Keyboard still chiclet, get a 25th anniversary.
Lenovo’s new ThinkPads score 10/10 for repairability
241–250 of 255 posts
Re: Lenovo’s new ThinkPads score 10/10 for repairability
#242[dead]
Re: Lenovo’s new ThinkPads score 10/10 for repairability
#243Earlier quoted context omitted.
Probably because this is not repairability, but rather dividing device into smaller not repairable parts that can be replaced by purchasing parts from the manufacturer at inflated cost.
Is there any laptop that you can replace individual pieces of the motherboard? Laptop motherboards are all the same.
With a steady hand and good hot air station you can replace anything you want. Problem is getting the replacement chips.
Re: Lenovo’s new ThinkPads score 10/10 for repairability
#244Earlier quoted context omitted.
I thought the issue with the soldered on RAM wasn't the fact that it was soldered, but that manufacturers would use chips that are not easy to source and in some way serialised. So even if you got larger chips, you would still have to figure out other parts to swap that tell the CPU it's 32GB now, not 24GB.
Being soldered on is a huge issue to 99% of people and businesses wanting to repair or upgrade something. I don’t have the tools or skills to replace soldered on memory chips when they fail. Nobody at my place of work does. Nobody was doing that type of work in a warranty centre I worked in either. I’d need to buy an entire motherboard which will much more expensive, and likely more time consuming, than swapping a co…
It's not about 99%, but enabling an industry of skilled repairers to do it for you for a small fee.
99% of people will not be replacing the USB-C port, they'll just bin the device and buy a new one or live with a dead port. So the effort is 80% PR 20% actual usefulness.
Re: Lenovo’s new ThinkPads score 10/10 for repairability
#245They've also become eye-wateringly expensive. I represent pricing in $/warranty year. (If you want me to believe the product is worth more, stand by it in the form of a warranty. But if a company isn't going to put their warranty where their mouth is, well.) Lenovo used to warrant their product; my previous Thinkpad, which came with a then-pathetic (Thinkpads used to be four year warranties!) 3 year warranty, for ~$1…
Re: the power brick, do these things not charge off USB C? Insane if not.
I think they mean: there is no USB socket on the enclosure containing the AC-DC conversion circuitry, like you'd find on most smartphone charger bricks. The cable (with the USB-C plug on the other end) is attached to the enclosure permanently. Thus, when the plug breaks, you need to throw away the entire power conversion brick. If the converter had a USB socket, not only could you replace the cord when the cord inevitably breaks, you can choose the cord length and whether it has a 90 degree bend and/or magnetic disconnect at the end.
We have probably 10 Thinkpads at the house. Three power bricks have been rendered useless (and four USB-C ports) because Lenovo has set their part selection and engineering design to "best value for the company" rather than "best quality for the end user".
Also, the PD negotiation of the Lenovo bricks is unusual, where it will not provide significant current at the 5 volt base USB power to some non-laptop devices and also not accept fast charging rates from some non-Lenovo chargers: Our ThinkPads will charge using some high-wattage smartphone chargers but not every one of them. Every once in a while we find a device with a USB-C charging port (e.g. baby monitor display) that will charge with any charger around the house but not with the Lenovo laptop charger.
Re: Lenovo’s new ThinkPads score 10/10 for repairability
#246Earlier quoted context omitted.
Being soldered on is a huge issue to 99% of people and businesses wanting to repair or upgrade something. I don’t have the tools or skills to replace soldered on memory chips when they fail. Nobody at my place of work does. Nobody was doing that type of work in a warranty centre I worked in either. I’d need to buy an entire motherboard which will much more expensive, and likely more time consuming, than swapping a co…
It's not about 99%, but enabling an industry of skilled repairers to do it for you for a small fee. 99% of people will not be replacing the USB-C port, they'll just bin the device and buy a new one or live with a dead port. So the effort is 80% PR 20% actual usefulness.
I keep purchasing ThinkPads (Z13, X1 Gen 11, X1 Gen 12, T16) where the USB-C port breaks within a year (respectively: "no dock or external monitor", "no charge and only non-Thunderbolt enumeration" on a single port, "charge only, no USB enumeration at all" on both ports, "fries other devices during reverse PD"), and I'd love to be able to swap out a broken port rather than ship the entire machine to Poland for two weeks and get lectured by the support contact that, "maybe ports only stop working under Linux but we'll still repair the mainboard this time."
I am waiting to jump ship to a different manufacturer, but nobody is challenging ThinkPad on keyboard quality/layout and Linux support, the two factors where I'm totally unwilling to compromise. (Tuxedo is close but still not the better alternative.)
Re: Lenovo’s new ThinkPads score 10/10 for repairability
#247The best part about ThinkPads is the refurbished market that'll get you modern dev machine that'll work for you like a horse for years for 300 usd.
Picked up a T14s in Shenzhen for ~$250 US and it’s a screamer. Best thing for sure
Paid over 2,000 usd 2 years ago for t14s and even then it was worth it, now it's almost 10x cheaper. Incredible machine though refurbs often have the lower end of configurations and with soldered ram etc it's not possible to upgrade.
This new modular thinkpad will be crazy for refurb market, I wonder how is Lenovo going to prevent that eating into their sales. This probably means that corporate bulk purchases are majority of their sales and they don't fear to canibalize themselves which makes you wonder why they switched to soldered ram - incredibly unpopular move - at all.
Re: Lenovo’s new ThinkPads score 10/10 for repairability
#248Re: Lenovo’s new ThinkPads score 10/10 for repairability
#249> LPCAMM2 memory that’s fast, efficient, and easily serviced [0] Today I Learned about LPCAMM2, which is refreshing, seeing soldered-on memory always felt like some kind of slide into disposable barbarism. [0] https://www.ifixit.com/News/95078/lpcamm2-memory-is-finally-...
Looks like the T14 Gen 7 is the first T14 to have a CAMM socket. The previous model has SODIMM DDR5-5600, more power hungry? Prior to that it was the more expensive P1 Gen 7 that had LPCAMM2. Regarding the T14 and T16, I'm frustrated that in my market (AU), they don't sell better screens than 1920x1200. I'd like to have a brighter 3k or 4k screen. The LPCAMM2 seems to be limited to the Intel models, according to the…
I'm excited to see a CAMM socket on a Thinkpad. I remember reading about CAMM a few years ago and thinking "wow looks futuristic, when will I start seeing it in hardware I care about?" and that day finally arrived.
Re: Lenovo’s new ThinkPads score 10/10 for repairability
#250> LPCAMM2 memory that’s fast, efficient, and easily serviced [0] Today I Learned about LPCAMM2, which is refreshing, seeing soldered-on memory always felt like some kind of slide into disposable barbarism. [0] https://www.ifixit.com/News/95078/lpcamm2-memory-is-finally-...
It did worry me though, as I had also never heard of it. Is it highly available like more regular DIMM or SODIMM ram? That is usually my concern with things like the modular ports and replaceable keyboards too. By the time I actually need to replace anything it could be 10 years from now, could I actually source these parts easily? Regardless, that is a excellent problem to have compared to other less repairable lapt…
> Is it highly available like more regular DIMM or SODIMM ram?
I imagine it will be kind of like USB-C. It's new and uncommon for a few years until suddenly everywhere you look has piles of it.
Edge connector RAM may one day be looked back on as "old style memory" like SIPP and DIPP is now.