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How IBM’s ThinkPad Became a Design Icon (2017)

171 点作者 jpelecanos超过 6 年前

27 条评论

lqet超过 6 年前
Last year, I decided to build an X62 (Thinkpad X61 or X60 with custom hardware) after reading about it here [1]. Shipment of the modification kit (some plastic parts + a new mainboard) took 2 months from China to Germany. It took me a while to find a brand-new screen as a replacement for the original 1024x786 screen (which has to be modified, including some minor metal-working).<p>After roughly a year of heavy daily use, I must say that this is the best laptop I have owned in my life (including previous Thinkpads R60, T510 and and T460s). The size is just perfect. With the new hardware, it is incredibly light-weight. The 4:3 screen is something I have been missing for a long time on my laptops, and the classic Thinkpad keyboard is just a million times better than the new model. The quality of the original X61 chassis is also very good, and it looks just great.<p>Overall, the laptop cost me roughly 1000 EUR and around 20 hours of work. This includes 32 GB of RAM, a brand new 100 GB SSD and a brand new replacement screen I bought at Alibaba. I started with a broken X61 I bought for around 40 EUR on eBay, on which I replaced the new Lenovo &quot;ThinkPad&quot; logo with the original IBM ThinkPad logo that was still used on the X60.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;geoff.greer.fm&#x2F;2017&#x2F;07&#x2F;16&#x2F;thinkpad-x62&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;geoff.greer.fm&#x2F;2017&#x2F;07&#x2F;16&#x2F;thinkpad-x62&#x2F;</a>
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solatic超过 6 年前
It&#x27;s really sad that Lenovo has driven the design into the ground. I have a X201 running NixOS, that I still use from time to time, and I pulled it out recently to show it to friends. Physically speaking it&#x27;s a <i>revelation</i>.<p>Three USB ports? Check. Because even today, one port permanently has a YubiKey Nano, one port permanently has a Logitech Unifying nano receiver, and I&#x27;ll probably be charging my phone out of the third at some point and I&#x27;d rather not lose either of the two nano dongles because I had to temporarily unplug them and misplaced them in the process.<p>Mobile radio? Check. Because who likes to fiddle around with pairing their phone to their laptop when they&#x27;re on the train?<p>Drainage ports if you have a minor spill? Check.<p>Drainage ports in the dock, which match up with the drainage ports on the laptop itself? Check<p>Dock allows you to charge an extra battery while the laptop itself is charging? Check.<p>ThinkLight in the screen to illuminate the keyboard without requiring you to bump up the brightness on the screen and take a bigger hit to battery life? Check.<p>Mechanical latch on the right side, where your hand is naturally located, allowing you to push the screen up with your right hand on the right side of the machine, and push down on the bottom half with your left hand on the left hand side of the machine? Check.<p>Six-key home&#x2F;end&#x2F;insert&#x2F;delete&#x2F;pgup&#x2F;pgdwn cluster that mirrors that on a desktop keyboard? Check.<p>Dedicated page back and page forward buttons, baked into the arrow key nav cluster, so that you don&#x27;t need a two-key combo to go back and forward? Check.<p>TrackPoint lets you mouse without removing hands from the home row? Check.<p>LED status indicators for disk and network usage? Check.<p>Physical WiFi switch? Check.<p>10&#x2F;10 repairability? Check.<p>All Lenovo needed to do was to refresh the processor etc. every year, maybe introduce new ports as they came out, and not screw around with a formula that didn&#x27;t need to be changed. Sigh.
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rconti超过 6 年前
&gt; In fact, when Hill was named to oversee ThinkPad design in 1995, the line’s general manager informed him that it was time to mix things up. “He felt like three years was enough, and we needed a new design,” Hill remembers. “I honestly couldn’t believe it. I was like, ‘Well, of all the problems we have, this isn’t one of them.’<p>Too few people get this.
modernerd超过 6 年前
It&#x27;s pretty amazing what you can put them through too.<p>As a MacBook owner Lenovo&#x27;s dust tests have me wincing:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=hazDhYq8YOo" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=hazDhYq8YOo</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=hO5LGICeOuk" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=hO5LGICeOuk</a><p>And the waterproofing is kind of incredible:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=ig3xI8dUdm0&amp;t=1650s" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=ig3xI8dUdm0&amp;t=1650s</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=KmdcutSxmn0" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=KmdcutSxmn0</a><p>Now that they make a solid, thin, repairable, upgradeable 15&quot; laptop for creative types (ThinkPad X1 Extreme), it&#x27;s becoming increasingly tempting to switch as a MacBook owner, even if I have to ditch macOS.
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706f6f70超过 6 年前
I&#x27;m amazed that there is no mention of the sheer repairability of these devices.<p>I don&#x27;t think I will ever encounter a laptop line that is generally so user-accessible. A couple of regular screws and you pop the case. A few more and you can replace the entire keyboard. The hard drive was held in by a single screw in most models and you could easily swap it in without even popping the entire case. The RAM had it&#x27;s own bay that you could access by removing a single crew. The Ultrabay mechanism was also a huge nod to the design philosophy of making the user feel like the hardware was his&#x2F;hers to do with.<p>It&#x27;s incredibly sad to me that we&#x27;ve abandoned that for the sake of &quot;thinner&quot;. I wish I had a legitimate use for older hardware so I could justify picking up one of the IBM-era Thinkpads from eBay and just maintain it into perpetuity. Like the cars of yesteryear that you could mend with some string and a brick. Sure they&#x27;re not &quot;sexy&quot; and it won&#x27;t get me likes, but it&#x27;s actually <i>mine</i>.
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ilamont超过 6 年前
I had the 701c &quot;butterfly&quot; described in the article. My previous laptop had been a no-name 486 brick with a black and white screen that I bought at a Taiwanese electronics mall for ~$2000. It was barely portable. The 701c, by comparison, was small and durable, had a nice screen, a faster modem, and easily fit into my daypack. I bought it used for about $800 in 1996 and carried it with me throughout Southeast Asia and wrote my first book on it in a cheap hotel in Penang. The previous owner, bless his soul, had even installed Doom on it.
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keldaris超过 6 年前
A bunch of old X220 machines are still my only laptops to this day because I simply haven&#x27;t found anything better since. Every modern laptop I&#x27;ve seen is vastly inferior in some aspect I care about - terrible keyboards, fragile cases, zero maintainability, no Linux support, etc., the list goes on and on. Apart from better CPUs and displays, most laptops have objectively regressed in the metrics I actually care about. Luckily, picking up refurbished X220s is cheap and with current hardware trends being what they are these machines should satisfy my needs for another half a decade at least.
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syntaxing超过 6 年前
Owner of a &quot;Thinkpad&quot; X62 here. The most surprising part of the X series from Thinkpad is how serviceable it is. The repair manuals are all online and does not require any special hardware. The OEM replacement parts are extremely abundant online at a reasonable cost. I think when my current laptop becomes obsolete, my next laptop will probably still be a Thinkpad.
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csmattryder超过 6 年前
&gt; Hortensius, however, says that what keeps ThinkPads relevant is trusty productivity rather than any specific aspect of a given model. [...] “It’s because I can count on it that those things matter.”<p>Funny to read this, as I await my Lenovo X1 Carbon to come back from repair, as it shut off one night and never came to boot again. I&#x27;ve also got an ~~IBM~~ (edit: it&#x27;s a Lenovo!) Thinkpad X220, a motherboard-only shell that I plonked my own hardware choice into, taped a slew of Debian stickers onto and haven&#x27;t had a fault with, ever.<p>I&#x27;ll defend the Thinkpad brand with a religious fervour, for the same reason Peter Hortensius says in the article. But under Lenovo&#x27;s stewardship, I&#x27;m left with a lot to be desired.<p>I hope I was just unlucky with this X1 Carbon, that fervour is willing to give Lenovo a second chance, here.
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mxuribe超过 6 年前
I own two ThinkPad T420s and my favorite thing about them - well, besides of course being able to install linux without any headaches due to the work of soooo many FOSS engineers - is the keyboard. Man, I never really thought I would appreciate something so seemingly basic...but the keyboard - as silly as this sounds - makes it so much more fun to type!
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KozmoNau7超过 6 年前
I use a lowly X220i (i3 variant of the X220) every single day. It&#x27;s been upgraded to 8GB RAM, a 128GB SSD and dual-band wifi.<p>The 9-cell battery get me 5-6 hours of web surfing, email and Youtube, and it still feels like a new laptop, despite being ~7 years old.<p>My work-supplied T440 feels like a toy in comparison.
JansjoFromIkea超过 6 年前
Bought an X220T a few months ago as a possible sturdy laptop for my mother. Was something like $80?<p>A day after delivery, I had purchased an 8GB ram stick and an SSD for it to keep it for myself. If it had a 1080p screen it&#x27;d probably be my main laptop until High Sierra isn&#x27;t supported by something I need.
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Joeri超过 6 年前
My lenovo experiences thus far have been mixed. Had a work-provided s540 which was rubbish. Fragile case with blemishes straight out of the factory, so-so performance and battery life, and the main board cracked (literally) just outside of warranty.<p>Replacing that I got a t460p which I’ve had for 2 years now, and that is an amazing machine. Very good build quality, light and compact, while having excellent performance (i7 6700 hq, 32 gb, dedicated graphics), quiet under load and excellent battery life. And it looks like those old-school thinkpads, which is cute.<p>I had heard the T series is good and the S is not, but it’s amusing to experience that myself.
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rainhacker超过 6 年前
Any recommendations of Thinkpad model to buy in 2018 ? I can wait if anything promising is coming in 2019.
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InclinedPlane超过 6 年前
One time I was using my T60 on the floor and managed to tip an entire full glass of water right into it, absolute worst case scenario. I turned it off, pulled the battery, drained it, let it sit for about a day to dry then checked if it still worked. It was totally fine. Another time I had a T43 sitting on the high arm rest of a couch, open, and knocked it onto the floor where it fell directly on the corner of the display. It was also fine.
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knaik94超过 6 年前
I have a w520 and while the graphics card could use some help from time to time, I splurged for the i7 quad and it&#x27;s still keeping up with most of what I come across today. My favorite part is how well it handles bad head management. I know I shouldn&#x27;t but using it on bed sheets isn&#x27;t really an issue, it does make hell of a sound though. Sounds like an airplane.
AJRF超过 6 年前
I use a T420 at home with an i7 2nd Gen (Power hunry) @ 2.3Ghz + 16GB Ram and a 250gb SSD. Its old, but its at the inflection point where its more cost effective for me to do some cloud compute the few times a year I need it rather than spending £1500 on a new laptop. The laptop cost me around £130 all in.
lallysingh超过 6 年前
Something to be said about the 25th anniversary selling out in very little time. I was watching it and wondering if I should get one (I missed the keyboard from my w520 but not the weight), but had the decision made for me by it selling out very quickly.
oseph超过 6 年前
Long time macbook user here who just received a used T450 in the mail last week. I bought it just to have access to a Windows machine and I plan to install linux onto it as well.<p>Initial impressions: I really like it! Very solid little machine, and I really like the keyboard feel as well. After years with Apple, the Thinkpad screen and trackpad are pretty crappy in comparison, but overall I love using it. Currently looking into upgrading the display to a 1080 IPS...
simonblack超过 6 年前
I have an 8-year-old ThinkPad i5 T410S, since 2010.<p>I tried to replace it in 2012 with an Asus Zenbook but that was not pleasing to me with its flimsiness in keyboard and build-construction.<p>I would like to perhaps buy a later ThinkPad model, but I really don&#x27;t see any advantage whatsoever in doing so. My T410S was ordered with the extra-large battery which is still going strong, and I swapped out the 500gig hard drive for a 2000gig hard drive about 5 years back.
tzhenghao超过 6 年前
I&#x27;ve owned a pretty maxed out T420s. When I bought it back in early 2013, it had the standard HDD drive and 8GB of RAM. I swapped it out with a SSD and bumped it up to 16GB RAM, and I can say it still runs pretty well. Aside from not being able to do 4K or having to live with that ugly 1080p screen, it&#x27;s been just as solid as my late 2016 15inch MBP.<p>Oh, no dongle anxiety too.<p>The ROI on it is pretty amazing. Back when repairability was still a thing.
kh_hk超过 6 年前
The 25th anniversary edition should just be an X62.
jlg23超过 6 年前
&gt; a ThinkPad remains a ThinkPad.<p>Uhm, no. My a20p, bought in 2001 still works. I only swapped the HD once and the keyboard every 6 months or so. I bought my last thinkpad 4 years ago and (given limited time and budget) had only a single model to choose because I wanted metal hinges instead of plastic ones.
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vikingcaffiene超过 6 年前
Does anyone know of any good upgrade kits for a T410? I&#x27;ve got one thats still going strong but the screen is awful and I&#x27;d love to upgrade that and whatever else I can get away with. When I look online I don&#x27;t usually see stuff for this particular model.
jasonm89超过 6 年前
I&#x27;ve been using a t440p as my daily for a year now. Nothing but love for it, I&#x27;ve upgraded the screen, ram, and trackpad. My next upgrade is the CPU to a quad core and this thing will still have a few more years left in it.
thomasfedb超过 6 年前
Very pleased with how ThinkPad-y my P51 is, even though it also manages to be a thoroughly modern notebook.
SilasX超过 6 年前
ctrl-f revealed no mention of its product placement on Judge Ito&#x27;s desk in the OJ Simpson trial.<p>Edit: Really? You don&#x27;t think all that advertising in such an iconic situation had any relation to its becoming a design icon?