Are there any affordable laptops with only a good monitor and keyboard?

Hardware Other Hardware
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The touchpad on my many-years-old System76 laptop decided to stop acting sanely and is now sending pretty much random data to the kernel. I have repaired this machine multiple times already and attempting to repair the touchpad would cost me more in parts than this laptop is worth anymore.

My use of my laptop is fairly unconventional. Most of the computationally intensive work I do is over ssh on some remote server. Laptop is only responsible for a browser, an occasional mpv player and a bunch of terminal windows.

Thus the only things that really matter to me are a good screen (looking for something more than 1080p this time around), a good keyboard, a fair amount of RAM and good wireless networking. This being essentially a fat client, I’d rather not pay for unnecessary GPU/CPU horsepower or storage space. Any CPU architecture supported by Linux works for me.

I’m fairly well versed in the typical recommendations: Dell XPS, Thinkpads. But filtering for products just by >=1440p screen & >=16 GB RAM results in products with a price tag of >€1100 with the famous for being overpriced Macbook Air being within the 5 cheapest options.

Is there really nothing out there with a good screen and keyboard for less than a grand?

I’m based in the EU but I visit US occasionally as well, so stuff obtainable in either location is of interest.

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Essentially, you are using a thin client (computation and work are done on a remote machine). Because of that, you are not going to find something that fits the bill with higher than 1080P resolution.

Anything with a higher resolution would need to pack some punch and would serve at least as a fat client (needing to do some computation). I say if it fits the bill, the Mac may be the better buy if you don’t need the processing power and it is cheaper. Otherwise, look for a previous gen XPS or Thinkpad.

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If I’m honest, what you’re looking for can really only be done on a used thinkpad. Go out, find something like a W560 that is only configured for cpu (they exist, I can get one for 180), and then swap out the screen. Most of thekeyboards are inhercompatible, and I bet theres a support post on r/thinkpad.

Alternatively, theres the used mac market (2012 is the magic number), the arm market, or the used gaming laptop market. Now while the last option might be outside of what you want… idk man alacrity is pretty dank for a terminal app.

If it were me? I’d just find a laptop used that I would use as a management machine. Whitecase macbooks are my personal choice for thisas they can be had for next to nothing, can be replaced in the blink of an eye, they connect to fucking anything and just work, and they have awesome keyboards. Though you won’t have miles and miles of ram space.

Tho tbh, if you’re doing ssh… do you need 16gb of ram?

Hope you find your answer. Dell put out a machine back at the start of core i that had an i7 870m, a meh keyboard (not horrible), a 1080p screen, and was capable of 16gb ram. I think it was a studio 1525? I had one for a bit. I really liked it. Then the mobo exploded. Though, I only really liked the screen. The rest was pretty naff.

If you’re REAAALLY after it, you can get an ibook, plop a 1440 x 1370 screen in it or some bs, and all of a sudden your 12 inch netbook is kicking ass in real estate. 12 inch powerbooks were the same. Again, ram limit, but the hardware is secure, the keyboards are a++, and its a unique machine.

Hope I gawe you some ideas op. Let me know.

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How about a left field suggestion? Chromebook Pixel, secondhand of course.

First gen Pixel are going for $300 to $400 on eBay.

16GB of RAM and a 2560x1700 monitor.

You will have to do a little research to see if you can live within the ChromeOS ecosystem. I think these Pixcel can run Android apps, I can on my Chromebook that opens up a lot more functionality. Then there is the option of running Linux on Chromebooks.

The downside would be battery life given the age of the device. However the screen size and quality are right up there.

Just done a little bit of research myself. The current Chromebook Pixel is about the right price and has 2400 x 1600 screen and has Google Play store out of the box so all of those Android app ecosystem is there.

Anyhow it’s an option that would be worth investigating.

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Good idea! Forgot about that thing.

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I’m looking for 16G because this machine also happens to run a browser and I routinely run out of the 8G I have available in my current device.

Wouldn’t care much about this spec if a way to upgrade was commonplace. Alas.

I anticipated a chromebook to be the answer, but I didn’t (really want to) think about looking in the secondhand market. A pixelbook would indeed satisfy my needs, except 16G version is $1649 if bought new which is in the same price range as pretty much every other laptop.

It seems like 2nd hand is the way to go – what for, then, really depends on how I like keyboards on those things.

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Supposedly the original pixel is A+ on all fronts, just no one knew why it existed.