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Replacing my MacBook Air M1 with a ThinkPad T480

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Re: Replacing my MacBook Air M1 with a ThinkPad T480

#481

Post by ihattendorf »

nickstinemates wrote: post #480

These days, the hardware of the laptop rarely matters for me. Battery life and screen legibility is what matters above all else because I do little to no compute on the actual device itself. To that end, I like the Mac M1 Air and the Framework laptops. Nothing beats the battery life of an M1 Air that I have found. What really sold me was my first trip with it, flying from Amsterdam to SFO. Left hotel 3 hours early, 2…

Do you ever find yourself without reliable internet connection and unable to develop/watch media/etc.? Any issues with data caps?

Re: Replacing my MacBook Air M1 with a ThinkPad T480

#482

Post by joecool1029 »

focusedone wrote: post #359
browningstreet wrote: post #329

Regarding Lenovo: I bought an original Macbook Air. It always worked well. As it got on to about 10 years old, I took it in to an Apple Store a couple miles from my house and asked if they could replace the battery. The battery worked pretty well, but I figured.. the machine was going strong and if they still had batteries in stock, I should grab one now and the laptop will live even longer. They replaced the battery…

I've purchased a lot of computers from Lenovo and other brands. The service and parts availability difference between the Thinkpad/Station/Centre models and everything else Lenovo makes is vast. The build quality between Thinkpads and other Lenovo models is also stark. Parts, firmware updates, repair manuals...even warranty extensions for 5+ year old Thinkpads is totally normal. For computers other than Think branded…

>Parts, firmware updates, repair manuals...even warranty extensions for 5+ year old Thinkpads is totally normal.

They still have the hardware maintenance manual online for my 30 year old Thinkpad 350C.

Re: Replacing my MacBook Air M1 with a ThinkPad T480

#483

Post by nehal3m »

lmz wrote: post #22
chinamn425 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lenovo warranty is fantastic.

What makes you think the Thinkpad in the linked article is still under warranty?

It might be. I used to order them for the business I worked for with 5 years on site warranty. Where I live that transfers with sale. T480 was sold into early 2019, so that would end the last warranty around early 2024.

Re: Replacing my MacBook Air M1 with a ThinkPad T480

#484

Post by maximus-decimus »

Reason077 wrote: post #195

> "I once spilled an entire can of beer onto a Thinkpad X220. The fix involved a screwdriver, a sponge, a $50 replacement keyboard" I once spilled half a glass of red wine all over my M1 MacBook Air keyboard. The fix involved quickly turning it upside down, sponging it off, and letting it dry out. OK, some of the affected keys were rather sticky afterwards and required popping off the keycaps and cleaning underneath.…

As a counter point, I spilled a gigantic can of energy drink on my t420 and my fix was literally doing jack shit, not even shutting down the computer because the laptop had drain holes. A key was sticky a bit I guess.

Re: Replacing my MacBook Air M1 with a ThinkPad T480

#485

Post by fsflover »

urda wrote: post #415
heavyset_go wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just because Apple wants to increase their profit margins, by enforcing planned obsolescence and creating e-waste on scales that are beyond comprehension, does not mean that everyone else should just ignore it and shut up about it. It's not Apple's way or the highway, there is room for criticism and change. There are also millions of Apple customers who have no idea that Apple is actively going out of their way to en…

> by enforcing planned obsolescence This simply isn't true, as Apple supports their devices from phones to laptops far-far-far longer than their competitors. It's why iPhones last longer in the wild. They have demonstrated clear support to their customers through their actions.

GNU/Linux-supported devices receive updates far-far-far longer, both laptops and phones.

Re: Replacing my MacBook Air M1 with a ThinkPad T480

#486

Post by Vrondi »

mwint wrote: post #452
tomxor wrote: post #421

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I bought a Lenovo gaming laptop for my son These are not comparable. There are wildly different quality of laptops under the Lenovo brand. A ton of them are complete crap. Apple simply doesn't sell anything like that. The author is comparing to a Thinkpad specifically. Additionally, the 10 years old Apple that made your macbook is a very different company from today. Although they are still a premium brand, the rel…

I’ll give you the user-serviceability point, but not the longevity point. I would bet lots of money that my 2021 14” MBP will still be very usable in 2031. (Maybe not by me, but that’s only because I’ll succumb to the urge to buy something new and shiny and tax deductible in a few years.)

IDK, the last Thinkpad I had, I used for a decade, then passed it on to a relative who used it for a few more years before something finally broke. Have also owned a Lenovo Yoga series laptop, and it's absolutely not in the same category at all as a Thinkpad.

Re: Replacing my MacBook Air M1 with a ThinkPad T480

#487

Post by kajecounterhack »

tomxor wrote: post #421
browningstreet wrote: post #329

Regarding Lenovo: I bought an original Macbook Air. It always worked well. As it got on to about 10 years old, I took it in to an Apple Store a couple miles from my house and asked if they could replace the battery. The battery worked pretty well, but I figured.. the machine was going strong and if they still had batteries in stock, I should grab one now and the laptop will live even longer. They replaced the battery…

> I bought a Lenovo gaming laptop for my son These are not comparable. There are wildly different quality of laptops under the Lenovo brand. A ton of them are complete crap. Apple simply doesn't sell anything like that. The author is comparing to a Thinkpad specifically. Additionally, the 10 years old Apple that made your macbook is a very different company from today. Although they are still a premium brand, the rel…

Yeah it's sad but the butterfly keyboard generation of MBPs had such issues. Keyboard aside, USB-C ports burned out / stopped working all the time. Battery life was just OK on Intel.

The latest gen is better thanks to MagSafe and Mx chips help yield much better battery life.

Re: Replacing my MacBook Air M1 with a ThinkPad T480

#488

Post by Vrondi »

IggleSniggle wrote: post #413
yamtaddle wrote: post #386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every single laptop I owned before switching to Apple was a huge piece of shit, in hindsight—like, probably shouldn't have been saleable, just a straight-up lemon by design. ... except an IBM (yes, it's that long ago) Thinkpad that was super-underpowered even for the time. Though, it did have the ~2-3hr actual-in-practice battery life that was typical of laptops at the time, no matter what they promised, so like all…

You know what? I’ve only had my Steam Deck for slightly under a year, but I’m honestly astounded at the amount of abuse it has endured without showing any apparent problems. I’m very curious to see how long it lasts. I doubt it will be competitive with a Switch for durability, which is the closest mirror to a Deck that also has some similarities to Apple-style hardware-quality + lock-in. But that said, I’ve had probl…

Maybe Steam will give us a line of gaming laptops with the same build quality...

Re: Replacing my MacBook Air M1 with a ThinkPad T480

#489

Post by jacobgorm »

deeesstoronto wrote: post #264
ho_schi wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Using still an ThinkPad X220 here with Archlinux. There two important things in any laptop, the built-in keyboard and the built-in screen. This is the I/O-Interface! Customers often do the mistake and doesn't invest in the best available screen. You cannot make this mistake with Apple, because they offer no options for the screen. Regarding keyboards, selecting a ThinkPad is always safe. I had to buy the X220 from a…

Also still using a X220 (X230 motherboard swapped) with Debian and a T430s (with 1080p swap) with Windows. Agreed that the X220 form and function is excellent. The 7-row keyboard is amazing. The IPS screen is serviceable. The swappable 9-cell batteries give around 10 hours of battery life each. The i7-3520M is noticeably faster than the i5-8250U in my surface pro 6, even though benchmarks suggest it shouldn't be. Jus…

I have a T14g2, and while the keyboard is indeed reasonable, it is a far cry from keyboards TPS used to have, and the front chassis wedge is so sharp it gave me long lasting and very painful CTS-like symptoms after a single long day of coding on a train (I’ve since fixed that issue by padding the corners with Sugru). The camera is also extremely poor, both in terms of image resolution and light sensitivity.

Re: Replacing my MacBook Air M1 with a ThinkPad T480

#490

Post by yamtaddle »

xenadu02 wrote: post #469
heavyset_go wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just because Apple wants to increase their profit margins, by enforcing planned obsolescence and creating e-waste on scales that are beyond comprehension, does not mean that everyone else should just ignore it and shut up about it. It's not Apple's way or the highway, there is room for criticism and change. There are also millions of Apple customers who have no idea that Apple is actively going out of their way to en…

The vast majority of upgradeable machines are never actually upgraded. Basically no laptop can have its CPU or GPU upgraded to begin with. Upgradability is not free. It has a weight and volume cost. Depending on implementation it can also have a performance cost - for example a user-swappable battery means a 30-40% reduction in battery capacity OR a corresponding increase in weight+volume. For another example SODIMM…

I get people preferring upgradeable hardware, but find the notion that Apple went non-upgradeable to squeeze more money out of people to be among the sillier ideas people have about Apple. There are so very many other ways they could be doing that, but are instead doing the opposite.

I don't think they cared enough about capturing a little more business from the surely single-digit percentage of people who ever replaced anything on their laptop, including the battery, to radically redesign the whole product line. Especially when there are other plausible reasons they might want to do that.

I don't know how people get these ideas so stuck in their head, with such confidence, that they post about them on Web forums. Whatever evil Apple may in-fact get up to, this one doesn't even pass the smell test.

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