
Updated ThinkPad Laptop Portfolio - qzio
https://news.lenovo.com/pressroom/press-releases/updated-thinkpad-laptop-portfolio-empowers-choice-and-business-freedom/
======
CaptainZapp
After that little spyware shittie they pulled off few years ago, while
introducing huge security risks for their customers. And not once, but as
repeat offenders[1] this is a brand I would not touch while donning a hazmat
suit.

May be that they didn't do that with their pro offerings, but I for one try to
avoid companies with such a mindset.

[1]
[https://duckduckgo.com/?q=lenovo+spyware](https://duckduckgo.com/?q=lenovo+spyware)

~~~
eloisant
So what would be the best brand of laptop to buy and put Linux on?

~~~
windexh8er
I'm typing this on a T470 running Linux. It has been a fantastic laptop all
around. In general I find it more productive than my work issued MBP. Others
have stated hardware failures with their Lenovo, however I use mine daily and,
generally, do not treat it any different than other laptops. The keyboard has
fared better than the last three MBP I've been issued / reissued. YMMV,
obviously. All hardware can fail and all hardware can have manufacturing
defects. Overall, however, I feel as though my T470 is a more durable machine.
And I'm excited to see AMD in the T lineup. While I might not purchase the
first iteration, I'll definitely be watching the space.

Lenovo is supporting Linux on a lot of their hardware moving forward [0].
Lenovo also joined LVFS in 2018 to provide native Linux firmware updates [1].

[0] [https://www.lenovo.com/linux](https://www.lenovo.com/linux) [1]
[https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2018/08/lvfs-lenovo-firmware-
upd...](https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2018/08/lvfs-lenovo-firmware-updates-
linux)

~~~
nobleach
I typically tell people, "Everything but the fingerprint reader". On my X1C
the only tiny battle I had to fight was for S3 suspend. I'm not even going to
bother with the fingerprint reader.

~~~
diffeomorphism
Red hat is apparently paying for some work on this:
[https://blogs.gnome.org/uraeus/2019/06/24/on-the-road-to-
fed...](https://blogs.gnome.org/uraeus/2019/06/24/on-the-road-to-fedora-
workstation-31/)

So I guess it is going to land in fedora first and then make its way to other
distros.

That said, under windows the fingerprint reader is frustratingly bad (lots and
lotsof false negatives and slow). How can they be almost perfect on phones but
that awful on laptops?

~~~
nobleach
My Macbook Pro's reader has been great. But yeah, I've had readers on my PCs
for the past 10 years, and every one of them has been just a notch above
terrible.

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inputmice
I bought a T495 recently. It’s the worst ThinkPad I ever owned. (After a T60,
a X301 and a X250). With modern ThinkPads you have the choice between slightly
thicker notebooks T4… series and decent cooling and shitty build quality and
thinner, higher build quality (T4…s, and X…) and virtually non existing
cooling (thermal throttles the minute you are trying to use the CPU) T495 has
weird bugs (S and K keys not working after suspend); and is extremely
vulnerable to what I assume are static charges; meaning if I push it over my
mattress (to make room to climb into the bed) it shuts down. Never had the
issue with any notebook before; Never occurred to me that this could be a
problem. Battery life is crap as well.

~~~
basch
To be fair, one ending in a 5 is an AMD, which has had considerably worse
battery life than Intel for a decade, and is also probably somewhat to blame
for suspend/sleep bugs. It might be hard to discern if you have ThinkPad
issues or AMD issues, and I would not coorelate your AMD issues back to Intel
ThinkPads. Battery life should have been a known expectation going into buying
one.

------
SirensOfTitan
I purchased an X1 Carbon Extreme late last year, and I gotta say I wouldn’t
buy Lenovo again.

A crack appeared in the bezel around the screen. I figured the issue was my
fault, but I also babied the device and the crack was a full crack through the
plastic bezel. Lenovo could not have been less helpful because I didn’t pay
for their insurance. I was very happy to pay, but wanted a quote for
accidental damage for my credit card. Lenovo would not, under any
circumstance, give me a quote without my paying a fee for a quote to fix my
computer. At this point I’m just hoping the crack doesn’t get worse.

~~~
q3k
Here's a tip for anyone buying Lenovo in the future: always pick onsite
warranty (not depot), and always pick accidental damage protection. It's
around 10% more, but not only will accidental damage be covered, but you will
also get service on site at your location of choice.

You can also splurge an even extra 10% to get next-business-day onsite
service.

~~~
iimblack
Also, the price is very negotiable. Don’t pay full price for the warranty.

~~~
jagger27
Do you think a single person corporation could easily get a sales contact to
do said negotiation?

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cstuder
Just last week I was ordering some Ideapads directly from Lenovo and the
online store is a mess: Multiple search filters for dozens of different models
and no clear technical specifications on a slow site.

One example: My models are supposed to be sold with 8 GB RAM, the tech specs
say "Up to 16 GB" and the order confirmation suggests 4 GB.

~~~
stanski
You can almost _see_ the multiple generations of code underneath that site.
I'm sure they have the money for a good clean up.

------
iso1631
Doesn't look like any of these have a network port.

Surely there's a market for a laptop with a good keyboard and real ports
somewhere? If I'm at a desk I'll work at my desktop, I want a portable device
for doing on site stuff, which often involves plugging into a network

~~~
pmlnr
Look at Japan only market Panasonics:
[https://panasonic.jp/cns/pc/index.html](https://panasonic.jp/cns/pc/index.html)

------
mchan
I was hoping to see a return to 16:10 aspect ratio screens, but it looks like
they're sticking to 16:9

~~~
exergy
Exactly. I'm constantly needled by the fact that there isn't a _single_
Youtube reviewer who is a full-time programmer. Or at least someone not in the
"creative" domains. At least none of the big names are. It's always Nvidia
this and Premiere Pro rendering times that and SD card slot whatever.

Fine, but where are the people who will spend ten minutes talking about the
different keyboard options they considered for their daily driver? Where are
the people who have to read code for a living and will openly mock 16:9 with
it's pathetic vertical space? Talking about how easy it is to dual boot Linux
on the machine?

If anyone knows of such reviewers, _please_ drop a link below. I'm sick of
wathching MKBHD.

~~~
blitmap
I've gone to a nearby Micro Center and I found I can accept and even readily
enjoy the keyboard on the new Dell XPS 2-in-1 with a 3840x2400 display (16:10
/ 8:5). It has very shallow, maglev keys. It takes getting used to but I
believe it would be durable and even enable quicker typing. The problem is I
have a laptop with an OLED screen. I wish I didn't have to step backwards in
terms of color reproduction. The device is also too expensive right now.

I'm waiting for 8:5, OLED or microLED, and I'm continually looking at
Thunderbolt docks for something cheap & compact. The Dell XPS 2-in-1 is very
close to what I want, but I wish there were 1 more USB type-c.

Dell actually has an OLED screen on the Dell XPS 15, but it's 3840x2160
(16:9). c'est la vie..

~~~
exergy
As I understand, the new XPS is also coming out with a 16:10, but it is also
an IPS panel.

------
alberth
My dream laptop would be the new XPS 13 + track point.

I wish Lenovo would create this. Both vertical & horizontal edge to edge
screen. Super slim. Sub 14” display for those of us who travel a lot. Light
weight. Etc.

[https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-laptops/new-
xps-13-lapt...](https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-laptops/new-
xps-13-laptop/spd/xps-13-9300-laptop)

~~~
diffeomorphism
That is basically the X1. Edge to edge kind goes in the way of the whole
milspec thing, but we will just have to wait how the (several) new models look
like.

~~~
alberth
Unfortunately it’s not.

X1 display is not vertical edge to edge.

And it’s larger than I want. It’s 14” and I’m not wanting a form factor so
large.

This video (granted it’s dated) gives a sense of the size difference between
XPS and X1

[https://youtu.be/0prKNdJkyTI](https://youtu.be/0prKNdJkyTI)

------
einpoklum
It seems like the Thinkpad malaise of the past 7-8 years (at least with the X
series) continues.

I can't believe it, but Lenovo's best compact laptop is still the X220 or X230
(where the keyboard already started to deteriorate). Sure, the new ones are
faster, but it doesn't make up for the deteriorated structural features,
keyboard etc.

------
marcus_holmes
Anyone know whether Lenovo still ship with Linux? Or have any experience
running Linux on a modern Thinkpad?

~~~
pyrophane
I run linux on a P1 (2nd gen) and I know people who run it on the X1 Carbon.

The linux experience with the P1 has improved quite a bit since I got it about
8 months ago as support for the hardware has improved in the kernel.

Generally, I would say ThinkPads support linux as well as anything else right
now: the ultrabooks with Intel graphics are fine. Anything with optimus
graphics chip will work but not quite perfectly. Imho stay away from OLED for
now.

Ubuntu 20.04 will bring fractional scaling and a new kernel. Along with
packaging the nvidia drivers on the ISO and the optimus support they've built
in, that is probably going to be the best laptop distro.

------
mnm1
I ordered a p1 before Christmas. At the start of February, they no longer had
a shipping date estimate. It took almost two weeks to get a confirmation of
the cancellation and a refund, despite them being required by law to cancel it
at that time and me requesting cancellation explicitly. How anyone can do
business with such a shitty company is beyond my comprehension.

------
muro
So much business jargon (or honestly, just BS). You win on buzzword bingo in
the first three sentences.

"built leveraging the core tenets of design, innovation and quality."

I do appreciate their naming, which includes now the screen size (T14,X13).

~~~
basch
They really should have dropped the 1.

X1 X3 X4

T4 T5 T7

T5s T5e (or T5p)

E4 E5

P5 P5s P7

and then just versioned them

T4v2 or T4g10

*s being slim, e being extreme or p being performance. T5P vs P5S might be confusing, so id be ok with the switch to E.

------
jagger27
Still no departure from 16:9, it seems. Glad to see Ryzen 4000 throughout,
though.

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Tepix
Wake on voice? In a business laptop? Creepy as hell.

