6 ms·

I want it thick enough for that, an externally replacable battery (no glue!) and room for additional RAM sticks. Otherwise I'd buy a tablet.

by bsg75 6y ago

dayofthedaleks 6y ago
Better get a Thinkpad x270 before all of the depreciated corporate hand-me-downs dry up! Shame no Thunderbolt though.
- everybodyknows 6y ago
  Can you recommend a source for used Thinkpad x270s?
  - dayofthedaleks 6y ago
    Sorry I don’t know any good vendors but I do see an i7 with the rarer IPS 1920p display on eBay for 500 bucks and I’m sure other marketplaces have more than a few.
- noir_lord 6y ago
  My T470P has all of that - following models have at least one dimm soldered which is crap.
  - ethagnawl 6y ago
    Wow. Those are still pretty expensive. I've been considering replacing my T430, but I'm not sure it's worthwhile. Mine has 16GB of RAM, i7 quad core, 1TB SSD, etc. I think my money would be better spent upgrading the screen on my existing machine. It's also worth noting that I was able to buy a backup/spare T430 to use for parts and experimentation for ~$100. All in all, I've been very happy with this model.
    - jlgaddis 6y ago
      My main laptop is still an ~7-year-old ThinkPad W530. I pretty much maxed it out when I bought it: quad-core i7-3740QM, 32 GB of RAM, a pair of Samsung 850 Pro SSDs (RAID1), Nvidia something 2GB, FHD screen, etc. I was thinking about upgrading recently and was leaning towards the T470 for various reasons, including seeing a few nice used ones available locally at "okay" prices... until I started to actually compare them! Based on the benchmarks I could find, I came to the conclusion that the performance of the T470 was no better than that of my old tank, the W530 -- and may have even been worse! Once I looked into the cost of upgrading the RAM on the T470 (as I tend to run several VMs concurrently) I decided I'd simply be wasting money "upgrading" to the T470. Additionally, I've got a T420 which, although even older, still performs amazingly well -- once it was upgraded to 16 GB of RAM and a 480 GB SSD. I've only got ~$150 in it and it'll do a fine job if/when the W530 finally dies. (The "upgrade" wasn't really a priority anyways, as I've got a beast of a workstation that I use 90% of the time.)
      - noir_lord 6y ago
        Aye, I maxed mine out, 7700HQ 32GB nvme ssd and the 2560x1440. Was 1400 quid, the ZenBook I bought the missus with the Ryzen 4xxx obliterates it. The perf improvement from 3rd to 8th gen intels was marginal. Thank god AMD and M1 is pushing things forwards finally. Buying a machine 4 years later and getting bugger all improvement gets old after a while. Now I’m wfh forever I use my desktop and the laptop sits next to the work MacBook, forlorn and alone.
- Guest42 6y ago
  Can these run Linux too? If so, I'll buy a few of them.
  - diarrhea 6y ago
    Yes of course. People are running Linux on toilets at this rate.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
  - dayofthedaleks 6y ago
    For all of Lenovo’s sins on the consumer lines, the Thinkpads have continued to have exemplary driver support under Linux.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
    - easton 6y ago
      They even ship machines with it now (The P Series and X1 Carbon, at least. Fedora.)
me_me_me 6y ago
I dunno, this seems like a sane thing to want AND think that this is what your users might want. And yet repetitively we dont get those products. Like this trend with protruding cameras out of phone's body. Just make the body that bit thicker and slap bigger battery on it. And you can boast in ads that it last 2 days instead 5hrs. Maybe we are wrong? Or there is some kind of nonobvious business logic behind it.
- Normal_gaussian 6y ago
  Protruding camera and 2 days battery life is pretty common now. 5000mAh and 30W charging for just over £200: https://www.gsmarena.com/motorola_moto_g9_plus-10432.php https://www.gsmarena.com/motorola_moto_g9_plus-10432.php There are a couple of dozen now https://www.productchart.co.uk/smartphones/ https://www.productchart.co.uk/smartphones/
  - me_me_me 6y ago
    Thats great but almost 7inches I would need a handbag to carry it xD
    - Normal_gaussian 6y ago
      There are five phones with >=5000mAh and less than 6" screens on the productchart link
      - me_me_me 6y ago
        That's actually an amazing tool to find a smartphone, thanks!
- sushisource 6y ago
  I've thought about this a fair amount and come to the conclusion that HN readers as a group just cannot wrap their heads around why the majority of consumers are so enamored by thin stuff - but they are, and that's why these companies keep doing this. It seems wildly stupid, and it is in some objective sense, but people make bad purchasing decisions. See: Cars in the united states continuing to get bigger and bigger.
elric 6y ago
Yes please. Glued batteries make for difficult repairs, which ultimately reduces lifespan. Of course, that's the goal, that way you can be a thinner, crappier version in 3 years time, with a further reduced feature set, an even worse keyboard, and a dongle for your dongle.
- fomine3 6y ago
  OTOH a good thing for now is that there are many portable batteries that enough to power laptop via USB Type-C. It's inexpensive alternative way to extend product life.

I want it thick enough for that, an externally replacable battery (no glue!) and room for additional RAM sticks. Otherwise I'd buy a tablet.

by bsg75 6y ago

I want it thick enough for that, an externally replacable battery (no glue!) and room for additional RAM sticks. Otherwise I'd buy a tablet.

dayofthedaleks 6y ago

Better get a Thinkpad x270 before all of the depreciated corporate hand-me-downs dry up! Shame no Thunderbolt though.

everybodyknows 6y ago
Can you recommend a source for used Thinkpad x270s?
- dayofthedaleks 6y ago
  Sorry I don’t know any good vendors but I do see an i7 with the rarer IPS 1920p display on eBay for 500 bucks and I’m sure other marketplaces have more than a few.
noir_lord 6y ago
My T470P has all of that - following models have at least one dimm soldered which is crap.
- ethagnawl 6y ago
  Wow. Those are still pretty expensive. I've been considering replacing my T430, but I'm not sure it's worthwhile. Mine has 16GB of RAM, i7 quad core, 1TB SSD, etc. I think my money would be better spent upgrading the screen on my existing machine. It's also worth noting that I was able to buy a backup/spare T430 to use for parts and experimentation for ~$100. All in all, I've been very happy with this model.
  - jlgaddis 6y ago
    My main laptop is still an ~7-year-old ThinkPad W530. I pretty much maxed it out when I bought it: quad-core i7-3740QM, 32 GB of RAM, a pair of Samsung 850 Pro SSDs (RAID1), Nvidia something 2GB, FHD screen, etc. I was thinking about upgrading recently and was leaning towards the T470 for various reasons, including seeing a few nice used ones available locally at "okay" prices... until I started to actually compare them! Based on the benchmarks I could find, I came to the conclusion that the performance of the T470 was no better than that of my old tank, the W530 -- and may have even been worse! Once I looked into the cost of upgrading the RAM on the T470 (as I tend to run several VMs concurrently) I decided I'd simply be wasting money "upgrading" to the T470. Additionally, I've got a T420 which, although even older, still performs amazingly well -- once it was upgraded to 16 GB of RAM and a 480 GB SSD. I've only got ~$150 in it and it'll do a fine job if/when the W530 finally dies. (The "upgrade" wasn't really a priority anyways, as I've got a beast of a workstation that I use 90% of the time.)
    - noir_lord 6y ago
      Aye, I maxed mine out, 7700HQ 32GB nvme ssd and the 2560x1440. Was 1400 quid, the ZenBook I bought the missus with the Ryzen 4xxx obliterates it. The perf improvement from 3rd to 8th gen intels was marginal. Thank god AMD and M1 is pushing things forwards finally. Buying a machine 4 years later and getting bugger all improvement gets old after a while. Now I’m wfh forever I use my desktop and the laptop sits next to the work MacBook, forlorn and alone.
Guest42 6y ago
Can these run Linux too? If so, I'll buy a few of them.
- diarrhea 6y ago
  Yes of course. People are running Linux on toilets at this rate.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
- dayofthedaleks 6y ago
  For all of Lenovo’s sins on the consumer lines, the Thinkpads have continued to have exemplary driver support under Linux.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - easton 6y ago
    They even ship machines with it now (The P Series and X1 Carbon, at least. Fedora.)

me_me_me 6y ago

I dunno, this seems like a sane thing to want AND think that this is what your users might want. And yet repetitively we dont get those products. Like this trend with protruding cameras out of phone's body. Just make the body that bit thicker and slap bigger battery on it. And you can boast in ads that it last 2 days instead 5hrs. Maybe we are wrong? Or there is some kind of nonobvious business logic behind it.

Normal_gaussian 6y ago
Protruding camera and 2 days battery life is pretty common now. 5000mAh and 30W charging for just over £200: https://www.gsmarena.com/motorola_moto_g9_plus-10432.php https://www.gsmarena.com/motorola_moto_g9_plus-10432.php There are a couple of dozen now https://www.productchart.co.uk/smartphones/ https://www.productchart.co.uk/smartphones/
- me_me_me 6y ago
  Thats great but almost 7inches I would need a handbag to carry it xD
  - Normal_gaussian 6y ago
    There are five phones with >=5000mAh and less than 6" screens on the productchart link
    - me_me_me 6y ago
      That's actually an amazing tool to find a smartphone, thanks!
sushisource 6y ago
I've thought about this a fair amount and come to the conclusion that HN readers as a group just cannot wrap their heads around why the majority of consumers are so enamored by thin stuff - but they are, and that's why these companies keep doing this. It seems wildly stupid, and it is in some objective sense, but people make bad purchasing decisions. See: Cars in the united states continuing to get bigger and bigger.

elric 6y ago

Yes please. Glued batteries make for difficult repairs, which ultimately reduces lifespan. Of course, that's the goal, that way you can be a thinner, crappier version in 3 years time, with a further reduced feature set, an even worse keyboard, and a dongle for your dongle.

fomine3 6y ago
OTOH a good thing for now is that there are many portable batteries that enough to power laptop via USB Type-C. It's inexpensive alternative way to extend product life.