What laptop should I buy for €400 or less for Linux development?

[arvindautar]

What laptop should I buy for €400 or less?

I’m looking for advice on what laptop to buy for €400 or under. I mainly want to use it for programming when I’m not at home.

Typical workload

• Android Studio
• IntelliJ IDEA
• Virtual Machines
• Front-end development
• JetBrains IDEs (Java, Kotlin, React, etc.)

I’ll be running bluefin.

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What I need

A laptop that can handle:

• Large IDEs (Android Studio / IntelliJ)
• Compiling & debugging medium to large projects
• Running virtual machines alongside other tasks
• Smooth general programming (no major lag)

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My concerns

Performance
What CPU should I aim for (e.g. 8th gen i5 or better)? Will that be enough for IDEs + VMs?

Display
Is an IPS screen important for long coding sessions?

Battery life
What’s realistic in 2026 for refurbished laptops in this price range?

Future-proofing
What specs matter most (RAM vs CPU) to stay usable for a few years?

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Context

I’ve been looking at something like a ThinkPad T480 (16GB RAM, SSD), but I’m open to better options within this budget.

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Would appreciate any recommendations or real-world experiences

[klmcwhirter]

I have been successful at purchasing new laptops for many years at $700 USD (about €600) that are sufficiently powerful to do all kinds of development. I have been using bluefin-dx-nvidia-open:stable for a couple of years as well.

I would describe your dev specialty as "Android dev using Java on Linux". Java is an important distinction because it is heavy; requiring lots of RAM and CPU for the best DX. I spent 15 years with Java myself starting with Java 1.2.

Web dev (React Native in your case I guess) does not have those same requirements. You just need a programmer's editor (e.g., vim) and enough compute power to perform transpilation. DX for Java is best done with an IDE and as many cores that fit your budget for compiling large projects and running automated tests. Today 16GB RAM is sufficient for most use cases; 32GB would be better.

I would pick either budget -or- performance (i.e., specs) as the top priority and just buy the best you can get for the criteria you choose to guide the decision. Bumping your budget up to €600 will get you a lot for your money - with an eye towards hardware that will serve your needs for at least 5 years. If not, that is OK but look for H/W that is 2 gens behind instead.

I have used many Thinkpad models over the years - including T480. It was an OK model but not great. And they are getting pretty old at this point. I would be concerned about needing to spend additional money to replace RAM, SSD, battery before I was comfortable with its reliability. Kind of like buying a 20 year old vehicle because the price fits your budget.

My latest laptop purchase was to replace a Lenovo laptop whose battery died at a critical point in a project. I found it on sale at Best Buy for about $700 - Acer Nitro5. It was the best laptop I could get within that budget with full size arrow keys (silly requirement; but necessary for my aging fingers). The generation was about 1 behind at the time of purchase and has served me well. Although the Nvidia GPU - my first GPU - has been a love/hate relationship. But it was a trade off I needed to make to stay in budget.

Also, there are a few laptop manufacturers in Europe that have some interesting offerings ...

I wish you luck in your hunt.

[arvindautar]

Thanks for the detailed reply and advice! Just wanted to give a quick update: I ended up finding a great deal on an HP EliteBook 840 G10, and after some testing I can honestly say Bluefin LTS is running amazingly on it so far. Everything has been working smoothly out of the box: development tools, suspend/resume, Wi-Fi, performance, and general stability all feel excellent. Really impressed with the overall experience. I also realized pretty quickly that for my workload (JetBrains IDEs, Android Studio, VMs, containers, etc.) newer CPU generations and good Linux compatibility mattered more than just going for the absolute cheapest ThinkPad option. Appreciate the input! Op zo 3 mei 2026 om 17:06 schreef Kevin McWhirter ***@***.***

…

: I have been successful at purchasing new laptops for many years at $700 USD (about €600) that are sufficiently powerful to do all kinds of development. I have been using bluefin-dx-nvidia-open:stable for a couple of years as well. I would describe your dev specialty as "Android dev using Java on Linux". Java is an important distinction because it is heavy; requiring lots of RAM and CPU for the best DX. *I spent 15 years with Java myself starting with Java 1.2.* Web dev (React Native in your case I guess) does not have those same requirements. You just need a programmer's editor (e.g., vim) and enough compute power to perform transpilation. DX for Java is best done with an IDE and as many cores that fit your budget for compiling large projects and running automated tests. Today 16GB RAM is sufficient for most use cases; 32GB would be better. I would pick either budget -or- performance (i.e., specs) as the top priority and just buy the best you can get for the criteria you choose to guide the decision. Bumping your budget up to €600 will get you a lot for your money - with an eye towards hardware that will serve your needs for at least 5 years. If not, that is OK but look for H/W that is 2 gens behind instead. I have used many Thinkpad models over the years - including T480. It was an OK model but not great. And they are getting pretty old at this point. I would be concerned about needing to spend additional money to replace RAM, SSD, battery before I was comfortable with its reliability. Kind of like buying a 20 year old vehicle because the price fits your budget. My latest laptop purchase was to replace a Lenovo laptop whose battery died at a critical point in a project. I found it on sale at Best Buy for about $700 - Acer Nitro5. It was the best laptop I could get within that budget with full size arrow keys (silly requirement; but necessary for my aging fingers). The generation was about 1 behind at the time of purchase and has served me well. *Although the Nvidia GPU - my first GPU - has been a love/hate relationship. But it was a trade off I needed to make to stay in budget.* Also, there are a few laptop manufacturers in Europe that have some interesting offerings ... I wish you luck in your hunt. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#4553 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/A6ELTTPCAMBZDQLKUIYJB4L4Y5N5TAVCNFSM6AAAAACYN2GEECVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43URDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHMYTMNZZGY2TAMI> . Triage notifications on the go with GitHub Mobile for iOS <https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1477376905?ct=notification-email&mt=8&pt=524675> or Android <https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.github.android&referrer=utm_campaign%3Dnotification-email%26utm_medium%3Demail%26utm_source%3Dgithub>. You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>