just need it for school so nothing fancy
Any older Thinkpad that's about 5-7 years old on eBay. You can get units that were high end when they came out (normal speed now) for $200-300 all day.
I know specifically the P50's have a thunderbolt port and you can get them with an i7 for around $250.
HP 840 G3 and G4. They're pretty cheap refurbished on amazon and they're very durable laptops. We used them for all of the remote workers during covid. And they have one USB-C port
Good call.
FWIW, We've been using HP EliteBooks for several years now. (Maybe 840s at one point).
Never had any issues with mine and performance has been decent. Can't think of my coworkers ever complaining either.
I think that's what I would get for a cheap laptop. I found out an apple MacBook charger (USB C) can power one of these. Kind of a nice fallback.
Would you really suggest HP in general? Way too many horror stories about its scummy tactics around on many platforms.
I can't speak for the whole company, but their older business laptops have been good in my experience. I've worked for an airline, and a logistics company, and in both they had HP contracts. I know that Dell laptops felt more brittle, I saw more of them come back brokwn. Also getting them refurbished doesn't give them money, if you don't want to do that.
The last laptop I bought is a Dell Inspiron from 2013. I got it at a ReStore (Habitat for Humanity) thrift shop for $125 ~2 yrs ago. i5 processor; built like a tank. Had to replace wifi chip b/c original was very slow. Got that on ebay for $25 (pkg of 5, but that's the only way they came). When W10 goes away, I'll make it a chromebook, if I haven't first figured out how to install Linux on it. If I need a usb c port, I'll find an adapter, as that would put less strain on my budget.
Right now the best cheap laptop I know of with usb c charging etc is the t480 and t580. A refurb or renew with an i5 and 16gb ram is around 300 or less all day long. They are cheap to buy, cheap to fix, modify, or replace and will run great now and for years to come.
With the internal and external batteries, they can have 2 at once, they can run all day easily and then some.
Get the 1080 screen tho.
For $500 or less they can be had with i7 and bigger ram for more powerful duties.
They just don't disappoint.
