Since my current laptop is having some issues with the display working only some of the time, I am wondering what you folks would suggest for a replacement. Note that I already have a desktop that works well for me, and therefore the device does not need to be powerful.

Here are a few things to note:
* Consider the budget to be $400; hence the gpd win 2 is not an option.
* Whichever I get, I will install Linux on it; hence the device needs to work well under Linux. (I would aim for something that works under Debian Testing at the time of purchase.)
* If a laptop, I prefer smaller (<12 inches). I would also prefer I can put my existing solid state drive into it (eliminating the need to transfer data or re-install Linux; remember, Linux (if using a mainstream binary-based distro) is not like Windows in this respect); failing that, I would still prefer solid state storage.
* Open source drivers are important to me; as of now, I will accept binary firmware blobs, but not binary drivers. In particular, I note that NVIDIA GPUs are not an option; it needs to be Intel or AMD. (For graphics, integrated GPUs are good enough for me.)
* Wireless network access is mandatory, but that is so common these days it shouldn't be an issue, except possibly a driver issue.
* It is preferred if the device can charge over USB; that way, I can use that external USB battery to recharge it if needed. On the other hand, good battery life would be a plus as well, and is likely more important than performance. USB 3 would be a plus even though I am not actually using it at the moment; USB device mode would also be nice to play with (though I am planning on getting a Raspberry Pi Zero for that).

Any suggestions here?

Edit: One more thing: A physical keyboard is mandatory. (The gpd win has one, and it is standard on laptops, so this requirement is basically me saying "I don't want a tablet".)

Just to mention, I always get a laptop with a digital (ie DVD/CD) drive. That way I can pop it out and replace the space with a second hard drive. That may be something to consider with your need for a SSD drive. Not sure if you want it for just a data drive or to put your OS on it. For me, the second drive is purely for data.

Good post. I am thinking of getting the god win 2. The specs seem a fair bit higher, probably not necessary depending on what you want to do with it. I like the fact that it has a keyboard and controller. I needed something for travel and having a full laptop in a portable gaming handheld is great news. Heard a fair bit of good about gpd win.
would be interested to hear from anyone who owns a gpd win if they are good, useable and solid.

That's actually a good point, I never thought of it that way (ie. that even if you didn't care for an internal optical drive in your new laptop, it might still make sense to get such a laptop as it can possibly be used as an extra hard drive bay).

That reminds me that for my existing gaming laptop, I've had such replacement HDD bay in my hands for a month or two already, just waiting me to get off my ass to install it (replace the DVD drive with the hard drive bay). Since this 17.2" laptop already has two internal HDD bays, it means I can have three hard drives inside. :)

The internal optical drive is broken anyway (I used it so rarely that I just didn't realize it for a long time), and I have an external USB DVD-RW drive already so it is not needed.

And yeah I'd actually need the extra HDD space already. I currently have two 750GB hard drives inside, but they are already full (around 5GB of free space on each). My ultimate plan is to replace at least the second HDD with a 2TB hard drive, and then maybe put in the third HDD bay yet another 2TB hard drive. 750GB + 2TB + 2TB should probably suffice for me for awhile, no matter how many games I have installed and the whole MAME collection residing on the hard drive and whatnot...

Or, I might actually use the third HDD as a Linux installation partition.

It may not be useful to you, but perhaps it is to someone else: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/01/better-wireless-helps-intels-new-compute-stick-deliver-on-its-potential/

Anyone looking for a cheap yet decent platform for low-end computational tasks, don't hesitate to give it a shot! It's only $159, but on discount it goes as low as $110 (I got mine for about $115).

This little devil is what I run my GOG API scanning scripts off of - I have Linux Mint 18.3 on it, with everything working as expected, except sound over HDMI (which I understand they've fixed in the latest PulseAudio build, so even that should be sorted once Mint 19 is out).

It's plugged into the second HDMI input of my monitor, via an extension cable, and I don't ever get to hear the fan during normal operation since my scripts barely utilize 80% of 2 of its cores. It has a 802.11ac wireless card so it's got plenty of network bandwidth. What more can you ask?

I don't consider it to be in the same category as what I am looking for in this topic, as it doesn't have a screen or a physical input device, and it doesn't have a battery either; in other words, I can't use it without connecting a few devices first. It is actually in the same category as devices such as the Raspberry Pi, albeit with higher specs and x86 rather than ARM. Incidentally, it actually won't work for the purpose I want a Raspberry Pi Zero for, as it doesn't appear to have device-side USB support. (This is different from Host-side USB; host-side allows you to attach a device such as a keyboard; device side allows you to make the device act as a keyboard. There is a big difference here. (The most common use of device-side USB in a computing device designed for consumers is in phones that can act as USB devices (like flash drives) when connected, allowing you to transfer files.)

https://www.gearbest.com/laptops/pp_622091.html

Apollo Lake based Celeron processor - kicks the crap out of the Cherry Trail in the GPD win.
12.3 inch IPS Screen with 2736 x 1824 Resolution
6GB DDR3 RAM - Apollo Lake supports dual channel, so this should also help out performance wise.

Another alternative would be to get a tablet with hardware keyboard - something like:
https://www.gearbest.com/tablet-pcs/pp_595133.html + https://www.gearbest.com/tablet-accessories/pp_624681.html
Similar price and similar specs to the laptop above in a slightly smaller package.

Removed as replied including advertising post.

Enjoy talking to bots much? =P

Ha, should have noticed that.