
How IBM’s ThinkPad Became a Design Icon (2017) - jpelecanos
https://www.fastcompany.com/90145427/how-ibms-thinkpad-became-a-design-icon
======
lqet
Last year, I decided to build an X62 (Thinkpad X61 or X60 with custom
hardware) after reading about it here [1]. Shipment of the modification kit
(some plastic parts + a new mainboard) took 2 months from China to Germany. It
took me a while to find a brand-new screen as a replacement for the original
1024x786 screen (which has to be modified, including some minor metal-
working).

After roughly a year of heavy daily use, I must say that this is the best
laptop I have owned in my life (including previous Thinkpads R60, T510 and and
T460s). The size is just perfect. With the new hardware, it is incredibly
light-weight. The 4:3 screen is something I have been missing for a long time
on my laptops, and the classic Thinkpad keyboard is just a million times
better than the new model. The quality of the original X61 chassis is also
very good, and it looks just great.

Overall, the laptop cost me roughly 1000 EUR and around 20 hours of work. This
includes 32 GB of RAM, a brand new 100 GB SSD and a brand new replacement
screen I bought at Alibaba. I started with a broken X61 I bought for around 40
EUR on eBay, on which I replaced the new Lenovo "ThinkPad" logo with the
original IBM ThinkPad logo that was still used on the X60.

[1]
[https://geoff.greer.fm/2017/07/16/thinkpad-x62/](https://geoff.greer.fm/2017/07/16/thinkpad-x62/)

~~~
Waterluvian
The one problem I have, rational or not, is just how worn out those laptops
look over time. The plastic gets all shiny and worn down and the thing just
starts looking greasy.

That's probably the only thing I miss from my older macbook.

~~~
ggreer
I don't mind the worn look, though I often clean the fingerprint oils off the
keyboard. A blog post titled _Aged to Perfection_ describes my view[1]:

> The truth is that consumer products are ‘new’ for a very brief moment when
> they are first removed from the packaging, but spend the great majority of
> their useful lives as ‘used’ products in the process of decay. Many welcome
> the breaking-in of products like a leather wallet or a pair of jeans as this
> wear can be aesthetically-pleasing. The Japanese have a term for this,
> “Wabi-sabi”.[2] Wabi-sabi can be used to describe the aesthetically pleasing
> wear of an object as it decays over time.

I still use my X62 as my primary development machine. I like it so much that
I've ordered an X210 from the same manufacturer.

1\. [https://designmind.frogdesign.com/2011/09/aged-
perfection/](https://designmind.frogdesign.com/2011/09/aged-perfection/)

2\. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wabi-
sabi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wabi-sabi)

~~~
_emacsomancer_
I've looked longingly at 51nb's X210. It probably could be put into an X200
chassis rather than an X201, I imagine, which would be ideal (I wouldn't
really want the touchpad). I can't justify the cost right now though, sadly.

~~~
thomasko
You can easily put a palm rest without touchpad in the X201, those parts are
pretty cheap on ebay.

~~~
_emacsomancer_
Is the presence/absence touchpad the only significance difference in the
chassis between the X200 and X201? (I've never owned an X201.)

------
solatic
It's really sad that Lenovo has driven the design into the ground. I have a
X201 running NixOS, that I still use from time to time, and I pulled it out
recently to show it to friends. Physically speaking it's a _revelation_.

Three USB ports? Check. Because even today, one port permanently has a YubiKey
Nano, one port permanently has a Logitech Unifying nano receiver, and I'll
probably be charging my phone out of the third at some point and I'd rather
not lose either of the two nano dongles because I had to temporarily unplug
them and misplaced them in the process.

Mobile radio? Check. Because who likes to fiddle around with pairing their
phone to their laptop when they're on the train?

Drainage ports if you have a minor spill? Check.

Drainage ports in the dock, which match up with the drainage ports on the
laptop itself? Check

Dock allows you to charge an extra battery while the laptop itself is
charging? Check.

ThinkLight in the screen to illuminate the keyboard without requiring you to
bump up the brightness on the screen and take a bigger hit to battery life?
Check.

Mechanical latch on the right side, where your hand is naturally located,
allowing you to push the screen up with your right hand on the right side of
the machine, and push down on the bottom half with your left hand on the left
hand side of the machine? Check.

Six-key home/end/insert/delete/pgup/pgdwn cluster that mirrors that on a
desktop keyboard? Check.

Dedicated page back and page forward buttons, baked into the arrow key nav
cluster, so that you don't need a two-key combo to go back and forward? Check.

TrackPoint lets you mouse without removing hands from the home row? Check.

LED status indicators for disk and network usage? Check.

Physical WiFi switch? Check.

10/10 repairability? Check.

All Lenovo needed to do was to refresh the processor etc. every year, maybe
introduce new ports as they came out, and not screw around with a formula that
didn't need to be changed. Sigh.

~~~
paol
> Six-key home/end/insert/delete/pgup/pgdwn cluster that mirrors that on a
> desktop keyboard? Check.

I miss this so much. Laptop keyboard layouts are usually a disaster. Lenovo
was the shining exception[1], then they went and fucked it up for no apparent
reason.

[1] If you excuse the wrong placement of Ctrl and Fn, but from the x10
generation onward this is swapable in BIOS

~~~
stiGGG
This is why i love Macs, IMHO the keyboard layout is superior than everything
else. home/end/insert/delete/pgup/pgdwn can all be done without specialized
keys (and faster because you don't have to move your arm). I am using the
small Apple keyboard that matches the one from the Macbooks on my desktop
since over 10 years and never ever want such a big clunky board back on my
desk like most PC users still use.

~~~
leppr
Personally I find it easier to push a single key that's slightly up above the
number row, than have to press both a modifier and a key in the lower right
corner of the keyboard. This also gives me more freedom for window-management
key shortcuts.

------
rconti
> In fact, when Hill was named to oversee ThinkPad design in 1995, the line’s
> general manager informed him that it was time to mix things up. “He felt
> like three years was enough, and we needed a new design,” Hill remembers. “I
> honestly couldn’t believe it. I was like, ‘Well, of all the problems we
> have, this isn’t one of them.’

Too few people get this.

------
modernerd
It's pretty amazing what you can put them through too.

As a MacBook owner Lenovo's dust tests have me wincing:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hazDhYq8YOo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hazDhYq8YOo)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hO5LGICeOuk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hO5LGICeOuk)

And the waterproofing is kind of incredible:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ig3xI8dUdm0&t=1650s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ig3xI8dUdm0&t=1650s)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmdcutSxmn0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmdcutSxmn0)

Now that they make a solid, thin, repairable, upgradeable 15" laptop for
creative types (ThinkPad X1 Extreme), it's becoming increasingly tempting to
switch as a MacBook owner, even if I have to ditch macOS.

~~~
mcv
ThinkPads have always been known for their extreme reliability. Not officially
ruggedised, but close enough for most people.

MacOS isn't as good as it used to be, in my opinion. I currently have a 2011
Macbook Pro, but I'm pretty sure my next laptop is not going to be a Macbook.
I'll use this one until it wear out, but after that, ThinkPad is definitely
high on the list. I'm just looking for a Linux distro that does basically what
OS X does. Or did. I'm not happy with Apple's direction lately.

~~~
modernerd
I intend to slug it out with Windows 10 if I switch from MacBook to ThinkPad.

I love Linux (Arch/KDE enthusiast) but there are benefits to Windows too: it
generally has better support for gaming, gamedev (all the gamedev live
streamers I follow seem to be perfectly productive with Windows), C#
development, Adobe apps, and deeper hardware integration (biometrics/Windows
Hello and touchscreen support). There still seems to be a huge stigma with
using Windows in some developer communities, but I think I can live with that…

~~~
mcv
Does Windows come with a better command line shell yet? That's the big thing
keeping me away. There's just so much unix-based tooling (works on both Linux
and Mac) that I don't want to go without.

~~~
modernerd
Yes, there is the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), which is a compatibility
layer for running Linux binaries natively on Windows:

[https://www.hanselman.com/blog/TheYearOfLinuxOnTheWindowsDes...](https://www.hanselman.com/blog/TheYearOfLinuxOnTheWindowsDesktopWSLTipsAndTricks.aspx)

[https://github.com/sirredbeard/Awesome-
WSL](https://github.com/sirredbeard/Awesome-WSL)

[https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-
win10](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-win10)

I haven't switched to Windows 10 full-time yet, but WSL works remarkably well
whenever I've tried it.

Cmder ([http://cmder.net/](http://cmder.net/)) and ConEmu
([https://conemu.github.io/](https://conemu.github.io/)) are pretty decent
terminal emulators and Terminus
([https://eugeny.github.io/terminus/#header](https://eugeny.github.io/terminus/#header)
) looks promising too. (It's hard to beat iTerm, though.)

My other concern with Windows 10 was security and viruses. Last time I used
Windows every day (~1999!) that was a huge concern, but it seems to be less of
one now. Most seem to consider using the standard Windows-supplied virus
checker just fine if you're not torrenting dodgy stuff and opening strange
email attachments.

The following guide (from the @SwiftOnSecurity twitter author) was helpful:

[https://decentsecurity.com/#/securing-your-
computer/](https://decentsecurity.com/#/securing-your-computer/)

It contains much the same advice for Windows that you'd expect to see for
keeping macOS secure too — keep stuff up-to-date, encrypt your drives, don't
try to disable User Account Control or Device Guard (like Gatekeeper on Mac).

I've found that chocolatey
([https://chocolatey.org/](https://chocolatey.org/)) is a great replacement
for brew, Laragon ([https://laragon.org/](https://laragon.org/)) is a good
alternative to Valet, and Autohotkey
([https://autohotkey.com/](https://autohotkey.com/)) is unrivaled for general
system automation. (See Tom Scott waxing lyrical about Windows and AHK here:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIFE7h3m40U](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIFE7h3m40U)
).

------
706f6f70
I'm amazed that there is no mention of the sheer repairability of these
devices.

I don't think I will ever encounter a laptop line that is generally so user-
accessible. A couple of regular screws and you pop the case. A few more and
you can replace the entire keyboard. The hard drive was held in by a single
screw in most models and you could easily swap it in without even popping the
entire case. The RAM had it's own bay that you could access by removing a
single crew. The Ultrabay mechanism was also a huge nod to the design
philosophy of making the user feel like the hardware was his/hers to do with.

It's incredibly sad to me that we've abandoned that for the sake of "thinner".
I wish I had a legitimate use for older hardware so I could justify picking up
one of the IBM-era Thinkpads from eBay and just maintain it into perpetuity.
Like the cars of yesteryear that you could mend with some string and a brick.
Sure they're not "sexy" and it won't get me likes, but it's actually _mine_.

~~~
8draco8
Unfortunately they are going away from that. X280 the same as X1 series do not
have easily swapable battery (you can still replace it but you have to get
inside of the machine). X280 also don't have Ethernet port even tho there is a
room for it. They are replacing SD card readers for useless microSD card
readers. X280 have also soldered RAM with no expansion slot. Thinkpads was and
to some extend still are great machines, but Lenovo is slowly going in to all
glued together, non fixable direction

~~~
lorenzhs
It's a compromise. You can still get a T480, which does all the things you
list afaik. But I'm glad that I can also get an X1 Carbon, which is much
thinner and lighter. These things aren't achievable without making some
compromises. And for how integrated they are, they're still incredibly
repairable. Here's the hardware maintenance manual for mine (X1 Carbon 5, last
year's model):
[https://download.lenovo.com/pccbbs/mobiles_pdf/x1_carbon_5th...](https://download.lenovo.com/pccbbs/mobiles_pdf/x1_carbon_5th_hmm_en_sp40m11925_02.pdf).
It includes instructions how to replace virtually every part in the machine.
Broken screen? Fried mainboard? Broken TrackPoint? This is how you replace it.

The more annoying change (imho) is how hard it's become to replace the
keyboard. That used to be really easy, remove a handful of screws, slide out
the keyboard, and unplug the connector. Now it requires disassembling the
entire machine, at least for the X series.

~~~
blattimwind
> It's a compromise.

The X200 weighed 1.34 kg, the X280 weighs 1.27 kg. What a massive weight
reduction indeed. Totally worth ditching all upgrading possibilities.

Reminds me of Apple ditching the 3.5 mm jack with the pretence of making
devices thinner and lighter, when neither happened.

------
ilamont
I had the 701c "butterfly" described in the article. My previous laptop had
been a no-name 486 brick with a black and white screen that I bought at a
Taiwanese electronics mall for ~$2000. It was barely portable. The 701c, by
comparison, was small and durable, had a nice screen, a faster modem, and
easily fit into my daypack. I bought it used for about $800 in 1996 and
carried it with me throughout Southeast Asia and wrote my first book on it in
a cheap hotel in Penang. The previous owner, bless his soul, had even
installed Doom on it.

~~~
SmellyGeekBoy
My Dad had the 701c when I was a kid. When it broke (completely dead, some
kind of motherboard / PSU failure) he gave it to me to "fix" so I dismantled
it to see how the keyboard worked and then just threw everything in the bin.
It still keeps me awake occasionally. :(

~~~
dejawu
I bought one on eBay a couple years ago! Managed to get it to boot a couple
times (still even had the previous owner's data on it), but then it stopped
working. When I started taking it apart I found the plastic was so old and
brittle it would fall apart if I just barely flexed it. I disassembled it into
its components and put them all in a box which is in a closet somewhere.
Someday, I'll find a way to adapt the keyboard to make it work with modern
hardware and use it in some sort of cyberdeck-like custom build [0].

[0] [https://imgur.com/a/h2kR0Gs](https://imgur.com/a/h2kR0Gs)

------
keldaris
A bunch of old X220 machines are still my only laptops to this day because I
simply haven't found anything better since. Every modern laptop I've seen is
vastly inferior in some aspect I care about - terrible keyboards, fragile
cases, zero maintainability, no Linux support, etc., the list goes on and on.
Apart from better CPUs and displays, most laptops have objectively regressed
in the metrics I actually care about. Luckily, picking up refurbished X220s is
cheap and with current hardware trends being what they are these machines
should satisfy my needs for another half a decade at least.

~~~
wilsonnb3
I really don't know how you deal with the awful screens. Even the nicer IPS
screen is low resolution and has bad viewing angles.

That alone would be enough to make me upgrade, even if it meant sacrificing
everything else on your list.

~~~
Retr0spectrum
With a bit of modding, you can replace the panel with something much better.

I have an x230, and I'm planning to upgrade to a 13.3 inch 1080p IPS panel.

------
syntaxing
Owner of a "Thinkpad" X62 here. The most surprising part of the X series from
Thinkpad is how serviceable it is. The repair manuals are all online and does
not require any special hardware. The OEM replacement parts are extremely
abundant online at a reasonable cost. I think when my current laptop becomes
obsolete, my next laptop will probably still be a Thinkpad.

~~~
romed
I actually had a hard time finding a legit OEM cooler for my X60 after it
failed. Found one offered with the right SKU finally and it was electrically
and dimensionally correct but it’s actually the part for some other machine
and incredibly the BIOS reads out some data from the fan and complains at boot
that it’s got the wrong part. Still works though.

~~~
syntaxing
I bought a couple items from 51nb (the people who makes the X62 boards) before
with good luck since they normally get their parts from scrapped computers. It
seems like they shutdown their TaoBao site recently. They opened up a WeiDian
site but I have no clue how that site works and how someone in the states buy
from them.

------
csmattryder
> Hortensius, however, says that what keeps ThinkPads relevant is trusty
> productivity rather than any specific aspect of a given model. [...] “It’s
> because I can count on it that those things matter.”

Funny to read this, as I await my Lenovo X1 Carbon to come back from repair,
as it shut off one night and never came to boot again. I've also got an
~~IBM~~ (edit: it's a Lenovo!) Thinkpad X220, a motherboard-only shell that I
plonked my own hardware choice into, taped a slew of Debian stickers onto and
haven't had a fault with, ever.

I'll defend the Thinkpad brand with a religious fervour, for the same reason
Peter Hortensius says in the article. But under Lenovo's stewardship, I'm left
with a lot to be desired.

I hope I was just unlucky with this X1 Carbon, that fervour is willing to give
Lenovo a second chance, here.

~~~
YeGoblynQueenne
Sorry to hear about your machine, I hope it gets better soon!

The X1s are well built, though. I have the first-gen one and it still works
just fine, dual booting Fedora (24? I think) and Win7. The one thing that ever
broke was the square power plug. Not because it's square, but it did break-
and then it took me a week of phone calls very patiently speaking to Lenovo
reps until I convinced them that my accidental damage protection was still
active and it covered the damage. Then they sent a tech guy to my workplace,
just so I could let him know I had already mailed the machine to Lenovo, as we
had agreed by email. Very well organised.

I now have the 4th gen machine. I initially thought it looked flimsier than my
1st gen one, but then one day I dropped it from about 1.5 meters, _on its
side_ and nothing broke. It was inside my bag, and a laptop sleeve, but I'm
pretty sure that most other laptops this end of a Toughbook would have ended
up with at the very least a broken screen. Not my Splinter :0

Edit: now that I think of it, I've also stepped on it, dropped it from a
coffee table and generally handled it roughly. It doesn't care.

~~~
ajford
My one issue with the first-gen X1 is that they used an obscure SSD type (I'm
betting it's a Betamax/VHS issue), which meant sourcing a replacement SSD when
mine started to die was a pain. In the end, I decided that it wasn't worth the
risk & cost (either source an OEM drive in limited size for high cost or an
expensive adapter from unknown sources and a quality drive). I ended up buying
a T460 and am quite happy with it. I still miss the old scissor keys in my old
X201, but Lenovo's chiclet keys are still better than the Macbook I have to
use for work.

~~~
acct1771
Exact same issue. Trying all the SSDs on the shelf, and "What the hell port is
this?!"

------
mxuribe
I own two ThinkPad T420s and my favorite thing about them - well, besides of
course being able to install linux without any headaches due to the work of
soooo many FOSS engineers - is the keyboard. Man, I never really thought I
would appreciate something so seemingly basic...but the keyboard - as silly as
this sounds - makes it so much more fun to type!

~~~
ajford
I still miss that keyboard. I had an X201 until it was practically in pieces.
The power jack (mobo side) died, and I replaced it once. Replaced the cooling
fan. Ran it on a cooling pad to supplement the airflow. Finally, the spacebar
and track pad started going out. After about 4 years, I finally broke down and
got an X1 carbon. I sorely miss having a non-chiclet keyboard.

------
KozmoNau7
I use a lowly X220i (i3 variant of the X220) every single day. It's been
upgraded to 8GB RAM, a 128GB SSD and dual-band wifi.

The 9-cell battery get me 5-6 hours of web surfing, email and Youtube, and it
still feels like a new laptop, despite being ~7 years old.

My work-supplied T440 feels like a toy in comparison.

------
JansjoFromIkea
Bought an X220T a few months ago as a possible sturdy laptop for my mother.
Was something like $80?

A day after delivery, I had purchased an 8GB ram stick and an SSD for it to
keep it for myself. If it had a 1080p screen it'd probably be my main laptop
until High Sierra isn't supported by something I need.

~~~
ce4
Some people are a bit crazy and love the X220 enough to attempt a FullHD mod
(with custom hardware and rerouting of the external eDP signal/lane
internally). Not for the X220T though.

A kit was for sale here:
[https://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=122640](https://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=122640)

Edit: better wording

~~~
syntaxing
You can buy an upgrade kit using the same Sharp screen from the Dell XPS
series for the X220/X230. The best bet is to go through a TaoBao agent and buy
it from nb51 directly.

~~~
ce4
I own an X220. any hint how not to fail when attempting this? I.e. some
english writeup that is usable with instructions et al. All the stuff seems to
be in chinese only :-/

~~~
syntaxing
I mainly followed some videos on Youtube for the X61/62 like this:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcaMFkd_xSY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcaMFkd_xSY)
(this one is for the X220). The X220 is a bit easier since there is a big
community following for the HD mod [1]. I'm pretty sure the HD mod started
from nitrocaster.

Edit: Buy some Gaffers tape too. Much easier to use to tape things down
compared to electrical tape.

[1]
[https://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=122640](https://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=122640)

------
Joeri
My lenovo experiences thus far have been mixed. Had a work-provided s540 which
was rubbish. Fragile case with blemishes straight out of the factory, so-so
performance and battery life, and the main board cracked (literally) just
outside of warranty.

Replacing that I got a t460p which I’ve had for 2 years now, and that is an
amazing machine. Very good build quality, light and compact, while having
excellent performance (i7 6700 hq, 32 gb, dedicated graphics), quiet under
load and excellent battery life. And it looks like those old-school thinkpads,
which is cute.

I had heard the T series is good and the S is not, but it’s amusing to
experience that myself.

~~~
gwicks56
I have the exact same laptop. I really like it. I purchased because my x220
lasted forever. In fact it's still running fine as my back-up and travel
computer. And in case of emergency, I can always beat an intruder to death
with it, whilst running a 10 min gradle build.

Thinkpads have annoyances, but they are cheap if you don't mind upgrading
everything yourself, and they are indestructible in my experience. Plus for
coding day, having a thinkpoint greatly adds to my productivity. Shame the
screens are usually rubbish.

------
rainhacker
Any recommendations of Thinkpad model to buy in 2018 ? I can wait if anything
promising is coming in 2019.

~~~
organsnyder
For me, the "vanilla" T-series is the best compromise for weight, build
quality, and repairability. My personal laptop is a T480, and it's an
excellent machine. Very portable, screamingly fast, very good screen (I have
the high-res IPS variant).

If you want a bit more premium feel and lighter weight, the Txxxs (e.g. T480s)
is a bit thinner than the regular T-series, and feels a bit sturdier (so I've
heard, anyways; my T480 is no slouch here, either). It also has less user-
replaceable parts, and is more expensive for the same specs. The X-series also
fits here.

If you're going more for a luggable desktop replacement rather than small
size, the P-series is what you want. I have a P51 for work, and it's an insane
machine: 64 GB RAM, Quadro graphics, touchscreen, Xeon processor... It also
barely fits in my laptop bag and comes with a massive 170-watt power brick.
But since I work from home and drive into the office once a month or so, it's
a great machine that gives desktop-level performance (including very good
cooling) while still being at least somewhat portable.

If you want the Macbook Pro experience of premium feel, thinness, less ability
to be repaired, and higher cost, go for an X1 Carbon. I'd still prefer the X1
Carbon over a Macbook Pro, but I'd prefer a T- or P-series over either of
them.

There are some home/SMB-targetted models, such as the E-series; avoid those
unless you absolutely can't afford something better. All of the ones mentioned
above were designed for customers that maintain fleets of machines, which has
benefits even for non-enterprise users.

The current models are very good, and are a big upgrade from the previous
generation. Of course, there is always something nicer coming, if you want to
wait.

~~~
gritzko
The new x1 extreme / p1 is notably missing.

~~~
organsnyder
Good point. I don't have enough experience with them to speak knowledgeably.
They're basically slimmed versions of the P5x series, right?

------
InclinedPlane
One time I was using my T60 on the floor and managed to tip an entire full
glass of water right into it, absolute worst case scenario. I turned it off,
pulled the battery, drained it, let it sit for about a day to dry then checked
if it still worked. It was totally fine. Another time I had a T43 sitting on
the high arm rest of a couch, open, and knocked it onto the floor where it
fell directly on the corner of the display. It was also fine.

~~~
noir_lord
How much of the floor did you have to replace though?

~~~
jschwartzi
I would guess that the downstairs neighbors were upset to come home to a hole
in the ceiling and a laptop stuck halfway through their coffee table.

~~~
noir_lord
Halfway? I didn't know they made a lightweight version of that model.

------
knaik94
I have a w520 and while the graphics card could use some help from time to
time, I splurged for the i7 quad and it's still keeping up with most of what I
come across today. My favorite part is how well it handles bad head
management. I know I shouldn't but using it on bed sheets isn't really an
issue, it does make hell of a sound though. Sounds like an airplane.

------
AJRF
I use a T420 at home with an i7 2nd Gen (Power hunry) @ 2.3Ghz + 16GB Ram and
a 250gb SSD. Its old, but its at the inflection point where its more cost
effective for me to do some cloud compute the few times a year I need it
rather than spending £1500 on a new laptop. The laptop cost me around £130 all
in.

------
lallysingh
Something to be said about the 25th anniversary selling out in very little
time. I was watching it and wondering if I should get one (I missed the
keyboard from my w520 but not the weight), but had the decision made for me by
it selling out very quickly.

------
oseph
Long time macbook user here who just received a used T450 in the mail last
week. I bought it just to have access to a Windows machine and I plan to
install linux onto it as well.

Initial impressions: I really like it! Very solid little machine, and I really
like the keyboard feel as well. After years with Apple, the Thinkpad screen
and trackpad are pretty crappy in comparison, but overall I love using it.
Currently looking into upgrading the display to a 1080 IPS...

------
simonblack
I have an 8-year-old ThinkPad i5 T410S, since 2010.

I tried to replace it in 2012 with an Asus Zenbook but that was not pleasing
to me with its flimsiness in keyboard and build-construction.

I would like to perhaps buy a later ThinkPad model, but I really don't see any
advantage whatsoever in doing so. My T410S was ordered with the extra-large
battery which is still going strong, and I swapped out the 500gig hard drive
for a 2000gig hard drive about 5 years back.

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tzhenghao
I've owned a pretty maxed out T420s. When I bought it back in early 2013, it
had the standard HDD drive and 8GB of RAM. I swapped it out with a SSD and
bumped it up to 16GB RAM, and I can say it still runs pretty well. Aside from
not being able to do 4K or having to live with that ugly 1080p screen, it's
been just as solid as my late 2016 15inch MBP.

Oh, no dongle anxiety too.

The ROI on it is pretty amazing. Back when repairability was still a thing.

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kh_hk
The 25th anniversary edition should just be an X62.

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jlg23
> a ThinkPad remains a ThinkPad.

Uhm, no. My a20p, bought in 2001 still works. I only swapped the HD once and
the keyboard every 6 months or so. I bought my last thinkpad 4 years ago and
(given limited time and budget) had only a single model to choose because I
wanted metal hinges instead of plastic ones.

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vikingcaffiene
Does anyone know of any good upgrade kits for a T410? I've got one thats still
going strong but the screen is awful and I'd love to upgrade that and whatever
else I can get away with. When I look online I don't usually see stuff for
this particular model.

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jasonm89
I've been using a t440p as my daily for a year now. Nothing but love for it,
I've upgraded the screen, ram, and trackpad. My next upgrade is the CPU to a
quad core and this thing will still have a few more years left in it.

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thomasfedb
Very pleased with how ThinkPad-y my P51 is, even though it also manages to be
a thoroughly modern notebook.

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SilasX
ctrl-f revealed no mention of its product placement on Judge Ito's desk in the
OJ Simpson trial.

Edit: Really? You don't think all that advertising in such an iconic situation
had any relation to its becoming a design icon?

