Thinkpads and why you should have one
I really like IBM/Lenovo's Thinkpad series of laptops.
Even before I lived in a country where they were reasonably available, I looked to get my hands on one. My current (jul. 2025) general use laptop is a sixth-generation Thinkpad X1 Carbon with 8GB RAM, a 1080p display, and whichever good intel processor they could pack into it that year. It was released in 2018 for $1400. I paid around $250 in 2024 for one in very good condition.
After using it, especially after using the previous popular models like the T420 and X230, it's very hard to recommend any "consumer" grade laptop. Because of software and hardware stagnation, it doesn't feel seven years old. The vast majority of software stopped improving or demanding high-performance hardware years ago, which means that when you're looking for a laptop to use as a secondary device to your PC, for web browsing, email-writing, media-consuming and other tasks, you can overlook performance and dig through the scraps of large corporate purchases for something with a great screen, a good-feeling keyboard, and excellent build quality. A machine initially meant to wow c-suites and present a sleeker, better alternative to a chunky Dell (though we have a lot of love for Precisions and Elitebooks, of course) now available to the rest of us for a pittance, compared to buying a "new" laptop made mostly of plastic and adware.
This laptop is mostly made from carbon fiber and magnesium alloy.
The machines are fantastic as they are, even when you're stuck playing the add-on lottery, gambling on battery capacity, and finding out just what add-ons that IT department half a decade ago went with, whether they needed them or got upsold on them. Even the tiny X1 series will optionally include things like a smartcard reader (not very useful outside a corporate environment, sadly), a WWAN modem (great to have!), or a more expensive screen than the stock trim level, often higher resolution, color fidelity or, at the high-end, bright enough to be used in sunlight. It all speaks to "road warrior" necessities, but luckily for us corporate laptops tend to spend most of their lives in an office or a co-branded carrying bag.
But the thing that truly sets them apart from "home" devices is the philosophy of repair around them. In ten minutes, I can open my computer, which is meant to be opened by a non-Lenovo technician or user, and change or replace parts. I can double the storage, change the wi-fi card, or install the options my trim level didn't ship with. There's a manual for all of it, hosted by the company itself, with full listings of easy-to-eBay replacement parts. Because of the thriving second-hand market, supported at both ends by pallets of last year's laptops being offloaded by corporations and enthusiasts eager to pick them up, those parts are readily available, and guides on more offbeat modifications are too.
Are they a replacement for a brand-new Framework 14? Not really. (you should still look at the P series if you're into that, though) But I wish everyone who bought a brand-new $300 laptop would know of and consider these machines. And one of my big ideas for a second-hand store would be a vintage electronics shop in the vein of RE-PC, where refurb and sales of weird old hardware could be subsidized by flipping corporate laptops for people who just need A Computer.
