Agreed, it is hard to answer, as it would depend mainly on your development env. and day to day workflow. In my opinion any 'T', 'W' or 'P' series Thinkpad that

Agreed, it is hard to answer, as it would depend mainly on your development env. and day to day workflow. In my opinion any 'T', 'W' or 'P' series Thinkpad that has >= 8GB DDR3 RAM, an SSD and a processor >= Intel i5 3rd Gen would make a decent programming machine. If you get your hands on the older Thinkpads, they have better keyboards.