Today, I should receive my new laptop. It is a 2016 HP Elitebook PC I purchased from a French reseller specialized in refurbished computers. So, not exactly new and it is supposed to be replacing my even older 2011 ThinkPad X220.
Not that I wanted to replace thx X220, far from it, if it was not for its one weakness, its screen.
The X220 screen is really bad. There is no other way to put it. It comes with a laughable resolution, very poor brightness, extremely limited viewing angles and an atrocious color rendition. I could summarize its qualities using a single word that starts with ‘sh’ and ends on a ’t’ but, even if absolutely accurate, that would not be polite.
The thing is that this screen was already bad in 2011 when the computer was first released. Back then, I could live with such a bad screen but, getting older myself, I realized I needed a screen that was a more, well, decent, if I wanted to be able to see what I was doing. Hopefully, that Elitebook should let me dio that.
If it does, it will be a fine upgrade as it is newer, with better everything in it while, like the X220, still being easily repairable and upgradable. Something almost all modern laptops are severly lacking. One can replace the battery, the memory, the SSD, the network card, even the keyboard. And all components seems to be easily accessible. Its only downside, as far as I can tell for the moment, is that it comes with Windows preinstalled. Exactly like the X220 did.
I don’t want Windows on my computer, for two reasons:
- I don’t like corporate spywares backed into my operating system and
- Frankly, I prefer GNU/Linux to Windows (and even to macOS). It suits me and the way I work so much better.
Luckily, installing GNU/Linux is a matter of maybe 10 to 15 minutes of my time. Not a big deal and I will update that post when I have received the laptop after I Installed GNU/Linux and checkd how well everything works.
Published: 2024/02/08