Time to buy thinkpad, which one?

[ibmfreak]

Hello

I have not followed the thinkpad scene for a long time. So I am little confused what should I buy.
My demands: Good screen, resolutio. Light weight, upgrades one could do self like ram, hard drive.
Please give some advice Thank you to all

I did like the 2018 macbook pro, but keyboard was not good.

[dr_st]

The latest X1 Carbon offerings are great in terms of screen size + resolution / size and weight proportions, but RAM is not upgradeable. Upgradeable RAM is going away on all new light-weight Thinkpads. If it's super-important to you, you'll have to get a heavier model or an older model.

[keithsketchley]

Certainly could use a good comparison table, which may be somewhere on Lenovo's churned-never-better web site.


Some may have limitations on HDD/SSD upgrade.

X1 carbon models sound great, iterated through seven generations or more, but OOOH the price.
OTOH E390 is much lower price than T series and Xnnn series.

Lenovo is discounting heavily as I speak a week before Christmas 2019. But I don’t see how to filter their sale page to only show Thinkpads.


Does anyone know the difference between no-suffix, p-suffix, and s-suffix on recent models? (Meaning seems to have varied over the years.)

[keithsketchley]

Correction, model is E590.

[theterminator93]

They keep changing up suffix, no suffix, model line, etc. etc. so I'm not sure I know what's what these days. "s" at the end means the slimline model, usually at the cost of expansion or connectivity ports.

That said I'd say avoid the E series... they are a consumer grade product, not a corporate product. We were deploying the E series to clients for a while and they feel pretty cheap. If you can at all manage, get an L series instead of E series - it's a big jump in quality for the price. The L series is the entry level corporate line, and T series is mainstream. From there we have the X series ultraportables, P series workstations all similar to the T series for build quality.

I have a T25 which is very similar to the T470. Aside from the industry-wide sacrifices in terms of LEDs, ODDs, hot-swap bays etc. which (still, IMO) defined the brand, it is a solid machine. I do wish it had come out with 8th gen CPUs though.

My personal recommendation is a T480 or T490, or if you want the 15" version the T580/590. I believe those have the base RAM soldered but have one upgradeable DIMM slot? Screen options aren't too bad either. I've thought about getting an i7 WQHD T480 to frankenpad the T25 keyboard onto, but they're still kinda pricey when I find them in reasonable shape.

[keithsketchley]

"s" at the end means the slimline model, usually at the cost of expansion or connectivity ports."

Ah, thankyou!

Good for portability - USB pots for on the road, docking or equivalent adapter for desk.

[keithsketchley]

Docks are pricey for current models of Thinkpad, heavily discounted if superceded - e.g. for T470 as T480 is different configuration.

For T480 Lenovo sent to a slide--to-side fit, plug goes into a special USB-C or Thunderbolt port that will support USB-C accessories AFAIK. Earlier configurations were the sit-on connector in the dock, like x41 had, that gives less flexibility of internal design of the computer.

(There is an adapter box that connects by cable to USB port.
Beware terminology is imprecise easy to confuse vintages and forms.)

For now I found a USB-C to VGA adapter from Logiix for about C$80 that works fine except the plug is loose in the port, I think there's supposed to be a plastic filler piece.

[keithsketchley]

Restating a general caution:
Lenovo is changing models and features.

For example, the x390 has a display almost as large as the T480's 14" (IIRC 13.9").
So given other features I purchased a T480 to replace my x41. (The x390 is the latest in the series the x41 was in, there are some other x numbers like x1 Carbon but it is quite limited.)

And note the tradeoff of display visibility versus portability. Wish I'd bought a T580 for my aging eyes. At home I have an external 19" monitor, which also is very useful for using two applications/documents at once - handy for writing and for engineering work as copying between documents is common. There is an option in Windows to have the second display as an extension of the first display, I have not tried that yet but have seen mechanical designers running two displays with small bezels to view a wide drawing (reducing panning and zooming which is time consuming).

One thing to note if replacing an ancient machine like the x41 is that the wider aspect ratio means for the same diagonal dimension the vertical display height may be less - and web weenies have not wised up to that, they are profligate with vertical space plus Windows recommends 150% expansion for visibility.

And Lenovo is compromising, I am annoyed with the keyboard on the T480 compared to the x41.

[atagunov]

The x390 is the latest in the series the x41 was in
...
wider aspect ratio means for the same diagonal dimension the vertical display height may be less
...
I am annoyed with the keyboard on the T480 compared to the x41.

That's why

13" 3:2 aspect ratio, 10th gen 6-core Intel, NVM.e, legendary kbd/body
Optionally with a trackpad. No docking port though; ext. display via USB-C; power via round barrel

On the flip side I ordered in Jan 2020 and hope to receive by end of 2020

[keithsketchley]

Looks like an x41 - no touchpad.

[dr_st]

Looks like an x41 - no touchpad.

It's an X200 body.

[atagunov]

Looks like an x41 - no touchpad.

I ordered one in X201 body - with touchpad, I'm a touchpad person If xytech still has motherboards he can fit into either body.

[keithsketchley]

I recommend against buying a Thinkpad because Loonovo refuses to communicate adequately if you have to claim on warranty.