That problem with the keyboard should be easy to fix you just have the wrong keyboard layout selected
Details for fixing it on Debian here: https://wiki.debian.org/Keyboard
I just bought an older Thinkpad X201, I put a Crucial SSD in there and it runs great.
It’s got an Intel CPU, wifi and graphics so it all runs perfectly in linux. The bluetooth and webcam worked out of the box. I installed fprintd to register my fingerprint, and then GDM automatically lets me use that to login.
I have it set up with a 40gb root partition, 200gb home partition on the SSD, and booting arch linux with syslinux.