My use case: I’m an engineering student, I need something with a lot of storage, hopefully SSD (right not I have MatLab, Anaconda and KiCAD taking up most of my 128 GB HD, and I had to uninstall the STM32 cube IDE from lack of storage), and reasonable processing performance so I can actually run these things at a reasonable rate. I need to stay within the windows/ms office world to simplify collaborating and file sharing etc. I’m not using it for gaming. Don’t need a massive screen, or touchscreen or anything fancy. HDMI port would be reasonably important.
I want it to last me at least the next 4-5 years, and I’m hoping to not spend more than about £300.
I know a lot of people reccomend ThinkPads, what’s a good model to get cheap at the moment? Or any other suggestions?
Is Windows 11 so bad that I should only be looking at ones that come with Windows 10 installed?
Thanks for any helpful advice!
Edit: Thanks to everyone for taking the time to advise me, I’ve ordered a refurbished T480 with 1TB ssd, plenty of ram, and a 1 year warranty for £340.
How is a t480 old? It’s around 7 years old.
They run 8. gen Intel processors. The difference to latest models is substantial.
Well, the quad-core i5 still works decently on my latitude, but it has ~30000 geekbench score.
I love old machines but 7 years old is a lifetime in computing and especially laptops. Most normal laptops last like 3-5 before they fall apart. One thing that is cool about Thinkpads is that they are often obsolete before the fall apart.