What I Learned after Buying Fifty ThinkPads (and My Updated List of Excuses for Buying More) #ThinkPad #Notebooks #Computers #Shorts

This article is a transcript of a video that you can watch by clicking the thumbnail below. Hence, certain statements may not make sense in this text form, and watching the video instead is recommended.

Transcript

So, I recently completed 50 ThinkPad purchases, and that doesn’t even count notebooks from Dell, HP, Panasonic, or the ThinkCentre and ThinkStation desktops, or the machines I helped other people get over the last few years.

I’ve made a few videos about buying old ThinkPads and what that means to me, and there was also one sharing my learning with 25 ThinkPads. Here, I add a few more recent thoughts and realizations.

1. ThinkPads are indeed the best for computing enthusiasts who appreciate all technology, new and old, and for those who like more freedom in what software they can run on their computer. The few other brands I could try all had minor or even major issues, such that I couldn’t substitute them for one of my ThinkPads.
2. To a certain extent, old hardware isn’t really that old as the manufacturers would have you believe. My recent ThinkPads still pack plenty of computing power for modern use, including being able to run the latest video games being released even today. The 13-year-old T440p is almost my daily driver, and machines like the 20-year-old T60 are still usable with a few caveats.
3. I learned a lot more about older hardware, including processor generations, RAM, storage technologies, display technologies, etc., while expanding my range with a few recent retro ThinkPad restorations.
4. I can’t stress that one machine isn’t enough for all your needs, unless you only need a computer for a handful of very similar tasks and/or are running on a very tight budget.
5. And, as I’ve been doing for the past few years, I will try my best not to buy anything brand-new. It helps one spend less on a purchase, saves the planet, and also helps someone else turn these beauties into liquid funds that they can use elsewhere.

At the end of the day, keeping my X1 Nano Gen 1 and T15g Gen 2 aside, I’ve developed much appreciation for my X1 Extreme Gen 3 for what it offers in that sleek package, even with the few limitations, or rather nitpicks, I had with it a couple of years ago.

Next up, I’d love to go full circle to a ThinkPad T480, which was practically my first experience with a ThinkPad, look at it from a fresh perspective, and hopefully get my hands on an X1 Fold too someday.