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ThinkPad’s 30th Anniversary: An Insider’s Perspective

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Re: ThinkPad’s 30th Anniversary: An Insider’s Perspective

#121

Post by commoner »

spaniard89277 wrote: post #25
JamesAdir wrote: post #3

My Thinkpad X220 still going strong, and I miss a computer I can open up, replace or upgrade what's needed in an easy way. The form factor is good enough and I don't need or want this inch thin laptops just because one company decided it's suits them and fashionable. Unfortunately Lenovo doesn't really keep the brand and in the gazillion models they have on stock, there isn't one that can replace my X220 in convenien…

If the frame.work laptops get trackpoint Ill say goodbye to Lenovo. Until then I see no replacement. We'll see how long my x260 lasts.

The feature request for a TrackPoint option on the Framework laptop is right here:

https://community.frame.work/t/any-chance-of-trackpoint/1026

Re: ThinkPad’s 30th Anniversary: An Insider’s Perspective

#122

Post by lvl102 »

ak217 wrote: post #115
lvl102 wrote: post #10

The old school pre-Lenovo keyboards are the best ever made. Nothing even comes close to that feeling.

SK-8855 ( https://sharktastica.co.uk/wiki?id=lenovo8855 ) is my biggest productivity tool. I'm probably about twice as productive with this keyboard than without it. They resell for $150+ on ebay. I dread the day when my supply runs out.

I’ve since switched to HHKBs and they’ve served me well!

Re: ThinkPad’s 30th Anniversary: An Insider’s Perspective

#123

Post by FridayoLeary »

least wrote: post #117
FridayoLeary wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think that's true anymore since apple is reversing that trend with their new iphones being their thickest ever. The latest stupid trend seems to be to treat a device as a camera with smart features attached.

I fail to see how this is a stupid trend. Most people want to have a camera on their person always and smartphones are that camera. They've completely killed off the point and shoot market and mostly the camcorder market as well. Seeing genuine improvement on what is a family's camera year over year is welcome.

It comes at the cost of the rest of the phone. The latest pro max whatever camera bump is huge. Especially as this comes after a decade of thinner phones being the ultimate goal of designers.

Re: ThinkPad’s 30th Anniversary: An Insider’s Perspective

#124

Post by wildzzz »

jtwaleson wrote: post #8

I’ve been a bit of a Thinkpad fanatic ever since my dad got a T42p somewhere in 2004. I have been on Thinkpads since 2006. I bought old ones on eBay and now have a collection of about 15 machines. The 700c, two butterfly keyboard 701cs, the 240 and a lot more. I’m currently on a T495s. From my experience I can say that the “old IBM machines were reliable and well constructed” is not true. They were bulky and over tim…

I used the thinklight a lot in college when I'd want to do homework in bed with the lights down low. You could both read papers and see your keyboard easily. The backlit keyboard really killed off the thinklight as I'm sure that was the primary purpose of it. I had an X61 tablet, X200 tablet, and a beefy T420 I used in college. They all got beat up in my backpack, anything plastic around the edges was cracked but they all performed dutifully. I only replaced my X61 because I finally had to use 64bit software for school. The T420 was too heavy to carry around all day and I wanted the tablet feature for homework so I bought the used X61. I still use my decade old T420 but I really wish I had sprung for the high density display as websites think I'm using a mobile device at 1366x768. There are ways to upgrade but I don't think I love my old Thinkpad that much to put in the effort.

Re: ThinkPad’s 30th Anniversary: An Insider’s Perspective

#125

Post by jeffbee »

numpad0 wrote: post #118
jeffbee wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The X220 was for many long-time ThinkPad users the last good one. It had real keycaps and no trackpad. Too bad about the display, since the X220 was during the era that Lenovo was gaslighting buyers about how IPS panels simply could not be procured on the open market, right before Apple showed them to be liars. The X220 display is truly ghastly. Like some other X-series enthusiasts I consider the X61 Tablet with the…

X1 Nano seems fine, only it costs like a proper ThinkPad.

It's nice that it is thin and light, but the cost is the short-travel 6-row chiclet keyboard and the almost unusable flat mouse buttons.

Re: ThinkPad’s 30th Anniversary: An Insider’s Perspective

#126

Post by cannam »

jtwaleson wrote: post #8

I’ve been a bit of a Thinkpad fanatic ever since my dad got a T42p somewhere in 2004. I have been on Thinkpads since 2006. I bought old ones on eBay and now have a collection of about 15 machines. The 700c, two butterfly keyboard 701cs, the 240 and a lot more. I’m currently on a T495s. From my experience I can say that the “old IBM machines were reliable and well constructed” is not true. They were bulky and over tim…

> From my experience I can say that the “old IBM machines were reliable and well constructed” is not true. They were bulky and over time, everything breaks.

Too right. I know the T40 series Thinkpads quite well (the 2004-5 era) and they're not very robust at all. Pick one up from the front edge and it'll just bend - the edges of the palm rest crack first, then the traces lift from the motherboard and the USB ports stop working. Back then it was common knowledge that you shouldn't pick up a laptop from the front edge. Nowadays that's no big deal.

The T60 series (2006-7) hugely improved chassis rigidity but lost out in keyboard quality and were noisier and a bit chunkier in profile. Both series were fantastic laptops and are still delightful to use, but they had obvious limitations and the changes made by Lenovo since then are not all unreasonable.

Re: ThinkPad’s 30th Anniversary: An Insider’s Perspective

#127

Post by karolist »

gsibble wrote: post #53

I still love my Thinkpads. Run Linux and code endlessly on them. Gone through a P50, P52, P1G2, P17, and now a P16. Been very happy every time.

How did you find P50? I've just bought one for a personal machine. I've had X220 (too slow and resolution was shite for 2018), W530, very hot but potentially still good, gave that one away. Now have P16G4 for work, happy in general but the carbon finish is such a finger print magnet.

Re: ThinkPad’s 30th Anniversary: An Insider’s Perspective

#128

Post by spaniard89277 »

commoner wrote: post #121
spaniard89277 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the frame.work laptops get trackpoint Ill say goodbye to Lenovo. Until then I see no replacement. We'll see how long my x260 lasts.

The feature request for a TrackPoint option on the Framework laptop is right here: https://community.frame.work/t/any-chance-of-trackpoint/1026

I'm aware of that thread, but they're basically saying they won't do it. So I'm still trapped with Thinkpads.

Re: ThinkPad’s 30th Anniversary: An Insider’s Perspective

#129

Post by kewrkewm53 »

I still use a T520 from 2011 for hobby projects, picked it for 100 euros a while ago. Just gotta love the keyboard travel, I don't think anything available new today comes close. The 1080p screen is perfectly fine for programming, no complains about performance either with i7, SSD and 16GB of RAM as I don't do anything super intensive. Only thing that really sucks is the aftermarket battery.

Re: ThinkPad’s 30th Anniversary: An Insider’s Perspective

#130

Post by danielodievich »

I got a fully loaded P50 back in 2017 and it's been amazing to use for 5 years. Runs everything, very VM friendly. Very repairable. Yeah, I had to repair its screen, but that took no time. I reseated the heatsink around the CPU/GPU combo, that was really easy too. It's butt-ugly and fat and heavy but I much prefer it to the work macbook, works faster, runs quieter, has better battery life, and is much more pleasant to type on. Also in the house, X1 carbon and 2 X380 Yogas, all great machines too.
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