5 ms·

I'm surprised you say it had fantastic specs. My case was the complete opposite: my Thinkpad had pretty terrible specs for the price I paid for it, but I'm yet

I'm surprised you say it had fantastic specs. My case was the complete opposite: my Thinkpad had pretty terrible specs for the price I paid for it, but I'm yet to find a keyboard that comes close to it. I don't think the keyboard is incredible, but it's depressing most laptop's keyboards.

Waterluvian 10y ago
I was given it on day one so I don't know it's history, but it was definitely maxed out specs. So fantastic for what I was used to? =) The keyboard was very nice. Though the trackpad was terrible. The #$*(# thing is a damn sticker. And I had to replace the sticker twice because it would wear smooth where I used it most.
user5994461 10y ago
Thinkpads T have a huge range of specs. For any reference, there are hundreds of sub-references with different combinations of hardware.
- farresito 10y ago
  Yes. I was referring to the relationship price-specs. Unless things have changed, a 1000$ thinkpad T won't probably buy you more than 8gb, an i5, possibly still a HDD (hopefully not anymore). I suppose people that are used to Macs won't see a problem with this, since Macs tend to be quite expensive, but it's still a bit of money, although I would rather spend this than buy a laptop that doesn't work well, like plenty of what's out there.
  - fencepost 10y ago
    Lenovo's prices for a lot of upgrades (RAM, SSD) tend to be high. My recommendation there is to upgrade the things that aren't reasonable to do yourself/later (screen, WiFi adapter if you have choices between 2x2 and 3x3, backlit keyboard, fingerprint reader). RAM and HD upgrades on Thinkpads tend to be pretty easy (though I don't know about the X1 never having looked at one), so for those it may be better to get the cheapest option then upgrade on your own.
    - coredog64 10y ago
      X1 has gone back and forth between upgradable and soldered on. Occasionally I will see an X1 at a price I'm willing to pay only to find out that I can't upgrade.
    - farresito 10y ago
      Yes, I actually did that with my SSD and memory. One of the things I miss of Thinkpads is the GPU. It seems like in the past two or three years it's been increasingly hard to find a Thinkpad T with GPU. I'm aware that the W have them, but those are beasts. I read somewhere that you could buy them through other countries, like Japan, but didn't look much into it.
      - fencepost 10y ago
        They're not mentioned very often, but it looks like at this point for the T4xx you have to go with the "p" models to get a Nvidia GPU - the T460 and T460s are only Intel, as I understand it the T460p is somewhere between the T460 and the W product line - a little bigger, a little more expandable, etc. Looks like you can also only get the GPU with the i7-6820HQ, so out of all the T product line there's a single CPU/GPU combination that's not using the Intel graphics. That may in part be related to the significant improvements in Intel's graphics capabilities in recent generations - starting around the HD4000 in the third-generation processors the GPUs are actually reasonably capable, and they've improved rapidly even from that point.
  - joatmon-snoo 10y ago
    It's an unfortunate consequence of the ridiculous markups on hardware add-ons, but if you're willing to apply a little elbow grease and look at resellers, it's not too hard to get what you're looking for for 1000$. New: * 818$: cheapest T460 on the website * +270$ for i3-6100u => i7-6600u * +390$ for 500GB HDD => 512GB SSD upgrade * +470$ for 4GB RAM => 32GB RAM Here's your 1000$ build: * 700$ for a T460 with an i5 on eBay (http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?LH_Sold=1&_udlo=700&_dmd=1&_ipg=200&LH_Complete=1&_sop=15&_nkw=t460%20i5) * 170$ for a 500GB 850 EVO (https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-2-5-Inch-Internal-MZ-75E500B-AM/dp/B00OBRE5UE) * 108$ to 170$ for Crucial's 16GB RAM kits (depending on specific specs) If you're willing to part with another 200$-300$: * <800$ for a T460 with an i7 on eBay (http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?LH_Sold=1&_udlo=700&_dmd=1&_ipg=200&LH_Complete=1&_sop=15&_nkw=t460%20i7) * 340$ for Crucial's 32GB RAM kit (http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/thinkpad-t460/CT8304418)
    - gravypod 10y ago
      If you're a more on-the-go person who needs a small laptop that needs to do it all, and do it all day then you might consider also checking out the x220T laptop. They have a model with an i7, sometimes they have 3G sim readers, and has a touchscreen + touchpen (you can disable one, or both of these in software). These are great for taking notes, more then enough power to survive a day of real programming.
      - joatmon-snoo 10y ago
        I've actually got an x220 with the original 6-cell and a slice battery, which puts me at 6 hours unplugged. It's not very impressive tbh, but it's been worth what I paid for it.

Waterluvian 10y ago

I was given it on day one so I don't know it's history, but it was definitely maxed out specs. So fantastic for what I was used to? =) The keyboard was very nice. Though the trackpad was terrible. The #$*(# thing is a damn sticker. And I had to replace the sticker twice because it would wear smooth where I used it most.

user5994461 10y ago

Thinkpads T have a huge range of specs. For any reference, there are hundreds of sub-references with different combinations of hardware.

farresito 10y ago
Yes. I was referring to the relationship price-specs. Unless things have changed, a 1000$ thinkpad T won't probably buy you more than 8gb, an i5, possibly still a HDD (hopefully not anymore). I suppose people that are used to Macs won't see a problem with this, since Macs tend to be quite expensive, but it's still a bit of money, although I would rather spend this than buy a laptop that doesn't work well, like plenty of what's out there.
- fencepost 10y ago
  Lenovo's prices for a lot of upgrades (RAM, SSD) tend to be high. My recommendation there is to upgrade the things that aren't reasonable to do yourself/later (screen, WiFi adapter if you have choices between 2x2 and 3x3, backlit keyboard, fingerprint reader). RAM and HD upgrades on Thinkpads tend to be pretty easy (though I don't know about the X1 never having looked at one), so for those it may be better to get the cheapest option then upgrade on your own.
  - coredog64 10y ago
    X1 has gone back and forth between upgradable and soldered on. Occasionally I will see an X1 at a price I'm willing to pay only to find out that I can't upgrade.
  - farresito 10y ago
    Yes, I actually did that with my SSD and memory. One of the things I miss of Thinkpads is the GPU. It seems like in the past two or three years it's been increasingly hard to find a Thinkpad T with GPU. I'm aware that the W have them, but those are beasts. I read somewhere that you could buy them through other countries, like Japan, but didn't look much into it.
    - fencepost 10y ago
      They're not mentioned very often, but it looks like at this point for the T4xx you have to go with the "p" models to get a Nvidia GPU - the T460 and T460s are only Intel, as I understand it the T460p is somewhere between the T460 and the W product line - a little bigger, a little more expandable, etc. Looks like you can also only get the GPU with the i7-6820HQ, so out of all the T product line there's a single CPU/GPU combination that's not using the Intel graphics. That may in part be related to the significant improvements in Intel's graphics capabilities in recent generations - starting around the HD4000 in the third-generation processors the GPUs are actually reasonably capable, and they've improved rapidly even from that point.
- joatmon-snoo 10y ago
  It's an unfortunate consequence of the ridiculous markups on hardware add-ons, but if you're willing to apply a little elbow grease and look at resellers, it's not too hard to get what you're looking for for 1000$. New: * 818$: cheapest T460 on the website * +270$ for i3-6100u => i7-6600u * +390$ for 500GB HDD => 512GB SSD upgrade * +470$ for 4GB RAM => 32GB RAM Here's your 1000$ build: * 700$ for a T460 with an i5 on eBay (http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?LH_Sold=1&_udlo=700&_dmd=1&_ipg=200&LH_Complete=1&_sop=15&_nkw=t460%20i5) * 170$ for a 500GB 850 EVO (https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-2-5-Inch-Internal-MZ-75E500B-AM/dp/B00OBRE5UE) * 108$ to 170$ for Crucial's 16GB RAM kits (depending on specific specs) If you're willing to part with another 200$-300$: * <800$ for a T460 with an i7 on eBay (http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?LH_Sold=1&_udlo=700&_dmd=1&_ipg=200&LH_Complete=1&_sop=15&_nkw=t460%20i7) * 340$ for Crucial's 32GB RAM kit (http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/thinkpad-t460/CT8304418)
  - gravypod 10y ago
    If you're a more on-the-go person who needs a small laptop that needs to do it all, and do it all day then you might consider also checking out the x220T laptop. They have a model with an i7, sometimes they have 3G sim readers, and has a touchscreen + touchpen (you can disable one, or both of these in software). These are great for taking notes, more then enough power to survive a day of real programming.
    - joatmon-snoo 10y ago
      I've actually got an x220 with the original 6-cell and a slice battery, which puts me at 6 hours unplugged. It's not very impressive tbh, but it's been worth what I paid for it.