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0 pointsjtwaleson1y ago0 comments

ThinkPads are timeless square black boxes with a red trackpoint. Having the same design since 1992 definitely makes them iconic, and this probably helped in creating a large fanbase. Realistically you might get the same mileage with a Dell, but to fans, it feels different.

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znpy1y ago

> Realistically you might get the same mileage with a Dell, but to fans, it feels different.

Not quite, and I tried.

Dell laptops with bother you if your power supply is not a genuine dell one.

Dell refused to repair a second-hand dell laptop (xps 15) under warranty because I did not have the receipt of original purchased.

Lenovo repaired my second-hand ThinkPad no question asked, because it was still under warranty. And the laptop i bought had the pick&return warranty package, so they sent a courier to pick the laptop from my home and they delivered it back within the same week.

Dell has been just unreliable in my experience. I fixed that laptop myself and sold it as soon as I could (and bought another used ThinkPad).

riedel1y ago

The last ThinkPad I was really happy with was the X61 I had though. I, however, got used to the track point, so I stocked. The Z13 is only half a ThinkPad but at least Lenovo did considerable engineering to solve the thermal issues of new processors fitted into the old ThinkPad design for 13 in. Now I only have tons of BIOS/firmware/driver issues. Often doesn't hibernate and spin loops until battery is empty and my whole bag is heated to 80°C. I think they are not able to manage all those absurd variants they created. Would try a framework if the marketplace had ThinkPad keyboards.

RGamma1y ago

Yeah, I've always used ThinkPads and while IMO they're on average good devices, you better not buy the wrong series and/or iteration.

The LX40 had an atrocious clickpad. The previous LX30 had serious WiFi issues, that I fixed by swapping the card, but it was overall the better device. Then there's issues with trackpoint drifting. On my oldest one the trackpoint simply died.

On my e495 I'm getting weird driver issues, like Windows replacing the AMD graphics driver with a different one, so the Radeon control panel won't load and I can't control that useless VariBright feature. I can prevent Windows from doing this, but then one day the driver was just... gone and I've concluded that it's just better to let Windows do its thing. Also, crashes in Teams with too many windows open and while sharing, seemingly regardless of driver. Weird audio fuckups where the audio output craps itself randomly and starts crackling until reboot (fixed by installing an old Conexant driver and locking it down with group policy).

Also, they make some questionable design choices, like swapping Fn and Ctrl, which you can at least undo in BIOS. My newest one (E16 Gen2 Intel) has FnLock enabled by default (wtf?). Gotta ask why they even removed the separate utility bar above function keys in the first place. And then there isn't even buttons for media control anymore...

Also, don't get me started on Lenovo (Commercial) Vantage, which is an incredibly invasive and janky piece of software, but it does let me limit charging.

For some very fortunate reason I've never had sleep or hibernation problems. Feels like I dodged many bullets over the years.

jtwalesonOP1y ago

Stick with T, P or X series.

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