Won't break (dropped mine on cement before and came back with just a few scratches and a small dent in the metal) and they're reasonably fast.
I've been using an IdeaPad (The Thinkpad's consumer-oriented co-brand), namely a Yoga. Although I miss the red mouse pointer thing, it's otherwise an ideal development platform, with enough disk space for Docker and VirtualBox. Oh, and it runs Mint perfectly so my Docker images are compatible with almost any Debian-based deployment environment.
And you didn't hear this from me, but if you replace the WiFi card you will have perfect OS X compatibility with a T420.
Some people don't like the trackpoint, but I love it so much that I've disabled the trackpad completely.
I honestly think that it's the best value laptop currently available.
I believe it's also possible to replace the BIOS with CoreBoot, however I haven't tried.
I like the fact that I can easily replace components (battery, cd-rom with an extra HDD, etc.). Lastly, I agree, they're rock solid and survive most drops and even waterspills.
To me, the keyboard is crucial. It has great tactile feedback, and even the new layout is quite reasonable by comparison. Apple keyboards have great acoustic feedback that ThinkPads lack, but they omit so many important (for powerusers) keys. I would like to try out the XPS 13, it's the keyboard layout that is holding me back.
> Especially since they look kinda ugly too
The ThinkPad design polarizes. For me, MacBooks and ThinkPads are among the few laptops that don't look ugly. I can't stand silver-colored or glossy plastic and stuff like that. I, like many ThinkPad customers, appreciate the traditional simplicity of the black box. I do understand why other people may find it ugly.
Only downsides:
- Low res TN screen. It's atrocious.
- Lenovo nerfed the Trackpoint drivers at some point, making it impossible to configure the middle button behavior.
As others have said - I did dislike the screen to an extent, but it got the job done.