My lappy has bitten the dust, and I’m in the market for a laptop. I’m thinking about going Thinkpad.
I only plan on this being for web browsing, text editing, coding, etc. Any gaming is done on my desktop.
What would be a good Thinkpad model? I do t mind getting an older/refurbished one. Haven’t been on the laptop market in nearly 8 years, so I don’t know what to look for anymore
T or P series refurb from eBay.
Personally just got a T15 gen 2. AMD version, and very happy with mine. Especially since it has the numpad included. Been running nixOS without any issues so far!
T480 or Framework
I hear a lot about the t480, how does it hold up compared to a p50?
I have no personal experience from any P-series, but my friend has a P50 or P52 as his work machine and he has daily drive that for years in CAD and he loves it everyday. The chsssis is same qaulity as T-series.
Get a framework laptop. They’re the new thinkpad
T480. Still good availability. It was popular with companies that put them back into th e market a few years ago.
Last model without glued RAM. So it’s upgradable and you can install two M.2 drives. One with 2240 length and a full-size 2280 in the main drive bay.
The battery setup is great as well. One internal battery plus an external you can choose depending on your needs. Either small and light for a bit more juice or big and heavy for max runtime.
I got one 6 months ago and couldn’t be happier.
T440p if you’re comfortable upgrading it yourself. It’s very easy to customize, parts are cheap, and it has a socketed CPU slot. You can buy upgrades for it like a i7 4900MQ, 2x8GB RAM, and a nice 1080p IPS display. It can also be Librebooted (you have to take it apart), and it has a SD card slot, CD tray, and a option to upgrade the standard keyboard to a backlit keyboard.
I’ve been using it everyday and could honestly use it for another 5-6 years and I’d be fine with it. I just do browsing, coding, etc.
FWIW ThinkPad is not IBM anymore. I assume it’s obvious but just in case it’s not 100% clear, a Chinese company (Lenovo) bought the brand 2 decades ago https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ThinkPad
I’m not arguing that the quality or Linux support changed since then, just make it explicit in case somebody might ride on the nostalgia of once great hardware devices.
PS: I rocked an X31 with ratpoison a while ago, before the times of MacBook Air and I was convinced I was pretty cool.
And there is nothing wrong with “Chinese”. China is the world’s manufacturing hub and its economy has surpassed that of USA.
I went away for a few hours, wow, all the replies! Thanks all!
I ended up going with a refurbished T480s. Wanted something I could upgrade memory/storage on. The form factor and the metal case also sounded appealing. Should have it in a week.
I find my T480s really fits my lightweight usecase. Hope you enjoy yours.
Where did you buy it? Looking for something similar for myself.
Found one refurbished on eBay. I’ll report when I get it as to the quality
I got a used ThinkPad T480s and installed 40 GB of RAM in it for Qubes OS. It’s modern enough to charge over USB-C, so one plug for everything. I also have a MacBook I use for school and both are solid.
Second for this. Got one myself. 1080p, USB C, upgradable ram, I replaced the internal and external batteries no problem. I stuck a second SSD inside last weekend and replaced the thermal paste in about 20 mins. If you like tinkering and being able to repair and maintain yourself it’s really great.
Got win 11 on one SSD and Debian on the second and all running well.
Wow I just learned I could put a second SSD in the WWAN slot! Sounds awesome for a dual boot setup.
Yeah, was easy peasy. Bought the sad off eBay. Be careful which SSD you pick up only specific ones fit, I think there’s a thread on Lemmy somewhere. I used a western digital sn520 2242 m.2. A 256 one. I think 512 exist but harder to source.
I don’t recommend thinkpads. As I mentioned elsewhere in this thread, they don’t allow you to replace your own wifi card. Latitudes have great Linux support, and as a business class machine they’re as reliable and easy to work on as thinkpads
I’m replacing a dead Latitude currently, it was a fun ride, but I’d like to replace it with something else
If you want to support Linux devs and continued development, I would buy from System76, Tuxedo Computers, or even Framework.
If you’re going to buy used then yeah the Thinkpad is fine.
Framework laptops are op buy it once use it for ever
They’re also significantly more expensive than ThinkPads and might be a bit much for what OP plans to do
But it’ll arrive with Linux and it’ll work. You also don’t have to spend a week googling wifi chips to see if they’ll work.
Just throw in a $20 Intel Wi-Fi card if necessary, and don’t buy the first models of the latest CPU, as with any manufacturer, and Thinkpads are some of the another for Linux.
Thinkpads are locked down, the bios will refuse to boot if you install a non-Lenovo wifi card.
This is a prime example of why we should be supporting manufacturers that ship open source firmware like coreboot and not the proprietary junk Lenovo ships.
None I’ve ever used have been. I have a card I dropped in working right now on a 2 yr old Thinkpad.
I hear this a lot but in my experience the Framework is often in the same range and sometimes slightly cheaper. Right now a framework with i7-1360P and 16GB Ram is $1469. An X1 carbon with a (slightly slower) cpu is $400 more. Ryzen is similar. Not hating on Thinkpads but the Framework is a lot more competitive than you’ll often hear and the upgradeability is obviously a massive financial incentive too.
I think normally when people are referring to buying a ThinkPad they aren’t talking about a modern model. Usually not even the X1 Carbon series; especially past the 6th gen. They’re referring to models in the X,P, or T series before the T490. Models that can be bought relatively cheap and upgraded however the user wants.
The T480 can be bought for around $200. The CPU is going to be a fair amount weaker but for $1,200 some people are willing to make the sacrifice for a casual personal use machine.
This is definitely the biggest concern. Somewhat short battery life is also significant.
For ThinkPads?
No, Framework. Sorry if that wasn’t clear.
Oh it’s fine. Do Framework laptops have a lower battery life than ThinkPads?
Than Thinkpads? I don’t know, but probably lower. My Framework only gets 8 hours of use, and 30 hours sleeping if I’m lucky. Definitely not the best, but being plugged in isn’t too bad, and the adapter is nice and small.
T480 is the last good Thinkpad. Even T490 is a huge downgrade.
T430 or X230 if you’re into modding. The opportunities for modding them are endless. Keyboard from xx20-series (best ever made for laptops), FHD IPS panel, re-celling the battery with 18650-cells, second storage drive with mstata mod… If I remember right, T430 cd bay can be replaced with secondary battery too.
The old models are compatible with FreeBSD too.
My T480 does everything I need. Picked it up for $200 and spent another $100-$150 to get brand new batteries, a pretty good screen, much faster storage, and upped it to 24GB of RAM. Pretty awesome. Pop!_OS runs like a charm.
Framework
Framework
Framework
This will be high on my list when I upgrade next. If you know your OS will be Linux I say it’s a waste of time and energy to get a laptop that doesn’t come loaded with it. I’m sure 90% of my laptop woes are due to poor support and optimization for Linux.
ThinkPad never has had problems with Linux compatibility. You will get better (best) aftersales and better (best) third party parts availability, since it is “mainstream” and a business user brand.
Boutique Linux laptop shops just cannot compete on that.
I’ve actually had a few issues with Linux on my ThinkPad, have struggled endlessly with the fingerprint reader and Nvidia on Wayland is a bit of a pain still
Is the FP reader Synaptic? It has no issues. I have not yet heard of a different FP reader on ThinkPads.
It rings a bell
I managed to get it working on Ubuntu once and then never again
I think I might’ve screwed it up by trying to get it working dual booted
Maybe check added repositories for needing to add a separate one, or try using YAST?
It doesn’t matter, every one of them will spy on you
Isn’t that why a lot of people recommend ThinkPads? So they can run libreboot
It came out at some point they had hardware spyware I thought
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