0-20k Buying laptops with older gen processor.

[kalph09]

Am currently exploring the option of buying(locally) an old laptop with core i5 or i7 (5th or 6th gen) under 20k.

I have seen some decent deals on olx particularly thinkpad series retailing between 13-18k.(mostly old office laptops)

My questions are.
Do they hold well in this day and age considering they are about 5-6yrs old?

I would be installing Linux (Kali) to learn pen testing mobile apps. Will the latest version run well?

Besides some extra ram and SSD, no other mods.

Are batteries easily available for thinkpad series laptops?

Anything else I need to consider before buying an old laptop?

 

[distroquerim]

Thinkpads are notorious for being hard to handle opening and repairing/cleaning, but they're very solid work machines if you can get past that hurdle. i5/7 6th gen mobile processors would ofcourse feel dated in the current year but they still hold up very well.
Batteries are another hurdle but as long as you plan before you buy a laptop you should be good to go. I think third party ones retail fairly cheap (might need to get them shipped to india) even for thinkpads but read reviews and be careful as is the norm with buying such items.
Kali Linux runs fine on all kinds of machines, that wouldn't be a problem even with really old processors. Depending on what mobile emulator you use however, I would look out for other requirements like a strong dgpu.

 

[kalph09]

My work laptops were thinkpad series with zero issues and hence inclined towards them. Any recommendations from Dell or HP?

Batteries I have lowered my expectations considering these are old. Unless newer laptops batteries can fit into these old models. The laptop would stay at home plugged-in albeit run on battery for 60-90mins max.

Emulators. Haven’t thought or researched about it much. I was recommended to use Genymotion.

Speaking of dgpu, am guessing these came with Intel’s own and suffice enough to run emulators. I don’t intend to run any graphics intensive applications or games or am I missing something?

 

[Adijazz]

Should be good enough especially i7, if there is a specific app you need to run and are unsure of check on YouTube. There will be many videos where someone is running or attempting to run the app on that particular configuration and you can get a good idea of whether it works or not

 

[vivek90a]

Sadly, since the ban of goods import from china replacement of parts is getting harder & harder.

The thing we could have import from china like battery or fan cost 150% more.

Although what our gov has done is right but replacement is completely sad story once warranty is over.

And these day even if you have warranty it will take a month to actually replace under warranty.

 

[distroquerim]

Emulators. Haven’t thought or researched about it much. I was recommended to use Genymotion.

Speaking of dgpu, am guessing these came with Intel’s own and suffice enough to run emulators.

Oh. Then that works, even an HD520 should do fine with such emulation. Looks good to go.
For the laptop... really depends on what you can currently find for the price you're looking for, I suggest looking locally first since that often cuts the cost a lot, otherwise keep an eye here for used laptops as well as on OLX and the like until something acceptable comes along. If you already have something you think looks good with all these criteria then make sure its battery can be found for an acceptable price as well and go for it. As far as I know, thinkpads and other work laptops have very solid fans and other components so won't be needing to replace that unless the sellers themselves indicate that this is the case.

 

[fastapifastdisks]

Thinkpads are notorious for being hard to handle opening and repairing/cleaning, but they're very solid work machines if you can get past that hurdle. i5/7 6th gen mobile processors would ofcourse feel dated in the current year but they still hold up very well.
Batteries are another hurdle but as long as you plan before you buy a laptop you should be good to go. I think third party ones retail fairly cheap (might need to get them shipped to india) even for thinkpads but read reviews and be careful as is the norm with buying such items.
Kali Linux runs fine on all kinds of machines, that wouldn't be a problem even with really old processors. Depending on what mobile emulator you use however, I would look out for other requirements like a strong dgpu.

they have shit cooling, my office has issued me a brand new thinkpad the 1.8lp one. Randomly shuts down to protect itself from overheating absolute garbage.The fan intake vents are so small. Not happy with the performance either.

 

[kalph09]

Thanks for the inputs guys.

Have used 4 (office issued) thinkpads used in the past, 3 were stellar with exception of Yoga X380 or 360 something that overheated while running multiple apps.

Does anyone have recommendations from Dell? Particularly Inspiron or Vostro series?

 

[distroquerim]

Thanks for the inputs guys.

Have used 4 (office issued) thinkpads used in the past, 3 were stellar with exception of Yoga X380 or 360 something that overheated while running multiple apps.

Does anyone have recommendations from Dell? Particularly Inspiron or Vostro series?

Most/all of the Inspiron i5/7 6-8th gen series are solid laptops with minor oversights that don't really break the deal, I've never really looked into Vostro laptops on the other hand.
At this price point I'd just recommend finding whatever similar models are available on used markets, compiling a list and weighing them out, then pulling the trigger on the best one. Pointing to a particular model is very hard since most of the best ones in each year's lineup are hardly seen on used markets anymore.
Good luck mate

 

[kiran6680]

they have shit cooling, my office has issued me a brand new thinkpad the 1.8lp one. Randomly shuts down to protect itself from overheating absolute garbage.The fan intake vents are so small. Not happy with the performance either.

Is it Intel CPU based ThinkPad ? The fault may not be Lenovo's, as the last two generations of Intel CPUs have been horrible in this regard - cooling and performance.

Though it is also possible Lenovo has degraded since 3 years, when I experienced last ThinkPad which was great in performance.

 

[fastapifastdisks]

Is it Intel CPU based ThinkPad ? The fault may not be Lenovo's, as the last two generations of Intel CPUs have been horrible in this regard - cooling and performance.

Though it is also possible Lenovo has degraded since 3 years, when I experienced last ThinkPad which was great in performance.

yup intel latest generation

 

[bookoon]

[This may have been mentioned before]
If you would like to use Win11 in a 5-6year old laptop, it might be a problem. 6th gen processors are not supported (That is what Windows update is telling me). Both my Laptop and Desktop are from 2016. Hoping to get an upgrade next year. .. will start a new thread soon.