blog/data/2015-07-03-new-laptop.txt

   1 Title: Time to find a new laptop, as the old one is broken after only two years
   2 Tags: english, debian
   3 Date: 2015-07-03 07:10
   4
   5 <p>My primary work horse laptop is failing, and will need a
   6 replacement soon.  The left 5 cm of the screen on my Thinkpad X230
   7 started flickering yesterday, and I suspect the cause is a broken
   8 cable, as changing the angle of the screen some times get rid of the
   9 flickering.</p>
  10
  11 <p>My requirements have not really changed since I bought it, and is
  12 still as
  13 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html">I
  14 described them in 2013</a>.  The last time I bought a laptop, I had
  15 good help from
  16 <a href="http://www.prisjakt.no/category.php?k=353">prisjakt.no</a>
  17 where I could select at least a few of the requirements (mouse pin,
  18 wifi, weight) and go through the rest manually.  Three button mouse
  19 and a good keyboard is not available as an option, and all the three
  20 laptop models proposed today (Thinkpad X240, HP EliteBook 820 G1 and
  21 G2) lack three mouse buttons).  It is also unclear to me how good the
  22 keyboard on the HP EliteBooks are.  I hope Lenovo have not messed up
  23 the keyboard, even if the quality and robustness in the X series have
  24 deteriorated since X41.</p>
  25
  26 <p>I wonder how I can find a sensible laptop when none of the options
  27 seem sensible to me?  Are there better services around to search the
  28 set of available laptops for features?  Please send me an email if you
  29 have suggestions.</p>
  30
  31 <p>Update 2015-07-23: I got a suggestion to check out the FSF
  32 <a href="http://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/endorsement/respects-your-freedom">list
  33 of endorsed hardware</a>, which is useful background information.</p>