Looking for an affordable used laptop that has an optical drive and supports USB-C charging?
Looking for an affordable used laptop that has an optical drive and supports USB-C charging?
I’m seeking a simple laptop without high performance needs. It should be suitable for watching movies and basic web tasks while traveling. It needs to accommodate an optical drive (not required if I already have a box full of old parts). Here are the details I need:
1) Battery life: at least 8 hours
2) Screen size: any size is fine
3) Charging: USB-C connection
4) Hard drive: upgradable, no need for SSD; I own several spare drives
5) Operating system: likely Linux, to be installed myself
6) RAM: must support 8GB and ideally be upgradeable
I didn't spend much time searching for that, and here's why:
Battery life: Anything second-hand will likely have much less than 8 hours.
Charging: Any laptop that I have seen that still has an optical drive has no charging via USB Type-C. Those 2 options are of different generations. However you might find some that do have a USB Type-C port.
Here are some of the remaining laptops with an optical drive still being sold:
Best laptops with an optical drive 2022 | Windows Central
Skip USB C charging and you can find a used laptop costing between $100 and $150 that works well with DVDs. However, the battery performance with an optical drive won’t reach 8 hours for any task other than typing in Wordpad. As mentioned before, I haven’t seen a laptop with USB C charging that includes an internal drive. Consider a Lenovo 420s or 430s; a cheap model with a new battery will offer sufficient usage if you adjust the power settings.