What after classic Thinkpads?

[mikemex]

Everything is fine with modern Thinkpads.

I always wonder if you do it on purpose. Are you playing the devil's advocate? ARE YOU???

Most other things are either overrated (upgradability...

Overrated, you say?

I'm in the process of upgrading my old X301. I already added the usual SSD and topped out the RAM. Now I'm going to add some extra features...

For about $30 I can buy a Mini PCIe USB 3.0 card on Aliexpress and a spare hard drive cover. Why an extra cover? because I've measured and there is enough space to custom fit USB C ports in there. So with some careful wiring from the Mini PCIe slot, I can add two USB C 3.0 ports and not lose any existing feature or need to permanently modify the chassis making the machine look ugly.

I can also upgrade the WIFI card up to 6E (802.11ax) with one of those AX210 cards on Aliexpress, though that may be an overkill due PCI Express 1.0. But possible, nonetheless. If for anything, to get Bluetooth 5.2.

Try that on modern models.

[TPFanatic]

P71 would be the perfect ThinkPad in my opinion if it had the 7 row, the ThinkLight, more indicators, and more forward beveling. In its favor it has a dedicated volume buttons, touchpad buttons, HDD indicator, and an optical bay (I've installed a Blu Ray writer for watching movies); and of course the performance is everything I want in a computer. I don't mind lugging a 17" laptop and the battery life is sufficient.

[dr_st]

Everything is fine with modern Thinkpads.

I always wonder if you do it on purpose. Are you playing the devil's advocate? ARE YOU???

Not really, no. I am just stating my opinion. I find that I really enjoy my Thinkpad 25. To me, really the only deal breaker is the keyboard. I don't mind 16:9, I don't mind loss of indicator lights or the VGA port or whatever legacy feature some folks want.

I am quite pleased with the fact that I have a dedicated charging port, and can also charge through USB-C. I am quite pleased that I have a Thunderbolt port for connecting Thunderbolt peripherals and docks, but also the docking port at the bottom. I like that I have a proper LAN jack, HDMI port and a full-size SD slot. I love the fact that I have an external battery, with support for extended batteries, and still have the internal battery and battery bridge feature.

Come to think about, in terms of ports and expandability, the T470/T570/TP25 generation really hit a sweet spot!

RAM is not soldered. Storage is not soldered. I upgraded the RAM to 32GB. In the future I can upgrade the NVMe SSD if I need more than 512GB of storage.

As far as I see it - there are two things on which the TP25 upgrade is blocked - 8th gen quad-core CPUs, and 4-lane eDP for >FHD resolution. These were (rightfully so) the main qualms against this model being based on the T470. But, the "T480 QHD in TP25 chassis" mod takes care of both issues. I suppose, if the CPUs had been socketed, users could upgrade them easily without complex mods, but that's a pipe dream in modern SoC world.

What you are doing with your X301 is not upgrading per se, it's modding (and very elegant, by your description). If your X301 had a proper ExpressCard like most Thinkpads of that era, you could just use an ExpressCard-to-USB3.0 to get the same effect without chassis modding (although not with the USB-C form factor, as I'm not sure ExpressCard-USBC adapters were ever made). Heck, your X301 does not even have a proper docking port. It is actually an textbook example to show that compromises between form factor and upgradability/expandability were not invented with modern laptops - they have always been there.

[crashnburn]

Can they run Win 8.1 without issues? - e.g. Latest/ last Gen of CPUs Chipsets (Mobile, Desktop/ Workstation) from Intel AMD still support & can run Win 8.1?