The resolution is the least of the problems too - it’s not even IPS (at least on my otherwise-excellent X220). Perhaps one day I’ll do the surgery to change it out though…
I have an X220 that I put an IPS panel into. It's definitely nicer than TN but once you've used a modern laptop with a 4K screen (with HiDPI scaling), anything less looks really dated.
Both IPS and non-IPS variants were available. The non-IPS panel is and was garbage.