In this repository I write about all my epxeriences with every devices which I had to use (or still use).
Year (built + bought): February 2012 CPU: AMD E-300 1.3 Ghz GPU: Radeon HD 6310 (integrated) RAM: 4GB DDR3 (can be upgraded up to 8GB, 4+4) Storage: Hitachi HDD 500GB (I also have 250GB SSD, but for me speed isn't very important)
Note: I got him from one person as a gift for free maybe 3-4 years ago. It's just a nice laptop which I use every day. I installed Arch Linux + i3wm on him. I even don't have a file manager on him, so all what I do on him it's all terminal only. GUI apps on him are only Firefox and that's all. Codes I write in vim, because other code editors work very slow on him.
He is very reliable and pretty durable. Condition of my own 5250 is not too good (damage on screen, damage on lid, no camera, no microphone, damaged cooling (still up to 60C), damaged keyboard (3 keys are loosed and ESC doesn't work), no battery + damaged slot for battery, no DVD (removed), rust in all USB ports, damaged speakers, died CMOS (like, any CR2023 batteries can't work on him, and that's the reason of no clock and date on this laptop), damaged screen holders, damaged screws etc), but he still works as new! I like that machine, because she is very cheap but still good enough for browsing, YouTube in 360p, and even LibreOffice.
I prefer not to use smartphones, so on my phone I have only calls and SMS. For all things as note taking, study, listening to music, and of course coding, I use only this laptop.
With him I'm able to do some simple work in GIMP, Kdenlive (1 minute of stock video takes 10-15 minutes to export in 720p), Audacity, Vim etc. To run Firefox on him it takes maybe 30 seconds to run him, and also 20 seconds to wait when he sill stop to freeze.
For coding this laptop is pretty decent, because he can easily edit files of any size (even 100MB+). I can write apps and codes, but probably some of them will never be compiled on him.
YouTube he can pretty easy run in 240-360p, what is enough if you don't run video in fullscreen and at display of your laptop is 1366x768. At all it's also not a problem to download a video and run it in vlc. In vlc I can watch any video with comfort even if it's a 720p 1 hour video.
Also I like his speakers, which are even damaged have a better sound than Acer Aspire A515-56 from 2020-2021.
CONCLUSION: If your budget is 15-25 dollars, I think that this laptop really worth your money. I use him every day and maybe 6-8 hours, and as you can see it's not a problem. I fully finished one school year with him (I was using LibreOffice for my note taking). I personally got him for free, from one of my relatives. This GPU and CPU are terrible, but I like that I can install up to 8GB of RAM in him.
I know that probably you have thoughts in a kind of -"He is crazy and it's not possible to live with this laptop", but I was using a lot of laptops with the latest generations of Intel Core i7-9, and I would like to say that person gets used to everything. You can adapt yourself to everything, and even to this old laptop)))
Some time ago it was a very rainy weather in my city. I was waiting for a bus with a laptop inside my not waterproof backpack for a pretty long time, and when I came back to home and opened my laptop, I noticed that his display is literally destroyed by water. He has something in a kind of very bright flat liquid on the right side on his display. Looks terrible, but it's still possible to see everything what I need. Also he was fully filled with water inside (keyboard, HDD, all ports etc.), but it still works as new :)
EDIT 10/06/2024: This laptop doens't have any signs of liquid on his screen anymore, but as a "shadow" of what happened some time ago display has something in a kind of white bright dot's, each dot is I think 1-2mm and he has approximately 15-20 of them. Still usable at all. I bought a VGA cable and connected this laptop to external monitor (TV), and found that it works fine in 1920x1080 + 60 FPS.
EDIT 11/04/2024: Yesterday I sold this laptop. I sold him for 10 euro, so I got +10 in my pocket and it means that until the next summer I will probably save enough money to buy a ThinkPad T430. Now I have to live fully without a laptop, because I don't have any another laptop. At all half of a day I have to stay at school, so I can use my school laptop (Acer Extensa 15 2020) for coding and at all for everything what I want.
Year (built + bought): 2015-2016 CPU: Intel Core i5-6200U 2.4 Ghz GPU: Intel HD 520 (integrated) RAM: 4GB DDR3 (can't be upgraded) Storage: M.2 SSD 250GB
NOTE: My school teacher had this laptop, and she said that if I'll backup all his data and repair him (he had a lot of problems) - I can take him. So, it took like 1-2 hours to repair him and do some cleaning. This laptop is crazy good, and I like to use him. His visual condition... I never saw laptops that destroyed. His lid and case is damaged from all sides, and by it you can even see what is inside him. He doesn't has any plastic legs, has some not original screws, and even his screen has some blinks which are white and blue (anyway it's not visible at all). He also has some problems with his touchpad, and by it he doesn't hold very nice. HDMI works time-by-time. Fan is very loud because he is damaged and it sounds like scratches of plastic by plastis. Edge near lid is damaged.
Even if his condition is terrible below him, when you use him you don't see anything of it. I like his camera, because she looks very good (even better than my old phone!). Good microphone (maybe two), good screen (Full HD IPS), fingerprint scanner, and a very good battery! His battery is 8 years old, but she still holds 2-3 hours of active usage (a lot of browsing, music production, coding), and how is that possible for laptop which was used before me really a lot?
The only one thing which I really don't like in him is that he has only 4GB of RAM, which is, unfortunately, soldered. I think that it will be nice to have AT LEAST 8GB in this model, because i5 6 Gen is still pretty modern.
This laptop is very lightweight and has the same dimesions to MacBook Air. I think that he is very portable (he is calle ultraportable at all), and by it you can take him anywhere where you want.
EDIT 12/23/2024: Some days ago I sold him for 85 euro, because I had a very big question about his reliabilty and price of parts. So, I continue to look for a nice T430.
Year (built + bought): 2010-2011 CPU: Intel Atom 1.6 Ghz GPU: (integrated) RAM: 1GB DDR3 (can be upgraded up to 2GB) Storage: HDD 180GB, but then I replaced it with a 500GB one
NOTE: This 10"1 laptop is crazy portable, I had never saw laptops that small in my life. The only one problem of he was his battery, to be more correct she died and wasn't able to be charged again. He definitely had a better performance than my Acer Aspire 5250, even with only 1GB of RAM. I had to use it with Arch Linux.
I don't have this laptop, but I really want to buy him. I'm trying to sell my Acer Aspire 5250, all smartphones, and some details for computers which I have and then I will get enough money to buy this laptop. I have a lot of different "digital" hobbies, and I think that this laptop will be good enough for it. I think that i5 of 3 Gen will be pretty enough for simple tasks in music production and of course coding. At all it will be definitely better than my Acer Aspire 5250!
Some days ago near a trash bin I found a MacBook Pro. He was fully discharged, but when a new charger arrived to me I immediately understood that he is fully functional and in ideal condition. I only had to fully clean him and also to install Ubuntu on him. MacBook it's a good computer, but I don't like them at all so I decided to sell him. Hm, I hope I will sell him soon. He has Intel Core i5 of 4'th Gen, 128GB SSD, and 8GB of RAM.
Year (built) 2011-2012 CPU: Intel Core i5-3210m GPU: (integrated) RAM: 8GB DDR3 (can be upgraded up to 16GB) Storage: SSD 200GB
NOTE: For a very long time I had a goal to buy a Lenovo ThinkPad T430, but I got this HP which is very similar to T430 for free. Some days ago my school gifted to me a laptop, because I had to live only with my dumb phone and it was difficult to live without a PC at all. I really love this HP, he is just perfect. The only one problem which he has is that his battery is old and holds like up to 2 hours of not active usage (maybe I will buy a another battery soon). I also have in plans to buy a Intel Core i7 for him and 16GB of RAM.
Keyboard: Logitech K120
My favorite keys. I like that this keyboard is wired (I prefer to use only wired tech) and that she is the best for her price. I use her with touch typing method in QWERTY, and it's very comfortable to type on her. I can easily get 95WPA or more on her.Decision Cm 111 Bpm
Mouse: Logitech M100 (also I have something in a kind of Logitech B100, but can't find any information about her)
Just a good mouse. I use her maybe more than 1 year, and my favorite thing in her that she is portable and light. Maybe in the future I will buy a Logitech G502 HERO (wired), but for now I actually don't need it. I think that mouse matters only in video/photo editing, but not in coding when I never use my mouse at all.
Headphones: Sony MDR-7506, Sennheiser HD206
Them I use only for my beatmaking hobby, because all my other tasks can be completed without any sound. Sennheiser sounds sooo good, even for music production. But, I decided to buy Sony MDR-7506 because they are better for music production.
I think that if you don't write music and just listen to her Sennheiser HD206 should be the best choice for you. I compared their sound with Apple AirPods (which I got for some days from my friend) anddd... Sennheiser is better, in my opinion of course. I bought them for 26 euro maybe 2 years ago, and they are still in a very good conditon. I only have to change earpads, but of course it's not very important and shouldn't affect their sound in any way.
Noname Cooling Pad: At all he is always turned off, but it's a very good stand which decreased amount of dust inside my laptop. He can reduce temperature on 5-10 *C, but it depends from your laptop model.
During last year I had to a lot of phones, but in conlusion I decided to live with a simple Nokia 105 2019. I just... like to live like that.
Oh, it was my first personal phone. I remember that by him I started to wear glasses, because watch YouTube on a phone like that isn't a good idea.
It was one of my favorite phones, and he was still pretty usable even in 2024. His problems: slow performance after some years on usage (it was decreased some time later, so I think that it's a hardware issue).
Phone which still very usable, and doens't include something not common.
I sold him, but it still was a very good phone. I didn't like his camera, because it looks like it has a small effect of directional blur.
The only one phone which I broke in my life, but it happened when I didn't have any need in him. Oh, his speakers are soooo goood!
Nice phone, still works very good in 2024 but doesn't has any new updated and uses outdated iOS 15.8.3. I think that it worth to buy him only for his still decent camera.
Not my, but I use it sometimes. I think that it was the last nice iPhone.
... I don't know what to say. This phone I got from my teacher, and I think that for 2024 it's not what you expect. He has a pretty big screen, but when you click on it it has some blinks under him (like a PC monitor). Only 1GB of RAM and 4GB of ROM. He works very fast, and also includes root from factory (it's not a joke!), but his Android 4.2.2 makes him literally useless. I think that this phone can be a good music/video player or just as a notepad, but definitely not for photo.
Not a bad phone, got him broken with a fully died battery. Maybe will replace her or just sell as is.
It was a very good phone in 2011, because he includes literally everything what you need even in these years: nice camera, social media, different tools etc. It was funny to write music in some apps on him ahaha. Also his nice feature is his selfie camera, but she is only 0.3MP.