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Comment by tecoholic | Hacker News Reader

I would have bought one if they weren’t so pricey for the spec they ship. Similar specs on a IdeaPad goes I think something like 40% cheaper or more.

I understand people loving heavy duty ones. But the ones I have run into in the past had poorer screens and were just clunky to carry around. What’s the trade off here? Why do people still want a Thinkpad.

Edit: I just thought of one reason, some specs are not available in Ideapads due the power consumption and cooling needs I think. So Thinkpads on the lower end aren’t worth it?

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If you're comparing new to new, ThinkPads are expensive, but even a year or two old on eBay will be pretty heavily discounted. I would suggest going that route. It should be a lot more durable than a gaming laptop as well.

I buy a thinkpad every month or so off ebay (for clients). I just bought a T16 Gen 3 Core Ultra 5 32GB/512GB NPU for $575 delivered w/ zero charge cycles, in orig packaging. Technically not new but it had never been used.

I'm typing this on a T14 Gen 2 Ryzen 7 Pro 32GB/512GB I picked up last year for $220. For my work bag I just bought a T14 Gen 3 i5-1250P 32GB/512GB WWAN for $370 that looks new.

I'm pushing folks to buy now - anything they'll need in the next 2 years. I'm convinced Ramageddon is trickling down into the (>3yo) used market. Ebay prices already seem up a bit from a few months ago.

Thank you. This is a great tip.

I signed up for a business account and just used my name to get ~35% off a laptop before the Ram crisis. I think it's just one of those things where you're meant to have a business relationship. It was a very competitive price and a no-brainer for what I specced. I assume they assumed I would buy many more.

The Ideapads I have encountered over the years are just absolute shit quality. Its even started to infect the thinkpad lines. I would not stray too far from specific X, T or P models (and they definitely charge perhaps an unearned premium for them)

Some lines are better than others. I avoid ideapads and yogas. I buy T series and on rare occasion an E series (if the price is too good).

For desktops, it's ThinkCentre Tiny all the way.

I have used an IdeaPad S540 for about 5-6 years. Upgrading RAM, WiFi modules along the way. Was bummed when Apple’s Mac Pro died on me 11months with no warning. And went back to IdeaPad again (this is where I gave up on Thinkpad). So I would swear by it. Not the current one, it’s got soldered RAM and I am less of a fan, but it just works - no issues.

I agree with you on the Ideapads; the only reason to buy is on price: I bought a new one with Pentium Silver CPU and 4Gb RAM for $150 on sale and added 8gb RAM and installed Linux. With external keyboard and monitor it works great!

No trackpoint, no deal.

Ha! That’s a valid point. My trackpad is crap on Linux.

My t480s has a trackpad yay. It is almost completely unusable due to how to clicky buttons are placed. awww.

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