IBM and Lenovo ThinkPad laptop enthusiasts!
T14 are a refresh from the T480; slightly more modern hardware and there are AMD versions. still durable, good build quality, more power efficient, and inexpensive as the market's flooded with corpos ditching their old devices and switching to Newest & Best.
expandable, repairable with cheap parts that are somewhat cross-model/generation compatible, you can't go wrong there. besides, it's always good to be couple gens behind for the best linux hardware compatibility.
I'm currently on a ThinkPad right now as I type this. I would say overall they're fine. Lenovo tends to not fuck with them since they are the business model, and companies will drop them if they try any shit. I've also noticed that the laptop is pretty easy to repair, and sources spare parts for. I've replaced the screen on various models like 3 times, the keyboard once or twice, and the battery once. Really I just love the track point and it's hard to find laptops that have that feature. I've been running Linux on my current machine for years with no issues specific to my laptop.
I just replaced the keyboard on a T490s. It took about 90 screws and removal if the motherboard, but went fine. Other models are a lot easier, but this one has the keyboard below the top cover. I replaced it with a $40 off-brand keyboard which seems surprisingly okay, but if I knew about all the screws I probably would have bought a whole top cover like Lenovo wants you to. Don't think this would have been feasible on most other brands.
Which model? I'm going to pick one up sooner then later and I'd appreciate feedback
T16 is the one I'm currently using. No idea if it's still available though.
I'm using a x1 carbon from 4 years ago and it's great, super happy with it and would buy another if I broke it. I ran mint on it for years and now cachy, it's solid
I've had 3 between work and home. X1 carbon gen 2 and gen 9. Both were used and generally great to use. The gen 9 died after 2 years, pretty sure it was the cpu. Not too impressed by that since the gen 2 is still chugging along. Sounds like this may be a known Intel chip quality issue? I'd recommend anything before gen 9, though I loved that laptop. $700-800 to replace the mobo, which is the downside of the x1 as you can only really service the battery and hard drive.
Got a P series last year for work and its excellent, but heavy. Great if it is staying at a desk, but I prefer the x1 for lightweight and portability.
The same or better I'd argue. My boss had a T580 and it was fine. I got a T14 Gen. 1 and it was basically built the same. But I think the Gen. 2 switched to a new body style and it's MUCH nicer. A lot less flex, feels better in the hand. They got rid of the soft touch coating, but I honestly think thats for the best. The current bod style also feels nice, but I'm not a fan of the hump.
AFAIK: E series is not as great and not really worth the money (just get something else at the price).
The T and P series are the good ones I think. The X are good also but aren't built to quite the old tank specs of the T and P lines which will last 20 years. They're still a good buy but more care should be taken buying them used compared to T and P which will tend to just work even used. Thinkpads are renowned for durability. They don't have the absolute best screens or the best specs for gaming. But they last and the T and P series are worth buying used from some company getting rid of their 5 year old models because they don't really die.
Edit: I really shouldn't have been quite so denigrating so I edited it
My wife got a E14 (not sure about the generation) in 2020, during the pandemic, from her job. It's got a Ryzen 7 CPU and 16GB of RAM, which is more than enough for office work. She's running Windows 11 on it and it still works for 6-7 hours without charging. And it feels really good in the hand, I must say. Also, the display is quite OK.
E are their value line so built to lesser specifications compared to T, P, X. If yours works good for you and I'm glad you've had good luck and haven't had any problems but generally speaking their build quality, longevity, etc is not as great as the T and P lines which unless deliberately destroyed will tend to continue working 12+ years later.
So I'm not talking about the E line being worthless, they're not, they're just not top tier last forever like the T and P stuff and aren't built to quite the same ruggedness nor they have quit the same "premium" build as the X line (but they don't cost as much either obviously). There are lots of worse laptops you can buy than a thinkpad E series but...
If we're talking the "legendary" IBM thinkpad quality in build and such we're talking about the T and P lines. E and X are things Lenovo came up with. X is more premium with fancy touchscreens and such but a mixed bag on longevity, T and P don't have the greatest displays in the world (trounced by many good "gaming" laptops and Macs among others, this is not just my opinion but an objective measure of sharpness, clarity, color display range, viewing angle, NITs, etc and you have to understand some T and P laptops are priced into $1500-$2500 and for that price range you can get a laptop with a better screen when buying new) but are built like tanks and after a decade of service can generally be kept running another decade doing some sort of homelab stuff like running a server or something.
I would buy a T or P thinkpad on ebay as long as it's confirmed to work without needing that much more investigation and be confident it had many years of life left in it, not quite so for the E and X which I'd scrutinize more closely and understand them to be products with a more traditional laptop lifespan and things that might fail with age.
I still use a T440p pretty regularly, but I also have a X1 Carbon Gen6 that I like as well. I had another one in between those two that was pretty nice, and I've also had the opportunity to use a few of the most recent X1 and E series laptops as well. They are nice and light compared to the older ones. Build quality overall seems reasonable for the price, especially when they're a few years old on eBay or similar.
I have a pair of P53s that I love and hope last until the apocalypse. I have disassembled them a few times, spilled water on one (not too badly, but enough that I was worried about it). Added some Msata or M.2 SSDs to them (forget which). They're great machines. Not all Lenovo machines, and not even all Thinkpads are great, in my opinion, but generally if they've got the trackpoint mouse and aren't obscenely "slim" they'll probably be pretty solid reliable machines.