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Thinkpad X210

geoff.greer.fm

321–330 of 490 posts

Re: Thinkpad X210

#321
> You can even replace the Trackpoint and the little rubber feet without much trouble.

I've been trying desperately to source rubber feet for my X200 but can't find them anywhere.

Re: Thinkpad X210

#322
post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having a MacBook Pro Late 2016, I can only dream of 4h battery life with the workload you describe. It has a bigger screen though.

My work laptop is a mbp 2018 (i9, 32GB). The battery life is abysmal. I typically get a little bit over 2 hours. I'm not going to lie though: I'm always running Atom or VSCode and there's lots of opened tabs in Chrome.

Did they reduce the battery size on newer models? My 2015 i7 mbp can get about 3 hours of Civ 6 (in strategic view), or 6 hours of regular dev workload. I remember it lasting longer a few years ago too.

Re: Thinkpad X210

#324
I noticed the author names his computers after elements (iron). I do that too! I was taken aback because I have a box named "iron" also (as well as cobalt, oxygen, and helium)

Re: Thinkpad X210

#325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’re upgrade-friendly laptops on the market. I’ve replaced RAM, disks, keyboard, LCD, CPU, wireless cards in my laptops. Soldered CPUs are unfortunately inevitable on modern ones, but many other components are still replaceable if you pay attention at the time of purchase. Usually voids warranty but I don’t care too much. As a nice bonus it sometimes saves money. I’ve only picked my netbook for CPU (i3-6157U, 64M…

> There’re upgrade-friendly laptops on the market. yes, but very few, and going fewer and fewer as we speak. Even Lenovo which was famous for that ends up soldering RAM in their recent models and making the battery a hassle to replace while it used to be on the outside before.

Enterprise market is huge. Consumers like thin and shiny things, corporations don’t care, but they employ people with full-time job being counting expenses. Upgradeable laptops are good for them because they can get exactly right hardware without paying for what they won’t use. They rarely upgrade themselves, vendors do, but unless the laptop is designed upgradeable vendors gonna have hard time serving their enterprise customer’s requests, let alone doing it fast.

For an example what I’m talking about, see this for current-gen Intel-based 13.3”: http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c05695299.pdf

Update: and if you gonna install Linux, these laptops can always be bought without Windows license. Corporate customers use volume licensing, they don’t need these OEM Windows keys and not willing to pay for them either.

Re: Thinkpad X210

#326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You've genuinely never had to install any drivers or change any settings after installing Windows? I find this very hard to believe.

I think you still always need to install graphics drivers from AMD/nVidias site, because the stub-drivers included with Windows don't have proper OpenGL support.

I'm a heavy gamer, and I have been using video drivers from Windows Update for the past 8 years or so with no issues (other than Far Cry 5 complaining that they're old - but it still runs fine).

Re: Thinkpad X210

#327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My work laptop is a mbp 2018 (i9, 32GB). The battery life is abysmal. I typically get a little bit over 2 hours. I'm not going to lie though: I'm always running Atom or VSCode and there's lots of opened tabs in Chrome.

Did they reduce the battery size on newer models? My 2015 i7 mbp can get about 3 hours of Civ 6 (in strategic view), or 6 hours of regular dev workload. I remember it lasting longer a few years ago too.

Yes. Can't remember how much it shrank in Wh though. I had a 2016 which I ultimately sold after 6 months, then bought a 2015 of eBay. I get roughly 25-33% better battery life on the 2015 than I did with the newer model.

Re: Thinkpad X210

#328
I have a MacBook Pro (2017, 15" top model). I came from a Thinkpad running Red Hat and FreeBSD later.

I have been for the last couple years putting a Thinkpad (P52 or X1 Carbon/Extreme or P1) I'm lusting over in my cart, but not hitting the buy button.

After owning this MacBook Pro, my first question is how replaceable are the keyboards? I want to have a spare in the case of spills, crumbs, dirt, etc and so forth. It's piece of mind at this point.

From my quick and dirty research, they aren't as replaceable as they used to be, but still able to be done by the user. The P52/72 seem to be the only easy option like the, "good old days." While the X1/P1/X series require the entire top palm rest replaced, which is costlier, but it's an option none the less.

I'm eyeing either an X1 Extreme, P52, or maybe getting something slightly more portable like the X390. I feel this is the year I'm finally going to hit that buy button and at least test the waters if I can get myself out of the Apple Ecosystem and survive without regrets using Linux, even so, it will be a fun experiment.

Re: Thinkpad X210

#329

> 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…

You say that's horrible, but I have never gotten more than around 5 hours from my MacBook Pros (my own and my work's). Maybe I could if the only thing I ran was Safari and iCal, but that's not my use case. If their number is from normal use, I'd consider it normal. :shrug:

You're comparing Apples and Oranges. Or Apples and THinkpads. Non-Mac machines always had better battery life.

Re: Thinkpad X210

#330
post #328

I have a MacBook Pro (2017, 15" top model). I came from a Thinkpad running Red Hat and FreeBSD later. I have been for the last couple years putting a Thinkpad (P52 or X1 Carbon/Extreme or P1) I'm lusting over in my cart, but not hitting the buy button. After owning this MacBook Pro, my first question is how replaceable are the keyboards? I want to have a spare in the case of spills, crumbs, dirt, etc and so forth. It…

MacBook Pro keyboard replacement is a nightmare it's a 3-hour process search up the videos on YouTube you have to undo about 50 screws. The sooner you realize that Apple only makes throw away shit the better off you'll be in life!
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