4 ms·

Sorry for my cluelessness, but why is this laptop so popular?

by globnomulous 11mo ago

loloquwowndueo 11mo ago
The keyboard is absolutely glorious, for one.
- fuzzy2 11mo ago
  And that’s about it, I’d say! I find that everything else is really, really bad. It creaks, it wobbles, it warps, and it did so from day 1. The fan is loud and kicks in quite early. Well maybe the X200 isn’t as bad, but the X220 certainly is. And even after 14 years, it still smells when it gets hot. Sorry for the rant. I really want to love it, but I just can’t.
  - loloquwowndueo 11mo ago
    Yet after 14 years you still have it and use it? Quality also went down while with later models - back in 2014 I was laptop shopping, based on the X2xx series reputation I tested an X240 and it was crap, even the keyboard was super bad, I ended up getting a Dell xps13 whose keyboard was miles better and it still works today.
    - fuzzy2 11mo ago
      Well "use it" is a bit of a stretch. I’m a bit of a device hoarder. It's one of my experimentation platforms for Linux stuff, currently running Fedora Kinoite (with Universal Blue). My daily driver (of sorts, don’t really need a laptop anymore) is a MacBook Pro Late 2013, with NixOS. It’s so much better in every regard, it’s not even funny. It also still has its original battery.
- silon42 11mo ago
  For a laptop keyboard...
  - loloquwowndueo 11mo ago
    Not really! It’s just good. I guarantee you it’s better than the keyboard 95% of people have on their desktop computers.
close04 11mo ago
Mine still works as well as expected after 17 years, 5-6 of which it spent with heavy daily use, another 2-3 with light use, only occasionally afterwards, and overall a lot of travel and airports. I could disassemble and reassemble it to the last screw easily, no special tools besides a screwdriver, no glue, upgradeable RAM and storage. Actually my one major complaint is Lenovo's use of whitelisting for wireless cards. But I wouldn't pay $1300+ to bring it up to speed. The batteries are done, the screen is small and the backlight is yellowed and dimming. That laptop would need a lot more love to make it fully usable as a daily driver so I'd rather keep it as it is, as a memory.
- AlecSchueler 11mo ago
  Mine x200 still my daily driver. Only had to replace the battery and the charger so far.
spankibalt 11mo ago
It's small, sturdy, maintainable, and aesthetically pleasing. And one can still get (original) parts. Throw in enthusiast projects like this and you can have your own "Laptop of Theseus".
t0bia_s 11mo ago
Not sure, but I bought used x201 in 2014 and it died few months ago (faulty charging port, weak monitor joints). Replaced by P14s gen2 with AMD. Of course it is better in every aspect, except one disc port and overall durability.
RunSet 11mo ago
https://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Old_ThinkPad_Niches https://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Old_ThinkPad_Niches You can CTRL+F for the model and see that the x201 tics many of the boxes for desirable traits in older Thinkpads.

Sorry for my cluelessness, but why is this laptop so popular?

loloquwowndueo 11mo ago

The keyboard is absolutely glorious, for one.

fuzzy2 11mo ago
And that’s about it, I’d say! I find that everything else is really, really bad. It creaks, it wobbles, it warps, and it did so from day 1. The fan is loud and kicks in quite early. Well maybe the X200 isn’t as bad, but the X220 certainly is. And even after 14 years, it still smells when it gets hot. Sorry for the rant. I really want to love it, but I just can’t.
- loloquwowndueo 11mo ago
  Yet after 14 years you still have it and use it? Quality also went down while with later models - back in 2014 I was laptop shopping, based on the X2xx series reputation I tested an X240 and it was crap, even the keyboard was super bad, I ended up getting a Dell xps13 whose keyboard was miles better and it still works today.
  - fuzzy2 11mo ago
    Well "use it" is a bit of a stretch. I’m a bit of a device hoarder. It's one of my experimentation platforms for Linux stuff, currently running Fedora Kinoite (with Universal Blue). My daily driver (of sorts, don’t really need a laptop anymore) is a MacBook Pro Late 2013, with NixOS. It’s so much better in every regard, it’s not even funny. It also still has its original battery.
silon42 11mo ago
For a laptop keyboard...
- loloquwowndueo 11mo ago
  Not really! It’s just good. I guarantee you it’s better than the keyboard 95% of people have on their desktop computers.

close04 11mo ago

Mine still works as well as expected after 17 years, 5-6 of which it spent with heavy daily use, another 2-3 with light use, only occasionally afterwards, and overall a lot of travel and airports. I could disassemble and reassemble it to the last screw easily, no special tools besides a screwdriver, no glue, upgradeable RAM and storage. Actually my one major complaint is Lenovo's use of whitelisting for wireless cards. But I wouldn't pay $1300+ to bring it up to speed. The batteries are done, the screen is small and the backlight is yellowed and dimming. That laptop would need a lot more love to make it fully usable as a daily driver so I'd rather keep it as it is, as a memory.

AlecSchueler 11mo ago
Mine x200 still my daily driver. Only had to replace the battery and the charger so far.

spankibalt 11mo ago

It's small, sturdy, maintainable, and aesthetically pleasing. And one can still get (original) parts. Throw in enthusiast projects like this and you can have your own "Laptop of Theseus".

t0bia_s 11mo ago

Not sure, but I bought used x201 in 2014 and it died few months ago (faulty charging port, weak monitor joints). Replaced by P14s gen2 with AMD. Of course it is better in every aspect, except one disc port and overall durability.

RunSet 11mo ago

https://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Old_ThinkPad_Niches https://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Old_ThinkPad_Niches You can CTRL+F for the model and see that the x201 tics many of the boxes for desirable traits in older Thinkpads.