Thinkpads Forum

I would say the 600 series without a doubt! I have a photographer guy that bought about a dozen of them from me to use as picture prwviewers at kid sporting events, because of their durability.

Least rugged: iSeries by far! I absolutely hated working on them. I never had one that didn't have a crack in it somewhere.... I hated even referring to them as Thinkpads.

The irony is.... the old "R" series are far more rugged than any new ThinkPad.

And to think how we all shunned the "R"'s at the time.

Come back all is forgiven.

edik wrote:The irony is.... the old "R" series are far more rugged than any new ThinkPad.

QFT

And to think how we all shunned the "R"'s at the time.

Not all of us, and not all of them...check my signature...

Come back all is forgiven.

Now you're talkin'...ugly ducklings look like beautiful swans nowadays...

The most recent Thinkpad I have come across that can be described as "rugged" is a 14.1" widescreen R61i -- I bought it from the Lenovo Outlet for a friend. Another Thinkpad I bought from Lenovo around that same time, an X61 tablet, was also remarkably solid. I disliked this tablet's grainy screen, weight and Vista, but its superior build quality was undeniable. These purchases led me to defend Lenovo against forum members who whined about a perceived decline in Thinkpad quality. But all subsequent Thinkpads disappointed, not only in quality but also usability, e.g. the 5-row keyboard, an exceptionally awful implementation of the clickpad, bad keyboard layouts. This disappointment culminated with the T540p that I bought last month. So yes, I agree with you both.

My experience is kind of limited, considering that I've just started off my ThinkPad collection, but I can vouch for the 760XD wholeheartedly.

The one I bought came from a recycler out in California, as part of a lot deal for scrap laptops. There are several deep gouges in the rubber coating, along with an entire chunk of plastic missing out of the top lid, but the internal components are completely intact. LCD screen included. The first time I applied power to it, it booted into Windows 95 without issue, and the battery even began to take a charge. Based on what I found on the hard drive, it was a corporate laptop for a manager at BP/Amoco, but it's obviously been passed around since then. (Considering all the kid's games and other junk that was on it.)

I'd consider replacing the LCD shell, but otherwise leave it alone as a testament to a laptop that's survived being literally kicked around across the country for all these years. The fact that it still works perfectly instantly gained my respect for the laptop, and to the engineers over at IBM who designed it. (I can see why NASA used these up in the ISS.)

760L for parts: http://www.ebay.com/itm/121520284197

RealBlackStuff wrote:760L for parts: http://www.ebay.com/itm/121520284197

I couldn't bring myself to part out a complete functional unit like that...

But I did manage to find a 760EL for parts that has a complete top shell. Got it for a whopping $12!

pianowizard wrote:Another Thinkpad I bought from Lenovo around that same time, an X61 tablet, was also remarkably solid.

I couldn't vote for any pre T20 Thinkpad because i havne't any.

But in this list i haven't notice

geka3250 wrote: But how about shortened list like:
2XX-series
3XX-series
5XX-series
600-series
7XX-series
8XX-series
i-series
TransNote
A2X-series
A3X-series
T30
T4X-series
T6X-series
T4XX...5XX-series
R5X-series
R6X-series
Z-series
G-series
W-series

any X-series.

I have X61 and X61t. And i vote for X6x series (X61 and X60 have almost the same design). May be X4x, X3x or X2x have more rugged case but i haven't any.

X61 have more solid hinges than T6x brothers and than X61t swivel. Sometimes it is noted that X41 tablet have more solid swivel than X6x tablets. Design of X6x is better than T6x or T4x-series. Fully Mg lid and chassis (not only frame). Only bezels and palmrest are plastic. Yes sometimes palmrest have some flex near PCMCIA slot and sometimes plastic near CF slot have broken but i think it is all minor things.

And good a word to T60. Yes 15" T60 (like T4x 15") have plastic lid and conners can get scrathces from hard time, but 14" T60 have full Mg lid and it is more rugged.

that1nerd mentioned the 760XD.

I believe it was the first laptop that totally wowed me with the screen, back at MCI in 1997, I then went out an purchased a 760XL about six months later (it's SVGA equivalent).

You have to admit, with that little LCD panel, tilted kayboard (or is my memory failing me?), easy access to color-coded drives and the memory, and the then superb TFT screens it had few equals. But what struck me the most was the sheer engineering expertise that went into the build. it was undoubtedly over-engineered...

Did the 760's have a ThinkLight.. my memory fails me on that one... come to think of it when was the ThinkLight introduced? perhaps later with the T20?

edik wrote:Did the 760's have a ThinkLight.. my memory fails me on that one... come to think of it when was the ThinkLight introduced? perhaps later with the T20?

According to ThinkWiki:

Models featuring ThinkLight Technology

ThinkPad i Series 1400, i Series 1460, i Series 1480, i Series 1482, i Series 1483, i Series 1492
ThinkPad A20m, A20p, A21e, A21m, A21p, A22e, A22m, A22p, A30, A30p, A31, A31p
ThinkPad R30, R31, R32, R40, R40e, R50, R50e, R50p, R51, R51e, R52, R60, R60e, R61, R61e, R61i, R400, R500
ThinkPad T20, T21, T22, T23, T30, T40, T40p, T41, T41p, T42, T42p, T43, T43p, T60, T60p, T61, T61p, T400, T400s, T410, T410i, T410s, T410si, T420, T420s, T430, T430i, T430s, T430si, T430u, T440, T440p, T440s, T500, T510, T510i, T520, T530, T530i, T540p
ThinkPad W500, W510, W520, W530, W540, W700, W700ds, W701, W701ds
ThinkPad X20, X21, X22, X23, X24, X30, X31, X32, X40, X41, X60, X60s, X61, X61s, X200, X200s, X201, X201s, X220, X230, X300, X301
ThinkPad Z60m, Z60t, Z61m
ThinkPad S30, iSeries s31

I've had three ThinkPads and the ThinkLight never worked on any of them so YMMV on that list

ErgoOne wrote:I have a 600x that I bought in 1999 that still works like a champ. It ran Windows 2000 for years, til I finally installed Linux on it. *Great* computer. I wish today's Thinkpads were remotely as solid...

I've got a couple of 600's that I agree are very solid! This thread is making me think to get them out, again!

Out of the Thinkpads I have owned, my X41T and T410 have been the most rugged.

I really, really love this T410.

I never had extensive time with any pre T23 model. I'll vote for the T30 as the most rugged Thinkpad I've used. Even now 12 years on it and it still works with XPSP3 and my Mom uses it for watching movies and practicing typing. Amazing how the machine still holds up. The hard disk probably needs replacement soon enough having been used in a corporate environment for close to 10 years.

The CMOS battery is dead though.

Both CMOS battery and hard disk are easy to replace.
Then I'd suggest to put some (free) Linux on it, such as AntiX: http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=antix
That T30 should then be good for another 5-10 years.

Of the ones i've used/owned, the X32 is my vote followed by my t60.

For the ones that I have owned and or used, I would definitely think my r61 is the toughest/most rugged. I always thought of it as being a real heavy laptop and I feel like it could withstand a lot. I never actually tried to drop it or abuse it, but I think it would be pretty good when it comes to holding up against wear and tear.

I think the R series thinkpads (post R40) have been a bit understated when it comes to durability. R50 units seem stronger than T4* units, and R61 and R400 models use the same materials as their T-series brothers, but are thicker and frequently run cooler. I have yet to see an R61 or R400, but I would imagine them to be stronger than the T models.

I forgot to mention that for about a year and half I was using an SXGA+ T23. I upgraded everything on that machine to the max specs it could take. It survived daily travels between work and college, as well as general around the house use. It's weakest point was not built quality, but the crap Savage IX GPU they put in it. Otherwise is was a wonderful little machine. No touchpad either.

But I sill miss my old X41T. I had a lot of fun on that computer.

Thinkpads ... rugged? Nope. I think that reputation is undeserved. But I guess it depends what you mean by that. Please bear with me. I've had a T20, T30, T410s, T520. Those are the ones I can speak for.

Can't really remember the T20. In those days it was still worth buying a new machine after 3 years for the increased memory capacity, so it went after that time. I had the T30 for 9 years and used it heavily every day. I guess that qualifies it as rugged, but someone else, in this forum, quite rightly put a damper on my (then) enthusiasm when I mentioned the faulty front memory slot (common issue) and having had to replace the fan. It also wasn't all that solid. The HDD cover was a flimsy part and fractured some way down the line.

I'd characterise Thinkpads as easily maintainable, thanks to modular construction and the hardware maintenance manual. I think they are also quite smartly built. For example, I noticed the power connector on one of them (the T520 or I had an X220 briefly), isn't soldered to the motherboard. It's connected via a cable, internally. This means, if you yank the power cable at a bad angle, you'll at worst damage the socket, but you won't damage the motherboard. Smart.

I had a Panasonic notebook in the 90s. This was rugged on the outside. It had a mag-alloy display lid that was completely rigid. But after 3 years it completely fell apart. Keys fell off. The power socket became unreliable. The CPU / memory subsystem developed a fault. This type of thing hasn't happened with any of my Thinkpads. The Panasonic became unusable, whereas my Thinkpads have kept going. That is to say they didn't develop fatal problems. But does that make them rugged?

Rugged, to me, evokes the thought that you can pick it up without much care. That there is no flex in the chassis. That you might occasionally put a book or another laptop on top of it, without fear of the thing breaking. This is NOT the feeling I get with my Thinkpads. The T410s has a plastic fracture at the front, to the right of the trackpad, even though I hardly used it. The T520 has a big one on the palm rest, on top of the smart card slot where the plastic is just far too flexible. It developed another in front of the trackpad buttons, perhaps because it is usually jammed against the belt-buckle on my lap.

All Thinkpads I've had creak and flex in one place or another. The construction lasts, because the magnesium roll-cage holds the thing together and the hinges are usually brilliant. But the quality of the plastics is frequently shoddy or probably just too thin. If you compare Thinkpads to competitors, the Thinkpads are often lighter. Take a workstation laptop at 2.5kg, for example. The competitors from HP and Dell are closer to 3kg.

My parents had a bargain basement Dell Inspiron. It was heavy, but rock solid. Or take Apple. I had a 13" Unibody Macbook. The thing had a completely solid body, although never mind the lid, which was good but not completely rigid. I'm not widely versed in Apples, but my one certainly showed how you can build a more rigid machine in the same weight ballpark as a comparable Thinkpad. The problem with Thinkpads is, whatever they do, they build them too thin and light. They don't use advanced materials to make machines more rugged. They just use them to make them lighter every time. Frankly, I'm sick of it. Why can't they build a 14" Thinkpad using the materials that go into the X1 Carbon, but at a weight of, say, 1.8kg instead of 1.4kg? One that's completely rigid and not a flimsy primadonna (I'm exaggerating now, but you get my drift).

Very nice and informative post, FragrantHead
However, when I said "rugged", I meant rugged in Thinkpad world, as they never were produced to operate in extreme conditions. I would love to see militarry speccesd Thinkpad though some time in future. If Dell could do that with XFR series, Lenovo is more than capable too.
As for REAL rugged laptops/tablets, in my book nothing beats Mitac corporations Getac V series machines, namely Getac V100 and/or V110 which I own both. In my opinion, they are superior in build quality to Panasonic Toughbook CF-19 in every way and they LITERALLY look like light tanks

http://us.getac.com/notebooks/V110/features.html

http://www.ruggedpcreview.com/3_noteboo ... _v100.html

I think the T410 is the most durable of the modern Thinkpads. I call it the Panzer. The T43 was slender and sleek. I saw little difference between the T43 and T42. The oldest thinkpad I have had in front of me to try out was a T2x series. The T6x series is very sturdy and more bulky vs. the T4x series. The T500 series went along those lines until the T410 and T410s. The T410s is slender with thin plastics, sturdy but not what I would call durable. The palmrest typically develop cracks near the HDD cover or on the front edges. The T510 is a big heavy tank like an Abrams. I have not tried it without the 9 cell battery. i have several extra 6 cell batteries. Compared to the T500, the T510 uses better plastics.