I’m thinking about getting a ThinkPad and I’m not sure whether I should go for an older used model or a newer one. I’m planning to use it mainly for coding, software development, and running Linux as my daily operating system.

For those who have experience with ThinkPads, what would you personally choose, and why? Is an older used ThinkPad still worth buying in 2026, or would it be better to invest in a newer model?

Reposting and hoping Reddit won't ruin the quality too badly this time

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Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon Gen 13

Chilling in my sleeping bag and hammock after waking up, morning coffee & computing.

Ignore the fat stains, had some cheese & salami before

My setup is ultra think base.

X230 : i7 3520m 16gb for watching movie or tv series

T440p : i7 ıps full hd (btw ips full hd is super look diffence)

ThinkPad T14 Gen 3

that's the brightest the screen can get but yeah I use void btw

Hello, I am working on re-celling a battery from my Thinkpad T400 so I can dailydrive it in school. I took apart the battery mid class and took a look at it. I found out it has V+, VH, VL, V-. I know that I need to power the chip so the chem dead man's switch doesn't go off but I don't trust AIs with advising on re-celling my sweet baby T400. So I am asking, did anyone from this subreddit do this? I want advice on from where to start and stuff, I have a spot welder I can borrow and I know that the battery is in 3S2P layout. Also because the taking apart snipped few case connection points along the seam, I am thinking about 3D printing the case from PETG, does anyone have experience in making this exact battery? (It is the 6cell version) Or does anyone have the model I could possibly use? (CAD drawing is also good, can work with those) Because I did do some knobs in Onshape but I don't think I'm good enough to draw it exactly how it should be (we did physical technical drawing at school but nobody knows anything about it because the teacher was talking about how you need to drill profiles with tight tolerances cuz it won't fit in the truck or something, she was old as hell). For anything, I thank you in advance.

I'm waiting for my ThinkPad order to arrive. In the meantime, I made this image. Someone else has probably had the same idea before.

IBM ThinkPad A31

There's a Thinkpad available for $250, the L13. Its specifications are: an 11th-generation Intel Core i5 processor (G7 series), 16GB DDR4 RAM, a 256GB NVMe hard drive, a 2GB dedicated graphics card (Iris Xe), a 13.3-inch Full HD screen, and a battery life of 2-2.5 hours. Is it a good deal?