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T420.

But to go off your list here a bit I'd say bump up to the T430. i7 versions can be had on eBay for $250.

If you have an attachment to the keyboard on the T420[1] you can easily buy the keyboard and put it on the T430 (I did this on my x230 from a x220).

Also if you become interested you can neutralize the Intel Management Engine and install something like coreboot and sea bios.

[1] http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Install_Classic_Keyboard_on_xx...

EDIT: To take it further you could even upgrade the CPU to a i7-3632QM which is a quad core.

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I have an older ThinkPad, and can't get over the Ctrl and Fn keys being in the wrong place. I think you can swap this in the BIOS in the newer ones, but not on mine. Even if you do though, your Ctrl key is now smaller than your Fn key. I hate to say it, but it's a deal-breaker for me. It ruined an otherwise near-perfect laptop keyboard.

I have a T410 and I can swap them in the BIOS, is yours older than that?

It's maybe 7 or 8 years old now. I have it at home and use it as an internet browser on a mobile cart, but that's about it. I did use it for work for the first 4 years, but never could get over that keyboard quirk, so always used a different one laying on top of the laptop's keys.

I just looked and it's an SL510. Still going strong, albeit a bit slow. Gotta give it to the build quality though!

Yes the fn key is annoying. A friend got a modern think pad from his work and he still uses a is keyboard to this day

*USB keyboard

The microsoft bluetooth mobile keyboard 6000 is about the most awesome keyboard I've found for overlaying a laptop's default keyboard (if you can find one). I still use it to this day at home. I got tired of carrying a lot around, which is why the swapped keys on the ThinkPad would annoy me still.

You can always remap it in software too, setxkbmap or xmodmap will do it on a Linux, Windows and OSX will have a way to achieve this too.

Just to elaborate on this, the CPU performance of the T420 should not be a concern. The T420 (and T430) use 35 watt processors, whereas modern ultrabooks use 15 watt processors. A T420 from 2012 can beat today's base model Macbook Air handily in CPU performance despite the technology upgrades in the past 5 years; it will just produce more heat doing it. And that's before the possibility of a quad core upgrade.

You're absolutely right about the performance.

The good thing about going to the T430 is because it has the later Intel Ivy Bridge (as opposed to the Sandy Bridge) processors. The Ivy Bridge / newer chip sets brought USB 3.0 with them. Even the i5 version of the T430 has two USB 3.0 ports.

I second this. The T430 CPU increase is worth it. I recently went with an x230 over an x220. I quite like the x230 (T430) keyboard.

I've got two refurbished T430 laptops. Core i5, 8GB RAM 250 GB SSD. Both work great. Unless you need a GPU that should be fine.

Much better than a cheap new one. Build quality is worth it when you're using it all day long.

But if you're going to spend 1000 on a Mac why not spend 1000 on a new ThinkPad?

There seems to be a lot of hype around the Mac. And I don't think there's a 1000USD IdeaPad that would give me 12 hour battery life.

The T430 IS a good option. Thanks!

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