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.

  • @ClipperDefianceEnglish
    12•20 days ago

    I have a Thinkpad T480 and I’m very happy with it. I paid about $250 (~£190) for mine. It came with 16 GB RAM, but is upgradable to 32 GB. The one I bought came with a 128 GB SSD, but I swapped it out for a 1 TB drive which added another $100 (~£76) to my initial investment. This model originally came with Windows 10 and most on the market will come with it, but can be updated to 11 if desired.

    I personally have not used Win11 since they made some changes I don’t like, so I can’t really give you advice on that aspect.

    • Diplomjodler
      4•20 days ago

      ThinkPad T480 gang represent! I’m definitely happy with mine.

      • @ClipperDefianceEnglish
        2•19 days ago

        Thank you for the correction. I try to be as accurate as possible when providing information, but I misremembered the specs.

    • @[email protected]OP
      1•19 days ago

      Thanks, yeah I’ve gone for a t480 in the end. I think prices are slightly higher for hardware over here than in the US, but I feel I got a good deal as long as it all works properly when it arrives.

    • @Persen
      0•19 days ago

      Well, if you are in the market for a smaller laptop, don’t buy the x280, as it isn’t upgradable, buy a Latitude 5290 with the same specs as t480, but with a horrendous display and no trackpoint. It has decent build quality and the same upgradability as the t480. You could find it used under 200$ easily.