I love these Thinkpad mods but don't have the time or patience to do one myself. Instead, I did a little research and settled on the T470s as my new laptop. You won't read about it much on the Lenovo boards. It's not the fastest; that title goes to their huge desktop replacement beasts. It's not the sexiest and thinnest--the X1 beats it there. It is, however, well-equipped with a great display and fast-enough CPU, and it's quite thin. It has all the latest tech, including NVME disk and HiDPI display options.<p>I run Arch Linux and the i3 window manager on mine and it's just perfect.
This X62 seems like a perfect machine. I'm impressed such a mod made by enthusiasts exists and can actually be bought today.<p>Meanwhile the Retro Thinkpad, made by Lenovo, seems to be quite a disappointment by just having an old keyboard put on a new thinkpad.<p>I'm on a x201s since years because I honestly can't find a better machine on the market today (trackpoint, 16/10, great keyboard, matte screen with decent resolution to work, solid as rock, easy to maintain).<p>Anytime a friend asks me for a cheap laptop buying advice, I tell them to get a used thinkpad. Just add some RAM, SSD and battery if necessary and voila, you have a solid machine that will last you years for less than 400€ total.
What drives me up the wall with all recent macbooks, besides the deteriorating keyboards, is how they need a charged battery to power on. Meaning, they have to constantly drain and charge the battery even with ac plugged in. Is is really that hard to provide what has been standard in laptops for years with an additional wall power circuit? Just planned breakage so you have to keep buying new ones? Apple in the passed stressed these kinds of details, now apparently you can't even tell whether it's charging anymore without looking at the screen.
I went out shopping a few weekends ago to see what the current offering on laptops looks like. I ended up in an Apple store, and after only a few seconds fiddling with a MacBook, I walked straight back out again. That keyboard is <i>terrible</i>. I don't care how many other things Apple's line has going for it - if the primary interface to the device is that bad, I just can't imagine using it.<p>I wish there were more laptops out there with the old style ThinkPad keyboard on them :(
><i>Despite its shortcomings, I ended up using the X61s more than my 12” MacBook. The X61s convinced me that a much better laptop could exist. The same chassis with modern components would be a very compelling product.</i><p>This is a good point and there and many people who believe it to be true. Only problem are the Lenovo executives that are not willing to provide such product (see Thinkpad Retro).
Had t40p for 10+ years. Dropped it from ~2m high several times. Got coffee over it numerous times. Kids of my sister left it drowning in a puddle of ice-cream ice.<p>I cleaned it with water a bunch of times, worked after drying. I even reflowed the motherboard after the housing got a little bit less stiff and random resets and freezes occured.<p>I think my sister still has it. I should get it back and hang it on the wall or something.
This is why I've been buying every well priced Thinkpad on Craigslist. From a couple T420's to the occasional T440 (for $70 to $100), with a few librebootable T400's and T60's thrown in for $10 to $20, I seem to hold these laptops for a short duration before friends or family buy them off me for $5 to $15 more.<p>Plus, when anything breaks, parts are cheap and plentiful. I even upgraded a T440 for my SO with a 1080p IPS screen and a few other bits, its an impressively nice machine all specced out!
I have one of these x62's in the i5 version, bought it prebuilt. The screen was quickly updated with the LED backlight mod as well. Honestly, coming from an x220 and x230, this thing flies. Highly recommend one. I also have an x61s that is nice, but the resolution and speed is not modern enough for me.
For users wanting a stable laptop with secure boot in Thinkpad chasis, supplier list from Libreboot seems like a great place.<p>There are suppliers who will sell refurbished Thinkpads with Libreboot pre-installed at relatively decent prices.<p><a href="https://libreboot.org/suppliers.html" rel="nofollow">https://libreboot.org/suppliers.html</a>
I'm running an unmodified X220 myself (well, except for installing the webcam myself[1]). Rock solid running FreeBSD 11.1[2].<p>I'll probably keep running this until / if I (a) roll my own, or (b) Lenovo releases their much-anticipated retro ThinkPad.<p>[1] <a href="https://duncan.bayne.id.au/blog/when-in-doubt.html" rel="nofollow">https://duncan.bayne.id.au/blog/when-in-doubt.html</a><p>[2] <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BXPY61pFkRK/" rel="nofollow">https://www.instagram.com/p/BXPY61pFkRK/</a>
I'm doing the 1080p mod on my x230 since I love it so much. Such a great design and keyboard. No it's not paper thin but it doesn't have to be.
What are some up-to-date equivalents to the X60/1 if any?<p>I want something small with a nice keyboard and durable enough I can throw it in a bag without worry but I just can't seem to find anything better than my current X61 which is getting a little tired.<p>I'd be interested in going even smaller but netbooks don't seem to be a thing anymore.
I am more a fan of the X over the T.<p>I have gone trough several newer computers and still lean towards the x220. I actually think the keyboard on the x220 is better... bigger delete key and esc keys.. not backlit but has the night light thingy.<p>Yeah I miss the 4x3 screen....<p>Wish it had higher res screen, was a bit thinner and maybe an updated chip set... But
I wrote to the guys in the original post.
The price is not as cheap as I thought:<p>X62 with i5 - 780 USD
X62 with i7-5500U - 980USD<p>both setups no:ram/hdd/battery , new AFFS panel (1400x1050)<p>I will better consider buying a new Thinkpad or wait for the retro edition
I dearly need to swap the backlight on my X200. Lenovo loves low contrast so much, to the point I believe it's an optician conspiracy :)<p>ps: AMD announced their laptop ryzen based CPUs, I hope nb51 try one board with it.
Would love to go back to Thinkpads, but I've had bad experiences with the LCD panel quality (not resolution) being terrible. Maybe it's my eyes, but certain manufacturer LCDs have left a bad impression that I'm unlikely to even consider them - Ones in Thinkpads, Nokia devices, ASUS tablets, some Acer. Even to the point of giving me eye strain.<p>I think the only non-Apple display in a laptop I've really enjoyed is the 4k one in my Dell (heavy as all but plays games).
Part of me still misses my beloved IBM-made X31. But ultimately even if I could choose one with modern components/specs, the thing that would keep me on a MacBook (disregarding software) is the unibody enclosure. Much better to have a machine that dents instead of chips. Beauty so rarely bespeaks durability in design but a CNC machined chassis is really an evolutionary leap for mobile devices.
I would love to have a similar upgrade path with the X220. I don't love the 16:9 display, but a higher res upgrade would take care of that issue. I definitely want to try out the power saving tweaks from that script in the article. I use a 9-cell battery currently and get somewhere around 6-8 hours of life out of it. Would love to extend that a bit.
I really miss the keyboard layout of my T410. It's good news that the retro Thinkpad has the same layout, hopefully it will be popular enough that the main product lines go back to having the separate cluster of Delete,Insert,Home,End,PgDn and PgUp that I miss so much.
I have a Dell E6540 for exactly these reasons. It feels like a real computer. It's 1080p, but I prefer widescreen personally. People are always making comments about how old my laptop is, but it's an i7 4810MQ with 16GB RAM!
I really like some of the hardware from Lenovo, Microsoft and HP. As a developer I find the Windows 10 operating systems QDOS legacy to be annoying to, say the least.
> <i>When commenting, remember: Is it true? Is it necessary? Is it kind?</i><p>Great formulation and easy enough to remember, but... is truth ever kind?