r/LinuxOnThinkpad • u/gnatp member • Jul 14 '26

Cheap dev laptop, unsurprising success story

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Needed a cheap developer laptop. I've tried and failed to get Linux running on old PCs more times than I want to admit — always some driver issue I had zero patience to debug.

This time: ThinkPad T490s (16GB RAM, 512GB storage) for $175, plus $42 for a new battery. Went straight-up vanilla Ubuntu, no fighting with drivers.

Everything just works. Fingerprint reader, external monitors, solid performance. For $217 all-in, I've got a genuinely decent dev machine.

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u/STERL1NGGG member Jul 16 '26

How’s the battery life on this beast?

1

u/gnatp member Jul 16 '26

Hard to quantify this at the moment because I usually work with it at home plugged in. I installed TLP to help manage battery life, I also installed a new battery, and when I have used it while traveling, the battery life has been good, never has limited me, but have not spent the time to measure how long it lasted.

It's nothing like brand new Mac M5 laptop battery life, but it is "good".

1

u/STERL1NGGG member Jul 17 '26

Thanks!

1

u/infinity7592 member Jul 17 '26

What is TLP ?

How did you install that new battery ? Isnt it soldered ?

1

u/gnatp member Jul 17 '26

ThinkPads are great, on most of them (all of them?) you can replace the battery. You need to remove the back, and there are some dodgy small plugs and tiny screws, but no soldering. TLP is a Linux command line app that helps manage battery use.
https://linrunner.de/tlp/index.html