The Panasonic SV1 looks very similar to the 2007 MacBook Pro. It has that post-95 Japanese business laptop vibe. And it comes with the latest Intel Core Ultra 1 processor. And it is also semi-rugged!

And personally, the Macbook 2006 looks really stunning. It reminds me of how Asus tried to copy the same chonky hybrid workstation with their own touch of gaming book in their Zephyrus line of gaming laptop.

About the IBM devices, I was probably not even born, which sucks. But the closest thing I could experience was the Compaq laptops from the pre-2010s era.

I am pretty sure it can be flashed, similar to how we do it for RISC-based boards. For the sake of convenience, they make easy money out of the customer.

They do, at least in India, even to this day. You pay ₹500 for Ubuntu, and around ₹7k for Windows 10 Home and ₹12k for the Pro edition. You can also go for the no-OS option, which costs ₹0.

I’ve gone deeper in the ThinkPad rabbit-hole, and I’m in love with the X220, the T420, T420s and the T520, if I had to be honest. Why don’t they make machines like these - now that we also have low-profile mechanical keyboards? I’m almost considering to DIY-learn more about making my own laptop shell and stuff like that.

Right now, I don’t have a lot of money to spare, so unfortunately, after consideration, I’ll probably have to give up on buying Thinkpads for now. I have a few broken laptops, and I’m not sure if I can cash on them, but I could try my luck. Maybe I’ll be on the lookout for some cheap Thinkpad devices, because it really makes no sense to buy a new device with slight improvements.

I’m able to find them for as low as ₹19,000 (both T480 and T580 in i7, by the way), which is around $230, but I think I’m better off spending that money on my current Ideapad - maybe upgrade to around 12GB, fix the damaged body - all of which will be around ₹7k or $85, then I can probably buy a new device after two years.

I saw some of the videos, however, they don’t tell the entire story. For example, as I’ve mentioned above, the Ideapad S540 15-IWL comes with two battery variants - luckily, mine was available in 70Wh. However, for those, who wanted an extra hard disk cage, they have to go for the 52.5Wh battery. I’ve tried checking out the parts page, looks like that empty drive cage cannot be replaced with another fancy device, which is a little bit annoying.

Hey, thank you for sharing your experience. I was wondering if there’s any possible battery mod for T480, or the T580, where it is possible to discard hard disk cage? Similar to how there’s choice between 52.5 and 70Wh battery for the Lenovo S540 15 series? Because I’m going to be using M.2 SSD, so I would rather want that space to be occupied by batteries.

Never had issues with Dota 2 on Linux. I wasn’t using any sandbox, by the way. System’s package manager for almost all applications, with the exception of Bottles on Flatpak.

I think I’m going to skip on this, because I do not like the processor. Should’ve gone for a Ryzen 7040 or a 8040.

The 50s called, they want their -tron back.

It uses web-view. Not what OP is looking for.

So far, there’s no details about the same, but if we were to go by the changes bought in the T-series 2024 edition, it looks like it will be similar, with modular SODIMM RAM, replaceable ports and battery. The processor will however be soldered.

I guess I’m going to have to check out for the new Thinkbook then.

It’s all over Codeberg. And within a few hours or days, I guess it will reach NotABug too.

Nintendo screwed big time. Now there’s going to be multiple forks of Yuzu all over the internet. And on every self-hosted Git forge.

What about getting any AMD-based mini-pc? It has a really good iGPU. Get something in the Ryzen 7040/8040 series with RDNA3-based 780M. But do keep in mind: an iGPU can’t keep up if the game is 3D heavy the same way a discrete GPU would. So you’ll have to keep that in mind. 32GB would be great, although you’ll be fine with 16GB.

I assumed that I would get a 7040/8040 series for cheap. Turns out that it is pretty damn expensive. I am supposed to spend under 600$, but I’m kinda hung over those Zen4 mobile processors and their amazing iGPU.

I would have bought a 7440U or a 8440U with 16GB of RAM, but laptop with that particular processor isn’t available anywhere.

My second choice was supposed to be a 7540U/8540U with 16GB of RAM, and sure, there’s a few laptop with this, but the PRO variant of this processor is extremely expensive. So far, haven’t seen any normal variant. Maybe the HP ProBook 455 is the only device that comes close to my requirements?

My reason for avoiding Windows is that it costs ₹5000 to get the Home edition. I could spend that money to upgrade the process from a Ryzen 3 to a Ryzen 5.

Right now, I feel like the ThinkPad is IdeaPad rebranded, so maybe it isn’t worth getting the device. It still resembles the old brand, but some of it’s personality has been stripped off. The XPS is always expensive, so that’s out of question. Elitebook is the HP equivalent of Linux devices, but expensive. The ProBook is basically budget Elitebook, which could be a better value for money. But I really don’t trust HP, I feel like their products are of a poorer quality and that their customer service is bad.

I think this comment deviates from the topic of the post, so you should create a new post on !asklemmy@lemmy.ml. From what I understand, your key requirement is:

• choice to buy without OS, or with Linux/BSD/DOS
• budget-friendly

You also need to mention your use-case, your budget-range, and if you want a specific processor brand? Like for example, do you want to just use browser, do you want to code, or do you want to do 3D-related projects?

You can even add more specific requirement. Like for example, I want the latest Zen 4 CPU with modern RDNA 3 GPU, so I am being careful to only pick the AMD 7040 and 8040 series, and not the 7020, 7030, 7035 and 7045 series based laptops. Or if you’re okay with purely soldered RAM (not upgrade-able), half-soldered-half-SODIMM (somewhat upgrade-able) or purely SODIMM (relatively higher degree of upgrade-ability) config? Also what about the storage size?

Collect your requirements and create a new post over there.

I’ve sorted the laptops by newest, but the filter is kinda broken, because it puts the older product as the topmost result, which is weird.

Here’s the link to the US webpage (Linux) with all Lenovo laptops available for Linux. As you can see, there’s only one device available, which is the Thinkpad X1 Carbon Gen 11.

Here’s the link to the Indian webpage, (No operating system) with all Lenovo laptops available for Linux. You have a choice between 53 devices. If you want specifically the Thinkpad, the choices drops down to 40, which is still not bad.

Some of the laptops are slightly outdated by one generation, which isn’t a bad thing per se. As you can see, Z16 Gen 2 isn’t available with Linux in the US, but it is available in India. There’s also P14 Gen 4 with Linux in India, but sadly, they don’t sell with Linux in the US. I did not check the other series, but I’m assuming that there’s also the E series and the T series with current and modern generations available.

The only issue is that they’re expensive, almost double the original cost - the Z16 Gen 2 costs around ₹186,854 ($2,255) in India, but in the US, it is around ₹1,06,400 ($1,284). Honestly, I would have bought a cheaper AMD Phoenix/Hawk Point Thinkpad from the US through my blood relatives to avoid paying the high import duties, if not for this Windows-exclusive nonsense. Maybe the HP Elite-book or the Dell XPS looks really good right now, given how they have great Linux support, although I still don’t trust both these brands.