/tpg/ - ThinkPad General

Previous thread: IRC: #/tpg/ on irc.rizon.net

Other business laptops are also welcome in /tpg/ (e.g. Dell Latitude/Precision, HP EliteBook/ZBook).
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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", ultraportable
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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.
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Used ThinkPad buyers guide:
ktgee.net/tpg

xsauc buyers guide:
dankpads.com

EPP discount for new ThinkPads (USA & Canada only, usually 15%+ off):
pastebin.com/ULHCY5ch

Helpful links and resources (Wiki, lookup tools and wallpapers):
pastebin.com/DYjEnVq1

Got 3000 euro budget to spend on a phone, laptop combo. I want to go all out GNU/linux. Im looking for atleast 1080p, touchscreen is Nice, but not required. Has to have 4 cores not hyperthreaded, if that's still possible on a laptop. GPU doesn't really matter since I won't be playing games on the thing. Storage capacity doesn't really matter either, I've got servers for that.
Something sleek, stealthy and with a nice keyboard is what I need. Also light is a big plus.

Asked this in the last thread, didn't get an answer.
I was planning on getting the t460 or t460s this black friday or cyber monday. What's Sup Forums's verdict on those models? Should I go for something else?

t430s best top

What's the step up from a T420 that has 1920 resolution?

>stealthy

Yeah, I hate does laptops that scream "look at my powaaahh" or "look at my fancy featurrrrrr!!!"

>T460
>4/8GB soldered ram, one socket for upgrade
>soldered CPU
>6 row keyboard
>remove cover to access SATA slot
>ThinkPad logo upside down
It is sad to see the direction Lenovo is taking this brand. Although not as sad as what Apple is doing to MBP.

But who am I to cry. I'll still probably buy a refurbished X260 in a few years despite its defects as it still has TrackPoint and a high quality keyboard feel.

T460p has two ram slots and supports up to 32GB though.

Is $500 fair for a good 440s with an IPS screen?

Sup Forums I was thinking of turning the Socket bga from x230 to pga, would it be possible? Of course i will use a compatible pga processor.

I like how the thinklight is never mentioned, its like one of the best things of the t420 meme.

Just copped an X220t with 8 GB of RAM, an SSD, and an IPS screen for $175. The battery is god awful, but all in all, I'm really digging it. The keyboard is fucking killer.

Inanimate appliances cannot scream.

I guess it might be possible if you have professional grade tools for removing a soldered CPU and inserting a PGA adapter. It'd be a nice mod but I'm very skeptical of your odds for success.

Yes, the old Thinkpad keyboards are glorious. After my T420s, anything else is frankly unuseable. It kind of sucks though, I mean, wtf am I going to do when this thing ever dies. Get another one, I guess!

Thanks.

post thinkpad setups, I am building a folder of my babies

I'm looking for a laptop for a ridiculously poorfag friend.
What do you recommend that would be 150€ MAX?

I'm open to suggestions, it may be a thinkpad, a "thinkpad", hp, dell, or whatever. Just sturdy and capable, for the price.

I'm worried about a computer old enough that the battery is almost dead. My experience with chink "compatible" batteries is horrible.

Also, X230 a cute.

The old layout was better but the new feel of the keyboard is superior although I've heard this might depend on the keyboard supplier as Lenovo has multitude of those.

Source: I've owned and used daily X40, X61, X201, X220, X230 and am a proficient touch typist.

X40 and X61 were the master race though having both superior feel and layout. Sad that they are obsolete in regard to processing power and cannot be converted into stand alone keyboard+TrackPoint.

Riced up X201 or low end X220. Your friend just has to live with the battery they get at that price point. The price of usable ThinkPads starts to plateau around that price point. You could also look into T410s, T410, T420s, T420 if your friend doesn't mind the size.

The 14 inch screen would actually be a plus, although those are bulkier.
Maybe the T420s?

How likely is there going to be a new series shown at CES?

a T420 with the IPS FHD mod.

Can any of you help me, i need help with a certain thinkpad model. The CMOS battery is dead and needs replacing.

98%

I'm already pumped up to see how they'll fuck up T470 / X270. How about soldered on proprietary SSD? Just joking, vendor is gonna be that stupid for an enterprise level laptop.

go for the t460p your getting more for your money 16gb, 1440p, dgpu, sadly no touch screen.

There's also the issue of whether there's enough vertical space to fit the adapters and the CPU under the heatsink (likely not)

There is none. Only for T420s. It flickers on regular T420 since the power hardware interferes with the adapter board while the T420s is laid out differently

hey cackfaces, do any of you have the P50?
I'm thinking of getting one to replace my 2015 15" MBP, which disgusts me because it's fragile slab of reprocessed soda cans.

The P50 sounds pretty great, and the spec improvement would help me a lot (apart from the loss of one thunderbolt port), but 16:9 is abhorrent on a level beyond anything else conceivable. However, I've read that the P-series is a return to classic Thinkpad build quality, and that's something that would be worthwhile for me, even given the ratio (the W520 was the most recent model I could tolerate). Thoughts?

THICC

What are the main differences between the x220/x230? How much should I be able to find either for?

has anyone used an external gpu on the t420 for more gaming capabilities? I am looking to use this as my main machine so I was wondering if I can improve this with a dock or something

it will work ok, but if you got a t430 with thunderbolt you'd do way better

I just ordered the P70 personally and I'm looking forward to getting it. Can't comment on the P50 too much other than I've read very little negative about it. About the only thing I don't like about it is the graphic card tops out at the M2000M.

warosu.org/g/thread/S57391604#p57401235

Old pic of mine but still going strong.

>brother bought a macbook couple of years ago
>3 months in he regretted it
>sold it, told him to get a thinkpad
>he gets a refurbished t540p
>uses it for a year
>gets black screen problem
>thinks it is hardware failure, puts it under his bed for 6 months doing nothing
>told him to fix it
>he says it's fucked
>i troubleshoot it
>nek minnit works perfectly
>t-thanks bro

it's not a great story but i couldn't tell anyone else but you guys
i'll probably inherit it in 2-3 years when he is bored with it

>new x260 tomorrow
gonna install linux

>inb4 what I'm actually referring to is [...]

It is an utmost build quality laptop, no keyboard flex whatsoever.

16:9 is inescapable at the moment.

I light the thinklight. It's really useful

Just bought this Yoga 3 Pro off a co worker for 300 bucks. It's in mint condition and I just wanna use it for web and media.

Are any of the utilities from Lenovo worth while to download? I see stuff like yoga mode but I dont know what that is. I did a factory restore from the recovery partition but it was full of bloat so I just did a fresh Win10 install.

thinkpad newfag here

is a T61 for 70euros a good deal?

nah. too old for that price.

i've seen people give those away for free.

ok thanks for warning me, could you guys maybe recommend me a nice model that will be powerful enogh to run arch, the jvm, a browser and a code editor? really just need that but I don't want to overspend.

double the budget and just get a nice t420. OR, check your local craigslist equivalent and see if anyone is giving any for free, or selling at a decent price.

I looked at that t420 and I already see some amazing offers, thank you.

check the buyers guide in the OP too. before you commit to buying anything, see how far your budget may be able to take you.

Recently got and X220 and I love it, but I'm looking for a sleeve. Will a 14" one be large enough or do I need to get a 15" one?

j-just bought my first thinkpad. x260 w/ i5, 16gb of ram, and 128gb ssd. gonna slap ubuntu on it. d-did i do gud?

Bought a x220 with 8gb of ram, i72620m @2.7ghz and a 320gb HDD for 249 GBP.
Was it a fair price?

>72620m
>It's year 2116, Intel just released their 72th gen processors
>Still no reason to upgrade from Sandy bridge

Acutally it's their 72620th generation

>T400 and T60 still fully functional devices
>still no year of the Linux desktop

>tfw i want a x120e to fuck with but cant find a red one on ebay so i can cover it in edgy stickers and run riced Arch

get the i3/i5 version

T450s with i7-5600U, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, for anywhere between $900-1000, new with 3 year warranty.

Is it a good deal? Reading about them it seems T460 isn't very good, neither is the T440. People seem to agree T450s is the peak of the Thinkpad T series.

It also has hot-swappable battery, user replaceable RAM and an extra M.2 slot for an SSD.

Should I get it?

The x131e is butt ugly and over 2x the price. I already have a T420 as a main (powerful) portable, i just want a sub-notebook for messing around with and the x121e is $50 or so plus whatever chink ram and SSD costs.

I'm broke and was wondering if the Thinkpad E460 is a good option? It comes with a core i5 6200u + 4GB ddr3 1600 MHz ram.

I plan to upgrade the 500 GB hdd with a Samsung ssd and maybe even add another 4GB ram.

E series is cancer. Put it towards a T450s or T420.

>16:9 is inescapable at the moment
But muh macbook

How can I get a ThinkPad (I mean the T, X and W/P models) in Russia?

From avito.

What's the best (as in fastest CPU) ThinkPad that has a 4:3 screen?

X61? X62 if you count chink-modded thinkpads.

ebay

Honestly for windows I think the Ideapad 100s is a very good laptop, I repaired a couple of them but they are very reliable.

If you want a chunkpad I can recommend the T60. (Own an R60 penguin machine)

...

Just changed the LCD on my x220 to an IPS.
It looks amazing, thank you guys for recomending me doing this

Dell always seemed low end to me.
Has that changed?
New thinkbooks are shit though, so anyone can be better.

dell makes low end laptops and I'm sure they're a disaster but the Latitude is designed to compete with the Thinkpad

I've heard that same thing for years that dell and hp business laptops are great.

I personally had a shit experience with an HP consumer laptop and now avoid HP as much as possible.


>thinking about getting a refurbished latitude

>Dell always seemed low end to me.
dell makes all sorts of products, they do have a good line of business laptops since business is their bread and butter

but for some reason they don't know how to take pictures of their products, so I don't really know if they are worth purchasing.
But I guess it is the 7000 line that is worth it?

>7000 line

I'm getting nervous as a decade long loyal latitude fan

i don't trust skinny laptops, i feel like they are more likely to fry but I'm no engineer so take that with a grain of salt

>inanimate
What is a fan
What is an optical drive
What is a spinny platter drive
What are electrons

It's an okay deal.
Sadly used thinkpads are quite expensive in the EU

Funny you guys complain about the "new" keyboard when they literally feel identical to the old ones except they don't flex anymore. I'm pretty sure there is no difference to the mechanism at all. Makes reddit circlejerk look weak in comparison.

why the hell would you buy it now

T400 is the best cheap one for the price right now. Perfectly usable even today.

I've got a T400 and X200S, I'm wondering how hard it is to upgrade the screen to IPS+LED?

T61 is the last and most powerful. You can get them with Penryn CPUs if you're lucky, which are still fine today.

Dude I use the same two laptops. very strange. My only fault with them is the screen so I'd be very interested in this too.

Just got my first T420
What are the things I should do first?
I want to install a distro but I'm probably going to upgrade it with a SSD in a month or two, should I wait until then or will cloning my drive work?

Same here, they have a very poor viewing angle but otherwise they're both awesome machines.

What does everyone think about the ministry of freedom thinkpads?

They have T400's and x200 with upgraded ssd and ram.

TFW still 768p

Why not X201 or X220, both can be corebooted

by them? not to sure

>buy a used ThinkPad from a reliable distributor
>has a Windows 7 fresh install, but some custom ThinkPad drivers
>run a system file integrity restoration, verify that all drivers are signed, run a rootkit and virus scan

Is everything good, or is there still a risk that any spyware the seller could install is still here?

post dope t420's
anyone here with ssd x hdd x i7 x 1080 screen?

You cannot get rid of the ME though so X201 and X220 cannot be Librebooted.

I'd look into a surface if I were you, idk if you can get Linux into that though

You should clean install

I'm with ssd/hdd/hdd and quad core i7, FHD mod still not available to buy ffs.

What's a good place to order a replacement battery in Europe? Amazon won't deliver batteries abroad because it's flammable, even though they'll deliver a whole laptop. With the prices in my country I might as well just get a new thinkpad instead of a new charger and battery

Nope. I have i7-2620m, mSATA SSD, dual HDD and 2 brand new OEM 9 cells though

Aliexpress.

Just don't buy obvious fake shit like 9-cells for $30 and make sure the lenovo logo isn't covered or blurred in the picture.

Got one shipped from the uk, searched on ebay.co.uk filtering by EU listings. There was some trouble shipping but in the end it arrived anyway.

Kekked

Any new Thinkpad or retro news/rumours floating around yet?

Hello
How do i make my battery last long
Thank you