ThinkPad Laptops Are My Favorite

Every day before college, I grab my “daily” laptop, a Lenovo ThinkPad T530, and take it with me in my backpack. It’s a heavy, dark gray brick of a laptop, with accessories that only make it heavier.

ThinkPad T530
A ThinkPad T530

Features of the ThinkPad T530

  • 15.6″ LED-backlit display
  • Intel Ivy Bridge mobile CPU
  • DDR3 RAM
  • Set of stereo speakers and a microphone array
  • Decent 720p HD webcam
  • Keyboard with great response
  • Classic TrackPoint to compliment the usual touchpad that you see on most laptops today
  • Lots of USB ports, with 2 of them USB 3.0
  • An UltraBay drive, allowing you to interchange optical drives or a HDD adapter
  • 2 mPCIe slots, allowing you to throw in an mSATA SSD in addition to the wireless adapter
  • Hefty battery options, with 6 and 9 cell primary battery options, and an additional 9 cell slice battery available
  • There is a docking port where you can either place the laptop on an UltraBase, or the slice battery
  • Durable magnesium chassis

Durability of ThinkPads

The ThinkPad is notable for being an incredibly durable machine, being used on the International Space Station, as well as countless companies and government agencies throughout the world. Lenovo is often keen to torture test the line of laptops through various situations, such as drop tests or extreme temperatures.

I’ll admit it, I probably wouldn’t want to intentionally spill water on my laptop. However, it goes to show that Lenovo pushes the durability of these machines as a selling point,

A Large Community of Tinkerers

It is also notable is that the ThinkPad line of laptops has a dedicated following of technology wizards, who view the classic design as the epitome of of portable productivity, with some users even downgrading the new “chiclet” keyboard to the traditional 7 row keyboard, featured on ThinkPads made before 2012.

Also notable is that Libreboot has support for the T60, X60, X200, T400, and T500 models of ThinkPad laptops, allowing you to run 100% free software on your portable machine. Coincidentally, I also happen to own an X60 Tablet with Libreboot installed and I can admit that it is a very neat machine.

There’s also a large community of ThinkPad fans on Reddit, whether they’re old or new.