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

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

#51

Post by ajford »

YeGoblynQueenne wrote: post #43
csmattryder wrote: post #8

> Hortensius, however, says that what keeps ThinkPads relevant is trusty productivity rather than any specific aspect of a given model. [...] “It’s because I can count on it that those things matter.” Funny to read this, as I await my Lenovo X1 Carbon to come back from repair, as it shut off one night and never came to boot again. I've also got an ~~IBM~~ (edit: it's a Lenovo!) Thinkpad X220, a motherboard-only shell…

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 dama…

My one issue with the first-gen X1 is that they used an obscure SSD type (I'm betting it's a Betamax/VHS issue), which meant sourcing a replacement SSD when mine started to die was a pain. In the end, I decided that it wasn't worth the risk & cost (either source an OEM drive in limited size for high cost or an expensive adapter from unknown sources and a quality drive). I ended up buying a T460 and am quite happy with it. I still miss the old scissor keys in my old X201, but Lenovo's chiclet keys are still better than the Macbook I have to use for work.

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

#52

Post by ajford »

mxuribe wrote: post #22

I own two ThinkPad T420s and my favorite thing about them - well, besides of course being able to install linux without any headaches due to the work of soooo many FOSS engineers - is the keyboard. Man, I never really thought I would appreciate something so seemingly basic...but the keyboard - as silly as this sounds - makes it so much more fun to type!

I still miss that keyboard. I had an X201 until it was practically in pieces. The power jack (mobo side) died, and I replaced it once. Replaced the cooling fan. Ran it on a cooling pad to supplement the airflow. Finally, the spacebar and track pad started going out. After about 4 years, I finally broke down and got an X1 carbon. I sorely miss having a non-chiclet keyboard.

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

#54

Post by wolster »

fyfy18 wrote: post #50
solatic wrote: post #45

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 t…

Meh I have a T470s that has most things here, compared to the Apple equivalent it's got plenty of connectivity and physical ports built in without the need for dongles. I wouldn't mind having a hot swappable battery though...

Wouldnt that be a T470? :)

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

#56

Post by Someone1234 »

rainhacker wrote: post #53

Any recommendations of Thinkpad model to buy in 2018 ? I can wait if anything promising is coming in 2019.

The T range or the P range remain good recommendations.

The T is a little lighter but you lose some power/upgrade options, the P is kind of what the T used to be (both in terms of price and performance). The current gen' T is a slight lightweight but not a bad buy.

They have a bunch of ultra-lights/ultra-books/2-1s, but they aren't "Thinkpads" in the classical sense.

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

#57

Post by wilsonnb3 »

keldaris wrote: post #29

A bunch of old X220 machines are still my only laptops to this day because I simply haven't found anything better since. Every modern laptop I've seen is vastly inferior in some aspect I care about - terrible keyboards, fragile cases, zero maintainability, no Linux support, etc., the list goes on and on. Apart from better CPUs and displays, most laptops have objectively regressed in the metrics I actually care about.…

I really don't know how you deal with the awful screens. Even the nicer IPS screen is low resolution and has bad viewing angles.

That alone would be enough to make me upgrade, even if it meant sacrificing everything else on your list.

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

#58

Post by philippnagel »

ce4 wrote: post #17
JansjoFromIkea wrote: post #16

Bought an X220T a few months ago as a possible sturdy laptop for my mother. Was something like $80? A day after delivery, I had purchased an 8GB ram stick and an SSD for it to keep it for myself. If it had a 1080p screen it'd probably be my main laptop until High Sierra isn't supported by something I need.

Some people are a bit crazy and love the X220 enough to attempt a FullHD mod (with custom hardware and rerouting of the external eDP signal/lane internally). Not for the X220T though. A kit was for sale here: https://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=122640 Edit: better wording

I still have one of these in storage. I did upgrade to an older T-series model before trying to install it. Feel free to email me if you want to have it in exchange for shipping costs (located in Germany).

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

#59

Post by wott »

706f6f70 wrote: post #4

I'm amazed that there is no mention of the sheer repairability of these devices. I don't think I will ever encounter a laptop line that is generally so user-accessible. A couple of regular screws and you pop the case. A few more and you can replace the entire keyboard. The hard drive was held in by a single screw in most models and you could easily swap it in without even popping the entire case. The RAM had it's own…

I don't know...

I had only heard praises like yours on that subject, but I have a T410 and I am really not happy about the access:

* plenty of screws,

* same-looking screws with different length (I won't disassemble it one more time now, but I think that's the case),

* bloody clips that WILL break sooner or later,

* disassembly is neither super intuitive nor obvious,

* I simply could not figure out how to reach some places (like the jack I wanted to fix or change).

It is not better in that respect than the random Compaq I used before, rather worse in fact. The only positive is that the plastic ages better than the old Presario's, which got hard and brittle, so small bits regularly broke when I disassembled/reassembled it.

I had great expectations that the T410 would be better because of the praises I had read, but in fact it was a little bit worse, so I was quite disappointed.

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

#60

Post by knaik94 »

BrentOzar wrote: post #7
706f6f70 wrote: post #4

I'm amazed that there is no mention of the sheer repairability of these devices. I don't think I will ever encounter a laptop line that is generally so user-accessible. A couple of regular screws and you pop the case. A few more and you can replace the entire keyboard. The hard drive was held in by a single screw in most models and you could easily swap it in without even popping the entire case. The RAM had it's own…

> The Ultrabay mechanism was also a huge nod to the design philosophy of making the user feel like the hardware was his/hers to do with. At first I agreed with you, reminiscing that I really loved Ultrabay customizability - switching between a battery when I was on the road, a CD drive to load software when I was in the office, and a hard drive when I needed to archive stuff. Today though, in the age of fast bandwidt…

I have an extra hard drive in mine. It means it's basically hot swappable too.
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