Key Features
Recent ThinkPads are close to be identical: X280 - X13 Gen3 (minor change: 16:10 with X13 Gen1).
X13 Gen 4 - Gen 6 are sadly nearly identical, especially the ugly camera bump which is not required. No camera needs that space and video conference systems cannot used the full resolution.
Luckily sometimes the batteries are compatible.
I also had better luck getting genuine replacement keyboards for the X200. Half of the X220 keyboards I stockpiled arrived as substandard garbage, even though I was trying to avoid that.
> - Display lid is very fragile at the top where the wifi antennas are and can easily crack there
https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd....
A disappointing thing about this is that someone changed the design, to this, to be more fragile and non-ThinkPad. In this way, it's similar to the series of regression changes to the keyboard, and now the TrackPoint.
It would be perhaps more interesting to start making ARM or maybe even RISC-V motherboard replacements for some of these beloved chassis.
(Or upgrade suggestions for someone who loved that laptop? Framework? Thinkpad?)
The repair-friendly [0] StarBook and StarFighter line might interest you. They generally seem good value for money and ship worldwide. Here's a 96g DDR5 + Intel Core Ultra 7 configuration at ~$2200: https://starlabs.systems/products/starbook-ultra?variant=552...
Their funder/backer is a mystery (to me) though.
[0] https://support.starlabs.systems/what-is-the-star-labs-limit...
Sorry for the rant. I really want to love it, but I just can’t.
My daily driver (of sorts, don’t really need a laptop anymore) is a MacBook Pro Late 2013, with NixOS. It’s so much better in every regard, it’s not even funny. It also still has its original battery.
But I wouldn't pay $1300+ to bring it up to speed. The batteries are done, the screen is small and the backlight is yellowed and dimming. That laptop would need a lot more care to make it fully usable so I'd rather keep it as it is, as a memory.
You can CTRL+F for the model and see that the x201 tics many of the boxes for desirable traits in older Thinkpads.
I bought Macbook Air for $1k just one week ago. I can't be more happier. Fuck these ThinkPads.
Various versions have been on sale for 5+ years, often billed as the X2100.
https://bmdiethelmv.wordpress.com/2021/07/02/thinkpad-x2100-...
E.g.
You can buy the hardware already upgraded with a new motherboard and screen.
I'm a little sad this board isn't for my X220 ... I would be sorely tempted if it were - but like other posters I'd have some reservations about things like battery life even so.
By the (contemporary) by, a Mac Book is probably a better buy if you like Mac OS (I don't) because the hardware really is excellent. One physical point in favour of the modern Thinkpad though is weight - a MacBook Air is about 1.2 kg, whereas the X1 is not quite 1 kg.
ALL OTHER 2:1 TABLETS ARE INFERIOR.
I'd rather have a new and smaller (10" to 13") version of the ZBook X2 G4 instead, upgrade the Dreamcolor display, keep the Wacom EMR digitzer and a sensible dedicated pro-GPU with certified drivers, and add plenty of ECC-RAM. Abracadabra, dream machine right there. Lenovo could do the same with their X12 detachable line if they had some semblance of sense.
Every other 2:1 tablet requires changing perspective. Like walking into a different room and forgetting what you wanted to do.
The results are in: Nothing on the market equates to the elegant simplicity, adaptability and haptic qualities of a detachable done right, which can be used as a tablet (with or without an external keyboard), or in several laptop modes (depending on the implementation of the keyboard attachment, e. g. with or without t-hinge), or just/also as a screen when connecting a expandable dock/computer (e. g. Nintendo Switch-like). A machine in that form factor can scale from smartphone-sized to a ~13-incher; everything above is too big and cumbersome.
Besides, as the other chap in the thread mentioned, the X61T is a superior chassis to X230T anyway. :)
as always: imho (!)
i own a x200s ... bought it in march of 2009 =?> so its approaching 17 years ...
it was a really great device with one of the best keyboards for a small notebook. and i still use it multiple times a week for example to browse hackernews, reddit, ... or watch some video etc.
buuuut: its nearly 17 years old ... everything is starting to wear - i wouldn't invest a dime into it right now.
what do i mean by that: keyboard has faulting keys, case starts breaking at heavily stressed regions - for example around the cursor-keys -, display is (slightly) mechanically damaged, batteries are beyond usefull etc.etc. ...
just my 0.02€
I really wish we could get an MNT device with upstream support, if not an x86 processor. Having used the Pocket Reform, I think about it quite often. It's almost perfect.... but the ARM chip and all the warts that come with SoC crap basically is the one single thing that keeps me from using one.
> Apple Mac Mini perf and battery life
Battery life? You mean the macbook, not the mini, right?
Speaking candidly, if both MNT devices and Apple's devices had perfect upstream support, I'd choose MNT every time regardless of battery life or performance. On a trivial level, I like the design language more, I prefer to buy boutique, etc.
For actual material considerations, MNT overbuilds their stuff to a ridiculous degree. That's what I want out of a laptop more than anything. There's a sense when holding the pocket reform that you could yeet it full send onto the pavement and you'll just scratch the shell. I like that. It might not necessarily be true, but there's a sense of solidity I get from an MNT device that I don't get from an Apple device. I'll take almost any drawback to have something that's overbuilt to hell, and I'll pay a pretty penny for it. The one thing that keeps me away is being locked into a specific distro. If the distribution was minimalist like KISS or Void, or if it was FreeBSD or OpenBSD, this qualm disappears. MNT unfortunately runs a Debian fork, that's a non-starter for me.
Seems like you can install Arch on an MNT device. [1]
[1]: https://community.mnt.re/t/install-arch-linux-arm-on-mnt/742...
(New keyboards are inexpensive (at least before tariffs), the replacement palmrest plastic part can be found and very easily replaced, you can still get batteries for them. And if you have a pressure mark on the LCD, apparently that's not a showstopper. Add a $20 SSD and max. the RAM, and it's better than new.)
I wonder what those hackers are going to do when every case is cracked and every keycap worn out :)
As it is, I panic-purchased a second Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 when I was worried that there wouldn't be a Book 4 Pro 360 (they are now on a Book 5 Pro 360)....
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