ThinkPad Timeline

Google sheets link
View it as a HTML WebPage

Story time

Hey everyone, I am starting on another project. That is probaly 10 projects that I have started and maybe…. 3 i have completed? The most impressive was actually finishing writing about the history of the 700T and other thinkpads… still more to go!

but first, a word from our sponsors I have to say, thank you to those who share my ThinkPad buyers guide!

  • 4chan /g/ThinkPadGeneral, aka /TPG/ – I post as xsauc##
  • installgentoo ThinkPad Wiki
  • Leddit… ok maybe no thanks? ;P
  • Lainchan – wait i just wasted 4 minutes posting compliments…
  • and probably my youtube channel

With DankPads and probably many of you others, I have become obsessed with collecting ThinkPads. This site originally started off as an shitty blogger site which was free with google, but now i pay about $40 per year for the domain & $6 per month for storage. I will probably put ads on here before i start cucking ppl with patreon, but honestly I don’t wanna go that breadtube route.

I am tangenting, per usual, and with this one I am drunk when typing :). Thanks to covid there’s only one brewery I go to which isn’t following restrictions :DDDD.

I love ThinkPads, I don’t know if this is a good thing, but many others have came across this problem. Perhaps it is becuase many of these machines have been a basis of communicating to the world. ThinkPads used to have the best keyboards, reliability, durability, and screens, however the torches have been passed from them and unfortunately, competition has not been kind to keeping a zen to all four. I have somewhat came away from my passion of being a die-hard thinkpad fan, almost 85% of dankpad’s typing has came off a Pixel or Pixelbook. the 3:2 displays are great to see, and currently no thinkpad or macbook can come close to this… X1 Tablet one day I’ll buy you…

Medessec made a simple timeline post and I thought about expanding upon it. I went to thinkwiki for my resource, but there was plenty of thinkpads that were missed on there. Mostly the Japanese ones and some 800 series machines. Nowdays its a bit different, but back then the userbase had died and no one was able to update the pages on newer thinkpads from 2014. That timeline I did stopped around that time too, as lenovo would just announce all these random thinkpads like the different Yoga types, tablets & that ThinkBook 13?

What killed the project was using inkscape for the graph, it made any computer at the time I was using sluggish. I prefered using my X61 Tablet, and would sometimes work with it on my W700ds. I had gotten a T430s which did good too, but I just hated the interface and really didn’t have a great sorting method. Then in new years eve 2015/2016 my car got stolen and I had to liquidate part of my collection. I sold my 755CE, 365XD, 701c, 701cs, W700ds, X1 Carbon 3rd Gen, & others…. It stupid, but my drive for thinkpads stopped, bc homeboy got a car payment n higher insurance. It’s no real excuse but that fucking file got pretty big and lagged the shit out of my computers (probably not that much but it bothered me), so I figured it was better to do it in a different way… and never got around to doing it until now.

DON’T INHALE THE 600 SERIES THINKPADS, YOU WONT THINK THE SAME!

OK Weirds shit over

IMGUR LINK of old timeline

ThinkPad Forums link of feedback

New timeline time! πŸ™‚

Is using google sheets to make the timeline now
but this time, I am going off the PSREFs to find out the availability.
because the dots were kind of boring, and it really doesn’t give a sense how long a machine has been sold.
It kinda like how the Macbook Pro 13 was sold from 2012 til 2016 (i think), while other 2012 models were axed just a year later.

ThinkPad Timeline 1992 – 2013

There is still plenty to go thru. And honestly I don’t think I’ll be able to make it complete. Nah this is not me asking for your help, as this website is pretty locked up, and if anything yttrium, or nikuw would probably know how to set this up better.

That timeline is what I got off the PSREFs, because I want to help others identify ThinkPads. Of course I want to find out about them too! Like many listings on eBay, old thinkpads may not be listed as 365XD, but perhaps Type 7552 or something (those are two different machines or one made up lol).

Honestly doing the big thinkpad price guide is pretty hard. I lost track about how many thinkpads are on there, welll over 200, maybe 230? I don’t know right now off the top of my head. Most of the problem is that I have a set way of getting information and it changes each time I do a guide.

The timeline isn’t complete, it is missing MANY machines. From Lenovo’s PSREF archives, I don’t have info non-US or popular EU machines. Basically the early model 200 and 500 series are missing, there isnt even a 550BJ model! I know it’s stupid, however this is a work in progress. And from here this is specifically 1992 thru 2013 Machines from Lenovo’s PSREF database. I think I can complete 2011 to 2018 machines from their resources. From there I will tackle the Japan only models. I am not sure if I am going to bother with the iSeries machines… but eventually I will. tbh they seem to be an offshoot of the 390 units, and well, there is that one i1124 which is basically a 240X or 240Z machine… not the nissan πŸ™‚

brainstorming

For the Timeline, i do want to have a link to each PSREF it goes to and perhaps each HMM it goes to as well. a dedicated page for each MTM and specific configuration would be nice. I know of the MTM database and it is useful, however that pagefile is extremely large and not really parsed for the internet.

With all this information to help you all… and with my fasciiiiiination to talk about the ThinkPads I’ve owned or wanted…. the prices of these machine will rise, and honestly having a price guide for them might be extremely irrelevant since these flippers (fuckers) will copy/paste what I & we write passionately about the best laptops ever made. bar none.

Yes I have sold eWaste and found “rare” items, but whenever I sold some of these items, I feel that I sold them moderately priced (looking at you Sony Trinitron FW900) for the condition they are in…. and really it’s not my fault if i list items with intricate descriptions and accurate specifications for those who are collecting them… >:)

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