Other business laptops are also welcome in /tpg/ (e.g. Dell Latitude/Precision, HP EliteBook/ZBook). ---- If you're looking for purchase advice, READ THE BUYERS GUIDE FIRST. Then post, stating budget and requirements (e.g. size and performance). Don't buy anything OTHER THAN T, X AND W/P SERIES if you want the Real ThinkPad Experience™
Recommended models: T420 - 14", normal size X220 - 12.5", lightweight ---- Why ThinkPad? (also applies to other business laptops) >Used machines are plentiful and cheap. >Excellent keyboards - tactile feel and quiet. >Great durability: chassis uses a magnesium rollcage for structural integrity, with high quality plastic body panels. >Utilitarian design: e.g. indicator LEDs, 7 row keyboard layout on older models. >Docking stations that easily turns your laptop into a desktop. >Easy to repair, upgrade and maintain thanks to readily available service manuals for every model. Spare parts are easy and cheap to obtain. >The best trackpoint (that red thing in the middle of the keyboard). Great for those who type a lot or hate swiping their fingers all over a touchpad. >Excellent GNU/Linux & *BSD support. ---- Used ThinkPad Buyers Guide: ktgee.net/tpg
Im going to Uni next year, and need a small laptop, i was thinking of a 2nd hand/refurb x1 carbon. i dont want to spend anything over £500 ($750), and need it for work with office, and casual gaming (e.g. Fifa, WoW)
Elijah Stewart
If you just intend to use it for Uni, you could save a lot of money by getting an X220 with an IPS panel.
Lucas Hughes
1st or 3rd gen X1Cs are /tpg/ approved. I don't know about gaming performance. 2nd gens are eschewed for some reason I can't remember.
Jace Torres
>2nd gens are eschewed for some reason I can't remember. I think that's the one with the weird as fuck dynamic function row
That shit would be cool as hell if the user could completely customize it themselves, but unfortunately it's locked down to just a few options on a per-program basis
Alexander Butler
>I think that's the one with the weird as fuck dynamic function row That and it's the one with no physical trackpad buttons
Trackpads where the entire thing is clickable is the worst meme and I'm glad it's dead now
>While long overlooked, the MacBook line is the brightest spot for Apple’s 2016 rollouts. This is particularly true of the two new MacBook Pro models, to be introduced in 4Q16, as they will have a thinner and lighter form factor, Touch ID, use OLED display touch bar (to replace physical function keys, located above the keyboard) and adopt USB- C / Thunderbolt 3.
So that's a no for the user customizing it themselves too
Ryan Gray
Hey guys. Just wanting to ask a short few questions.
I already have a T400 maxed out. I love it but the GPU can be a little underpowered for some bad webpages (Facebook etc). Does anyone know any way to lower the load on the GPU on these pages? It just lags a little bit so it's still usable.
I'm also a huge fan of little laptops and 4:3 screens. I've been looking at getting an SVGA X61t, but I'm not sure if it'll still be usable. As long as it can run browsers and word editors etc. it'd be fine. Can any X61t users tell me what it's like? I kind of need to run Windows for the work I do.
Thanks.
Nathan Peterson
...
Isaiah Adams
No, I'm certain they will expose some sort of API so programs can change the function bar for different needs (think internet browsers having refresh, back/forward shortcuts).
It's got a higher chance of having 3rd party software support than what was shown in the X1C
So I finally spilled soda on my T420, disassembled it and cleaned it, only a bit had gotten on the expresscard/SD slots So I cleaned it, reassembled and now it won't turn on, though I do get the 3 battery blinks when I connect the AC, and it also blinks 3 times if I try to power it on, it also seems to charge the battery Is the motherboard fried? Or something might be shorting? It was working after the spill, but I disconnected the AC and the battery pretty soon
Jayden Cooper
Can't complain, they are excellent machines given the fact that Lenovo truly fucked up in the last few years.
Adrian Cox
...
Anthony Stewart
>NASA selected the HP ZBook 15 (Gen 2) mobile workstation as the next generation of laptops that will be deployed on the International Space Station in March of 2016 replacing the HP EliteBook 8570w mobile workstations that are currently in use aboard the ISS.
Didn't know they used elitebooks before
Logan Campbell
Yeah, it was the x1 carbon 1st gen i was looking at
David Watson
Correct me if I'm wrong but there's no need for an IPS screen unless you work as a designer or an autist.
Nicholas Peterson
there's no need for a laptop either desu
Luke Ortiz
As a person who works very hard at having eyes, I can assure you it's necessary.
Samuel Barnes
It's not NECESSARY but it's nice as fuck to be able to sit down and watch a movie without having to fuck with your screen to get the right angle where darks are actually dark and not brighter than lighter parts
Jack Martin
Guys. Recently got a T440p with the fucking atrocious TN HD panel. Upgraded the screen with a 1080p IPS and am enjoying.
Problem being that I bought this to replace the X301 I had been using for the past two years, screen got cracked by circumstances beyond my control and it was near impossible finding a replacement for it. I found that it was the perfect size and weight to carry around with me, where as the T440p is nearly double the weight and volume. I don't mind all that much because I've recently gotten rid of the desktop and use it as my main machine at home.
I just want a replacement for my X301 to take places, I've been thinking maybe an X220-X240 considering the praise they receive here, as this thing needs to hold up to road trips I take.
What do you all think?
Ethan Wright
Anyone tell me what thinkpad would play black ops and some of the older battlefield titles at decent fps?
Juan Jenkins
>buy thinkpad >breaks within a week Never again
Jackson Cox
Have you tried stop being a wimp? T440p is plenty small and light.
Easton Ross
This.
The viewing angles alone justify IPS.
Landon Cooper
Whoever was the last person to service this is a faggot. I'm mad.
Nolan Gutierrez
Just ordered an upgrade kit for my T420s. Still need a screen. Anyone who knows a seller who doesn't sell counterfeit screens (preferably in Europe)
Hudson Jones
Currently thinking about getting an x230 and modding the x220 keyboard in. Had anyone successfully been able to do this and gotten all the keys to work?
Daniel Butler
289 cycles and still holding up like a boss
Luke Flores
The X220 keyboard will physically fit in the X230 chassis, but the problem is the key mapping in the BIOS is very different. While the letters work fine, a lot of the function and keyboard shortcut keys have been moved around or removed from the X230, which presents it's own set of problems. If you're willing to live with it, I personally wouldn't, then you can put the X220 keyboard in. If you really dislike it that much, I'd say don't buy the X230 and instead buy a X220. There's little difference between the two, other than USB 3.0, and you might put a few bucks in your pocket.
I thought it was just a few keyboard combinations that didn't work if you flashed the custom EC?
Ian Hall
that's just stock lenovo paste
Dominic Powell
How well does the X220 handle gaming? Want it for CSGO and WoW.
Evan Perry
It can probably handle CSGO and WoW on pretty low settings, the HD3000 is kinda shit. If you're gonna game I would suggest getting a X230 instead since the HD4000 is leaps ahead of the HD3000
Jayden Ross
Well my bughestb udget for a laptop is $300 right now due to financial troubles, the refurb X220's are hte perfect price for me.
>CSGO maybe, and then I say maybe, on the lowest resolution with all settings set to the lowest as possible but it runs atrocious on my T420s i5-2540M reaching only 40 FPS with everything on low 720p. CS1.6 looks and runs better though. I have no idea about WoW, but I do know that Diablo II runs fantastic! :D You can emulate older 2D games on it (it can easily run DS games) Also indie platformers run well, things like Risk of Rain and Shovelknight run smoothly.
It's just not made for 3D games.
Oliver Bell
The T420s has HD3000 which is shit, the HD4000 is slightly less shit (but still shit) so if he turns down the graphics way down it should be playable. It won't be the best experience but it would be playable
Liam Martinez
why is the cheapest screen on the x220 such ass??
Lucas Cook
>why are cheap display panels from 2011 bad gee, I don't know
Cooper Ortiz
Because it's TN?
Jacob Ross
I already have an x220, but I want to make the best possible 'pad with the classic keyboard. I've read about putting custom mappings in the BIOS/microcontroller but it's not clear if it fully works
Ryan Rivera
Your keyboard uses a small controller which tells the computer what key you pressed. The input from the keyboard is different between the older and the newer keyboard so not all keys work. The solution is to flash custom firmware to the controller which tells the correct keys from the newer style keyboard.
From what I understand to flash the controller you download the correct ISO for your computer and boot it.
Colton Ross
>counterfeit screens
Luke Nelson
Would an X220 be sufficient for making games?
Mason Bailey
>There are some sellers selling fake screens on ebay!!!! Please be aware!!!! You are responsible for finding the genuine screen yourself. This comes from the guy form who I bought the upgrade kit: ebay.com/itm/231927575647
Sorry if "counterfeit" isn't the same as "fake", English isn't my first language
Juan Richardson
For 2D games? Absolutely.
For 3D games? Well, I suppose you could if you kept your models very simple. But you'd run into issues with the X220's screen size. I've tried using blender on it, and it's very cramped.
Speaking of X220 tablets though, recently one came up in my area. I was wondering what a good price would be, and if anyone could share any experiences they've had with it.
Connor Morris
Is 2.4 kg too much for a laptop?
Tyler Young
For manlets, it is.
Aiden Scott
Don't be a bitch.
Easton Walker
>All that copper in the G40 heatsink Feels good.
Juan Peterson
anyone mind sharing their tlp settings?
i got 5 hours on a 9 cell which has the capacity of a 6 cell kek
Parker Reyes
link me an ebay thinkpad meeting this criteria plz 15.6"+ 1920x1080 ips panel 8-16gb ram i5 2.5ghz+ ssd 128gb+ >700usd
Brandon Thomas
You guys know the viewing angles on a good TN are not sufficiently worse than IPS, right? The AUO screens you can get on the W series are, in many respects, even better than IPS.
Jace Walker
T560?
Jordan Wood
I was gonna say the same, at $700, his budget really isn't that tight.
Anthony Richardson
going into CS and thinking about getting a x220. will the small screen res be a hinderance?
Anthony Collins
No, you'll be in class a short amount of time and when you're not in class you can hook the thinkpad up to a monitor which bumps the res up as high as 1080p. The resolution on the X220 screen is fine.
Dominic Garcia
I have an X201 running Windows 10 and I just got an ExpressCard USB 3.0 adapter in the mail. I tried installing all the drivers on the included CD and the drive will power USB peripherals when plugged in, but they aren't detected in Windows. It doesn't appear that the ExpressCard slot is recognized at all.
Are there drivers for Windows 10 somewhere that I can download? My Google-fu is showing that maybe it's just not an option to use the ExpressCard slot with anything newer than XP?
Landon Gomez
Just pulled the trigger lads, my x220 is on it's way.
Elijah King
So I just got my hands on a 390x. Should I keep Windows 98 on it or install lubuntu?
Alexander Hall
how bad would i be if i went with e560 because budget
Aaron Brown
No, it's consumer crap, you're better of getting a toshiba satellite than that.
Ian Wood
A bit small for shit like Eclipse or whatever but if you can get away with vim or Notepad++ it's perfectly adequate
Joseph Walker
>The AUO screens you can get on the W series are, in many respects, even better than IPS. I have one, and no, it's still a very significant difference
>You guys know the viewing angles on a good TN are not sufficiently worse than IPS, right? Also, most Thinkpad TN panels ARE significantly worse than IPS (the T420/T430's especially)
Jeremiah Allen
Could be the expresscard slot itself needs a driver. Anything showing up as unknown device in device manager?
Jack Edwards
>viewing angles on a good TN Well there you go, most thinkpads have bad TNs
Anthony Butler
Thinking about ordering an X230 with the 1080p mod and sticking the X220 keyboard in it as well.
I gotta use a taobao agent and this is probably gonna cost at least $600
Thoughts?
John Williams
I don't see any unknown devices in device manager, but I also don't see anything explicitly labelled as the ExpressCard slot. I also can't seem to find an ExpressCard slot driver online anywhere. Lenovo's website just tells me that XP/7 support ExpressCard out of the box.
Josiah Hill
>X61t I have one and it runs wonderfully. My gf actually uses it as her main PC and has been doing all her uni work on it.
Only problem is the one I have not only has bubble screen but a cracked screen too. I planned to replace or fix it but I have been a lazy fuck these last couple years.
Eli Murphy
Why are there no high resolution options for the newer X series thinkpads? I wanted to upgrade but I would end up with screens smaller than my SXGA+ screen.
Caleb Garcia
Isn't the listed price just two hundred odd though?
Sebastian Taylor
>the Libretto is now over 20 years old >the last quality thinkpad is now over 11 years old >high-quality portable computers lasted only 9 years
I'm not convinced a market doesn't exist for such devices.
Gavin King
What should I put in my T420's expansion slot? are hard drives feasible? video card adapters?
Blake Smith
Any $500 AUD or less thinkpad with a 1080p+ screen?
Tyler Torres
>Why are there no high resolution options they're "business" laptops this means a lot of contracts with institutions that don't have screen quality anywhere on the requirement list
Eli Allen
>I'm not convinced a market doesn't exist for such devices. It's too small to be profitable. Computer hardware has grown to be so cheap that overall quality can decrease since the end consumer is not spending large sums like they were a decade ago. Shorter upgrade cycle means lower build quality.
Leo Flores
I'm a CS/Math student in uni looking for a laptop for programming when I'm at school during the day (I have a desktop at home, where I am at night). Looking to spend less that $500 and was thinking about getting a T430 off Craigslist for $340 and not going for a T420 due to the slightly less powerful CPU. What do you guys think, is this a wise option or is there another laptop you'd recommend?
Aiden Allen
Nigga 1080p on a 12 inch screen is plenty, how the fuck you gonna read anything if it's any higher?
William Foster
Either will suit you well
I recommend doing the T420->T430 keyboard swap, the classic keyboard is just an absolute joy to type on
Just make damn sure you get 1600x900 and not 1366x768, you will hate yourself if you try to use any IDEs on the latter
Personally I'd look for a T520 or T530 for dat sweet sweet 1080p but that's up to you
Ayden Clark
When I say newer I mean like 200+ series. They are all like 800 or lower.
Thomas Gray
They've had 1080p option since X240
Aaron Roberts
So My x230 is on the way, it has only 4g ram. Is it ddr3-1600 the max power I can go for?
Ethan Roberts
Anyone? I don't want to end up with a 1080p TN panel
Benjamin Gonzalez
How often do you see people getting x240+ models on here? The buyers guide stops at x240 as the upper end.
Josiah Russell
there's no way that that's true at the very worst it will be lie the 12" macbooks autistic keyboard
Christian Thomas
Anyone here selling a w530 by chance?
Dominic Bell
>X240 that's not really what the thread is about
Connor Roberts
You might as well buy some rope while you're at it.
Cameron Morris
Is the E460 equally shit? Found a nice deal for one.
Logan Nguyen
t. 1366x768 cuck
Carson Price
USB 3.0 It's cheap and can be useful, otherwise eGPU but that is somewhat more expensive
