Apologies as there are several threads on this but all of them seem pretty old.
Since the girls started secondary school “my” laptop has been put into service by one of them for their homework etc. I do have my trusty android phone (bit long in the tooth too) which runs TR but having a small screen and dodgy eyesight its difficult to follow my workout when on the rollers.
I’d rather have a cheap laptop to run TR on which will also use the Ant+ dongle I have - but I’d prefer to not buy a new one one and I may run Zwift at the same time.
So has anyone got any bright ideas/recommendations/suggestions - have considered Backmarket but inundated and not quite sure what to look for. As a minimum It needs to run Zwift and TR pretty well and have a web cam (group workouts possibly). I’m not looking for a base unit as want something portable.
Happy for this to be merged - I did search a bit but couldn’t find anything specific enough.
I now open myself to the TR collective, have at me!
I’ll second Malcolm. Get a chromebook. I used mine to run TR for a while and it worked decently. I prefer my phone now but I use my chromebook for everything I’d use a laptop for. The only thing is that you have to connect with bluetooth. I never found a work around for Ant+
You could always give the chromebook to the girls and get your laptop back too. I teach in a school district in the US that uses Google services. If it’s the same for your kids, then a chromebook for them makes perfect sense and you can get them a functional device at a pretty cheap pricepoint.
Edit: I missed the part about Zwift in your original post. Zwift does not run on a chromebook. I still stand by the idea of getting a chromebook for the girls and you get your laptop back.
Buy something used off ebay? PC equipment loses most of it’s value over 3-5 years. My last work lenovo laptop was a T490 which I ditched in 2020. My newer model really isn’t any faster, just uses less electricity and has more ram and hdd. I see T490s for around $200. Will run TR great, and zwift fine.
Although the question was about laptops, I would also note that TR can easily run on an older iPad. They currently say 2017 or newer, which opens up some cost-effective used options. You can also run TR and Zwift on a single iPad using the iOS version of picture-in-picture.
I bought an older ipad to run Zwift a few years ago. Tried it again this winter. Zwift: you have to update to iOS 13.to run Zwift. IPad: You can only update this to iOS 12.5.7. So, be aware that the older iPad might not work much longer.
Just a heads up that a new laptop might only have usb-c ports - worth checking so that you can get an adapter at the same time if needed for your ant dongle
I was doing a bit of research last night that suggested a pc was much better value - trouble is it’s just not portable… so i’d have to leave it in the garage.
Think i may hace a proper look at what @James_Sanderson suggested
