This Old Laptop
My backup laptop is a Teclast F5. It has an 11.6″ touchscreen display, a Celeron N4100 CPU, 8GB of RAM, and a soldered 128GB SSD (not NVMe). I’ve owned it since at least 2018, though it’s not my daily driver. For everyday use, I rely on a newer ASUS laptop with an i9 CPU, 32GB of RAM, and 2TB of disk space. However, despite the superior specs, I often face issues with video and other drivers, particularly on Linux, and occasionally even on Windows. In contrast, the Teclast F5 just works.
While I can’t game on the Teclast F5 and the screen, though surprisingly sharp, isn’t ideal for prolonged use due to its small size, I don’t feel limited by it. This laptop isn’t meant for video or photo editing, though I suspect it could handle darktable or GIMP without much trouble. I run fully updated versions of LibreWolf and Brave browsers without any issues, though I do have to keep its memory limitations in mind.
Why did I turned it on today? I’m planning a short (5-day) vacation this spring, during which my wife and I will try to travel with only carry-on luggage. She’s skeptical, thinking I usually bring too much computer and camera gear. But not this time. I’ll be using my phone as a camera, and the “little grey laptop” will be my only computer, saving on space and weight.
Summary There’s something truly satisfying about a simple solution that just works. I only wish my far more expensive hardware was as easy to use as this little laptop.
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,g$$P" """Y$$.". OS: Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm) x86_64
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',$$P ,ggs. `$$b: Kernel: 6.1.0-17-amd64
`d$$' ,$P"' . $$$ Uptime: 32 mins
$$P d$' , $$P Packages: 1598 (dpkg)
$$: $$. - ,d$$' Shell: bash 5.2.15
$$; Y$b._ _,d$P' Resolution: 1920x1080
Y$$. `.`"Y$$$$P"' WM: i3
`$$b "-.__ Terminal: tilix
`Y$$ CPU: Intel Celeron N4100 (4) @ 2.400GHz
`Y$$. GPU: Intel GeminiLake [UHD Graphics 600]
`$$b. Memory: 1732MiB / 7771MiB
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