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I’m typing this reply on a T490. It ain’t your parents Thinkpad. Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice but I’d be surprised if it lasts me longer than an XPS or equivalent would.

Opening it up to add more memory and larger SSD was nerve racking. I was worried I might snap the tabs on the “glass fiber” shell. Better than an Inspiron or Pavilion but not confidence inspiring. I don’t look forward to replacing the battery in a couple years.




Yes, sadly they are becoming average computers and loosing their original ThinkPad ethos.

Most are no longer so easy to service and come with soldered components. Cooling systems tend to be mediocre. Noisy and can no longer be tweaked. ThinkLight is gone. Keyboards with big ESC and some important dedicated keys are gone, etc.

I wish they brought back machines like the x220 with modern internals and silent cooling.


The T420 was the last "IBM-feeling" ThinkPad in terms of design, while the T430 was the last competent machine of that generation, only having a few drawbacks while adding many benefits over its predecessor.

The similar thing happened again with the T470 and T480; the T470 is a fantastic machine when it comes to overall build, and the T480 has a few downsides but adds a much-needed spec increase (WQHD panels, 4-core CPUs) without too much drawback.

The T490 was a complete revamp and seriously sacrifices everything that made the T series respectable.




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