The strange thing about me and my buying behavior when it comes to computers is that I’m stingy.

You might think that an IT professional would be more inclined to buy top equipment, but that’s not the case for me. I’m also not a gamer, at least not in the way that is generally imagined. The only game I’ve played regularly and consistently for years is Doom 2, and even if you play it with a modern source port, the hardware requirements are very limited.

Old times, new devices

In the last 20 years, I’ve only bought new laptops for 200-300€. My requirements for laptops are as follows: Linux compatibility, matt display, approx. 12" screen size, long battery life. Bonus features are a backlit keyboard and a fanless design. There were several Chromebooks among the laptops I bought. I was always very happy with these, except that the Linux container implementation had some limitations (access to USB, sound devices etc.). Well and that Google thing…

In the end, I always bought low-quality and rather low-performance devices that covered almost all my requirements - but only almost.

Time for something ’new'

Now, for the first time, I have bought a refurbished laptop from a commercial supplier, which is a non-profit organization. It is a Dell Latitude 5300 with 16 GB RAM, a 512 GB SSD, Intel Core I5-8365U which was offered in “very good” and “good” condition. I opted for the “good” condition and effectively paid €200. My aim was to spend no more than 300€ on a virtually new laptop with 100% battery capacity.

The device arrived well packaged and in surprisingly good condition: Completely cleaned and almost no signs of use. The workmanship is also excellent, the keyboard is backlit, only the battery shows signs of advanced age, as expected. The battery indicates a remaining capacity of 70%. Although this laptop is not a fanless laptop, the fan is barely audible in normal operation.

Additional investment

I will now see if I can live with the remaining battery capacity. The internal battery is quite easy to replace and costs between 40€ and 70€. I will probably upgrade to a non-original battery for 40€ in the near future.

I also noticed that only a single 16 GB RAM module is installed. Just to be able to use the speed advantage of dual channel RAM, I ordered another 16GB module for 35€ and installed it.

Summary

In the end, I end up paying around 300€ for a small, high-quality laptop with a backlit keyboard, a sufficiently large SSD, lots of RAM and a brand new battery. Debian Linux 12 with Cinnamon as desktop environment runs on the device right out of the box (power management, special keys, etc.).

This way I’ve avoided waste, saved money and got a better laptop than I ever had - what more could you want?