Previous thread: Don't buy anything OTHER THAN IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad T, X, and W/P Series if you want the Real Business Experience™ >Other business laptops are welcome in /tpg/ (Dell Latitude/Precision, HP EliteBook/ZBook).
Why ThinkPad? >Used machines are plentiful and cheap >Excellent keyboards >Great durability (excl L and E series) >Utilitarian design >Docking stations that easily turns your laptop into a desktop >Most models are easy to repair, upgrade & maintain thanks to readily available service manuals for every model and spare parts are easy & cheap to obtain >The best TrackPoint™, easier to use when typing >Good for Hackintoshing
Libreboot-compatible models: >T60 (check lcd), X60(s/t); X200(s/t. -s requires soldering), T400(s)/500; W500 Models before *40 series can be Corebooted
Modern models: >X220/X230 - 12", 768p, cheap >T420/T430 - 14", 900p, widely available for a good price, socketed CPU (Ivy Bridge CPU support on T420); Quad Core Compatible >T520/530; W520/530 - 15", 1080p, DTR, 32GB RAM on quadcore models, USB 3.0 >T440s - best price/performance ultra portable >T440p/540p; W540/1 - Last Thinkpads with socketed processors, easily replaceable trackpad (W541 doesn't need trackpad replacement)
Which HDD caddy adapter should I get? The official "Lenovo ThinkPad 9.5mm SATA Hard Drive Bay Adapter IV" has shit reviews on Amazon. I've seen the Nimitz has good reviews, and I don't know what to use.
Also, did you replace the wifi card? I would like to avoid the whole quest of upgrading the bios. Will my internet connection via wifi suffer without a better wifi card?
Tyler Williams
My T420 has been acting up lately whenever I press the speaker-mute button it toggles on, but pressing it again doesn't toggle it off neither the audio nor the light. Instead I have to press on one of the volume buttons (+/-) twice to completely unmute the speaker again. This might be a Windows 10 thing, but this started like 2 days ago and I can't remember updating.
Also I can't remember pressing the Fn key ever lighting up the mute LED
Adrian Rodriguez
unirconically I like the new chicklet keyboard more than the old ones change my mind
Julian Phillips
Just got a W540 under Win10. After installing the Fn software, every key except for Fn+F12 works. When using Sharp Keys, Fn+F12 returns "Key is disabled".
Kinda wished I could map that to Print Screen istead of the god awful placement it has between Ctrl and Alt Gr.
I like the feel of it, I just hate the layout. Fn's placement is so stupid that even Lenovo has noticed and gives you the option to change it into BIOS. Print Screen makes no sense where it is when it's either Fn or Menu on most keyboards, there are no Fn media keys anymore either.
Caleb Wright
yeah the print screen and the media keys or the lack of really put me off on the new ones, but damn the new keys feel so much better somehow I can't describe it
Caleb James
Ordered myself a basic T440p. I plan on bumping the RAM up to 8GB, swapping the hard drive with a spare SSD, installing Manjaro, and replacing the screen. Anyone have a good source on screens? Screencountry claims to have legit N140HCE-EN1 REV.C2 panels, but their listing doesn't have "Color Gamut 72%" like some other listings have.
Brayden Collins
I ended up mapping Calculator to Print Screen and Print Screen to Menu (which I find way more useful on a laptop than a desktop to avoid moving the cursor around), and Fn+F12 doesn't even work. I'm indeed.
Nathan Cox
According to this, 802-11n (the latest wifi protocol stock t440p) supports up to 450 Mbps. Does this mean I don't need to change the wifi card unless my home wifi has a larger bandwidth than that?
Basically, but if what I've discovered with my desktop PC is true, more power is generally "more" better anyway because you still lose bandwidth due to the nature of Wi-Fi. That said, going above 450MBps is optical fibre tier. If you don't have optical fibre, it's wasted money.
As Yngwie would say, "more is more".
Bentley Ross
I just bought one with the same specs save an i5-5330 for $260. Kind of an impulse buy, but good?
I was really disappointed by my t420 I got a few years back, though it was mostly the terrible screen and not-so-good keyboard. Hopefully this will be better. Seemed like a great price to me.
Jackson Murphy
Chances are you won't notice the difference between N and AC alone. If your router can do AC it should do N really well, same with the wifi card. Wait until your Thinkpad comes in, then run some speedtests. If you're happy with the speeds just leave the card alone.
Carter Parker
and if it matters, the $260 was including tax/shipping. eBay has 10% off coupon today for me.
Carson Williams
Thanks for the answer. I have a piss poor connection (10 Mbps) so I guess I can skip the whole bios shenanigans! Thanks a lot!
Dominic Jenkins
Oh yeah, no wifi card is gonna help you with that. My desktop has a cheap Rosewill N card that pulls over 100Mbps easily. Just make sure you're speeds aren't super low compared to other devices on the network, in which case the card might be dying.
Bentley Mitchell
t440p owner here, still using the stock wifi card without any problems. Home internet is limited to 80mb/s, and I see no difference between cable or wireless speeds in tests.
As for the hard drive adapter, I'm using a generic 9.5mm one without any issues. Got 3 of them for 10 bucks, so if it does fail it'll take less than a minute to replace it. Check to see if it has an actual dvd drive by the way, recently a buddy of mine bought an l540 and it came with a solid plastic filler piece in the drive bay, no plastic cover to remove and put on the adapter which looks really ghetto. (Don't know if the same is true for the t440p)
Grayson Williams
How often do you use your Thinkpad? For work? leisure? I'm asking because I'm on the fence about buying a thinkpad for casual use.
Thanks! Yes, the t440p comes with an optical drive.
Caleb Nguyen
Do you have a need for a laptop? I owned a Surface Pro 3 for years and it's just been collecting dust since I finished school. My current job leaves me with a good 3-4 hour chunk of time where I'm just waiting for stuff to happen, so I bought a laptop to keep me occupied. I refuse to do personal stuff on my work machine and staring at a phone screen starts to suck balls after an hour.
Recently I've been using it pretty frequently because I've needed to be productive. Unplugged the gaymer rig and being bound to a laptop is not very fun or comfortable so I am compelled to do other things.
Isaac White
A MacBook Pro? Agreed.
Xavier Murphy
Sometimes you need someone else's look on the matter. To make sure this happens, you communicate, that's when you force yourself to go through each step of the problem you're facing, eventually finding out where you fucked up. So don't feel bad for that. You certainly is a faggot, but not for this reason.
Debian or Arch if you're cool Gentoo if you're autistic
Evan Parker
>cute haiku os
Matthew Harris
>spend 4 hours driving (back and forth) across the country (actually state but I say country to make it sound more dramatic) to meet an Arab who agreed to sell me his T450s (probably stolen) for $300 >i7, 1920x1080 >meet him in person >he backs out and asks for $400 What the FUCK, its like hes not even apologetic for 9/11.
Theres a thinkpad 410 near me available, 500 GB HD, Intel i7 core, and looks worn down, but is $20. im really considering getting it, even though ive heard the 410 model is obsolete as fuck. worth it or nah? i dont game at all and i would jsut use it for coding/work mostly (i do computational science shit) whatdya boys say?
Kevin Miller
its a t410, that is.
Lucas Price
T410 is still enough for basic web browsing and animu and stuff. For $20 you might as well grab it.
a fully functioning computer for $20, sure why not
Joseph Stewart
Thinking on jumping on the memepad train and keeping the thing for a good long while. But it's gonna be a T480 though. Down the road if something were to fail, where's the best place to buy parts?
Thomas Williams
Are there any OLED panels that would fit in a T430 or T440p?
Nathan Hall
find the FRU # for the part you want, then google it, ebay, aliexpress, a lot of online stores that stock parts
Ayden Garcia
Where can I learn how to mod my x230 BIOS myself? Guy on the forum keeps asking for PayPal money, even though I told him it won't let me send it.
Easton Butler
what do u want to mod
Christopher Hill
WIFI Whitelist removal Unlock MSR 0xE2 Enable Advanced menu
Isaiah Wilson
you bought it, didn't you?
James Miller
You think X1 Carbon is going on sale on Black Friday, and how low do you estimate the price can get?
Kevin Cook
Just ordered an x395 with the 3500u and 1080p non touch screen. Any chance of me getting ~6hrs battery life on linux?
Hunter Hughes
>I owned a Surface Pro 3 for years and it's just been collecting dust since I finished school
I know this feel, with my T500. It's barely seen any use since I graduated 3 years ago, and I've turned it on maybe twice in the past year. I've thought about selling it, but I refuse to give up that 1920x1200 screen.
William Powell
Not sure what the second thing is but coreboot will fix the first issue.
Connor Brooks
no, I wrote a bad review on his craigslist account and then went to the lenovo experience shop to try out the x390 and x395, they are pretty light as 1920x1080 seems fine on 12.5" even with 100% display scaling but that's probably because I'm used to low dpi using a 27" 1440p monitor.
Matthew Bennett
>already told you last thread to shoot him and rob him of everything on him
Benjamin Diaz
For $20 I would even buy it just to post it on tpg even if I don't use it
Gavin Carter
Can someone give me an idea whether or not if these prices for any thinkpad is worth purchasing? These are all priced in Canadian Dollars. I'm asking because I have no idea how much they should be worth on craigslist or kijiji.
Leaf here, I recently bought a T450 with an i7 for about 400 (before ontario tax), from a newegg seller. I also got a T420 a year ago for about 200. It still seems like a bargain for how much they are here, even on ebay. Keep an eye out, our dollar doesn't go very far. Who knows you may find a deal yet.
Why's there no proper AMD 15" Laptop yet? At this point I'm about to get an E595, not because it's good but the best of the worst. >brandshill lolol Don't care. We as the consumers should have a choice and Intel's bedshittery lately is going on my nerves.
>How often do you use your Thinkpad? For work? leisure? I'm asking because I'm on the fence about buying a thinkpad for casual use.
Personally i use mine everyday and i dont even do any work on it, just a fuck ton of yt and Jow Forums/nel, once i reinstall my distro to 64 bit i can see myself use it EVEN more.
I will never use a laptop without a trackpoint again,
I am looking for one in the 100-200$ range. I want one that: has the old keyboard and mouse, is upgradable, has long battery life and decent performance.
Cooper Long
16 gb isn't enough anymore for me, i need 32 or 48
Nathan Robinson
you can get an x230 or t430 for just north of $100, then a new genuine battery for $60-70
Alexander Price
x200/x220 if you will install some lightweight linux distro. x230 if you are willing to use the new keyboard. T420 if you want old keyboard + bigger screen T430 if you want old keyboard + faster processor + bigger screen.
Christian Carter
Is having the audio jack on the right side a deal breaker to you ? I mean, it kind of gets in the way when you are using a external mouse.
Just get a 3.5mm right angle adapter or a cable with a right angle head.
Camden Barnes
I mostly carry it to work to play video games on it.
Benjamin Robinson
That's what I did got 5% less capacity again
Elijah Sanders
Should I buy a T420 or T430 ?
Cameron Rivera
yes
Kevin Jones
they both cost around the same and the t430 is just a more recent machine with newer hardware, if you really hate the keyboard you can replace it with the t420 one I think
Connor Price
it even comes with a better OS
Nolan Thompson
I don't know much about it but I have heard that T420 is more future proof because you can change the wifi card with newer wifi cards that have newer technology. If the wifi card on the T430 won't become obsolete, then I will go for it.
Daniel Rodriguez
I need to buy a new laptop for my university course (computer science), and am struggling to choose between the T495S and the X1 Carbon. Do you guys have any experiences with either of the 2, and if so, which one should I get?
Brody Turner
>Jow Forums is NOT your personal tech support team or personal consumer review site.
Jackson Green
400nit screen option for the t495s is stupidly expensive atleast here so it costs as much as the x1 c7
Matthew Johnson
Hey anons, I'm having trouble getting my media keys to work on my t430 with GNU/Linux, help is much appreciated!
Jackson Miller
e series, ignore stallman fans here saying it's bad
Elijah Roberts
>plastic hinges
Lucas Ross
What's /tpg/'s stand on x1 carbon? Either this, or a recent-ish x2?0 with a 1080p display. My x201's dead do my current laptop is an iPad with a Bluetooth keyboard. Sad.
if the limitations of x1c don't bother you it's just fine
Dominic Moore
had a dream last night i bought and was opening a new x280 my eyesight was really bad and i had to squint very hard and look really close just to find see model, weird dream