My lappy has bitten the dust, and I’m in the market for a laptop. I’m thinking about going Thinkpad.

I only plan on this being for web browsing, text editing, coding, etc. Any gaming is done on my desktop.

What would be a good Thinkpad model? I do t mind getting an older/refurbished one. Haven’t been on the laptop market in nearly 8 years, so I don’t know what to look for anymore

    • BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world
      132·
      2 years ago

      This will be high on my list when I upgrade next. If you know your OS will be Linux I say it’s a waste of time and energy to get a laptop that doesn’t come loaded with it. I’m sure 90% of my laptop woes are due to poor support and optimization for Linux.

      • cooopsspace@infosec.pubEnglish
        9·
        2 years ago

        Still, you can pry Linux from my cold dead hands.

        I’ll be a homesteading hermit living off grid in the bush before I install Windows on a personal PC.

      • TheAnonymouseJoker@lemmy.mlBanned
        41·
        2 years ago

        ThinkPad never has had problems with Linux compatibility. You will get better (best) aftersales and better (best) third party parts availability, since it is “mainstream” and a business user brand.

        Boutique Linux laptop shops just cannot compete on that.

        • flashgnash@lemm.ee
          1·
          2 years ago

          I’ve actually had a few issues with Linux on my ThinkPad, have struggled endlessly with the fingerprint reader and Nvidia on Wayland is a bit of a pain still

            • flashgnash@lemm.ee
              1·
              2 years ago

              It rings a bell

              I managed to get it working on Ubuntu once and then never again

              I think I might’ve screwed it up by trying to get it working dual booted

  • Certainity45@lemmy.ml
    191·
    2 years ago

    T480 is the last good Thinkpad. Even T490 is a huge downgrade.

    T430 or X230 if you’re into modding. The opportunities for modding them are endless. Keyboard from xx20-series (best ever made for laptops), FHD IPS panel, re-celling the battery with 18650-cells, second storage drive with mstata mod… If I remember right, T430 cd bay can be replaced with secondary battery too.

    The old models are compatible with FreeBSD too.

      • Certainity45@lemmy.ml
        1·
        2 years ago

        Just wow. Hopefully it works with T430 too, since it has so much more cpu power with quad-core i7-3612qm and runs much cooler than the stock dual-core i5 ever ran.

        Too bad I have no time or interest to tinker with these as much as I tinkered 5 years ago.

    • pizzaboi@lemm.eeEnglish
      2·
      2 years ago

      My T480 does everything I need. Picked it up for $200 and spent another $100-$150 to get brand new batteries, a pretty good screen, much faster storage, and upped it to 24GB of RAM. Pretty awesome. Pop!_OS runs like a charm.

  • cirdanlunae@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOP
    131·
    2 years ago

    I went away for a few hours, wow, all the replies! Thanks all!

    I ended up going with a refurbished T480s. Wanted something I could upgrade memory/storage on. The form factor and the metal case also sounded appealing. Should have it in a week.

  • Lettuce eat lettuce@lemmy.ml
    81·
    2 years ago

    T480 is solid. I think those still had fully upgradable RAM slots, the T490 series started having soldered single slot so you could only upgrade one of them. T470s are starting to be a little long in the tooth, but still solid for the kind of tasks you are looking for.

    On eBay they can be had for $200-$300 depending on model.

  • utopiah@lemmy.ml
    114·
    2 years ago

    FWIW ThinkPad is not IBM anymore. I assume it’s obvious but just in case it’s not 100% clear, a Chinese company (Lenovo) bought the brand 2 decades ago https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ThinkPad

    I’m not arguing that the quality or Linux support changed since then, just make it explicit in case somebody might ride on the nostalgia of once great hardware devices.

    PS: I rocked an X31 with ratpoison a while ago, before the times of MacBook Air and I was convinced I was pretty cool.

    • whereisk@lemmy.world
      31·
      2 years ago

      They’re still pretty good. I bought a few second hand, especially the 480s - well built, mil spec, easily upgradeable, relatively light. I’d recommend.

      • pastermil@sh.itjust.works
        3·
        2 years ago

        Anything after T480 wouldn’t be as great.

        I’ve owned 30 series and now I’m using a T14 Gen 3. While the T14 is a good laptop, the difference is like night and day.

    • TheAnonymouseJoker@lemmy.mlBanned
      43·
      2 years ago

      And there is nothing wrong with “Chinese”. China is the world’s manufacturing hub and its economy has surpassed that of USA.

  • thecrotch@sh.itjust.works
    6·
    2 years ago

    I don’t recommend thinkpads. As I mentioned elsewhere in this thread, they don’t allow you to replace your own wifi card. Latitudes have great Linux support, and as a business class machine they’re as reliable and easy to work on as thinkpads

  • minimalfootprint@discuss.tchncs.de
    51·
    2 years ago

    T480. Still good availability. It was popular with companies that put them back into th e market a few years ago.

    Last model without glued RAM. So it’s upgradable and you can install two M.2 drives. One with 2240 length and a full-size 2280 in the main drive bay.

    The battery setup is great as well. One internal battery plus an external you can choose depending on your needs. Either small and light for a bit more juice or big and heavy for max runtime.

    I got one 6 months ago and couldn’t be happier.

  • Lunch@lemmy.world
    41·
    2 years ago

    Personally just got a T15 gen 2. AMD version, and very happy with mine. Especially since it has the numpad included. Been running nixOS without any issues so far!

  • sibloure@beehaw.org
    41·
    2 years ago

    I got a used ThinkPad T480s and installed 40 GB of RAM in it for Qubes OS. It’s modern enough to charge over USB-C, so one plug for everything. I also have a MacBook I use for school and both are solid.

  • vbatts@lemmy.ml
    31·
    2 years ago

    I’ve been on this hunt lately as well, but because I want to believe there could be a suitable option for a Linux tablet …

    Regardless, for just a new thinkpad the X1 carbon has remained a solid choice for all around work-flows (research, student, development, business, etc.)