Old laptop for basically basic use.

[KangUsapEmenq]

Despite having a decent 'static' system, turns out... You can never. Ever. Beat portability, especially for someone that enjoys... Free wifi, so much, welp because at home I'm limited at 1 GB per day, still enough for lots of my use, but definitely not when I have to download something huge. On the past, I kind of asked on multiple threads about old ThinkPads here, and I could agree that X250 would be a really decent performer on that. But... Funny thing, because of budget constraints, I could have kind-of-less performer if possible than that lol.

 

Probably what I would need:

• Good enough for browsing the net. Actually... A lot of browsing tabs, especially kind-of with 15-20+ tabs. I'd get 8 GB of RAM ofc since I know 4 GB won't even cut it at all. Problem is, the CPU usage if I'm getting that lots of tabs.
• No shutter on playing, at least 1080p YouTube video. Why I asked for this? I have an old laptop with AMD E-350 laptop, I don't know why it shutters af even playing 144p video, despite doing many things to it, including re-paste the dang thing (it idles at 60 degree despite using NT-H1 lol).
• At least usable on Zoom/Google Meet, welp sudden online classes, that's why.
• Battery. Preferably with double battery like some ThinkPad does.
• Good keyboard. Got some finals to write.
• Some littly bitly work using AutoCAD or SketchUp, Photoshop maybe.

My choice actually went on ThinkPad X220 or X230, or even if possible at all, X201 if the CPU still strong enough for such use case above. I'm actually using a 3rd Gen Xeon system now so I don't really mind of using old-gen systems, new laptop price nowadays are ridiculous af anyway. I don't know much than ThinkPad honestly, I saw some Elitebook and I thought it's nice either, so another brand/product lineup/anything that you can recommend, just lemme know.

 

As why I prefer more on old-school specs than recent budget-choices, welp, build quality and ease of upgrability, actually.

[Radium_Angel]

location and budget please.

[Bombastinator]

What about a used tablet?  Even smaller.  There are some used kindles that would come near hitting that mark, ignoring that bizarre double battery thing.  It’s not quite “…. And I want the letter “c” stricken from the English language” kind of bizarre, but it’s uncomfortably close, at least as far as actually what-was-manufactured stuff goes. 

[KangUsapEmenq]

9 hours ago, Radium_Angel said:

location and budget please.

Indonesia, probably max at $300.

 

9 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

What about a used tablet?  Even smaller.  There are some used kindles that would come near hitting that mark, ignoring that bizarre double battery thing.  It’s not quite “…. And I want the letter “c” stricken from the English language” kind of bizarre, but it’s uncomfortably close, at least as far as actually what-was-manufactured stuff goes. 

Might be a good idea, but so far as I know tablets got kind of 'worse' on multitasking, like switching to this and that. And the fact that sometimes Office apps on Android kind of mess up the already-good template of my papers.

 

Although might be into a consideration tho. I actually kind-of interested on Windows-based tablet on the past lol

[Bombastinator]

18 hours ago, TukangUsapEmenq said:

Indonesia, probably max at $300.

 

Might be a good idea, but so far as I know tablets got kind of 'worse' on multitasking, like switching to this and that. And the fact that sometimes Office apps on Android kind of mess up the already-good template of my papers.

 

Although might be into a consideration tho. I actually kind-of interested on Windows-based tablet on the past lol

So windows is needed. Or probably more specifically microsoft. My memory is windows tablets sucked and lost in the marketplace.  Do you need 365 or 2019 or what?  Microsoft does a lot of copy on how they’re the same, but they’re not. Quite.  Stuff they make has a habit of not working quite right on anything but their stuff. And even that stuff tends to have subtle differences between versions.  I don’t know how true that is for Microsoft stuff written for iOS.  Might be those are just as bad. Or not.  I don’t know. I have a r friend who has to compile many different reports from many different people, so she sees the various periods of word.  It drives her a bit sideways. You’ll get a hundred pages of one version and then a subtle shift that screws up the formatting for 300 more, then it goes back again.  An iOS device will be a better multitasker than an android device of the same time period.  You’ll be looking at older periods though. The thing you may want to look at is which version of what software a given thing is written in and get a machine that runs that version of that software.  With a budget that low though you’re looking at something either quite low end or used and fairly old. How long do you need the thing to last? Win10 will only survive a bit less than 5 years at the long end.  

[KangUsapEmenq]

3 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

So windows is needed. Or probably more specifically microsoft. My memory is windows tablets sucked and lost in the marketplace.  Do you need 365 or 2019 or what?  Microsoft does a lot of copy on how they’re the same, but they’re not. Quite.  Stuff they make has a habit of not working quite right on anything but their stuff. And even that stuff tends to have subtle differences between versions.  I don’t know how true that is for Microsoft stuff written for iOS.  Might be those are just as bad. Or not.  I don’t know. I have a r friend who has to compile many different reports from many different people, so she sees the various periods of word.  It drives her a bit sideways. You’ll get a hundred pages of one version and then a subtle shift that screws up the formatting for 300 more, then it goes back again.  An iOS device will be a better multitasker than an android device of the same time period.  You’ll be looking at older periods though. The thing you may want to look at is which version of what software a given thing is written in and get a machine that runs that version of that software.  With a budget that low though you’re looking at something either quite low end or used and fairly old. How long do you need the thing to last? Win10 will only survive a bit less than 5 years at the long end.  

Welp the one thing that I hate from document formatting. All of the sudden and simply *poof*.

 

To be fair there's barely any Windows tablet on the marketplace than the Surfaces, or those Chinese-branded ones that I don't even know if there's any post-purchase support from them. Would be ridiculous to get 'em for tablet either, I'd go for laptops instead with times more of the multitasking performance on the price I asked for.

 

 I'm still using Office 2016 now (could've upgrade to 2019 but nyeh) and I have no problem with that.

 

iOS are actually good either (welp perhaps I need to research more about iPads then), yet I wouldn't go for Android for the same reason either you mentioned.

 

3 hours ago, LloydLynx said:

Pretty much any old Thinkpad with a 2nd, 3rd, or 4th gen Intel Core i CPU should do just what you want. The X2** series ones you listed should do fine. 

X220 or X230 it is then.