
You should take a look at former business laptops, Dell Latitude, Asus Expertbook or Thinkpads, if they’re out of an office chances are they will have been serviced well and checked. If you want graphics, workstations with Quadro GPUs do exist and are often more reliable and fixable than gaming laptops, just not as performant.
On the other hand, you can bag a decent gaming laptop (think an Omen 15 / Legion 5 Pro) you need to make sure it’s from a reputable source as those tend to live the worst life. Ran hot for long times, often taken no care for and often used near drinks.
No need to apologize! I am buying mainly from there. That is why I wrote it in dollars.
Thank you for your advice! I will be sure to keep a look out for these criterias!
I actually did make a list of the best-performing devices that have test data (according to my weight preferences), and ranking them would look like this. (I am missing laptops like ThinkPad x9 15p for now though).
I think as long as the apps ur using works on macOS, I would go with Macbook Pro 14, or else I really love the Expertbook Ultra, maybe the Zephyrus G14 if ur not sure if ur gonna start playing AAA titles on this laptop
