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by fcurzel 2440 days ago
I got a Xiaomi Notebook Pro, display is not excellent, but great value for the money. 16gb ram, decently new i7, Nvidia 960M, 256gb PCIE M.2 SSD, and an extra M.2 slot! It was 1080€ shipped. Seems to be a good option also for building an hackintosh. I am using a vm for Xcode and such and it does the job.
2 comments

Planned to mention this device. I got my first generation 13" Xiaomi laptop for something around 750€.

Build is not exactly as sturdy or precise as a MacBook (the aluminum is thinner), but it does look as good.

If you want to make a hackintosh the only thing that won't work is the wifi card, which you can replace for about 50€. On Linux everything works perfectly.

Unfortunately mine spontaneously stopped booting and charging one day. This issue has not been documented on the english speaking forum (it's not the dead battery issue, which I had and the forum helped me solve by linking me to a replacement part on Aliexpress) and since this device isn't sold anywhere outside of China you can be damn sure that Xiaomi won't care. While nicely many replacement parts can be found on Aliexpress (battery, case, keyboard), board replacement parts or schematics don't seem to be available on the english internet. Maybe if you live or have friends in Shenzen the situation will look different for you.

Since OP doesn't seem to be looking for any trouble with repairs I don't think I'd recommend a Xiaomi laptop (I still consider them a good cheap option), but rather something from a business line of a company that is known for good customer support, like Lenovo or Dell (which my new computer, the 5285 tablet is from and I'm fairly happy with).

I had a problem with not charging booting mi notebook pro and managed to fix it by unplugging battery for few minutes. It happened to me twice in 1.5 years of usage.

I still recommend this device. Currently I'm forced to use macbook pro 15 with touchbar and it's ergonomy is really awful.

I also have this machine, and am very happy with it. Added 2TB to the other m.2 slot. My only issue is not getting the fingerprint reader to work in Ubuntu.