Seems like lots of IT folks have fond memories of the T420/T430 (and X220) era. I personally think it was the golden age of the Thinkpad line, going back perhaps to T40/T42, it was some of the best laptops I ever worked on. No other laptop has come close to getting it right since. It was really the perfect combination of build quality, modularity and performance that won me over.

I'm now on the new M1 Pro Mac and while the battery life is amazing, I felt a lot more confident working on my T420 back in the day. And yes I tried the X1 Carbon/Extreme lines, and I wasn't sold on them either.