> Thinkpad
Which Thinkpad model do you recommend?
And which Linux distro do you use?
Which Thinkpad model do you recommend?
And which Linux distro do you use?
The X1 Extreme is nice. It is one of relatively few PC laptops that are comparable to the 15" MBP in terms of performance (H-series processor rather than U-series) and portability. It has upgradeable RAM/SSD, so I got the base model with the upgrade CPU then purchased 32GB/1TB separately and saved something like $600-700 as a result. With slightly better cooling and a 3:2 display I think it would be nearly perfect.
Concerning distro, if you want to "just get work done" I recommend Ubuntu if like the way it looks or want to use one of the non-Gnome desktops. If you do like Gnome but but like the Ubuntu desktop, Fedora is great.
Maybe I am unlucky. I bought it because I finally wanted a 15" screen with a centred keyboard, i.e. without the num-pad, because uncentered for touch typers is really really weird. It started that in order to get Linux running I had to switch the graphics card to discrete mode, at least this is what I found on Internet. This bricked the machine and according to the Lenovo support thread I was far from alone [0]! Luckily I had on-site 24h support, so called. They were able to come only after a week... With the wrong board... With travels in between I had in total to wait for 1 month to make the machine work.
Now it works and I am using it and trying to accept it.
- It is extremely loud! BIOS updates made it better as of lately and I got a bit more used to it.
- It gets extremely hot. So hot that actually typing on it gets uncomfortable.
- I am not able to do any meaningful work for more than 3 hours on battery. With my last X25 with 2 batteries I was able to work a whole day!
- The screen is like a mirror! I found a workaround by trying to work as much as possible with white background.
- And finally, but this is probably more the fault of Ubuntu/Gnome/nVidia - it is the laggiest experience ever! I mean, I am working most of the time in a terminal! Typing on the terminal is so laggy, that I do not even remember back to 1995 when I was starting using Linux to have such a laggy experience. Come on, this is supposed to be the most powerfull machine that I ever had?!
- Using external screen is possible only when switching ot nVidia. When using Intel graphics card (to prolong battery life) you cannot switch on external screen.
- Another, but probably this is Gnome/Ubunut/nVidia annoying thing is, that as soon as I lock the screen in Gnome, the fan starts turning like hell and the temperature rises! Come on, is Gnome screensaver mining bitcoins or what? I mean, I configured it to just turn off the screen when I lock it! And instead of saving energy it is heating the planet!
By now I spend so much time trying to configure, update and whatever that I am really tired of it. I mean, I have work to do! I am trying to prepare to go to NixOS, because I heard from some people that they got it configured to be usable. Preparing for this slowly, when I can dedicate time.
It's not all bad though. There are some positive things:
- I like the physical build quality. It feels solid and sturdy.
- The screen (I have the 3840x2160 resolution) brightness, resolution and colors are really good. To watch photographs or to see movies. Unfortunately working on text is only possible with white screen. Otherwise it is like a mirror. It would even be possible to work outside, but you need to have electricity, the battery life is horrible.
- I like the keyboard. The touch depths is nice and I have the impression that it is a bit more distinctive than on the prior models that I had (X25 and T450s).
- The CPU power is more than enough for me.
[0] - https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkPad-X-Series-Laptops/Anoth...
EDIT: Typo, s/X24/X25/
Installed erpalma/throttled from github to squeeze my CPU perf to max. Also make sure to set sleep to S3 in BIOS. Otherwise nothing else to do. Everything seems to work just fine.
The 7th Gen just came out so there might still be some issues but I would look around and see if it's good to go.
I use Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. Once 19 is done I will more than likely move on to 20.04 LTS
The yoga needed some tweaks to get the OLED brightness to work correctly, but other than that they basically worked out of the box under ubuntu 18.04. My only complaints are that the oled panel only came in gloss and has since been discontinued (although there are rumors that a 15" 4k oled will be available on the x1 extreme), and that the mouse click on the yoga is several orders of magnitude too loud. The trackpoint buttons are fine and the keyboard is great, but the trackpad click is loud enough to hear in the next room over.
I'm running a T530. Max out the ram, get a ssd, it's great. I'm probably on my third one, I keep buying junkers for $50 from eBay for the parts. I majorly abuse it. The magnesium frame likes to crack near the heatsink, the steel frame around the screen likes to crack 1 inch above the hinges, don't spill water on the table it's sitting on.