hello,
as always: imho (!)
i own a x200s ... bought it in march of 2009 =?> so its approaching 17 years ...
it was a really great device with one of the best keyboards for a small notebook. and i still use it multiple times a week for example to browse hackernews, reddit, ... or watch some video etc.
buuuut: its nearly 17 years old ... everything is starting to wear - i wouldn't invest a dime into it right now.
what do i mean by that: keyboard has faulting keys, case starts breaking at heavily stressed regions - for example around the cursor-keys -, display is (slightly) mechanically damaged, batteries are beyond usefull etc.etc. ...
just my 0.02€
Currently $1,299.00 for the Ultra 7 and $1,449.00 for the Ultra 9. I won't say it isn't a fair price, but it is a really hard one.
It would be perhaps more interesting to start making ARM or maybe even RISC-V motherboard replacements for some of these beloved chassis.
It's not the type of CPU that is driving up the cost. It's a niche hobby product which will sell O(tens-hundreds) units worldwide. The issue with these frankenpads is the brokenness of bios/ec, tb ports, thermals, fan noise, stability, etc.
There is a risc-v motherboard for the famrwork 13 but different reviewers agree that is overall a slow cpu, nit really competitive. Probably in a few (cpu) generations…
anybody know if this motherboard will fit the x220 or x230, or just the x200/201? i've cornered the market on x220 and x230, i must have two dozen
Won't fit, the X200/201 use a different chassis design to the X220/230.
I never understood why laptops brands have so many SKUs and change chassis design on every generation. When I compare both internally and externally my personal thinkpad from 2019 to the one my company is providing me since last june, I don't see any outstanding difference that justify having incompatible mainboard, keyboard, trackpad, screen, hinges or even fans. It looks like they change the layout and parts dimensions for the sake of changing it.
Sorry for my cluelessness, but why is this laptop so popular?
It's small, sturdy, maintainable, and aesthetically pleasing. And one can still get (original) parts. Throw in enthusiast projects like this and you can have your own "Laptop of Theseus".
The keyboard is absolutely glorious, for one.
And that’s about it, I’d say! I find that everything else is really, really bad. It creaks, it wobbles, it warps, and it did so from day 1. The fan is loud and kicks in quite early. Well maybe the X200 isn’t as bad, but the X220 certainly is. And even after 14 years, it still smells when it gets hot.
Sorry for the rant. I really want to love it, but I just can’t.
For a laptop keyboard...
Mine still works as well as expected after 17 years, 5-6 of which it spent with heavy daily use, another 2-3 with light use, only occasionally afterwards, and overall a lot of travel and airports. I could disassemble and reassemble it to the last screw easily, no special tools besides a screwdriver, no glue, upgradeable RAM and storage. Actually my one major complaint is Lenovo's use of whitelisting for wireless cards.
But I wouldn't pay $1300+ to bring it up to speed. The batteries are done, the screen is small and the backlight is yellowed and dimming. That laptop would need a lot more love to make it fully usable as a daily driver so I'd rather keep it as it is, as a memory.
Mine x200 still my daily driver. Only had to replace the battery and the charger so far.
Is the X200s (s = low power variant) chassis too different or is it compatible as well?
I love the x220 chassis, I wonder what it’d take to make a board with a modern risc chip and open firmware for Linux for this sort of thing.
What's the integrated video card in this board? I have an x220 and frankly the ancient Intel HD 3000 is the only limiting factor keeping me from still using it as a daily laptop.
Anyone know if there's anything like this for the Dell Precision M6600?
(Or upgrade suggestions for someone who loved that laptop? Framework? Thinkpad?)
Get an x1 carbon gen 13 (lunar lake version) for a general usable laptop. For clunkers/workstations that use desktop style CPUs, Dell still makes them and so does Lenovo. The Lenovo version is P16 Gen 3.
i'm also curious. i used that thing until last year.
Sounds great, but the website is down.
Someone do this to the X230T.
ALL OTHER 2:1 TABLETS ARE INFERIOR.
The HP ZBook X2 G4 leaves it in the dust, both conceptually (detachables are a superior form factor) and specs-wise; HP EliteBook 27xxp machines with similar guts are at least on par.
I'd rather have a new and smaller (10" to 13") version of the ZBook X2 G4 instead, upgrade the Dreamcolor display, keep the Wacom EMR digitzer and a sensible dedicated pro-GPU with certified drivers, and add plenty of ECC-RAM. Abracadabra, dream machine right there. Lenovo could do the same with their X12 detachable line if they had some semblance of sense.
I'm the owner of one of these laptops. I paid like $2-3k or even more for the laptop. The screen got broken almost on arrival. I think few days later it started glitching. It was intermittent, so I thought it would go away. I didn't. Over time it started glitching more and more. I reached out to the person in China who sold the laptop. In broken English he told me that I should replace the screen and sent me a link. I bought the screen, actually two of them, since for some reason you can't buy one. Turned out that the screen doesn't fit, and I cracked the first one while trying to install. So now I have a laptop without a screen, and it just doesn't work.
I bought Macbook Air for $1k just one week ago. I can't be more happier. Fuck these ThinkPads.
I'm a bit confused, what do you mean you bought it for +$2k? They cost nothing to buy, they came out like 18 years ago
I think parent poster had an X1 or something and assumed the conversation was about a similar contemporary device.
I'm a little sad this board isn't for my X220 ... I would be sorely tempted if it were - but like other posters I'd have some reservations about things like battery life even so.
By the (contemporary) by, a Mac Book is probably a better buy if you like Mac OS (I don't) because the hardware really is excellent. One physical point in favour of the modern Thinkpad though is weight - a MacBook Air is about 1.2 kg, whereas the X1 is not quite 1 kg.
> what do you mean you bought it for +$2k?
You can buy the hardware already upgraded with a new motherboard and screen.
You paid how much? I use my x200 every day and love it but never considered I could sell it for so much. Is that really a normal price for such an old model? My screen works perfectly too.
They only cost this much with the new parts fitted.
Various versions have been on sale for 5+ years, often billed as the X2100.
https://bmdiethelmv.wordpress.com/2021/07/02/thinkpad-x2100-...
As a counter-experience, I bought five of the x63s and was so paranoid I’d bork the screens somehow. They all work fine to this day. :shrug:
You paid $2-3k for an x200? Was that a long time ago? Is that the same laptop that's sold by computer recyclers for $100?
No, for an X2100. The chassic with the new parts already fitted.
E.g.
This is super cool!
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