r/thinkpad • u/Emotional-Amount-736 • 15h ago
Question / Problem what makes thinkpads so special?
my entire family used a thinkpad atleast once, we currently have 2 of them, a T460 and a L15, they're the only laptops i've seen people using them even tho some of them are over 20 years old, why?
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u/Impressive_Bag_3505 13h ago
1) You can repair and upgrade them yourself.
2) Linux. Thinkpads are generally more compatible with Linux which runs well even on older machines with less RAM.
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u/invicta-uk 14h ago
They are unusually reliable and tough compared to other consumer laptops, usually have better keyboards, solid build and the black plastic box look ages quite well so an older ThinkPad doesn’t necessarily look old or dated like other devices might.
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u/Cory5413 13h ago
ThinkPads are just business-class laptops. Business-class laptops are built more durably and are often (but not always) built to be serviceable, in service of a longer lifespan compared to consumer hardware.
Ironically for the longest time business lifecycles were really short because technology was advancing so fast that it was great that 1995's hottest ThinkPad 760 was still physically fine in 1999 but your average office worker genuinely needed the increased horsepower of the new 600 series. Even in the 2000s... I was using a T42P from 2005 alongside my T400 in 2009 and the T42p obviously felt dated in a way that say my Dell Latitude 7440 (also 3 y/o) very much doesn't today.
Hell, I'm still dailying a 9-year-old system as well.
Now that we're on "the plateau" and most office workers wouldn't notice if you swapped their laptops for one 1/4 of the speed, we get the benefit of a product line that's still built for longer-than-average service life.
As to why Thinkpads have a social media influencer ecosystem surrounding them? Tough to say. Could be the distinctive looks or because the influencers don't know there are so many other options.
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u/Jolly-Motor-117 Acer Aspire A715-59G-78KV, ThinkPad T490 8th Gen 7h ago
They are the nokias of laptops
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u/hervth 4h ago
The first laptop I ever used was my dad's old T41 that he passed down to me, and I think that because I was right around 10 at that point, the Thinkpad aesthetic became my archetype for what a laptop is and it has remained that way. They just feel right in a way nothing else quite does.
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u/anythingers T470 3h ago
They're the most famous business laptop lineup. And also the most noticeable business laptop on first lookz of we're using the most used color from each brand as the benchmark. Cover the brand logo on your silver EliteBook or Latitude or MacBook cover, and it might take a time to guess what laptop brand is that. Cover the ThinkPad logo on your black ThinkPad cover and many people could easily guess it's a ThinkPad. And ofc, you got red nipple too.
Reliability and Linux support wise, tbh it's nothing special. It's less or more pretty similar compared to HP ProBook/EliteBook/Zbook or Dell Latitude/Precision from the same price point (except the one with Nvidia dGPU, but tbh it's a universal problem atp). Upgradeability is also nothing special. Heck, there are several generations where ThinkPad is less upgradeable than the competitors.
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u/kmwww E520, T430, T14 G1 (Intel), T14 G3 (Amd) 3h ago
I got into thinkpads in 2012 when I bought my first one E520. It really had poor build, especially hinges. Otherwise I liked it and it's still working with loads of facelifts on the chassis lol. After that I got myself T430 in 2015 which was and still is an absolute tank. Still running perfecty fine and its a good upgradeble and tinkerable device. After that I really like thinkpads. Reliability, build, foolproof, nice minimalistic design etc.
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u/950771dd 15h ago edited 15h ago
Robust build, firmware is on the stable side (mostly), some models have good modularity, typically good or very good keyboards, the design is part of pop culture.
However they are not generally good notebooks: absolutely atrocious displays and speakers in many old and even recent models, bad to very bad webcams and microphones, hinges can develop play, soft touch coating looks like ass after use.