4 ms·

I literally hoard good condition X220s, dreading the day when they're no longer fast enough for my needs (hopefully a long way off still). It's the last (going

I literally hoard good condition X220s, dreading the day when they're no longer fast enough for my needs (hopefully a long way off still). It's the last (going by manufacture date) laptop I enjoy using. The keyboards are superb, the build quality is excellent, perfect compatibility with modern Linux distributions and the battery lasts 4-7h of real world use (6 and 9 cell versions, respectively). You can get models in perfect condition for 300-400 euros on eBay, and they still make new keyboards, batteries, etc. for them. It's the perfect laptop for those of us who dislike chiclet keyboards, the thin > all design fad and all the other maladies of modern laptop design. With Sandy Bridge i7s and 16gb RAM, they're powerful enough for my needs and thankfully let me write and debug AVX-capable code (with the usual profiling caveats associated with the SB architecture). As for open boot, I understand the X220 supports both coreboot and libreboot, but I don't use either, so I can't comment on it in detail.

carbolite103 9y ago
I bought my X220 from a friend for a hundred bucks thinking it'd be a fun toy to install Linux on, but it has become my daily driver. My only gripe is the flimsyness of the plastic just above the ExpressCard slot.
- philippnagel 9y ago
  It's much better with a card inserted. Infact the ExpressCard-slot made me choose an X220 over the X230. It can be used to connect an external GPU!
anthony_barker 9y ago
.. this I have bought a couple of newer Thinkpads but they end up reverting to my x220. x230 is almost as good but doesn't have the old school keyboard. On reddit.com/r/thinkpad there is huge following for moding them.. My only recommendation is to ensure it you have an SSD and load up on RAM.
- asiekierka 9y ago
  You can, nowadays, use a BIOS patch and an X220 palmrest to put the X220 keyboard into an X230.
hiram112 9y ago
Hate to bother you, but could you point me to the exact model (eBay or whatever) you're talking about? I'd love to find one damn laptop that we know works well.
- pimeys 9y ago
  Lenovo ThinkPad X220 [0] with an IPS display and i7, so it also has one USB3 port. I guess this is a quite safe bet as a daily driver, if you don't want to invest into the new models. By saying that, the 2018 generation of ThinkPads finally includes excellent panels. If you get the new X1C or T480(s), you can choose a bright IPS panel with a good resolution. With the old ThinkPads, especially X220/X230 you just need to be VERY sure you DO NOT get the TN panels. [0] https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lenovo-ThinkPad-X220-Laptop-Core-i7-2-8-New-IPS-500GB-Hybrid-SSD-HDD-Dock/273106651902?hash=item3f966ccafe:g:XtMAAOSwafZakNMM https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lenovo-ThinkPad-X220-Laptop-Core-i7...
  - jarvist 9y ago
    I upgraded the TN panel on my i5 X220 to a matt IPS 18 months ago. It was about £50 from eBay; and a careful 5 minutes with a set of electronic screwdrivers. (All quite easy, you just have to be very very careful when removing the ribbon cable, to not slice one of the thin wires.) The display is vastly superior. Everything is more crisp, and it is brighter. The X220 is still fast enough for Chrome / YouTube / Netflix without spinning up the fan. Running a high res external display is a bit too much though; the fan kicks in most of the time.
  - KozmoNau7 9y ago
    I love how good the IPS panel looks, but unfortunately it is rather fragile compared to the TN version, there are so many of them out there with bright spots from pressure damage. Personally I care more about ruggedness (my X220i is my travel computer) than color fidelity. Compared to my old Acer Chromebook 13's absolutely horrible TN panel, the one in the X220i is actually quite decent.
    - beenBoutIT 9y ago
junk_f00d 9y ago
fwiw the X220 does not support Libreboot, but the X200 does.
- beenBoutIT 9y ago
  The X220 works great with Coreboot.
  - junk_f00d 9y ago
    Yes. I was addressing the parent comments claim that it works with Libreboot, which it currently does not.
KozmoNau7 9y ago
I got a screaming deal on a mint condition X220i a little while ago. It's only the i3, but it has 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD, dual-band wifi, completely tricked out as far as the previous owner could do. It's plenty fast with Linux Mint for what I need to do, including a bit of gaming. Darkest Dungeon and other 2D games that run well on Linux aren't too bad on system requirements (although they do sort of kill the battery life), and there's a whole host of old games I can still play, I'm not trying to run GTA IV on it or something. I would like to get an 802.11ac card for it at some point and that's about it. It came with a 6-cell battery with 70% capacity left, and I've put a new 2Power 9-cell battery in it, getting around 6-7 hours battery life as you say. I would sort of like to have an external charger so I could always have both batteries topped up, but they seem to be rare as hen's teeth. In my opinion, the X220 is probably the best Thinkpad ever made. The i3 isn't a problem, I used a T42 for years and years despite its slow-ass Pentium-M, and I only sold it because a lot of Linux distros started going 64-bit only.
beenBoutIT 9y ago
A Coreboot X220 is exponentially better than a stock X220. On top of a drastically reduced boot time and better battery life, Coreboot allows booting from the ExpressCard, which makes booting from a USB3 possible on the I5 models. Another big plus is that Chromium OS works perfectly on a Coreboot X220, right down to the fully functional built-in SIM modem.

carbolite103 9y ago

I bought my X220 from a friend for a hundred bucks thinking it'd be a fun toy to install Linux on, but it has become my daily driver. My only gripe is the flimsyness of the plastic just above the ExpressCard slot.

philippnagel 9y ago
It's much better with a card inserted. Infact the ExpressCard-slot made me choose an X220 over the X230. It can be used to connect an external GPU!

anthony_barker 9y ago

.. this I have bought a couple of newer Thinkpads but they end up reverting to my x220. x230 is almost as good but doesn't have the old school keyboard. On reddit.com/r/thinkpad there is huge following for moding them.. My only recommendation is to ensure it you have an SSD and load up on RAM.

asiekierka 9y ago
You can, nowadays, use a BIOS patch and an X220 palmrest to put the X220 keyboard into an X230.

hiram112 9y ago

Hate to bother you, but could you point me to the exact model (eBay or whatever) you're talking about? I'd love to find one damn laptop that we know works well.

pimeys 9y ago
Lenovo ThinkPad X220 [0] with an IPS display and i7, so it also has one USB3 port. I guess this is a quite safe bet as a daily driver, if you don't want to invest into the new models. By saying that, the 2018 generation of ThinkPads finally includes excellent panels. If you get the new X1C or T480(s), you can choose a bright IPS panel with a good resolution. With the old ThinkPads, especially X220/X230 you just need to be VERY sure you DO NOT get the TN panels. [0] https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lenovo-ThinkPad-X220-Laptop-Core-i7-2-8-New-IPS-500GB-Hybrid-SSD-HDD-Dock/273106651902?hash=item3f966ccafe:g:XtMAAOSwafZakNMM https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lenovo-ThinkPad-X220-Laptop-Core-i7...
- jarvist 9y ago
  I upgraded the TN panel on my i5 X220 to a matt IPS 18 months ago. It was about £50 from eBay; and a careful 5 minutes with a set of electronic screwdrivers. (All quite easy, you just have to be very very careful when removing the ribbon cable, to not slice one of the thin wires.) The display is vastly superior. Everything is more crisp, and it is brighter. The X220 is still fast enough for Chrome / YouTube / Netflix without spinning up the fan. Running a high res external display is a bit too much though; the fan kicks in most of the time.
- KozmoNau7 9y ago
  I love how good the IPS panel looks, but unfortunately it is rather fragile compared to the TN version, there are so many of them out there with bright spots from pressure damage. Personally I care more about ruggedness (my X220i is my travel computer) than color fidelity. Compared to my old Acer Chromebook 13's absolutely horrible TN panel, the one in the X220i is actually quite decent.
  - beenBoutIT 9y ago

junk_f00d 9y ago

fwiw the X220 does not support Libreboot, but the X200 does.

beenBoutIT 9y ago
The X220 works great with Coreboot.
- junk_f00d 9y ago
  Yes. I was addressing the parent comments claim that it works with Libreboot, which it currently does not.

KozmoNau7 9y ago

I got a screaming deal on a mint condition X220i a little while ago. It's only the i3, but it has 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD, dual-band wifi, completely tricked out as far as the previous owner could do. It's plenty fast with Linux Mint for what I need to do, including a bit of gaming. Darkest Dungeon and other 2D games that run well on Linux aren't too bad on system requirements (although they do sort of kill the battery life), and there's a whole host of old games I can still play, I'm not trying to run GTA IV on it or something. I would like to get an 802.11ac card for it at some point and that's about it. It came with a 6-cell battery with 70% capacity left, and I've put a new 2Power 9-cell battery in it, getting around 6-7 hours battery life as you say. I would sort of like to have an external charger so I could always have both batteries topped up, but they seem to be rare as hen's teeth. In my opinion, the X220 is probably the best Thinkpad ever made. The i3 isn't a problem, I used a T42 for years and years despite its slow-ass Pentium-M, and I only sold it because a lot of Linux distros started going 64-bit only.

beenBoutIT 9y ago

A Coreboot X220 is exponentially better than a stock X220. On top of a drastically reduced boot time and better battery life, Coreboot allows booting from the ExpressCard, which makes booting from a USB3 possible on the I5 models. Another big plus is that Chromium OS works perfectly on a Coreboot X220, right down to the fully functional built-in SIM modem.