Gaming and Emulation on the $35 Lenovo Thinkpad 11e: A Performance Review
Are you in the market for a budget laptop that can double as a gaming machine and entertainment center? Look no further than the Lenovo Thinkpad 11e, which I snagged on eBay for a mere $35. While I originally purchased it for work, I couldn't get Linux installed, which was a major bummer. If you're picking up a Chromebook for Linux, make sure you do some reseach first, it's not nearly as simple as installing over Windows or fresh. However, it didn't take long for me to discover its true potential as a gaming and emulation machine.
I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the emulation on the Thinkpad 11e. While it can't handle Dreamcast or PSP games, PSone and N64 emulation are flawless, with the added bonus of upscaling to HD for the N64. Even games that can be difficult to run, like Conker's Bad Fur Day, Tooie, and Battletanx, run smoothly on this machine. In fact, it outperforms the Wii U, which can't even run most N64 games something that has bothered me since I hacked mine a few years ago. DS emulation works great, especially since there's a touch screen, but the Wii U still feels like the best way to emulate these games. For years I've wanted a PSone with the LCD Screen, this serves that function perfectly, especially with the battery life.
For Emulation, Retroarch is best for older titles, like SNES, Genesis, Gameboy Advance, all of which run flawlessly even with CRT shaders applied, which is great. I have had some issues with controller detection, using an Xbox Controller in retroarch, your mileage may vary. For more powerful consoles, you'll want standalone emulators. For PSone, I'm using ePSXe, for N64 I'm using M64Plus FZ, for DS games I'm using Drastic. I'm also using Pizza Boy Pro for GBA, but GBA also works on Retroarch. You'll need to play around with the settings a bit
The Thinkpad 11e runs Chrome OS, which can handle Android games and apps. This has opened up a whole new world of gaming possibilities for me, as I usually don't play games on my phone. There are tons of great titles that I wouldn't normally give any attention or time to, but now I can try them out on this machine. I was particularly impressed with the port of XCOM to Android, which runs smoothly and actually performs better than the port on the Vita! There's a myraid of other games lie Battle of Wesnoth, OpenMorrowind and more classics that have been ported to Android over the years. Since it's android you also get most of the same same applicatons (not all will work with Chrome OS), so Discord, Steam Link, Gamepass, Remote Play, etc are all here and from what I can tell work fine.
The Thinkpad 11e is also a great machine for multimedia entertainment. It serves as an excellent Kodi machine, with the capability to play all sorts of video files. I've been needing to replace my woefully outdated Raspberry Pi 3 which as been my Kodi machine for nearly a decade now, this will serve that well enough. Additionally, its screen is perfect for reading PDFs and comic books, which don't always look great on my e-reader. I can absolutely see this being a great companion to something like a PS5 or Steam Deck, with game guides, artbooks, pdfs for your games and the system's apps installed. The touch screen makes it easy to navigate through digital comics, and the flip function means I can use it as a vertical monitor, perfect for games like Kairosoft's Beastly Bay which is one of the few Android games I've played and highly recommend
And the cherry on top? The battery life is insane, clocking in at over 10 hours. I've been able to spend hours gaming, reading, and watching videos without ever worrying about the battery dying on me. The laptop was originally designed for education, so it lasting the day without needing a charge makes sense. Plus, the screen is great-looking, with much deeper blacks and colors than my Thinkpad T430.
All in all, the Lenovo Thinkpad 11e is a fantastic budget laptop that can handle all sorts of entertainment and gaming needs. For 35-45 dollars used, you could do much, much worse. Considering that's less that the cost of a Nintendo Online year subscription, it's a great deal, even without being about to run linux. I'm not a huge Google fan, so that is the biggest compromise for me. You can't play minecraft on it though.