I have searched for a suitable laptop for the university which is cheap, not too big and has good performance. On the Internet, I finally found the Acer Travelmate B-116-M, which is sold without Windows for about 300 €.
Data:
- Intel Pentium processor with 4 cores and 1.6 GHz
- 4GB DDR3 RAM
- 500GB hard drive
- Fanless
- 11.6 inch anti-reflective display
Here is my Amazon review:
I’m trying to describe everything I’ve found important in my search for a good laptop.
Quick Summary: I installed Linux Mint 18 on a 128 GB SSD. With Kernel 4.4.0-38 really everything works except the flight mode Hotkey. Battery keeps 5 to 10 hours. Pretty fast and not too warm.
Installing the SSD:
Use caution! Better watch videos on Youtube before. Under “acer travelmate b115m” you can directly find a video of a quasi-identical laptop.
The installation was easy and was quite simple: Remove all screws on the underside and then lift the lid very carefully. The hard disk is only plugged in and can easily be replaced. Before, of course, disconnect the battery connector. The hard drive is slightly lower than “normal” 2.5 inch hard drives. My SSD still had a spacer of about 2mm, to fit in my old laptop. Here I had to remove the spacer to fit.
Performance: (with SSD instead of the HDD)
The performance is fine. Everything runs almost without loading times and jerks. When loading many programs at once, it won’t be like this anymore, of course. Youtube videos run smoothly in 1080p (tested with Opera 36). Game Minetest tested: Running smoothly with about 25 – 35 FPS.
Battery pack:
The battery lasts between 5 to 10 hours. Example: A university day from 8 am to 6 pm, laptop always in the lecture to display the lectures pdf files and to surf every now and then. At 18 clock the battery had still about 10%. Full-load programming with Android Studio (without the energy saving function of Android Studio) approx. 3 hours runtime. Currently, 77% is displayed with 9 hours remaining.
Temperature:
Since the laptop is fanless, heat can be generated. Therefore, I let display the current CPU temperature in the taskbar. Here are a few examples: Laptop lays only around and shows PDF slides: ca 35 °. Lying in the bed and surfing 40 – 50 °. Programming with Android Studio: up to 60 °.
The bottom of the laptop can get quite warm, but has never been unpleasantly hot.
Speaker:
The speakers produces “cracking noises“, but only if active. So when I adjust the volume to mute it does not happen.
Conclusion:
The laptop is with 11 inch very portable, work outside is also possible thanks to the anti-reflective display. Very light and thanks to SSD completely silent. And with Linux Mint quite fast. I only can recommend it:)