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Thinkpad X210

geoff.greer.fm

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Re: Thinkpad X210

#201

Post by snazz »

askafriend wrote: post #183
papaf wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Robust engineering, longevity, support, and resale markets do more for the environment than making components user-replaceable. But if the parts were also user replaceable it would be better for the environment.

That requires significant trade-offs in durability, weight, and design. Not to mention you don’t want the typical user (forget the HN audience) to replace the components themselves. Most professional users are on corporate enterprise device plans and you don’t want employees or the IT department replacing components either. It’s far better and cheaper to get the employee back up and running with a new machine while t…

In many cases, a well-designed, durable product can be repairable. While the actual earbuds were not wonderfully well-reviewed, the Samsung Galaxy Buds were both tiny and legitimately repairable: https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Samsung+Galaxy+Buds+Teardown...

Re: Thinkpad X210

#202

Post by ryacko »

alkonaut wrote: post #191
shasheene wrote: post #48

This is a good time to bring up the fact there was never an industry-wide standardization effort for laptops. A standard form-factor means components would be re-usable between upgrades: the laptop case, power supply, monitor, keyboard, touchpad could all be re-used without any additional effort. This improves repairability, is much better for the environment, and means higher-end components can be selected with the…

Some parts such as batteries, storage, ram etc should at least be a standardized. Manufacturers probably don’t want to standardize on the remaining motherboard/graphics/chassis/cooling because a laptop isn’t like an atx computer where you get modularity at the expense of wasted space. A laptop is basically a 3D puzzle with thermal components. Few consumers would buy a laptop with even a little wasted volume or weight…

I just wish there was a portable all-in-one PC with modular components (since vertical parts don’t need as much testing as horizontal).

But surplus laptops are in such quantity that I’d be fine replacing my tablet with a laptop.

Re: Thinkpad X210

#203

Post by efficax »

noir_lord wrote: post #137

I wonder why Lenovo doesn't lean into this. Clearly there is a market for people wanting this kind of machine to the extent they are jumping through hoops for it. I have a maxed out T470P (stock) and it's a cracking little machine and while the keyboard is by modern standards excellent that's because the bar shifted, it's still not as nice as the one on my old R50 was.

Lenovo knows about the love for the retro Thinkpads, and even tried to take advantage of it:

https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpad-t-ser...

It was a decent showing, but not what I wanted (an X60 form factor with a 4k 4:3 screen)

Re: Thinkpad X210

#204

Post by chx »

noir_lord wrote: post #137

I wonder why Lenovo doesn't lean into this. Clearly there is a market for people wanting this kind of machine to the extent they are jumping through hoops for it. I have a maxed out T470P (stock) and it's a cracking little machine and while the keyboard is by modern standards excellent that's because the bar shifted, it's still not as nice as the one on my old R50 was.

Hell if I know. On various forums we have raised the idea but I guess it just doesn't get through they should run a Kickstarter for the classic keyboard in the, say, successor of the T490 (because the 10nm is going to be a huge change so ppl want to buy that more). If successful, Lenovo adds this option while people front the cost of creating it -- new plastic mould for the palmrest etc -- and get a discount code they can put in when ordering the new machine with the classic keyboard. All this takes very little effort from Lenovo -- all their backend system needs is a batch entry of discount codes. They don't need to ship anything separately and if the Kickstarter fails, they spent very little money.

Re: Thinkpad X210

#205

Post by jandrese »

lelf wrote: post #10

> The fan only turns on if I’m doing something intensive like compiling go or scrolling in Slack . That’s intensive. And sad.

I LOLed at the shade thrown at Slack. It's funny because it's true.

Re: Thinkpad X210

#206

Post by mnemonic204 »

hopler wrote: post #98
ekianjo wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A standard form-factor means components would be re-usable between upgrades We don't even have to go that far. Just ensuring that laptops can be serviced by their own users would go a long way to reduce e-waste. i.e. not soldering RAM chips to the motherboard, making it feasible to remove every single part (not gluing the keyboard to the MB for example), etc... instead of pursuing an ever thinner laptop design, whi…

Consumers prefer super-thin soldered machines, sadly. The proof is in the shopping.

Is that why the sort-of upgradeable 2015 MBPs nowadays go for higher prices on ebay already than the absolutely non-upgradeable 2016/17s?

Re: Thinkpad X210

#207

Post by ggreer »

saagarjha wrote: post #6

> Battery life is a little over 4 hours with the flush battery (55Wh) and 6-7 hours with the extended battery (80Wh). Not going to lie, that’s pretty horrible. > Battery life would increase by 50% if I got PC6 or PC8 idle states. The fan only turns on if I’m doing something intensive like compiling go or scrolling in Slack. lol. One of the things that really drives me nuts is my computer’s fan turning on when I know…

I don't lie about battery life numbers. People like to say, "I get 9 hours of battery life." when they mean that they get 9 hours if they do doing nothing but let their computer idle with the brightness at minimum. 4 hours with a 55Wh battery is an average consumption of 13 watts. That's because my typical workflow involves running a VM containing cassandra & postrgres (among other services) and recompiling go and javascript. My coworkers with 15" MacBook Pros tend to worry more about battery life than I do.

My fan comment was a joke about Slack's efficiency. Of course compiling a bunch of go code will make the fan turn on. That will use up 100% of your cores on any decent sized project.

Re: Thinkpad X210

#208

Post by TheCowboy »

0w4u2a wrote: post #25

Please, allow me to hijack this thread. What's the best Thinkpad I could get in Europe for ~200€ right now? (Off eBay of course). I don't care whether it's 13" or 15". Edit: thanks for all the replies.

The 520 series still has the classic keyboard. The T520 will come in under budget, but sometimes you can find deals for the W520 (my preference).

Re: Thinkpad X210

#209

Post by WrtCdEvrydy »

ryacko wrote: post #202
alkonaut wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some parts such as batteries, storage, ram etc should at least be a standardized. Manufacturers probably don’t want to standardize on the remaining motherboard/graphics/chassis/cooling because a laptop isn’t like an atx computer where you get modularity at the expense of wasted space. A laptop is basically a 3D puzzle with thermal components. Few consumers would buy a laptop with even a little wasted volume or weight…

I just wish there was a portable all-in-one PC with modular components (since vertical parts don’t need as much testing as horizontal). But surplus laptops are in such quantity that I’d be fine replacing my tablet with a laptop.

You can get mini-ITX cases that are smaller than console sized with full sized graphics cards inside... they cost like $300 bucks though :(

Re: Thinkpad X210

#210

Post by sosborn »

epanchin wrote: post #152
hopler wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Consumers prefer super-thin soldered machines, sadly. The proof is in the shopping.

Has Apple offered an upgrade able laptop alongside a non-upgradeable one? Would be possible to draw that conclusion if they sold a new style MacBook Pro alongside an older style one with similar specs.

> Has Apple offered an upgrade able laptop alongside a non-upgradeable one?

No, but I would be shocked if they have never run focus groups for this type of stuff.

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