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Comment by jpgvm | Hacker News Reader

What I really want is a modern laptop with the old style Thinkpad aesthetics and pragmatisms. i.e ports, replaceable components, magnesium alloy chassis with plastic and rubber armor (i.e tanky AF), good keyboard with real travel, hot swap batteries, 3.5mm jack, card readers, OOTB Linux support, hw kill switches for radios, webcams and mic.

Then for modernisation: 4k OLED, USB-C charging + docking, actually decent webcam and mic.

Ideally in X220 and T400-esq form-factors to choose from.

Instead I have a MBP M2 because Thinkpad just ain't Thinkpad anymore and that is sad.

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I do wish that Framework had either expanded into alternative 13" laptop case designs compatible with their hardware or could find a partner who would, before launching a second line of laptops.

I know people have upgraded[1] or put a FW13 mainboard in an old T-series chassis before,[2] but several of those features (hw cam/mic kill switches, field repairability, 3.5mm jack, USB-C PD, tall 4K display, Linux support) are already in a Framework, and the rest could feasibly be implemented in a modern case with appropriate accommodations for FW hardware built in.

1: https://kitsunyan.github.io/blog/frankenpad-story.html

2: https://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/comments/145f3qc/i_got_the...

> Instead I have a MBP M2 because Thinkpad just ain't Thinkpad anymore and that is sad.

I'm torn on this, I've been a longtime Mac user and am due to upgrade my old mbp to something. Imo the current line of mbp is objectively the best hw+sw laptop experience for the money, but at the same time I would prefer to go the foss route out of principle

Oh, I dunno. I've been using think pads for a many years. I've had a few work issued dell xps's along the way too.

I'm currently running a P14s, and while I have a few minor gripes around the fan and thermals overall I'm pretty pleased.

  * 2xTB4, HDMI, 2xusb3, 3.5mm jack,  I could have opted for a card reader if I still used PIV/CAC for Kerberos but I carry a yubikey these days
  * I prefer the newer Thinkpad keyboards, they have less play (as in wiggle) in the keys
  * Linux support out of box is great
  * Display and scaling work well with Wayland (sway)
  * Linux power consumption is great, <4W idle with minor TLP tweaks and blacklisting the proprietary Nvidia driver
  * The touchpad has improved over the years, specifically around the texture of the material and the sensitivity of tap to click
  * The i7 processor is honestly overkill in a laptop

I couldn't switch to an M2, well because Linux is a hard requirement for me.

The P series is pretty great if you prioritize connectivity and other specs over size. I loved my P50 until I broke it. BTW, I strongly recommend getting as many years of Premier Care as one can afford. While the quality of Thinkpads has deteriorated over the years, their Premier Care is still very good.

I’ve managed to upgrade an i7 T480 with a new display, glass trackpad, WiFi 6e, 2xNVME SSD and 64GB ram. It has 2 USB-C ports, on of which is thunderbolt. I also have an actual dock for it and batteries for hot-swap.

If they made anything close to the expandability of these, I’d be buying that as well.

I'd pay an embarrassing amount of money for a modern CPU in my T530.

If the trackpad were maybe 15% bigger and it had USB-C charging it'd be the perfect machine. I'm not even bothered by the screen, 1366x768 is plenty.

i just bit the stochastic bullet and got an x2100 (actually, two because i wasn't sure about the build quality).

it's everything you (and i) want from a laptop -- a reasonably modern (10th gen intel; sadly there probably won't be a more modern one) laptop in an x200 shell (i even ordered a touchpadless palm rest).

it's been my main driver for half a year now without any issues.

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