Good price laptops with good build quality and lightweight? [US] (lemmy.ml)

submitted 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) by cyclohexane@lemmy.ml to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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Can anyone recommend cheap laptops that have good build quality and see lightweight?

I aim to use it for programming, but I connect to my desktop for most hefty work so it doesn't need to have solid performance. 8 GB RAM, 256 GB storage are enough for me. a lower grade CPU would still be good; a i3 that's 6 cores is enough.

What's really important to me is build quality, especially the keyboard. I also don't want it to be big. 13" would be enough, but not too picky here.

Any recommendations? And are there any communities that are better to ask this in?

Budget: I am hoping to pay $400 or less, but willing to pay $1000 or even more if it's justified or the value is worthwhile

OS: Linux. I can install it myself.

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[-] macattack@lemmy.world 5 points 11 months ago

256 might be harder to track down than finding a 128GB w/ 8GB RAM and upgrading storage manually, but a mid-tier chromebook-turned-chrultrabook could suit your needs. From my experience, since the CPUs are a lower-priority, Chromebook's mid-tier build quality exceeds similarly priced Windows laptops. Sleeker designs et al.

I'm obviously biased. I wiped ChromeOS & I'm running Debian on an HP x360 14c. Forum here: https://forum.chrultrabook.com/ and there's a more active Discord link floating around.

[-] pineapplelover@lemm.ee 2 points 11 months ago

The chrultrabook devs are really cool and enthusiastic. They recently gave a talk at ccc.de

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HFIQi835wY

[-] PipedLinkBot@feddit.rocks 3 points 11 months ago

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[-] cyclohexane@lemmy.ml 2 points 11 months ago

I'm actually fine with 128 GB, just didn't expect for that to be around much.

[-] someguy3@lemmy.world 0 points 11 months ago

Can you put a bigger SSD into a Chromebook?

[-] macattack@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Mid/high tier tend to have some flexibility re: upgrades (double check w/ specific models before purchasing). Cheaper models OTOH are mostly soldered but you could potentially auto-mount a micro SD in Linux.

Definitely could've mentioned that upfront tho, so appreciate the question

this post was submitted on 10 Jan 2024

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