Comment by zokier
7 days ago
Personally I think beyond T450 generation, i.e. over 10 years old systems, you are starting to make pretty severe compromises. T440 generation had really bad Trackpoint setup, and older hardware starts to lose features. Random stuff that T450 has that T400 doesn't
* USB3
* Up to 32 GB of RAM (vs max 8 GB for T400)
* M.2 slot (for SSD), 6 Gb/s SATA (vs 1.5 Gb/s on T400)
* x86-64-v3 (AVX2 etc) and OpenGL 4.6
* Dual-band AC wifi and BT4.0 (optional 4G LTE WWAN)
* DisplayPort with 4k@60Hz output
* Slightly larger screen estate (1600x900 vs 1440x900), with FHD 1080p display option
* Dramatically better battery life
* Backlit keyboard
Many of these are not merely nice to have but also ensure longevity by being compatible with lot of other modern stuff. On the other hand I do believe that T450 generation device might remain viable daily driver for a long while still. From the specs the biggest obvious shortcoming to me is the lack of USB-C, especially USB-C charging. But besides that, it seems pretty usable system.
For reference, I have old X240 that I still occasionally use.
The T480 is kind of the current modern classic, it even has recent coreboot support. I did a screen swap on mine to a modern low blue light panel, LiteOn keyboard swap, new batteries and there is really nothing else to complain about.
T14 series are cheap enough used now to be considered cheap, but you lose some of the modding potential of the T480.
I still use my Thinkpad x61 as my daily driver (typing on it right now) and I don't feel most of the "severe limitations" you are listing. I think some are wrong (eg. I use Dual-band AC wifi and BT4.0 wifi card in mine, and have a 2.5" SATA-II (3Gbps) SSD), and others are not limitation for my use. I won't recommend it to everyone, mind you, but for my use it is perfect.
> especially USB-C charging
I swapped the barrel connector in my x220 for a third party USB-C charging port: https://www.tindie.com/products/mikepdiy/lenovo-charging-por...
My two T460s work just fine. They are not as expandable as my T420 but I can change the M.2 SSD and the RAM. That is enough for me at this point. RAM and STORAGE has to be upgradeable.
T420 has most of that (or can be upgraded to a lot of that) while still retaining the classic keyboard and tank like build.
My T420 absolutely cooks my lap. It was retired a couple years ago (alongside my X60 tablet and X200 tablet) and I bought a maxed out X280 used to replace it. I bought it brand new for school but switched over to the lightweight X60 tablet so I could quickly do homework on the go. I upgraded to the X200 when Quartus II stopped supporting 32bit processors. Both were bought for $100 on eBay back when that's all the money I had from slinging pizza after school. I grabbed the X280 for $200 when I realized how chunky, hot, and slow the T420.
That x280 is going to last me a long time. It's a perfectly capable home laptop with an i7 and 16gb of memory. I recently dropped in a new 1TB nvme drive so other than the integrated graphics, it's the best. I'm still able to play games on it, I recently got through Splinter Cell: Blacklist with the specs set at like medium. It's not going to play a modern AAA but anything at least 5 years older than the laptop runs fine enough.