How IBM’s ThinkPad Became a Design Icon (2017)

the old days Still have a couple of T500s and a T510 which function as good as new and primarily are used for running specialized apps in parallel with other machines. SSD swapouts followed by Mint or Win7 installation were easy. Swapping out the optical drive for an HDD using a caddy adapter when needed couldn't be easier. Keyboard drain holes for spillage are a nice touch and should be universal. Replacing the CMOS battery (looks like a capacitor) is a bit surgical and could have been more ergonomic but readily doable (note BIOS settings before replacing). Wonder if the new high-end Lenovos are as well engineered.

Sorry to hear about your machine, I hope it gets better soon!

The X1s are well built, though. I have the first-gen one and it still works just fine, dual booting Fedora (24? I think) and Win7. The one thing that ever broke was the square power plug. Not because it's square, but it did break- and then it took me a week of phone calls very patiently speaking to Lenovo reps until I convinced them that my accidental damage protection was still active and it covered the damage. Then they sent a tech guy to my workplace, just so I could let him know I had already mailed the machine to Lenovo, as we had agreed by email. Very well organised.

I now have the 4th gen machine. I initially thought it looked flimsier than my 1st gen one, but then one day I dropped it from about 1.5 meters, on its side and nothing broke. It was inside my bag, and a laptop sleeve, but I'm pretty sure that most other laptops this end of a Toughbook would have ended up with at the very least a broken screen. Not my Splinter :0

Edit: now that I think of it, I've also stepped on it, dropped it from a coffee table and generally handled it roughly. It doesn't care.

It's really sad that Lenovo has driven the design into the ground. I have a X201 running NixOS, that I still use from time to time, and I pulled it out recently to show it to friends. Physically speaking it's a revelation.

Three USB ports? Check. Because even today, one port permanently has a YubiKey Nano, one port permanently has a Logitech Unifying nano receiver, and I'll probably be charging my phone out of the third at some point and I'd rather not lose either of the two nano dongles because I had to temporarily unplug them and misplaced them in the process.

Mobile radio? Check. Because who likes to fiddle around with pairing their phone to their laptop when they're on the train?

Drainage ports if you have a minor spill? Check.

Drainage ports in the dock, which match up with the drainage ports on the laptop itself? Check

Dock allows you to charge an extra battery while the laptop itself is charging? Check.

ThinkLight in the screen to illuminate the keyboard without requiring you to bump up the brightness on the screen and take a bigger hit to battery life? Check.

Mechanical latch on the right side, where your hand is naturally located, allowing you to push the screen up with your right hand on the right side of the machine, and push down on the bottom half with your left hand on the left hand side of the machine? Check.

Six-key home/end/insert/delete/pgup/pgdwn cluster that mirrors that on a desktop keyboard? Check.

Dedicated page back and page forward buttons, baked into the arrow key nav cluster, so that you don't need a two-key combo to go back and forward? Check.

TrackPoint lets you mouse without removing hands from the home row? Check.

LED status indicators for disk and network usage? Check.

Physical WiFi switch? Check.

10/10 repairability? Check.

All Lenovo needed to do was to refresh the processor etc. every year, maybe introduce new ports as they came out, and not screw around with a formula that didn't need to be changed. Sigh.

I still use my t440p, and my dad still uses a t61 (!) as our respective daily drivers. I've upgraded the drive to an SSD, and slotted in some extra RAM for mine, since it's so easy to upgrade by design.

From a consumer point of view, they're great machines. But from the seller's point of view, I can see why they want them to be harder to repair. I probably won't be upgrading for another few years, why should I? The whole trend of planned obsolescence is becoming more and more obvious. I hate it, but it was the obvious outcome.

> but how many end users ever upgrade their hardware

Far fewer now, since laptops have become un-upgradeable. ~10 years ago it was fairly common for folks to take their laptops to, e.g., the Geek Squad to have memory upgraded, or to install a larger hard drive. I worked at one such place for ~3 years in the early 2000s, and the laptop upgrade business was booming.