The best upgrade I've ever done to my T420 was a 65W GaN charger (less than $20) and a USB-C to barrel power cable from AliExpress (~$5). So much more compact and aesthetically pleasing than the stock charger.
Another cool upgrade is an HDD bay that you can install in place of the optical drive. Costs less than $5, lets you install both regular SATA SSD (no need to look for mSATA) and an HDD.
Edit: total cost of my T420 with all upgrades I've done over the years is around $150. Pretty neat for a daily driver. I'd probably still use it if I could get hands on a good display and a conversion board, but I've switched to an M1 MacBook Air since then. Maybe I'll do a frankenpad build with the M1 motherboard in a ThinkPad case though!
December I bought a Thinkpad L13 Gen 3 for my wife and installed EndeavourOS for her. The laptop is really not bad, which did surprise me to some extent, had low expectations. In any case a lot better than the Asus laptop my wife had before. Did not examine fixability very thorough, however.
I would have preferred a Framework Laptop, but after two years of waiting they still don't deliver to Switzerland, at least officially. I am typing this on a Framework 13 which will be soon two years old, but when I discussed how to import it myself I got told off in the Framework community. I was not using a freight forwarder. I used my other address in Germany.
If after enough years Framework still does not support Switzerland, my next laptop will probably be a Thinkpad. It's a very good second to Framework. I know a few years ago there were many complaints about declining quality but with the model for my wife the tide seems have to turned (finger crossed).
I doubt that the fun is ended with that X1 Carbon in hand. You maybe able to install Libreboot on that T430, and it might make the machine boot faster.
> even a laptop as durable as this can _get damaged_ after six years of heavy use
One day I read a post on r/thinkpad, the poster praised their old Thinkpad, claim it was a solid machine, but a hardware failure killed it and the poster were "too exhausted" to get it fixed (something like that).
The hardware failure don't sounded hard to diagnose, but then on the picture attached to the post, I noticed a crack on the top right corner of the plastic keyboard frame, near where the screen hinge is installed underneath. I realized that the crack was probably what actually killed that laptop, among all other (smaller) things.
The difficult realisation I made is that I just love convertible/2-in-1/tent laptops. Watching media is so much more pleasant, you can drop a keyboard and second screen besides it and you have a very nice portable desktop setup as well. Touchscreen/notes/drawing is also often useful for me. It makes the device much more versatile.
But the Lenovo X line of it (Yoga) is Intel only, and kind of bad value, heat problems, screen is very dim (like most of the Thinkpad line). The mainstream Yoga versions don't have the durability and port selection ("business features") of Thinkpads. Other brands have more issues.
i think this was the first company laptop i ever got, when I started at (large database company). my manager came in one day with a shiny Macbook Air, and the rest of us didnt know what to think of it
i managed to convince someone that to make mobile apps, I had to dual-wield the two as well, but I did end up daily driving the Thinkpad more...
the difference is the manufacturer can do tests if its non-china, western label, if its lenovo you dont know whos done back hand deals and with the CCP
Do you think a backdoor can be found in modern chips simply by testing? And even if, that enterprise grade products are tested that deep, let alone consumer products?
Another cool upgrade is an HDD bay that you can install in place of the optical drive. Costs less than $5, lets you install both regular SATA SSD (no need to look for mSATA) and an HDD.
Edit: total cost of my T420 with all upgrades I've done over the years is around $150. Pretty neat for a daily driver. I'd probably still use it if I could get hands on a good display and a conversion board, but I've switched to an M1 MacBook Air since then. Maybe I'll do a frankenpad build with the M1 motherboard in a ThinkPad case though!