alec
Regarding purchasing platforms, I've identified four so far: Tekrefurbs; Refurbtek; Amazon Renewed; and Best Buy. I've only briefly investigated BB so far.
Separately, I note that having the Best Buy Total plan (name may be off; they keep changing it) has been very helpful in this situation. The plan provides a sixty day return period for newly purchased items; all repairs and maintenance are included in the annual fee; and even the installation cost for my new 16 GB of RAM (to my surprise) was included.
If it would help my old laptop's speed still more, I may add an SSD drive to the mix. Time will tell.

    alec
    In case this adds any value to the archive of success/failure data, I tried a 2017 HP Envy, but sadly my CVS/Cybersickness issues returned (headaches, dizziness, and fatigue).
    For now, I'm back with my 2012 Toshiba. Now that it has 20 gb of ram, the speed is fine for the time being.

    • alec replied to this.

        Voyager39 Yes, that is useful data, not the least as it confirms again that whatever we are experiencing is not "psychosomatic".

        Another "data point" which may be helpful to someone reading this thread and using Linux, I am finding that at least in my case, using hardware that does not cause issues with Linux using the 5x kernel, when I install and load the 6.1 kernel, I have an immediate negative reaction. Rebooting to the 5.10.188 kernel allows me to use the system all day with no other changes.

        Edited to add: the 6.3x kernel also is impossible to use with the old hardware/TN display.

          Follow up question: Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 5

          This model is offered with this screen: WUXGA (1920 x 1200), IPS, Anti-Glare, Non-Touch, AMD Ryzen 7530U or 7730U and integrated AMD Radeon graphics.

          I'm tempted to buy it as it's on 45% off sale right now from Lenovo with return allowed. Has anyone any experience with this thinkpad or any parts of the configuration?

            7 days later

            alec I just bought a Thinkpad x1 Carbon a week ago and I wouldn't be surprised if it's the same panel (14", same anti-glare and resolution). I really love this screen, especially coming from trying to make every modern Macbook work for me. This one is WAY easier on the eyes than any other laptop I've tried. I can actually sit and read on it without feeling dizzy and headachy. Can't recommend it enough! Did you give that E14 a try?

            • zero replied to this.

                Espers Hello, tha's great, what x1 carbon gen and resolution do you bought?

                    zero Newest Gen 11, I got the standard matte non-touch model 1920x1200. They are on sale right now and there's a touch model on Lenovo's site for a bit more $. Linux (Ubuntu) also works perfectly out of the box and is easy on my eyes as well. Honestly this is the best laptop screen for eye strain I've used in in the last 10 years and I'm also happy with the colors and sharpness even though it's not super high res. On a 14" screen I really can't tell anyway. I was bummed about having to give up my Macs because I love the OS, but Apple is doing something funky and I had to give it up. I tried every modern macbook but to no avail. Hope this helps.

                        Espers This is a great report. I'm very happy that you've found something modern. It makes me personally want to reopen my search and buy one. I've also had some success in finding and configuring a Linux version which is working perfectly (and without any eye-strain) on my 10 year old thinkpad. Some tweaking was necessary but now all is well and the OS is up to date, though still using a 5.10 kernel.

                        Those Carbons are beautiful systems. May it give you many years of good service!

                          8 days later

                          lenovo offers a few laptops with "eyesafe" or "low bluelight" certified displays. id choose one of those, personally i prefer thinkpads, because they are reliable, durable and do not use as much power as some mobile workstations or gaming laptops

                          3 months later

                          Spector that's interesting. What model number is it ? I'm looking for a laptop to buy.

                            a year later

                            Hi Folks! I've tried Lenovo Thinkpad Gen 5 (AMD) with no luck🙁. Tested it with Ubuntu 24.04.

                            My configuration:

                            • AMD Ryzen 7 PRO processor

                            • Radeon 780M integrated video

                            • 1920x1200 IPS low-power and low bluelight display

                            General impression from laptop - solid and reliable, but display is not compatible with me - getting head pressure and headache after few seconds of usage.

                            In my case display panel was produced by AUO - also good impression except headache. Surprising, according to EDID info this panel was produced in 2020 (not sure, maybe EDID info was not totally correct).

                            Please share your experience, have you tried any other models or vendors?

                              Lenovo thinkpad plus gen 4 is the most comfortable laptop I have used and its running latest windows 11. It is eink/oled dual screen laptop but the hinge twists so you can face the eink towards you and the keyboard. I strictly only use the eink side, not sure how the oled feels but its 246hz pwm on oled 57% and below. The eink is very fast and the ghosting isnt bad at all in terms of eink. I have done alot of windows tweaks to make the eink experience great. This also has intel iris xe which feels great on eink.

                                kammerer thank you for your update, I’m about to get same laptop for work. Did you have the same problem with an external display attached to it?

                                    Lenovo Xiaoxin 14 is best for me, because it is lightweight. However now I am using a desktop computer, I haven't used laptop for a long time.

                                    kammerer I've never heard about it. Do you know does it work with Linux?

                                    The e-ink screen does not currently work on Linux.

                                    I consider the fact it runs Windows 11 though to actually be its advantage personally — it is literally the only computer that natively runs Windows 11 that I can comfortably use, which is huge for me as I can finally use a Windows PC that is fully up to date and secure like other modern laptops, with great portablity as well

                                    Even as someone typically sensitive to GPU and graphics driver-related strain, in addition to Windows OS version related strain such as the issues that are typically introduced in Windows 10 1607 and later on most PCs — there is something about the way the e-ink panel is connected in this laptop that prevents ALL of those issues from affecting the panel!! It is a completely pure image to my eyes! Even with full graphics acceleration in all apps and the Iris Xe chip in the laptop

                                    (Since it's a full PC it's even possible to work around some of e-ink's flaws like the grainy effect, by using the Windows High Contrast theme and a screen filter app that forces the screen to only render in pure monochrome, with enough optimizations it has it has now become the best e-ink experience i've used yet)

                                    I do use Linux in my workflow quite a lot though, so in the case of the ThinkBook I'll probably just install a virtual machine which the machine is plenty fast for, I don't see too much of a reason to install Linux natively on this laptop

                                    (My only other usable setups are either not portable at all, or older laptops that are so heavily modded, e.g. disabling gpu acceleration, that features like sleep mode don't work on my customized laptops. On the other hand, ThinkBook Plus 4 finally gives me every advantage of a modern laptop but without the strain lol)

                                      dev