Best ThinkPad for all times?

[epbrown]

The 701C for me - it exemplifies the companies quality and innovation, something IBM didn't get enough credit for, imo. Next choice would be the TransNote, which was basically a 600X in cooler packaging. I've actually got some ideas about making my current Thinkpad 10 more like my old TransNote; I'd like to mount a keyboard into a leather portfolio and add a bracket to mount the pad with a kickstand to raise and lower the tablet.

[exTPfan]

The only two I bought new and used until their screens turned pink and died were a T600E and a T42 (like the one in my signature), so I'd vote for those.

[KentT]

T/X 61 (last great 16:10 classic)
X 220 (Great really rugged ultraportable with awesome battery life and great speed)
T/W 510 (one of the last classic ThinkPad keyboards, great 15" design, well built and solid, the T 510 is my first personal ThinkPad)

These are notable favorites of mine.

My first introduction to ThinkPad was the 600X (still for me one of the best laptops ever designed)

[TPFanatic]

I'd vote for T500 and W500. Three of Thinkpads' greatest aspects are in my opinion 1. Screen size, 2. Keyboard, and 3. Reliability, and the T500 (and W500) excel in these categories.

1. Screen
The T500, W500, R500, and SL500 series machines are the last 15.4" 16:10 Thinkpads, so they can be fitted with WUXGA (what about LED WQXGA?) displays. What I love most about 16:10 is it meets the "Enough vertical pixels" requirement, as reflected by the names: WSXGA+ (1680x1050) is Wide SXGA+ (1400x1050), WUXGA (1920x1200) is Wide UXGA (1600x1200). I love 4:3 but the marketing behind 16:10 makes it the most biggest aspect ratio. Much criticism against 16:9 is due to their panels having less vertical pixels than the last mainstream's 16:10 panels, but if the 16:9 panel makers had kept the same vertical pixels 16:10 and 4:3, just wider to fit the TV aspect ratio, I doubt it'd be met with as much distaste as it has.

2. Keyboard
These Thinkpads were the last with Lenovo's Thinkpad Z60 style, gray volume button, keyboard, which can share keycaps with the IBM keyboards, essentially they are the same fantastic keyboards. The Windows key does assist with Windows functionality.

3. Reliability
The T500 and W500 feature Magnesium rollcages and dedicated graphics unlikely to fail, making them more reliable than the 15.4" T60 (lacking a lid cage) and T61.

The worst issue I've found in these machines isn't Wobbly Hinge Syndrome, but Freezing Hinge Syndrome. My "For Parts Or Not Working" W500's left hinge committed suicide. It could have worse, as there was no collateral damage, but this is a thing to beware on *500 and *61 15.4". As for WHS, it's different on all the asymmetrical 15.4" Thinkpads I've touched. I wonder if the asymmetrical design contributes to hinge damage.

I'm also finding my T500 to be usable in 2015. Granted, I haven't used a faster laptop so my perception is a bit off, so the last Core 2 Duos and Radeon 3650 seem powerful to me.

[SkiBunny]

Best has gotta be the FrankenPad .... but I never had one or used one except in my dreams

If that doesn't qualify, then it's the T60 ..... Featuring the last IPS flexview screen in glorious full 15" @ 4:3, all the classic thinkpad hardware, a big step up in processor power with the C2D compared to prior thinkpads including 64-bit support, and strong build quality. My main T60 took a lot of use & abuse as a road warrior back in the day, yet it kept going & going faithfully for many years. Never any problem, no loose GPU nor early DeathStar HDD failures like I experienced with my T4x units.

Also a nod to the T21, which I took home when it got retired from work, and then I left it running 24-7-365 for a decade. My T21 was still ticking when I discarded it in 2015 only because I moved.

[micrex22]

I'd vote for the T60: since it hit the peak of ThinkPad maturity (with the best keyboards) and features that are now gone. Also seems to be one of the most moddable series; or perhaps the most-modded since people like them the best and keep finding ways to upgrade.

For vintage ThinkPads, I'd vote for the beige 720C variant (or any older model in beige):
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... d_720C.jpg
Simply because it has a unique look.

[Puppy]

Keyboard: X31
Screen: T60p

[Temetka]

For me, it would have to be either the T410 or T60.

Excellent machines though.

I'd also give a shoutout to the T23. Mine got me through college and it's serial port was most helpful when connecting to routers and whatnot.

[vivaelt42]

My favorite would have to be the T42... I know you guys like the T60 I've had it for about 4 years now; I got it from my dad's work for free. It was how I learned about the ThinkPad.

It still has the stock XP and IBM/Lenovo drivers and software. That machine was unstoppable even before I stuffed 2GB of ram into it6 months ago. It was my daily driver--even though I had a Toshiba with a Pentium Dual Core with 3GB of ram and Kubuntu... The Toshiba had better performance and a higher-resolution screen... but everything else about it was wrong. The keyboard was nasty, the screen was junk, and it got really hot on my lap. The ThinkPad, on the other hand, even though it has the 14.1in 1024x768 screen, was a joy to use with its excellent keyboard, TrackPoint, and touchpad. I have not used a better keyboard or touchpad as the one on the T42.

But alas, the Ultrabay DVD/CDR-W drive failed about 4 months ago, and in November I got a T420 to replace it. I really like the T420, but the T42 still has the better typing experience.

I also have a 380D with 48MB of RAM and the 2.1GB HDD. It runs Win98, Office 97, and DOS games like a champ. It is actually an "accident" that I have it. My dad brought home a laptop bag he found on a curb. Turns out there was a laptop inside. After replacing the clock battery, it instantly booted the original lived-in copy of Win 95 that came with it. And as far as I'm concerned, the battery is in really good condition...

[Omineca]

I'm with TPFanatic on this one. I love the *500 series. The screen dimensions are great. I don't really care much about resolution. What matters to me is the physical size, and the 16:10 screens have the vertical height. They're also superb for working with two documents at once.

The old ThinkPad keyboard layout is so nice. I hate using my T430 at work and hitting the PgUp or PgDn buttons by mistake when I'm trying to go backward or forward in the browser. Grrr..... I don't mind the action of the chiclet keyboards, but I hate the layout.

Anyways, I'll probably use my R500 until it's insufferably slow....

[MisterB]

Now that I own one, I have to add the W520 to my personal list. The most amazing thing about it is how it handles power. It comes with a 170 watt adapter and can burn lots of power when working but at idle with two SSDs, it uses under 20 watts. A W510 will use at least 75 watts just being turned on. I have to be doing quite a bit with the W520 to get it to the 50-60 watt range.

It has an incredible combination of CPU and GPU power and low wattage usage that I've never seen before. Plus, it it one of the last Thinkpads that has the traditional Thinkpad keyboard, Thinklight, and all the other Thinkpad features that I've come to love over the years.

[cadillacmike68]

I like the following. I've owned and used these and worked on lots of others.

1990s - 760. You could put just about anything you wanted in those bays under the keyboard! I had DOS, Win 3.1 and 95 and OS2 all on the same machine. If I could get my 760 working again, I'd have it up to run old DOS games.

Early 2000s -T22 and T30. These things kept working through multiple desert deployments (dust has taken its toll on some T30 fans though). The T22 with W98 is great for old DOS games and the T30 with DOSbox should also work fine. I finally took my T30 out of daily use, but as soon as I replace the fan, it will go back on for old DOS games.

Late 2000s and on - T61. lots of CPU and display options, SATA support W7 (with Middleton BIOS), flexible storage options with the ultrabay and advanced dock. T500 might get consideration, If I can get ahold of one.

[dr_st]

A W510 will use at least 75 watts just being turned on.

If you mean that the W510 idles at 75 watts, I seriously doubt it...

[fatpolomanjr]

T/X 61 (last great 16:10 classic)

Ahh, yes. The ever so elusive 16:10 X61. ;p

I <3 my T601F. If I had to choose between 15" T60 and a 14" 4:3 T61 I would have a hard time.

[MisterB]

A W510 will use at least 75 watts just being turned on.

If you mean that the W510 idles at 75 watts, I seriously doubt it...

Not at all surprising. Between the quad core i7 and nvidia GPU it would idle at 75 watts at default PM settings. It could be throttled to 50-60 watts and possibly lower. I replaced it with a W520 which idles at around 32-36 watts in Windows 7 and a bit more in Windows 10. My newly acquired W700 which has a T9400 processor idles at 50-60 watts. It has a bigger display to power and upgrading to a quad core processor would bring the idle power consumption to 60-70 watts. I do my wattage measurements by placing a current meter on the power feed and seeing the actual current consumption.

The W series were made for performance, not battery life. Except for the W500, all of them came with a 135 or 170 watt adapter. Some of the high end W701s which are similar to the W510 in processor and GPU came with 230 watt adapters.

[TPFanatic]

To think a top of the line A31p could still be powered by the same old IBM 72 watt brick....

[RealBlackStuff]

The W510 with nonquad-core CPU, such as i5-520M or i7-620M (and only 2 RAM-slots) can also be used with "regular" 90W adapters, after you make a small mod to the motherboard's power-connector.
For this mod you only need to remove the keyboard, and unplug the white mobo-connector that comes from the yellow DC-connector.
That white mobo-connector has 7 wires, let's call them (from L to R): Blue/Red1/Red2/Red3/Black1/Black2/Black3.
Connect Blue with Black3, making sure you do not short anything.
Put the mobo connector back in, and you can now use a 90W charger.

This mod does NOT apply to W510 with QuadCore CPUs, they need the 135W monsters!

[excal32]

Of every thinkpad i have ever had.....

X61(s) is probably one of the biggest contenders. I keep going back to them. They are perfect to me. I love the little indent on the right corner.

I had a R61 with no touchpad once. I have no idea why I ever sold that machine. It was amazing and wonderful. I've been going a little crazy trying to find one since then. Utterly destroyed when I lost that eBay auction yesterday (some of you know the one i'm talking about!)

The T420 I have a lot of love for but I also have a lot of hate for it.

T61p will always be one of my favorites but I don't think it's #1.

The 700 series also had a lot of great features that never made it into future Thinkpads. I don't think it's fair to compare those to even the T/X/R 60/61 and such though. The 700s were of a completetly different era.

Funny (to me) note: I had the X100e, X120e and X130e at different times. Liked the X100e, HATED the X120e, X130e is almost a contender for favorite ThinkPad ever, but even though I loved it to death, it wasn't really a "ThinkPad" to me ever...

[TonyJZX]

"All time" means the models you've been exposed to.

I've only handled T20/21 at the earilest and had them worked in the industry with the T40/T60 series and onwards up to the present day.

They all felt like quality machines. I'm sure the T20 series I have still fire up. This is in stark difference to the Latitudes and other lesser units I have of the same era.

I would probably say the T61 is probably the watershed model that still has enduring influence on what I find important in machines.

I do love the T40 series but it has faded into obscurity with its 4:3 single core nature.

A 4Gb dual core T61 w/ ssd, better than HD screen and ultrabay and dual band wireless still represents the backbone in what I need today.

The T420/420s represents the end of what I'm interested in as far as Thinkpads go.

Special mention goes to the X300/301 which would still hit it out of the park today if they kept the original case/kbd and just filled it with new guts.

[micrex22]

The 701C for me - it exemplifies the companies quality and innovation, something IBM didn't get enough credit for, imo. Next choice would be the TransNote, which was basically a 600X in cooler packaging. I've actually got some ideas about making my current Thinkpad 10 more like my old TransNote; I'd like to mount a keyboard into a leather portfolio and add a bracket to mount the pad with a kickstand to raise and lower the tablet.

I'd say the TransNote was (way) better built than the 701C, for starters the TransNote has great NMB keyboard assemblies. The 701C keytronic 'dome' keyboard assemblies get really stiff with age to the point where they feel abysmal, and eventually 701Cs will start to seize up and require oiling or something. Plus the plastics don't fare well with age and become super brittle (ignoring the fact that the rubber coating can also destabilize and turn into goo; although a fair bit of IBM products get like that). In terms of the 'best feeling' ThinkPad keyboard, the lexmark ones are pretty freaking amazing, such as on the 360PE.

The 701C does have a really cool audio system though... and is in fact built in a way like no other ThinkPads, so I'm not sure what the story behind that is (if a different development team was working on that, or if they just felt like making it different from all of the rest).

[Kasm279]

I'd say the TransNote was (way) better built than the 701C, for starters the TransNote has great NMB keyboard assemblies. The 701C keytronic 'dome' keyboard assemblies get really stiff with age to the point where they feel abysmal, and eventually 701Cs will start to seize up and require oiling or something. Plus the plastics don't fare well with age and become super brittle (ignoring the fact that the rubber coating can also destabilize and turn into goo; although a fair bit of IBM products get like that). In terms of the 'best feeling' ThinkPad keyboard, the lexmark ones are pretty freaking amazing, such as on the 360PE.

The front right corner on the base likes to fall apart too.

[AIX]

I couldn't say which is the best ThinkPad of all times, reducing my experience to the models I owned and really used (all of them listed in my signature), but from what I've owned, I liked/loved the most the 600X, the T41 and the T420s. Maybe the T420s just a little bit more, even our relation is over 4 years now, the best spent money. And the least, my first one - the 390X, big ugly thing but a ThinkPad and was all I could afford at that time (had no other choice but a ThinkPad from the very first moment I've seen one).

[WarMachine]

Hello,

I absolutely love my Thinkpad 600E. The 600, 600E/X is difficult to find nowadays, but I would buy another one in an heartbeat if i found one. The keyboard is exceptionnal. The build quality as well, it's not too big, not to heavy and relatively slim for a machine from the previous century !
But I love too my X31, my T23 and my T42. My other machines are nice ones, but I don't have the affection I have for those I listed.

Fun fact : I had yesterday my T42 and my T420s side by side. I was typing on my blog on the T42, and I was having a discussion with a friend on the T420s. I hadn't compared the two keyboards, but when using the two machines at the same time, the difference is huge. The T42 is silent and firm. The T420s is more noisy, and not as firm. The pleasure of typing on the T42 remains strong after that. And the 600 is even above the T42. Undisputed despite all these years. A true masterpiece. I must find a way to use it, I miss it !

W.

EDIT : I hadn't used my 600 for number of years, and I decided to give it a go yesterday. As i expected, it didn't boot well, I had errors 161 (?), 163 and 127. But hey, no batteries left, after all these years. I didn't remember what was the 127 error, so I googled and I saw a forum named thinkpads.com Support Community, with a Chaplin logo, i didn't knew it ... I saw the error was related to the CPU. And it's true that my 600E has a Pentium III 500 in it... Verdict is problem with the L2 cache. Fortunately, i had kept the original CPU. I put it in the 600, I try to boot, and bingo ! Everything is fine. I've installed Windows 2000 SP4 on it, I've put an extra 128 Mb RAM, and the laptop is ready for new adventures. I am going to use it as an alarm clock on the morning ! I've found another 600 on the net, and sent an email, I hope to have an answer. Those are so difficult to find nowadays... Welcome back my dear 600 !

[kfzhu1229]

I liked the 600 series which I have a 600 and still works under Windows XP. I like the A30 Series as well even though I do not have a chance to buy the UXGA panel with cable. A30 is still faster than many netbooks today. Its speakers are the most amazing ones I've ever heard on a laptop. I would also vote for ATI T43 Series for the very first ThinkPad to run Windows 8, 8.1 and 10. It is well built except for the southbridge heating issue. Upgrade it into 2GB RAM, Pentium M 2.26ghz and UXGA, you can still live with it today.

[thinkpadgeek91]

T23,T42,T61,R61,T410 are my favorite Thinkpads ever. Just got a box full of R61s and I'm stoked.

[kfzhu1229]

T23,T42,T61,R61,T410 are my favorite Thinkpads ever. Just got a box full of R61s and I'm stoked.

Any love for the numbered series 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, and 8 series?

[thinkpadgeek91]

T23,T42,T61,R61,T410 are my favorite Thinkpads ever. Just got a box full of R61s and I'm stoked.

Any love for the numbered series 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, and 8 series?

I have never even seen one. If I had I'm sure I would love them as well.

[Omineca]

T23,T42,T61,R61,T410 are my favorite Thinkpads ever. Just got a box full of R61s and I'm stoked.

Any love for the numbered series 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, and 8 series?

I have the 365X (which is spec'd out lol) and the 390X.

The 365X is a P100 and sure feels vintage. Win 3.1 flies on it (I liked the ideas behind Win95, but hated using it in practice), but I've got an outdated version of Slackware on it at present. It boots from a CF card in a PCMCIA adapter and has a cool flip-up keyboard for instant access to the internals.

The 390X has an excellent keyboard. Mine still runs the latest LTS version of Debian. Office works well through Crossover, but browsing is impossible. I used it as an everyday machine in 2014 when I was on sabbatical. It kept me focused on work.

Sent from my BlackBerry Q10 using Tapatalk

[kfzhu1229]

I have a broken 770ED, but enjoyed its DVD decoder, keyboard and speakers before it died.
I have a 390X in pretty good condition, almost maxed out (512mb ram, Pentium III 450mhz, 14.1" XGA), but the display can't display 24bit true color despite the fact that the graphics card supports it.
I have a original 600 with 416mb of RAM, Pentium II 266mhz, 5400RPM HDD (Overkill, I know), and Windows XP. It is a pretty neat machine and pretty nice to collect.
But the ones I really like are the A30p I have and the T43p I have

[KentT]

X 61 my favorite (4:3 classic era) ThinkPad as we knew them. In the Core i processor widescreen era, I'd put the T410/T510/W510 or T420/T520/W520 or the X210/X220 as favorite last of the line Real ThinkPads (though the newer keyboards are still better than most on the market)