How to Find a *Sustainable, High Quality, and Affordable* Laptop

 Last summer I bought a new laptop, and it was not easy. 

This was the device that I was going to spend most of my waking hours with. It was a critical decision. But at the same time, it was also the first time I had to decide by myself what laptop to buy and pretty soon in my research, I got overwhelmed.

There are so many options for laptops.

Although there are also plenty of videos and articles about “The Best Laptops to Buy in 2022”, promising a one stop answer to my grueling search, how could I know which sources to trust? (Who was getting paid to write articles? And who actually knew what they were talking about?). Furthermore, it was hard to find articles that shared my priorities. I wanted a sustainable, high quality, and affordable laptop.

There were times when my dad offered to take the burden from me and just give me a laptop, and many times when this was tempting. I’m really thankful for my dad, who has always been taking on responsibilities for my family. However, I knew that if I let him choose, it would likely be a laptop off of “the Best Laptops to Buy in 2022” and I decided that no- this time I was going to do the research and choose wisely.

While I likely wouldn’t 100% be able to find the perfect laptop, I came up with a plan, and the following criteria 

1. Secondhand 

First off, I realized quickly that the laptop had to be secondhand. This was not compromisable. Laptops are one of the higher emitting products we purchase, costing around 400 kgs of CO2. Not that that means much to you or me. This is equivalent to 5000 bananas, which might also not mean much, but I digress.

The important part is that roughly 80% of CO2 emissions from laptops comes from production. Surprisingly, the electricity needed for a lifetime of use only accounts for around 20% of its CO2 emissions.

This is why I used the site BackMarket to look for laptops. I started off looking on eBay, but having to check the credibility of sellers was not something I felt like I could deal with. BackMarket is a really nice website that refurbishes old electronics and sells them at discounted prices. It provides a lot of options, free shipping, and free returns for 30 days. 

2. Quality 

Then, I used the Back Market filters to try to find a high quality and affordable laptop. For this, I arbitrarily decided to look at Dell laptops, because I had one before (and it had a really nice clicky keyboard that made me feel productive when I wrote essays!) 

I then chose the years for the release date to be 2018-2022, so it would be relatively new.

3. Affordability

I sorted the laptops from lowest to highest price because I wanted a good price, but I actually had little idea how much a laptop was “supposed to cost”. The goal was roughly $300-500, so I could trust its quality.

4. Energy efficient 

After doing a bunch of browsing on BackMarket, I decided that I wanted the laptop to be energy efficient. For this, I relied on the Energy Star website. I first made a list of all the laptops I had found, and then checked if each was listed by Energy Star as being energy efficient.

Now, this is the article that my past self would have wanted

My current laptop is a Dell Latitude 7400 2-in-1 (2019). It is Energystar certified, and its listed battery life is mentioned as being somewhere between 15 and 26 hours. It cost me $614.52, and the listed price is $1100.

If you’re in a situation where you want to buy a laptop, and my criteria resonate with you, I’d recommend the Dell Latitude 7400 2-in-1, currently available for $543.91 here, or the Dell Latitude 7400 currently available for $369.00 here. 

(Note: the Dell Latitude 7400 is not Energy Star certified, but it is more affordable)

I’m still new to buying electronics sustainably, but I’m glad I took the effort to do research. A year later, I think I’m happy with my choice. Taking control of more and more decisions is a lot of what I’ve found adulting to be. There are many ways I am excited about this, but it is also very tiring and draining. 

It takes a lot of mental effort to be sustainable. Zero waste requires going off autopilot, and breaking out of habits that feel so normal. Someday, I believe I will have the mental capacity to make these changes, one thing at a time. Someday, I believe that society will have changed so that sustainable living is the status quo, and people won’t need to. But for now, I’m just signing off and taking a break, take care!