New laptop time. Thinkpad recommendations?

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

Certainity45 ,

T480 or Framework

flashgnash , (edited )

I hear a lot about the t480, how does it hold up compared to a p50?

Certainity45 ,

I have no personal experience from any P-series, but my friend has a P50 or P52 as his work machine and he has daily drive that for years in CAD and he loves it everyday. The chsssis is same qaulity as T-series.

Oha ,
@Oha@lemmy.ohaa.xyz avatar

got a t450s for 100€ and its pretty amazing!

z00s ,

Get a framework laptop. They're the new thinkpad

Pantherina ,

Gonna drop Novacustom/System76 here. Laptops with open firmware are key

BaumGeist ,

Your use-case says "ARM laptop" to me.

Pros: Get some kind of SoC laptop, and never worry about battery charge again. They're also lighter-weight and better at thermal management. Right now, Linux on ARM is still kind of fledgling so there's not as many apps made to run on ARM natively; the upside is that since there's not as many possible combinations of hardware, there aren't nearly as many edge case bugs and issues.

Cons: If you want youtube in 1080p+ and 60 fps or if you want to use Visual Studio (instead of something lighter-weight), you'll either want the most powerful SoC laptop on the market (probably something by Apple), or not SoC at all. Same goes if you want to have like 5+ programs opened at once and 10+ tabs open on firefox. If you're on the opposite side with me and don't mind if the video is 30 fps or the resolution is 720i and using vim as an IDE, you can get away with something dirt cheap. The other downside of course being the inability to upgrade hardware, which goes hand-in-hand with the reduced hardware combinations aforementioned. Also, since it's not as widely adopted/developed, there are more standard case bugs/issues.

It does force a more minimal approach to computing—it's not powerful, and it's on the lower-end of ARM laptops—but my Pinebook has only done well by me. The security/privacy factor of Pine was also a big plus.

cyberpunk007 ,

It doesn't matter, every one of them will spy on you

CorrodedCranium ,
@CorrodedCranium@leminal.space avatar

Isn't that why a lot of people recommend ThinkPads? So they can run libreboot

cyberpunk007 ,

It came out at some point they had hardware spyware I thought

CorrodedCranium ,
@CorrodedCranium@leminal.space avatar

That's what they are trying to fight. I don't think there's been any substantial claims of them spying. At least I couldn't find any

thecrotch ,

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

cirdanlunae OP ,

I'm replacing a dead Latitude currently, it was a fun ride, but I'd like to replace it with something else

MXX53 ,

I bought a t460s i5 model with 20gb of RAM and replaced the second internal battery for a total of $180 in the US. Other than the screen not being the best (but I mostly work in terminal so it wasn't a big deal for me), it has been a great laptop with great battery life.

clever_banana ,
@clever_banana@lemmy.today avatar

X1 Carbon is king

Evoliddaw ,

Massive QC issues in the last 2-3 years at least, while they may not be terrible you definitely have to repaste and re-thermal pad if you get anything Carbon from Lenovo.

pan_troglodytes ,

got a t470 refurb for $150 last year and have been very happy with it.

gravitas_deficiency ,

You looked at starlabs or purism?

clever_banana ,
@clever_banana@lemmy.today avatar

Purism is crap

cirdanlunae OP ,

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.

owatnext ,
@owatnext@lemmy.world avatar

I find my T480s really fits my lightweight usecase. Hope you enjoy yours.

StorageB ,

Where did you buy it? Looking for something similar for myself.

cirdanlunae OP ,

Found one refurbished on eBay. I'll report when I get it as to the quality

electric_nan ,

T or P series refurb from eBay.

sibloure ,

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.

Elkenders ,

Second for this. Got one myself. 1080p, USB C, upgradable ram, I replaced the internal and external batteries no problem. I stuck a second SSD inside last weekend and replaced the thermal paste in about 20 mins. If you like tinkering and being able to repair and maintain yourself it's really great.

Got win 11 on one SSD and Debian on the second and all running well.

sibloure ,

Wow I just learned I could put a second SSD in the WWAN slot! Sounds awesome for a dual boot setup.

Elkenders ,

Yeah, was easy peasy. Bought the sad off eBay. Be careful which SSD you pick up only specific ones fit, I think there's a thread on Lemmy somewhere. I used a western digital sn520 2242 m.2. A 256 one. I think 512 exist but harder to source.

cooopsspace ,

Framework

just_another_person ,

Framework

FlavorPacket ,

Framework

BrianTheeBiscuiteer ,

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.

TheAnonymouseJoker ,

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 ,

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

TheAnonymouseJoker ,

Is the FP reader Synaptic? It has no issues. I have not yet heard of a different FP reader on ThinkPads.

flashgnash ,

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

TheAnonymouseJoker ,

Maybe check added repositories for needing to add a separate one, or try using YAST?

flashgnash ,

I'm on NixOS so no yast, I've tried installing the one that supposedly worked for a p50

cooopsspace ,

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.

steal_your_face ,
@steal_your_face@lemmy.ml avatar

If you order it now you only have to wait til April!

(yes I'm on the wait list)

sgtnasty ,
@sgtnasty@lemmy.ml avatar

frame.work

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