Lenovo ThinkPad T410s

I'm probably different from most laptop users but my policy is to buy as good a machine as I can afford and then keep it for years. Maybe I will do minor upgrades but that's about it. My purchasing policy is generally along the lines of the old adage "Buy twice as good, and buy half as many." Normally I use a good Desktop, and the laptop is for travelling and other 'out of the office' use. My current laptop is a ThinkPad T410S which I bought at 'high cost for the time' (= $2500) back in late 2010, just before I went to France for 8 months. So it's now about 10 years old, but still very usable, and has roughly cost me only $250 bucks a year. (pretty much - a bit more, actually, because I decided to upgrade the hard drive.) It had a good screen resolution for back then (1440 x 900) which is still very usable for my developing, though it's now starting to feel a bit cramped. The CPU was 'upmarket for the era' and is an i5, 2 core. My only upgrade has been to increase my hdd from 500 megabytes to 2000 megabytes. Compile times for my work are still good. But, mind you, I can still remember compile times of 30-40 minutes for the Linux kernel way back in the past, so everything is relative.

Phones are replaced about every 3-4 years. mainly because of camera upgrades. I am not a great user of apps, as I find them a waste of time and not particularly useful. I try to change my laptops due to increases in travel convenience. However, I find that my 10-year old Lenovo T410S keeps being most useful overall, even though I have bought several other laptops since I bought the Lenovo. I bought an Asus X31 ultrabook because it was lighter and its SSD 'disk' was more resistant to shocks. But the miniscule size of the SSD meant that it was not much use as it could only store about a tenth of what the Lenovo could, with its upgraded 2TB HDD. Also the ultrabook's keyboard wasn't as good as the Lenovo's, apart from it not having a DVD reader, and it required adapters for ethernet, etc, instead of those connectors being built-in. I also bought a Acer unit, but I 'killed' it. Can't remember the model, or what I did to kill it.

I select a Thinkpad with large RAM, large disk storage, high resolution, smallish physical screen, and as close as possible to selecting all-Intel peripheral chips for USB, video, sound, etc. This gives a laptop with huge longevity for minimal upgrade. Also get the largest battery option you can, but that can impact adversely on weight considerations. Currently still using my ThinkPad T410S which has only had an upgrade to the HDD from 500gig to 2000gig in its nine-year lifetime. And one repair: a keyboard replacement when two arrow-keys stopped working. Though its screen resolution is now starting to feel a bit 'tight'.

Lenovo Thinkpad T410S here. The only thing I've done to it in the 4 years I've had it is to upgrade the 500gig hard drive to 2 TB. And when I bought it I specified the larger battery rather than the standard one. It has an included DVD drive which is surprisingly often used. I have kept it as a Linux-Win7 dual-boot, but Windows is restricted to 50 gig and I'd boot this maybe 4-5 times a year, while the other 1950 gig is in use with Linux.

I'm not talking about a dent. I'm talking about the entire (closed) MBP bent by a car driving into it. There is no way a ThinkPad plastics wouldn't have broken (and its frame bent). But I guess we can't perform this experiment. Plastic is just not as good a material - sorry. Not just is it not as strong when new it also doesn't have the same longevity. See here for some random MBP drop tests: https://youtu.be/8kLtQBF52m8?si=a42uejjR4rUWWg-F The ThinkPads are pretty good vs. most laptops in terms of design and durability (going back to IBM). I still think the MacBooks are an overall better design. I owned 3 T410s for many years and repaired them and kept them going so I'm very familiar with their design (And all the things that broke or failed over those years). The laptop I'm using right now is a 2013 MBP (which has been my daily driver for a long time with zero issues) and I have a new 13" M3 MBP work laptop (a great laptop) and another 2012 MacBook right here with me. I agree 6 year OS software support isn't good but the 2013 machine still got updates up to the end of last year (though can't run the very latest OS). That said, as long as applications run on the older OS it's not necessarily such a huge problem unless some critical security issues pops up.

It's all a matter of tradeoffs. Aluminum is nice but it doesn't protect the internal glass panel from shock damage and a $600 topcase replacement if you mess it up. Especially on the older Macs, that chassis adds to the weight and leaves them pretty fragile considering their tank-like exterior. Speaking for myself, I'd rather have the plastic Thinkpad. Lenovo commits well to the OS I use (Linux) and I don't want to baby around a laptop that threatens to bankrupt me if I drop it on the Starbucks tile. In terms of longevity, I can do a hell of a lot more with a 10 year old Thinkpad than I can with a 10 year old Mac. > Not sure what's even close in terms of performance, build quality, battery life etc. This should easily last 10 years. Recently picked up a Lenovo Thinkbook with a Ryzen 5800u in it. Basically a Steam Deck in sheep's clothing, with a nice HDR 1440p display. I gave it to my brother, and I expect it to last just as long (if not further with community driver support).

I don't think an anecdotal experience with the Yoga line is compatible with the claim that "if you want to buy a Linux laptop, avoid Lenovo like the plague." I've had great experiences with my Thinkpads (t410s and t530) running Linux. Granted, I was just running Ubuntu, but I never had an issue. I will note that I disabled the fingerprint sensor, camera, and microphone at the BIOS level so didn't have experience dealing with those drivers. I expect most others will have a fine experience with the non-touchscreen Thinkpads, and probably some of the newer models as well.