This is for archival puproses… go dfuck did this look disgusting tho. V7 coming soon.

Im drunk… fuck it Sober now 😀
Boozing again. actually this took like 4 months to do. and im finally on my journey to get the comp TIA A+ cert. yeah its bullshit but since im a premadonna about tech, this will just be flulf to help me. 😀

Links to guide

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OQ0uFZNkLgrBE9-SS8TJ5cLCQUOiv85s/view?usp=sharing

HTML Page
PDF via Google
PNG via Imgur
Note the image below is totally different than this page format…

Prices here are mostly May – June 2022, X1 Carbons and T14s models are March to May. This price guide is like a Kelly Blue Book for laptops, I will touch base lightly for these systems, & in-depth specs/upgrades will be separate posts. Most of this page is recycled from a V2’s previous post, & revised recommendations thanks to price fluctuations.

V4 guide
https://dankpads.com/2022/06/09/thinkpad-price-guide-v4-1/

Copied/Pasted text will be in purp.

Why choose a ThinkPad?

~ discount price thanks to being sold by surplus stores
~ much cheaper to their similar spec’d consumer counterparts
~ some of the best non-mech laptop keyboards
~ great to good durability for a laptop
~ nice battery life & linux support
~ helpful community on thinkpadforums, thinkwiki.de & lenovo supportt forum
~ ThinkLight – An LED on top of the display that shines light on your keyboard (mostly until 2015)
~ classic design – deters thieves from stealing them
~ mostly well kept due to being in a business environment
~ service manuals readily available & parts fairly obtainable
~ comfy bed laptop to keep you warm but not hot
~ the older it is, the stronger/durable it likely is

Dell Latitude & Precision vs ThinkPad

• Pros
  • Plenty liquidated like ThinkPads
  • Good parts sourcing & sometimes cheaper than ThinkPads
  • Dell’s Spec lookup way fucking easier
  • American in Name, but not build in USA (ooo apple time)
  • Dell is sponsoring the McLaren F1 team
  • Precisions don’t have that fatThinkPad tax $$$
  • (most) Precisions have wide MXM GPU upgrade options
  • Dell’s BIOS passwords can be reset easier
    • My Youtube plug for resetting it 🙂
• Cons
  • Keyboard feel isn’t as good (purely subjective)
  • Some of the old chargers are picky on newer Dells
  • Idk the color i guess???

HP Elitebook & Zbook vs ThinkPad

• Pros
  • Flashier designs (if you like that)
  • Zbook MXM GPU upgrade option a bit behind Dell
  • some have premium speakers that are MacBook tier
• Cons
  • Meh keyboard and weird layouts
  • Software & driver downloads are a fucking mess
  • Worst selling out of the big 3, so less in the used market
  • It’s an HP

Apple MacBook Pro vs ThinkPad

• Pros
  • Best to bring into interviews
  • MacOS > Windows
  • 16:10 Displays since forever
  • TouchPad is awesome
  • Design (subjective)
• Cons
  • 1st thing that gets stolen in a room
  • Throttling issues due to “muh design”
  • No trackpoint
  • GG GPUs
  • iCloud lock basically bricks it
  • >macOS
  • keyboards will break as a design feature
  • screens will break as a design feature
  • expanding batteries & annoying to replace DIY

Sadly I have broke the tradition of having a ThinkPad as my main windows device. T460p has been sold & now I use a Dell Precision 7730, because a P72 or P52 were $400+ over this fucking thing.

Where do you look for one this cheap?

• eBay, Offer Up, Gumtree
• Electronic Recyclers – EPC, Iron Mountain, & surplus vendors
• Bulk sales via Facebook or local ads
• r/thinkpadsforsale
• forum.thinkpads.com (mostly higher enthusiast prices tho)
• Don’t buy ThinkPads with BIOS passwords or not powered on
• Patience is key if you’re new to the market, a better deal will always come by later.

What are you looking for?

• medium sized 14″ laptop – see T400 Series, A4xx, & maybe R, Z or L Series
• slightly bigger 15.6″ laptop – see T500 Series, & L500 series if too expensive
• ultraportable (12″ & 13″) – See X Series, A2xx, and L380 series
  • cheaper & 11″ – See X100 series & 11e models
• workstation – W500 & P50 Series – W520, W541, P50, P52, etc
  • 17″ big? – W700 Series, P70 Series – W701ds, P71, P72
  • 14″ size? – T460p, T470p
  • classic style? – T43p, T60p, Z61p, T61p, W700, T25
  • Low Power – P50s Series- W550s, P51s, P52s, P40 Yoga
• Ultrabook (14”) – X1 Carbon
  • Cheaper – ‘s’ T Series – T420s, T450s, etc
  • Smaller – X3xx & L3xx models
  • Workstation – P1 or X1 Extreme
• digitizer or pen support (11” to 17” ) – See X Tablets, some Yogas, P Series & W70x series with wacom palmrest
• meh – E Series i7 dual cores, T4xxi, X2xxi & L Series sometimes
• not a ThinkPad – IdeaPad, Lenovo Yoga without ThinkPad in its name

There are about 4 different “eras” in this guide
IBM T/X/R/A/G – March 2005 and older
Classic Era – Lenovo made up to 2013, 7 Row Keyboards, Durability, & Modding
Modern Era – Cost cutting, slimmer, internal batteries, & 6 Row KB to 2019
Current Era – More iGPU things, more soldered RAM, some going back to 16:10

Common Classic Era Hardware facts

• All these CPUs can be upgrade to their respective CPU gen, except on X Series or T-Slim units
• Pentium M Dothan – T4x, X3x, X4x, R5x. DDR/2 & IDE HDDs (slow), ATI GPUs
• Core (2) Duo Yonah/Merom – Robust, 3GB DDR2 limit, symmetrical aesthetic
• Core 2 Duo Merom/Penryn – Sweet spot, last 4:3 LCD options, 8GB DDR2, nVidia
• Core 2 Duo Penryn 1066FSB  – Best battery of C2D & light, 8GB DDR3, ATI GPUs
• Intel changes the CPU names from Core 2 Duo to ‘Core’, & starts i3, i5, i7 names.
• CPUs that end with m are standard dual core, qm are quad core, xm are top shelf quadcore.
• u, lm, & um suffix CPUs are low voltage, which aren’t that powerful.
• 1st Gen Core i3 i5 i7 Arrandale – Last 16:10, W Series = QC i7 & 4 RAM slots.
• 2nd Sandy Bridge – Still kickin in 2019! Meh LCD options, USB 3.0 on select models
• 3rd Gen Core – Great eGPU perf., USB 3.0 standard, backlit 6 row keyboard option

Modern Era hardware facts

• 4th Gen Haswell – last decent tock CPU, dreaded clickpad, IPS revival, DDR3L standard. T440p, T540p, W540 & W541
• All CPUs below are soldered & cannot be upgraded w/o BGA magic
• 5th Gen Broadwell – best price/perf, great battery, soldered CPU laptops from now on.
• 6th Gen Skylake – smol gains, SATAe/ NVMe x2 & NVMe x4 on some. Xeon workstations on high end.
• 7th Gen Kaby Lake – Skylake for cheapies, fair performance gains, DDR4, TB3 USB-C.
• AMD Pro – 7th gen competitor, cheaper but weaker
• 8th Gen Kaby Lake R – uadcore ULV CPUs! USB-C chargers on most laptops from here on out
• Ryzen Pro 2K – 8th gen competitor, cheaper & better in some cases
• 8th Gen Coffee Lake – More powerful Quad i7 CPU & SixCore Xeons, 4GB quadro standard
• Ryzen Pro 3K – 8th Gen *ice lake* competitor, cheap & bretty gud
• 10th Gen – Current top tech for 2020 systems
• Ryzen Pro 4K – 10th gen dominator, cheaper but not on higher end systems
• Core M – Low GHz, Passive Cooling CPU for excellent battery life.

Build quality & modularity – ThinkPads have long been loved for its build quality, from the original iterations with 286 CPUs, up to the Core 2 Duo models. Even back during the IBM days, features were slowly taken off & made less intricate, when Lenovo took over production, they took it to a newer level to keep these laptops sold at a profit & be competitive, otherwise these laptops would have been killed off.

Battery is not warrantied – If you see this disclaimer, it is done by MANY sellers on eBay for one dumb reason; people return laptops because the 5 hour battery life may only last one. Highly rated sellers don’t bother wasting time on power testing, because they got such a variable or hectic workload, it subtracts from their sales over time. Get rid of that return reason = marginalize the market towards buyers who are far less likely to return.

Most Thinkpads can be powered by a 90W AC adapter, just buy the barrel design & you can buy a slim tip adapter for newer laptops.
Recently 2017 & later ThinkPads can be powered with a USB-C adapter unless its a workstation that requires 90W or more.

Most ThinkPads except for the W70x, P5x & P7x have soldered on GPUs. If you buy a ThinkPad with an removable GPU part, Lenovo has a whitelist for their video cards so you can only buy their replacement parts. Consider the alternatives if you wish to have upgrades, as Dell and HP workstations let you upgrade from Alienware, Asus or MSI gaming systems.

Before you a ThinkPad or any laptop…

• You’re probably going to need to install an OS via a Thumb Drive
• Check to see if it has a hard drive or HDD / OS
• Be skeptical of new/low feedback sellers esp if its “a steal”
• Does it come with a charger
• Does boot or get to post?
• Is the screen broken?
• Don’t expect to have a fully working battery
  • Consider part costs & upgrades before pulling trigger
  • look at other machines at specs you want & what they sold for

“This ThinkPad is locked”

Try not to buy a locked ThinkPad. Most R2, ready for resale, sellers will state if its locked or not. often times they wipe the drive and offer no OS. Unless they intentionally state there is no bios lock, you’ll most likely be fine. Buying as is, untested machines is a gamble, shady sellers “wont be able to test” laptops, despite them selling the same exact laptop in another listing or similar machines. There’s also the chance of someone selling a laptop they bought that is locked & they are selling it as is or saying simply it is locked. It just depends if they sell laptops alot, so see what the sell and sold, if laptops aren’t a thing, maybe they just bought a bad laptop or legit don’t have a ways to bother with it, or literally are computer illiterate & it can just be a simple login password. Latter is fine because we will want to clean install windows or linux on this thing anyways and I assume you’ll know how to do so. 🙂 Here’s my outdated way of Installing an Windows Operating system. There are plenty of guides online, its honestly pretty easy, just like driving or changing oil on a car, the worst part is that it takes time.

There are multiple ways these “can be locked”.

• Windows login lock – Via USB – without USB – Connecting online
• Hard Drive Lock – superuser topic – George’s linux guide
• BIOS lock / Supervisor Password

The first, who gives a fuck, You’ll want to do a clean install of Windows XP, 7 or 10 anyways. Make a bootable USB for Windows whatever. Here’s a guide from software keep on how to do that. Or you can just reset the computer abruptly and it’ll do the “something went wrong” & you can do the reset from there. Also in a very rare case, it may prompt a email/password if you update Windows online during the new computer start up process. Basically don’t connect to to the internet until after you get into the desktop. I had this happen to me ONCE since I started tinkering with laptops from 2012, with over 300 computers I’ve fucked around with.

Hard drive locks I don’t bother with personally. Rarely do I come across one, but when I did, it was usually on a HDD which was gonna get an SSD anyways. I think I was able to remove a lock once with Parted Magic, but honestly I didn’t really bother solving it as I was working at eWaste, & time is money; wiped, scrapped for it’s materials.

BIOS lock

Right now, there are about 3 different era’s of locked ThinkPads.. maybe 4 if we talking the old old ones, but those aren’t covered in this guide. DO NOT remove the CMOS battery, this is not a desktop, this is a laptop which for some odd reason, will fuck you over. Because now you’ll have to set the time, and in order to set the time in the bios, you’ll need to enter it, and if you don’t have the password… A locked bios isn’t the end all, be all. Just toss a HDD or SSD with an operating system and see if it works. Update drivers and, well you’ll have a mostly working ThinkPad.

BIOS locks don’t 100% mean you cant change configurations with the laptop. I recently came across a P50 that let me change WiFi, power, dGPU and some other settings. I couldn’t mess with the boot order, but it still let me boot from a thumb drive to install an OS. System working good after 3 months online.

Types of ThinkPad BIOS thingies

• EEPROM – 1998 to 2012 – Jaaxxs net locations – leddit short
• SMM/UEFI/WTF? – 2013 to 2018 – badcaps – cr4sh
• Healing BIOS – 2019 to now – Fucked

Removing the BIOS password via EEPROM chip the Neanderthal way, desolder the bios chip & install a “clean” chip. Don’t be a fucking idiot and buy a random chip for Apple & expect it to work on Lenovo. Buy the same one for the make/model. DO NOT FUCKING SEND IT IN TO AN EXPERT TO DO IT. The whole point of this fucking guide is to save money, you will not FUCKING save money by paying to ship, paying them to ship & paying them to service the BIOS password by desoldering it. Unless you know an actual local shop (I HAVE ZERO RECOMMENDATIONS, FUCK OFF), you’ll most likely lose money that way.

Second is what I have, the KeyMaker X2, though only it seems the fellow is sellin the KMX1, it will ZAP the password if you follow their instructions. It has worked on the 3 ThinkPads I have tried it with. Its $100+ USD.

Third is shorting out the EEPROM chip, see the reddit post or look up youtube videos on how to do it for your laptop model. The EEPROM chips are all similar vs the pinout traces, but w/e. It is not guaranteed to work, but it’s at least something to do. At worst you’ll be able to install an operating system, & change setting, at best you actually removed the lock. I will not dwelve into how to do this shit because there’s like 100 different fucking ThinkPads that I would have to explain. The KMX1 is my recommended way to reset an EEPROM bios. However this is the DIY method, not buying a special tool way. YMMV

Newer ThinkPad bios locks, not healing bios. These are… very very meticulous to remove. From what I gathered, they want you to desolder the chip, place it on the programmer, dump the files, upload the files on that forum and then someone will come back with a clean BIOS w/o lock. YES YOU WILL NEED ANOTHER COMPUTER to do this. There’s that autopatcher thing, that should just let you reset it via the computer. It is recommended to remove it, however there are statements where you can dump the bios while the chip still be connected to the laptop, however it is not recommended because it has a chance of it not being a correct dump… and if thats the case you may just flash it incorrectly and thus have a borked machine for a moment. Fixing it, i would assume would require removal or just try again a thousand times.

What the fuck is healing bios? Basically there is a way to remove BIOS locks after 2013 TPs, by using a CH341A programmer, copying the image & doing shit that is way over my head. But I guess in 2019, Lenovo implemented this healing BIOS shit, that like doesn’t compromise the BIOS if there’s a virus that tries to fuck it over. Because of this there is currently no way to reset the bios lock with the programmer, as it resets after applying the new image. Maybe there will be a work around, but at the moment, I do not know of it.

Common Sellers of as is and refurbed machines

Sellers I like & bought from the past

Guide Contents

14″ Standard

T40 to T400
T410 to T14 (not the S models)
A4xx & L Series
Z, S, R

15″ Machines

T43 to T15
Z, R, S & L Series

14″-ish Ultrabooks

T400s to T14s
X300 to X1 Carbon Nano
X1 Fold, X1 Yoga, (X1 Extreme will be with P1)

Workstations

T40p to T61p (mixed 14″ & 15″ configs)
G, R, Z Models w/ p suffix
W500 to P50 to P15
T15g, P15v, T15p
W700 to P70 to P17
P1 & X1 Extreme
W550s to P15s
14″ – P40, T460p to P14s

UltraPortable

X20 to X41
X60 to X201 (s models included)
X220 to X13
A Series, Edge, ThinkPad 13 & L Series
S30
X100e to X140e
11e – non Yoga

Convertibles

11e Yogas
TransNote, X Series & Twist
Yoga 12, 14, 15
Yoga 13, X & L
Thinkpad Tablet
Helix, X1 Tablet & X12 Detachable

There are three prices for each model in this guide!

• Model – Link to eBay, sorted lowest to highest, shipping to USA including Worldwide sellers. Search will have modifiers for certain models to zero in on results. Due to this some machines may be omitted all together. Not sure if there’s a way to get all listings possible int he world.
• Low– Great deal if fully working, but mostly these can be fixer uppers (needs more $$ parts). Not recommended for your 1st laptop, unless you’re confident with rebuilidng.
• Mid – In about the above middle mark of all sold listings (e.g. #270-300 out of 500 sold units) , my recommended price to newcomers. It can be complete & working, maybe with a warranty. Best for people who want a decent, working laptop.
• high – Systems with upgraded RAM, CPU, SSD or LCD. In some cases these are near mint condition. You can def pay much more, as in my spreadsheet I have 4th price… Good for people who want the best out of their laptop, & have certain spec requirements.
• EX+ – Usually New, refurbished or excellent refurbished laptops. Sometimes high end CPU/GPU/RAM/SSD/LCD configurations, but not always if it’s a NIB older model. Ideal for people who want no fussing with parts, possibly come with Lenovo warranties, or seller guarantees.
• #Sold – How many laptops sold within the past 3 months at the time of research. The higher the better, as it means plenty of machines & likely chance of a seller having a BIN undercut or generally good as is auctions. However the older the laptop is, the lower the number usually gets, & in some cases, are sought after & sell for higher, due to eBay alerts for buyers.

Abbreviations I use

• BIN – Buy it now
• BNIB – Brand New In box
• hdd – Hard drive (including SSD)
• probs – probably (yeah i know, wrong fuckign word)

14″ Standard

T40 – high had a dock w/ it. fuckoff “vintage gaming” in listing titles, these are NOT designed for that. below mid expect no hdd probs
T41 – below mid price, machines probably have no hdd
T43 all – not too many untested/ no hdd systems :D, working systems a bit above low pricing. IMO one to get for Pentium M… well the frameflex may fuck your GPU or southbridge, so in that case try the Dell D610/D810.
T60 all – 4 libreboot, 1 mid, 1 high, 2EX+,
T61 – no notes 🙂
T61u – Education/College based Thinkpad for surplus purchase. Thought it was fake but no.
T400 – no libre here, 1/3-ish no hdd, these can run Win 10 (23 sold), but someone put Win 11 lol…
T400 libre – i thought these are expensive, but honestly its been like 3 years since libreboot has happened, and for the time/effort it takes, arguably for me, it’s worth buying one of these. With that said, I would get a Libre X301/T400s tho bc they are cheaper than these T400’s

DDR – T40, T41, T42
DDR2 – T43, T60, T61
DDR3 – T400
PATA – T40 thru T43 (unless u do the SATA mod on the T43)
SATA – T60 thru T400
4:3 – all T4x, some T60 and T61
16:10 – some T60, T61 & all T400

GPU issues plague these machines, but if they turn on and go to bios, you should be safe. T40 thru T42 have a flex issue where the southbridge chip flexes due to the chassis. Simply pick up the laptop with two sides on both ends and you will be fine. T43 supposedly fixed it, but, doesn’t hurt to 2hander if you got 2 hands. T60 have ATI graphics and some people complain about overheating issues, T61 have the infamous nVidia BGA solder failures. But you may get one that was fixed, however IBM headed repair factories did the right thing, while Lenovo one do what Apple does, replace w/ same faulty parts.

T410 – about 30 no drive, 11 w/ SSDs, 10 i7, 20 8GB max ram models
T410i – lmafo
T420 – Coreboot in EX+ price range, 64 units no drive, basically low is riddled (with no hdds) up to mid pricing…
T420 Coreboot – No notes, but added the search :), also low price has ivy CPU upgrade
T430 – So many machines…. idk if im accurate :O, fucking lost count, over 100 no drive machines i think. WAIT WHAT THE FUCK, YOU CAN GET AN 2ND GEN I5 IN THESE???
T430i – no notes, fuck i3 i guess
T440p – wtf quad i5? not real… fuck off sellers hcarec56 & techsourcesales for calling hyperthreading as quadcores.

DDR3 – T410 thru T430
DDR3L – T440p
16:9 – T420 thru T440p (IPS on the latter, mod required for the others)

None of these machines are known for GPU problems, so if it does have nVidia graphics, it’s all been sorted out. However integrated graphics during this era really kicked ass and NVS wasn’t that big of an upgrade, all of these have 1GB of vRAM anyways, (well idk what the T410 has). Yeah TN displays plague these machines, alot of the enthusiasts held onto their IPS T60 and T601 Frankenpads, or went with an IPS X-Series, even if it was in 720piss. The FHD mod originally had issues on the T420 & T430 (s models did not), & other manufacturers started to make copies. If you do get the FHD Mod cable, most ones nowdays have the revision where the converter chip lies behind the LCD monitor, instead of the motherboard. Coreboot has brought demand back to the T420, I personally don’t know how to do it, but the prices for it made it go up. T430 has a non-OEM battery thing, that only charges Lenovo batteries, however I think cheap manufacturers figured it out and “fixed this”, with that said you can do ivyrain to fix this problem & get other batteries to be used like the T420. T440p? Cool they brought IPS displays, but it’s the only ‘p’ ThinkPad that doesn’t have higher grade CPUs, LCDs & GPU as standard… it’s just means that it has a removable CPU now, and the “normal” T440 has a soldered one.

T440 – 50 no drive
T450 – 49 no drive,
T460 – no notes
T470 sky – 27 no drive, -/+ 12 no RAM. 32 systems with i7, none saying WQHD/1440 nor 4K/UHD (not available for this anyways).
T470 Kaby – No notes
T480 All – 11 no drive, they get expensive real quick, lotta BIN.
T480 Kaby – they all got OS installed lol
T480 Kaby R – No notes

T480 has a USB-C firmware issue where it wont charge, or only slow charge. Or maybe its the T480s, thats all I know that is bad about these but really don’t dwelve deeper than that. Some chud says T440 is better than the T450 because it doesn’t have a LCD whitelist crap, but who cares if you got the IPS display. T480 has a significant price jump, & basically we will see that being reflected with other ThinkPads if they are 2018 or newer.

I stopped doing notes for a bit, too tedious. Don’t know anything about these, and really I didn’t bother looking for the “Secure Access” versions of these ThinkPads. Just had different coatings and some pre-installed security features, maybe a fingerprint scanner. Otherwise similar hardware specs.

14″ L Series ThinkPads

These are not that popular for used machines… prob bc they were bought by small biz types who don’t replace in yearly intervals or buy in bulk fleets.

These ryzen models are a pain to find prices specifically to them.

14″ S Series

No data on these… actually its been so long I don’t even know if I can get a proper estimate. Other than the S431, I think the other models were specifically sold to European markets, at leas the S440. Don’t confuse these for Mercedes Benzes (E55 is where its at).

R60 – wtf they sellling the laptop i like
R61i – High price had one w/ drive, EX+ with WIn 7 32 bit :D. half the machines here have “as is”, “read”, no drives. Besises the measly 80/120/150GB drives are slow, nab an SSD for like $40.
R400 – Last of the R series, and theres hardly any, most are sold for parts. EX+ are librebooted models.
R52 = T43 = Z60t
R60 = T60 = Z61t

The R Series are mixed, 14″ and 15″ machines. Not going to look at each machine to figure out which is which…

15″, 15.6″ & 15.4″ T Series Mainstream

T43 – probably a few non IPS panels (SXGA+ is risky), but yeah the expensive ones are IPS.
T60 – Search does have a few non 4:3 15″ machines & a few 15:4″ widescreens. that said
T61 – fuck i need to buy some of these and load XP…
T500 – lotta windows 10 machines. 8 8GB machines, 2 of which below mid price, otherwise 6 sold in/below EX+ range
T510 – 20 units w/ no drive, 25+ Windows 10, 5 Win 7.
T520 – 53 no drive,
T530 – 30 no drive, 72 i7 units. 45 w/ SSD
T540p – 86 no drives, yeah they are the same price of the T530…

T550 – 6 no drive.
T560 – 33 no drive, No 3K panels *fuck off*, 40 16GB from mid & up, 2 NVMe specifically high & EX+. not too many borked machines.
T570 Sky – 9 no drive, 23 i7 systems, few sales with lots in them.
T570 Kaby – eh more of the same
T580 Kaby – redtagdeal literally calls an i5-7300 a quadcore, they sold it for $700… fucking do not buy from them ooo but its new tho. fuck off.

T590 – 3 no drive, + 2 broken.
T15 G1 – all seem to be working machines, avail BINs start at mid price, no UHD/4K in title, about 11 i7 models. warranties still up in used units
T15 G2 – lotta avail BIN at low price, qhich is equal to T15 G1 mid price but a newer laptop…

15″ Z, R, L Series

Z60m – two untested, and yeah the high price comes with no OS
Z61m – two bids lol
Z61e – holy fuck starting the bid at 99 cents & litterally getting one bid. even put it for $1 BIN. back when I did eWaste, my coworker said “never list anything below $40 before shipping, not worth the time unless its in multiple unit listing & we dont need to test them” For the time testing, taking photos, writing the listing, packing…. 1 fucking dollar for all that? then you are gonna get fucked again by the eBay fees.
R500 – 7 systems with Windows 7, 3 units w/o drives. EX+ is from an italian seller

Yeah there are more 15″ R Series machines, however to specifically find those models are too much of a pain. Even if I did the search for 15″ machines, there will be ones where people don’t specify in the title or description.

There aint shit here bud… fake thinkpads. No actually these are rare thinkpads. older than 5 years, that vintage bro! Charge 100K now because it’s rare bro.

Slim & Ultrabook Machines

Except for the bullet points, text here is ripped from TPG 5 X1 – T14s

uSATA Slim Pre-Ultrabooks 2008 – 2010

T400s is the bargain LibreBoot ThinkPad, cheaper than T400, X61, or X200. I’m assuming not many T400s were produced & the other machines seem to have article, guide & video about them, so they became the ones that were demanded. If you’re really wanting to get something this old… T410s used to be one of the last 16:10 ThinkPads, so if you wanted a T Series, that be it, but given now there’s new 16:10 ThinkPads in 2021, and assuming more, this aint shit now.

mSATA machines – Two Classics vs Modernized

T420s – many units without drives until mid price, 20 i7 units, mostly in high/EX+, 2 at mid price
T430s – no notes
T430u – only 4 units without drive/os, not really overpriced but idk HD screen & Ivy U CPU? Cheaper than a Pixel 2013, only i7 is EX+ & 4 units with SSD in mid/high
T431s – 2 units without drives, 4 with i7, & 13 with SSDs. all but 2 units are in ready to use order.
T440s – More than 50 units without drives, over 270 with SSDs, & about 180+ with i7’s.
T450s – 140+ without drives, 25+ with spinning rust, 275+ with SSDs and 70+ with i7s

Classic Charger – T420s, T430s, T430u
Rectangle Slim – T431s, T440s, T450s
Classic mSATA – T420s, T430s, T430u
m.2 mSATA (key crap) – T431s, T440s, T450s
iGPU only – T431s
No IPS option or mod/upgrade – T430u
IPS Screens – Are mostly 250 or 300 Nits luminance & 700:1 Contrast ratio til T490s
Dual Batteries – T420s, T430s, (DVD), T440s, T450s, (internal)
Two RAM slots – T420s, T430s, T430u
Soldered RAM + 1 Slot – T431s, T440s, T450s; 20/24GB Max

First off, these are not “REAL CLASSIC IBM” however the T420s, & if you mod it, T430s are the last here to have the 7 Row keyboard layout. The typing feel is a bit better, but it’s not something I’d recommend for college if you’re wanting it to last 4 years & expect it to stay on & standby for 4 classes… you’d probably need an extra battery or two. If you want something in your in your dorm, use it for writing, watching streams & have great durability, nab either of these machines. If you want 8 hours of batter life, The FHD mod kit is not available for these machines, but it is for the normal T420 or T430, cost ya $50 from ThinkPan. If you want to, the T431s can get an FHD IPS panel as an upgrade without any fuss. Remember the T440s has the infamous clickpad, so you can swap it with a T450s.

Late Model Thin N Slim, now with NVMe 3.0 x4

T460s – NVMe x4 SSDs now 🙂 probably 150+ with no drives, 260 with i7, and only ONE FUCKING 1440p in the title?! Nah there has to be more
T470 All – about 100+ without Drives or OS, 300-ish i7 machines
T470s Sky – 70 without drives, plenty in the low, but some in mid and 5 even in high. about 80 i7 units 😀
T470s Kaby – 56 units w/o drives, better, also 126 i7 machines, two with 1TB SSDs, then 31 w/ 512GB. Also a single WQHD listed T470s
T470s all – under 200 that have i7’s, also high chance you’ll get an 8th gen system, about 8 1TB systesm, over 50 512GB listings, & 60+ systems w/ 24GB, tbh only 1 system with 20GB RAM, so sellers must be maxing the 8GB soldered systems

Rectangle Slim – T460s only; some T470s
USB-C Charger – T480s only, some T470s
IPS Display – FHD is Standard on all machines here, optional is FHD Touch, or WQHD, FHD Privacy opt on T480s. 3 IPS options total on all machines.
Dual Batteries – On T460s, T470s; only internal battery from T480s on out.
QuadCore CPUs – On some T480s machines (8th gen Kaby Lake R) & later, everything before is dualcore
dGPU – On T460s & most T480s, except EMEA machines. T470s is iGPU only
Soldered RAM + 1 slot – T460s, T470s, T480s; 20/24GB Max

Pick these ‘s’ models over the standard T Series as they have NVMe 3×4 speeds, as the others have only 3×2 (until the T490) & you’ll need an adapter for them, as they have 2.5″ SATA III bays. T480s is cursed for its USB-C charging port, I think all 8th Gen CPU thinkpads have a fauty power delivery, as there’s reports for other machines having an issue too. Yes there’s a firmware update, however… consider that you may get an eWaste T480s that is being sold for parts due to that being broken. Do i know for a fact buying it, & updating firmware will fix it or not? No. I don’t want to spread FUD, but I also don’t want to advise buying these without knowing 100% its fixable & not an issue. If you’re looking for dedicated graphics, T460s, T480s are ones to get, but honestly a P slim maybe better.

Current T14s Line – iGPUs, Moar Corez, still 16:10

T490s – no WQHD WTF?!?!?!, 4 units w/o drives, 52 i7, 16 w/ 32GB RAM, 32 w 16GB, 4 units 1TB & 32 units with 512GB. maybe 5 of these will require work
T495s – T495s is cucked on ram vs the regular T495 or X395. all units are complete, 7 units with Ryzen 7, 5 w/ 16GB RAM *max*, & only 3 with 512GB SSD
T14s1intel – No UHD, jesus fuck. 3 no SSDs, 22 i7, 4 1tb, 25 512GB drives & 5 with 32GB RAM & 8 touchscreens 🙂 maybe 3 broken units total
T14s1amd – 1 without drive, 8 ryzen 7, 4 1TB units, 8 512GB, 2 32GB RAM units
T14s2intel – 1 wrong result,
T14s2amd – 8 1tb, BUT 2 2TB machines??, 9 32GB RAM, 9 ryzen 7… that price difference tho, buy new

Quadcore Only – T490s, T495s, T14s G2 Intel….
Sixcore options – T14s Intel G1, T14s G2 AMD
Sixcore by Default – T14s G1 AMD, Fuck yeah
Eightcore bragging rights – T14s AMD Gen 1 & Gen 2.
iGPU – All machines
NVMe 3×4 – On all machines… except T14s Gen 2 Intel/AMD are 4×4 supposedly
IPS Displays – 5x Options on all Intel machines, 4x options on AMD (5x on G2). Mix of privacy guard, blue light filter, low power & Adobe HDR mixups, too much to go thru. See the flowchart or the specific X1/T14s spreadsheet 🙂
UHD IPS – Available on T14s Intel G1 & G2, and G2 AMD
USB-C Chargers – On all models, 45W or 65W
Only Internal Batteries – On all models, 6 Cell 57Whr Li-Polymer for just about all of them

Executive & Flagship

X1 Carbon 2012 – 2018 buying guide

The X Series was just about equal to the T Series since it’s iteration. Like the old IBM era, it is a true successor to the 500 Series, as it was the 700’s smaller sibling. But for a moment, there was a machine that took the spotlight away from the 500, and it was a great seller, the 701C. The 701C was an ultraportable but it had a fullsize keyboard thanks to the Butterfly mechanism that gave a fuck unlike the shit Apple made. First was the ThinkPad Reserve Edition, but when Apple unveiled the MacBook Air, Lenovo countered with their own take on an UltraSlim ThinkPad, the X300. It got slimmer and became the X1, and then got slightly bigger and became the X1 Carbon. After a few years, the X1 became it’s own sub-brand to the ThinkPad, being the premier, ultrathin & flagship version of other ThinkPads. Ultrabook, Tablet, Yoga, & Workstation.

13.3″ UltraSlim, pre Ultrabook – 2008 to 2011

• Hell yea, the X300 Series, best keyboard… or the 25th Anniversary TP
• X30x have 1.8″ SATA bays, so buy a 1.8″ to mSATA adapter bc those OG SSDs are expensive, uncommon & have lower disk size volume than newer mSATA
• X1 NON CARBON! I think this does have some carbon in it… but it does have one DDR3 bay & soldered ram too…
• Don’t bother buying OEM batteries, they are probably degraded from sitting on the shelf for half a decade.
• all these use the classic barrel charger 

65W Big Barrel Charger – On all systems
8GB Max RAM – On all models
Two batteries – X3xx can have DVD battery, X1 can get a thicker bottom add-on.
iGPU – On all systems, but goddamn the X300 is so lackluster with DDR2 and 1.2GHz CPU… 🙁
The screens just suck – This is the beginning of the shitty ThinkPad screens, IPS options were taken away (except for X2xx and Tablet variants) and these systems got hit hard with bad viewing angles.

Not included is X1 Hybrid… because it was a shit seller? idk they don’t come up on eBay, top 10 most rare ThinkPads. You’re literally not missing anything unless you want to dualboot an old version of android, yeah even Google abandoned that shit on my Pixelbook (so awesome updating & losing app compatibility!) The EX+ X301 are librebooted machines, hence the drastic price difference. Yeah the X1 has a newer CPU, but it also had an HD screen and not WXGA+, does NOT have a legendary 7 row keyboard, oh and the the X220, T420 are more sought after for the performance. Also the latest version of the X1 Carbon is 14″ BUT in 16:10.

14″ Classic? Ultrabook – 2012 to 2016

X1 Carbon – 36 systems without SSDs, 70 systems with i7, 12 with touchscreens and 110 with 8GB RAM (fuck)
X1C2 – l16GB RAM (except one avail with an i5??), 28 4GB & 88 8GB untis & 3 512GB. old search had “-no”, which nixed about 50 results. Funny thing is that the average prices were higher, 100, 170, 260 & 370 respectively. however i forgot this is the worst one to buy, 5 1440p screens, past mid to EX+
X1C3 – Low end may not have SSD, big price difference from gen 2fucking shit. 130 i7s, 5 WQHD & 15 1440 (devations of 2560×1440 w/w/o space or hypen, once 1440p, thats the buzzword), 1 1TB, 2 2TB, 17 16GB machines, and finally 6 that are the best i7 16GB WQHD/1440, 2 below high price, 4 at/above it.
X1C4 – These may be mixed with X1C5 machines, thanks to same CPUs. However 185 hits on “4th” out of 240-ish listings… 120 i7, 78 16GB, 1 1TB, 2/10 wqhd/1440p, over 35 units without SSD, up to mid price.

Rectangle Slim Chrger – All systems except X1 Carbon Gen 1, which is circle
All Soldered RAM – 4 or 8GB on all systems, 16GB on X1C3 or X1C4
Fucked SSDs – X1C is hella proprietary, X1C2 is m.2 SATA
NVMe 2280 – X1C3 is 2×4, X1C4 is 3×4
Meh Display – X1C is HD or 900p, X1C2 has 900p as default, X1C3 has FHD TN as default
FHD IPS default – On X1C4 and onward
WQHD IPS – Options on X1C2 thru X1C4

X1C2 is worst keyboard… SIKE! Any E Series ThinkPad is worse tbh >:). These may be called X1 Carbon 2nd/3rd/4th gen, or X1C2/X1C3/X1C4 depending on seller. All keyboards should come standard with a backlit keyboard, something that is optional on other thinkpads.

Late Flagship X1C – Thin Bezel 2017 to 2019

X1C5 SKy – no notes, fuck this model
X1C5 Kaby – 7 units missing drives below low and in mid price. 70 i7 units, 33 16GB, 1 1TB, 5 512GB, 5 WQHD vs 1 1440 unit.
X1C6 Kaby Lake – all results are actually 5th gen ThinkPads. Make no mistake, the 6th gen has a darker “ThinkPad” logo on the palmrest and that lame ass “thinkshutter” over the camera. A quick glimpse of all these, and they all look like 5th gens, not losing sleep over it
X1C6 Kaby Lake R – “only” 10 units w/o drives, 130 with i7, 130 16GB, 20 1TB, 16 WQHD & 14 1440p, last one with this display. 650+ for ultimate. Only 5 units came with an i5-7300 in title… 😀
X1C7 Whiskey – about 50 i7, 45 16GB, 11 1TB, 25 512GB, 7 UHD, 5 4K, the latter two are used interchangeably, so it might be more or less (and they put 2160p too…)
X1C7 Comet – Results are mixed with other machines (meant to put more info…)

USB-C Chargers – On these models & forever unless USB-DEEZ-NUTS comes out
What the fuck? – Yeah TWO CPU generations on each X1 Carbon gen…
8GB or 16GB – Max RAM on all these systems
Display – FHD and WQHD screens on X1C5/6; FHD, WQHD, & UHD on X1C7
Quadcore – On Kaby Lake R, & Whisky Lake, sixcore on i7-10710U X1C7.
Healing BIOS – Begins on X1C7…

Few things. These X1Carbonz iz slightly smaller in size from their former counterparts. Like the XPS, Lenovo was able to fit a 14″ screen in a 13.3″ form factor ThinkPad, we T20 nao. Also the 5th gen is notable as the color changed again, but this time to silver, so you’ll see silver X1 Carbons now or just black as well, the keyboard is still black, which is strange but ok, other ThinkPads were like that too i guess. To identify an X1C6 or later model, they must have ThinkShutter over the webcam (unless its a touchscreen, then the entire panel is glass), and the newer, shinier, ThinkPad logo.

Current USED Ultrabook Flagship 2020 – 2021 14″/13″

X1C8 – 66 i7, 50 16GB 23 UHD/4K, 20 1TB. Only 2 machines that had no drives, 2 with broken screens & maybe 5 that needed an OS install.
X1C9 – I had 10 more results when adding “11th” but its gonna fuck up x1C11… no broken units, no unis missing drives. 100ish i7 units, 70 16GB, 20 32GB which go about 1800 & up, 44 512GB, 45 1TB & 1 2TB. bout 7 WQXGA units, but they use 4K+ or UHD+ as verbage… RIP old thinkpad lingo
X1 Nano – high/EX+ is botched bc this thing is new. 20 i7 units, 22 16GB units, 9 1TB machines, over $1370

Quadcores – On all machines, except some i7 X1C8, which is sixcore. Wait the Nano has even more lesser powered CPUs, SULV?
Memory – 8 or 16GB RAM configs on all machines, 32GB possible on X1C9
Display – Too much to list, but X1C9 (and later?) is now 16:10 format & Nano has 2K as standard
SSD – 2280 NVMe 3×4 on X1C8, 4×4 on X1C9 and the smaller 2242 3×4 on the X1 Nano

The X1 Nano is basically the lightest X1 you can get, who knows for how long, but it is kinda comprimised with the 2242 SSD and is smaller. Maybe they’ll make a 12″ unit? Doubtful.

X1 Yoga, Fold, Titanium – 2016 to 2021

God this shit is just awful to look at. Honestly I don’t feel like breaking down which is similar to what and all that fuckwad shit. (can I just finish this yet. its been 14 days…)

X1 Fold – 2 512GB systems, otherwise always 256GB. the low price is an auction that had an issue with glue on the back? i guess the rear cover goes wonky after awhile.
X1 Yoga – A few “lot of” X1 Tablets in the bottom and some Titanium yoga are in here (which I ignored). 60 i7, 85 8GB, 12 16GB, 20 512GB SSD, 6 WQHD & 0 OLED…. at least in the title, those 6 WQHD might be an OLED version But I’m not going to check (because if I did so now, I will have to chech every fucking time). However I did come across one that was OLED via MTM as a cheap BIN but im not sure…
X1Y2 – ok this and Yoga 3 results are fucked bc i was hungry and angery thanks to 2 lazyfuck dudes who are takng an extended break while women are doing the heavy lifting for them. there’s a few $1000 ‘Straya units sold by thinkbuyer… but nah too much for EX+ imo. 6 WQHD, 13 1440p, 1 OLED (2 more if that straya seller), 100 i7 units, 65-ish 16GB machines, 40-ish 512GB, 3 1 units (1 mid, 2 hi)
X1Y3 All – 70 i7, 60 16GB, 40 512GB, 15 WQHD/1440, 3 1TB, 3 w/o Drives, about 8 without OS. 1 w/o HDD & one w/o OS.
X1Y3 Kaby Lake – Only 2nd Gen… no Squared Lenovo logo on the left bottom screen bezel…
X1Y3 Kaby Lake R – No results for Kaby version means all of them are Kaby R with the original search 🙂 This is a good thing, as it implies to me, you’ll have a high chance of getting the better CPU gen instead of getting a X1Y2…
X1Y4 Whiskey – EX+ is NIB, 17 i7, 9 16GB, 5 512GB, 2 1TB. 5 WQHD (of which 3 have 1440)
X1Y4 Comet – Did my best to avoid X1C5 units, so some 4th gen machines may be missing? one 5th gen unit did come thru, so its ommited OFC> no broken or msising machines, still can get these new or refurb’d w/ warranty
X1Y5 – wtf these are cheaper?? and they are newer? lmafo, even the high/EX+ price is pushing it haha, units avail at mid & below. 14 i7, 18 16GB, 11 512GB, 1 1TB. 35 sold but 23 shown…
X1Y6 – 17 i7, 18 16GB, 2 32GB (EX+ ofc), 13 512GB, 8 1TB, 1 2TB. 7 WQUXGA. no broken lappies
X1 Titantium Yoga – idk about these prices

Oh fuck I didn’t write shit about these Yogas… Uh, X1Y1 has 3 screen options, the best one being a WQHD OLED option w/ 300 nits brightness and 2,000,000:1 Contrast ratio. Yeah it doesn’t have 100% Adobe Dolby HDR whatever the fuck, but I want one, the X1Y2 has 4 screen options, but the OLED only goes up to 54,000:1 Contrast ratio. whatever. After that OLED is gone, but some of the better screens are 1500:1 and are IPS, slightly better brightness via 400 or 500 nits. The X1 Titanium is the thinnest X1, so there’s that, but who knows how long Lenovo will keep that up.

Performance ThinkPads

I love these machines, most of these are real workstations. This is almost a complete guide of all p Thinkpads, it’s missing the A2x and A3x units, and arguably I would also have to research the 770, and 800 series for the proper performance lineage. It wasn’t all 15″ and 17″ machines, a few 14″ powerhouses were available, and they were fucking badass at the time too. The sort order will be weird, but whatever.

T40 Performance – 2003 to 2005

Memory – 2GB DDR on T40p, T41, 2GB DDR2 on T42p, T43p
PATA Drives – On all (T43p can be SATA if mod), get an IDE to mSATA or CF Card adapter, IDE SSDs are either too old or crap. HM160HC is recommended via TP Forums but may have a speed issue.
SXGA+ or UXGA IPS – Former on 14″ machines, later on 15″ machines, nothing else. As it should be. but god… 150 Nits or 200 nits luminance, for that classic feel. YMMV for LED mod options.
72W “Coax” Charger – Recommended on these machines, maybe you can get away w/ the 60W on the 14″ machines, but not recommended.
Pentium M – Banias CPUs on T40p, T41p; Dolthan on T42p, T43p
ATI GPUs – Classic gaming feel

These machines are pretty fucking scarce. T50 is essentially a Kaby Lake motherboard to fit in the T4x, it was the first 51nb motherboard, so quality control isn’t like a mass produced Thinkpad. I’m not sure how well they’ve hold up, look up the forum posts if you can, multiple batches were produced, so YMMV on which one you’ll get. I don’t know if there’s a PSREF for T4x machines, I couldn’t find one at the time. A common problem on T4x machines was that the southbridge chip is susceptible to chassis flex if you pick it up with one hand, use two. 🙂 For awhile there was no 15″ T4x, as it was still the Thin N Lite market, so A2x, A3x, G4x and R50p were the big ones until the 15″ T42p came. Yes there are 14″ T42p & T43p, so be sure to check the size of the keyboard bezel.

T6x Performance – 2006 to 2008

DDR2- 3GB T60p, 8GB for T61p
SATA I Speeds – On both machines, but T61p can get SATA II w/ Middleton BIOS
T61 Wikia – Via ThinkPad Forums 🙂
Screens – T60p – SXGA+ TN, UXGA IPS, WSXGA+ TN; T61p SXGA+, WXGA+, WSXGA+ or WUXGA for 15″
Big Barrel Chargers – On these machines, 90W recommended
dGPU – Both have issues, but T61p is the worst w/ nVidia due to the BGA solder

Yeah you can quadcore mod the T61 or T61p, but it takes a lot. Plenty of recommendations as to what CPU to have on that machine. X220 spanks these in performance… the F stands for FrankenPad or Frankie. Basically I just added the price of T60 and T61, yeah you used to be able to buy both for $100 and be done with it, from 2011 to 2015 I think…

15″ 4:3 – G, R, T big bois – 2003 to 2006

These are kinda sorted by year. Note, some of these are not performance machines, but just IPS or 15″… G Series was kind of a let back, especially so if you consider it came with integrated graphics and no docking station port, really strange. G41 has an nVidia option, so check to see if it has side vents where a floppy disk should be. Yeah it literally had a floppy port, unlike the A3x, where it could have a dual CD/DVD drives, or a floppy. R50p can be configured with UXGA or the sought after QXGA… but since newer ThinkPads have gone past that resolution, maybe the vintage feel will be the only reason to get one.

Widescreen Socketed Workstations – 2006 to 2014

Badass – Z61p comes WUXGA standard, W540/1 come FHD (not IPS) & a 3K IPS panel w/ 99% sRGB
Cucked – W500 thru W530 start WXGA/HD & can get up to WUXGA/FHD
RAM – Two RAM slots on dualcore based systems, four on quadcores
Big Barrel Chargers – 90W on Z61p, W500; 135W on W510; 170W on W520, W530
Rectangle Slim – 135W or 170W depending on DC/QC configs
8GB or 32GB max – On Core 2 Duo for the former, & Quad i7 on the latter
ATI Graphics – On Z61p & W500 machines
nVidia 1GB or 2GB – On W510 through W541 machines

15.6″ Full Power Workstation – 2015 to 2021

Quadcores – P50, P51, P53, P15 G1
SixCores – P52, P53, P15 G1 & G2
Eight Cores – P53, P15 G1 & G2
DDR4 Max – 64GB on P50, P51; 128GB RAM on P52, P53, P15 G1 & G2
3x Drives (2.5″ & 2x NVMe 3×4) – P50 to P52, P53 if T1000 or T2000 GPU
2x NVMe 3×4 – P53 if RTX GPUs & P15 G1
2x NVMe 3×4 + 1x NVMe 4×4 – P15 G2
Displays – All IPS FHD or 4K/UHD, or OLED 4K option on P53 thru P15 G2
Chargers – 170W Rectangle on All, 230W on beffy P53 thru P15 G2

IDK what to say about these…. P50 has the OG hinges and not the drop hinges. The keyboard feel on them is fucking amazing too… felt like I was using a T60 but not that nostalgic. Still fucking way beter than my T460p and W550s. Oh yeah the frame fucking felt really good on it too.

15.6″ Budget Workstations – 2020 to 2021

Cheaper P15 – T15g is your bet, nVidia RTX instead of Quadro & similar LCD configs
Powerful T15 – P15v & T15p are in a similar frame but have workstation CPUs.
P15v has Xeon options, quadro graphics while T15p is iGPU or GeForce

I aint fucking with the specifics…. these machines are similar to the T15 or the P15 and a lil less spec’d. Take it as you will, but they aren’t fucking OG stronk like them, however they are cheaper, so yea.

Ultrabook Workstations – 2018 to 2021

They are like the same to the P15 class. Not gonna compare them, waste of time, basically ultrabook style chassis, and full powered CPUs/GPUs… and then the 2nd Gen dropped, so they brought iGPUs into the configs. so be careful. IMO most sellers say what fucking GPU comes in the machine, becauze…. idk it sells a lot higher when you have non-shit graphics.YMMV on these machines, they are similar, so YOLO.

17″ Desktop Replacement – 2008 to 2021

I mean… it should be obvious what there is here. lmafo the bar maid ignoring me. Glass has been empty for the past 15 minutes, yeah whatever I was away, singing w/e… but didnt get to booze. These are similar to the 15″ brothers. Oh wtf W700? nah its a different category w/ the W500 series, way better, expensive and uh… sought after. keyboard feel? for the price, buy a P17 or P7x instead. Seriously, Core 2 quad and 1st Gen i7 is nothing to frucking brag about vs getting spanked by a dual core X230. Maybe the feel and size, but nothing fucking else.

Mobile Workstation 15.x” – 2015 to 2021

14″ Workstations – ULV & Workhorse -2016 to 2017

P40 – 2 need drive/os, 1 cracked screen, 1 is idk. high price is a BIN w/ no OS, max ram & 512GB SSD…. yupppp
T460p – 10 missing drives, 9 needing OS, maybe 6 strictly for parts (2 missing lcds) – all of which were in low & past mid.
T470p – 6 no drives (4 of which dont have ram…), 6 w/o OS, 7 32GB max ram, 2 1440p/WQHD (advertised)
T25 – 2 sold from a 0% feedback seller, one brand new sealed in box.

14″ ULV (((Mobile Workstation)))

Ultraportables

12″ 4:1 IBM Pentium

Do I want to get into it? Nah. There’s a lot to know on these things. If it turns on, buy one. If you want something snappy? Nope.

Lenovo 12″ 4:3 – 2006 to 2007 + 2018

DDR2 all of these except X62, but yeah. Libre got a hold of this shit, super expensive,

12″ Ultraportable 16:10 – 2008 to 2010 + 2018

Same shit, but CoreBoot get fucked on prices. Super expensive on wht they used to be… I mean $50 asking easily, BIN auction maybe $80 max before libre got ahold & got souht after refurbers. Not to knock em, but fucking this is not the TP to buy, nab the X201 if you don’t care about freedom, or T400s if you do and don’t want the small size.

16:9 Ultrapprtable – 2011 to 2013 + 2019

Expensive coreboot…. however the X Serieres has been sought after because… hype. honessly idk why ppl want them so much but i feel its hype, fuck off, get your money’s worth. T Series in similar class aren’t as expensive,

12.5″ 16;9 Ultraportable / Ultrabook – 2013 to 2018

Multiple CPUs… X250 and X280 seem to be “safe” on getting the current generation CPU that it was launched with, but X270 has it split about a third being X260 gen processors. To note, the L variant began in 2018 with the L380, which is 13.3″, the X Series would grow in size to accommodate it, and also bring a Yoga variant from now on.

AMD Budget Ultraportable – 2017 to 2018

None of these here 🙁

13.3″ Ultrabook Intel & AMD – 2019 to 2021

Lame there arent that much Comet Lake X390’s, oh well. X395 seems to be at a stellar discount but not too many of those machines. At first the AMD variants kicked a lot of ass compute & price wise. The L versions of these machines are better IMO, mostly because they aren’t build to be super thin and well have two RAM sticks vs one and eventually none on the X13.

13.3″ Budget L Series – 2018 to 2021

Seriously, I think these are better than the X Series in 13″, but thats just me. As stated above, you got RAM slots in these & i think the L3xx have “old” 2.5″ drives vs NVMe, but the L13 is similar to the X13 regarding m.2 2280/2242 drives.

13.3″ Entry Oddities

Edge 13 is super old, Core 2 duo or maybe i3, something from the 2010’s, maybe even AMD? I wouldn’t bother, as the X1/X301 would be the proper 13″ or newer X13. The ThinkPad 13 is 6th or 7th gen i3, i5 and celeron systems. I never used one, but from the marketing standpoint, and from the looks of it, the laptop seemed to be a classier L series.

10″ & 11″ Mini-Laptops & Netbooks

Classic Pentium III-M – 2001

It’s the old ones, yea. These are sought after for being a more modern 701C due to the protruding keyboard. Some have matte lid finish, some have a glossy one. I do not know if the latter is specific to the S31. These are also called “iSeries S30 or iSeries S31”, I like em, & they are expensive, probably because of the current fad of all things retro, these are picked up if you can’t find a Toshiba Libretto, mini Sony Vaio or HP PalmTop.

11″ AMD NetBook / School Laptop – 2010 to 2011

• Base CPU w/ 1.5/6GHz single core, 1.6GHz dualcore otherwise
• all have 11.6″ 720p display w/ 200nits & 300:1 contrast ratio
• 2.5″ 9.5mm SATA II drives, no SATA III 🙁
• 65W big barrel charger
• Max RAM – 4GB DDR on X100/Mini 10, 8GB DDR3 on X120e

Other than getting a slate tablet w/ keyboard, these are probably the smallest “latest” ThinkPads one could get sub 13″. Oh wait I forgot about the 11e… nvm those are better i think. I do not recommend them, fucking slow as shit, maybe make something with a jukebook with one of these idk.

11″ AMD/Intel School NetBook / Chromebook – 2012 to 2014

• HDD/SSD – eMMC on some models
  • X130e – 2.5″ 9.5mm SATA II only
  • X131e – 2.5″ 9.5mm SATA II + mSATA
  • X140e – 2.5″ 9.5mm SATA III + mSATA
• LCD – 11.6″ HD
  • 200N/300C on X130 & X131e
  • 200N/500C on X140e
• RAM
  • 16GB DDR3 Max on X130 & X131e
  • 16GB DDR3L Max on X140e
• 65W Big Barrel charger on all
• iGPU on all *duh*
  • BUT WAIT, AMD APU GAAAAAAAAMING GRAPHICS OH YEAAHHHAHAHHA
• Processors….
  • Most of these have meh one-point-whatever DC AMD/Celeron
  • 1.4Ghz i3-2367m on X130e & X131e if you’re lucky
  • FUCKIGN 1.9GHz i3-3227u MONSTER on extra lucky X131e

In the past, I’ve seen some sellers call these “budget gaming laptops’. I don’t think it could handle anything past a PS2 or Xbox emulation, idk. I currently couldn’t find any of those listings… But I did see this A31 as a retro machine for $375... literally barely sold one of these for like $65 w/ shipping because I can’t be arsed to download XPBE on a CD/DVD correctly. Fucking good thing I don’t do how 2 flip guides, bc y’all would go broke real quick.

Back to these, the creme of the crop is that 1.9GHz i3, an entry level ultrabook CPU, its Ivy bridge vs the Sandy bridge meh tier i3. For sure it is nowhere near an i5-3320m, but its much faster than the quadcore AMD cpu. Shilling aside, these are fucking big because of that hard case lid and rubber bumper around it. Honestly it’s pretty strange because the 11e has some of a bumper but it isn’t anywhere as big as the 11e.

11e – Regular & Chromebook – 2014 to 2020

• CPU Gen
  • G1 – Celeron N29xx “Bay Trail”
  • G2 – Intel Core M Broadwell or AMD A4/E2 (2015)
  • G3 – Skylake i3-6xxx, Celeron N31xx or Pentium of that era
  • G4 – Kaby i3-7xxx, or Celeron N34xx
  • G5 – Celeron N41xx or Pentium S N50xx
    • Who fucking cares about cores, forget about it!
• Memory Things
  • Soldered – 11e G2 Intel, 11e G5, and all Chromebooks here
  • 1 Slot – 11e G1, G2 AMD, G3, G4
    • Max RAM
      • 2/4GB – 11e Chromebook G1 or G3
      • 4GB LPDDR4 – 11e Chromebook G4
      • 4/8GB – 11e G2 intel, 11e G5
      • 8GB DDR3L – 11e G1, G2, G3, G4 (non i3)
      • 8GB DDR4 – 11e G4 i3 version
• Storage facts rumors – because i cant verify fully via PSREF
  • 16GB eMMC – 11e CB1 & CB3
  • 32GB eMMC – 11e CB4
  • 64/128GB eMMC – 11e G5 (some models)
  • 2.5″ 7mm SATA II – 11e G1
  • 2.5″ 7mm SATA III – 11e G2
  • m.2 SATA III – 11e G3, G4 (m.2 2242 size? idk)
  • m.2 2242 PCIe 3×2 – 11e G5 (some models)
• Display – 11.6″ HD
  • 200N/400C – 11e G1
  • 200N/500C – 11e G2, & CB1
  • 220N/500C – 11e G3 & CB3
  • 250N/400C – 11e G5
  • 250N/500C – 11e G4, G5, & CB4
  • 250N/800C IPS 45% NTSC – 11e G5
• Power Adapter
  • Rectangle 45W – 11e G1 thru G5, CB1, CB3
  • USB-C 45W – 11e G5, & CB4
  • Rectangle or USB-C 65W – 11e G5

This is concise as it can be… in previous TPG iterations, I had literally just mixed all 11e machines together. So I didn’t bother researching the Yoga (tablet) versions or the Chromebook versions. I just simply did Gen and called it a day, or as far as I can remember at 9AM of editing this… not gonna look at the old version right now, thats like fucking seeing your old drawings… even though its been a year between each guide. SO yeah the guide spreadsheet if you wish to look at the link, has specific fucking CPUs these came with. In the later sections of the field. Most of the same gen systems have similar CPUs, but there are some specialties. For the laptops here, you’re gonna basically get an X131e or X140e equivalent screen, Yogas are better. Yeah these do not have a trackpoint. So what. It’s included in the guide anyways, because I like these more than Edge & E Series ThinkPads. 😀 Get one of these for a burner i guess, but I really recommend getting the Yoga versions instead.

11e Yoga – 2014 to 2020

• CPU Gen
  • Literally the same like the ones earlier except…
    • Core M, Kaby Lake R – 11e Yoga 6th Gen
• Memory
  • Yup, just the same like the 11e basic.
  • Yeah I know I could of just copy paste, but then that would be boring
    • 4/8GB LPDDR3 – 11e Yoga G5
• Storage
  • ….
    • m.2 2242 PCIe 3×2 – 11e Yoga 6th Gen
• Display
  • IT’S THE SAME 11.6″ DISPLAY, So I’m not gonna…
    • 200N/400C TFT – 11e Yoga G1
    • 200N/500C TFT – 11e Yoga CB3
    • 250N/800C IPS – 11e Yoga G3, G4, G5, 6th Gen, CB4
    • 300N/800C IPS – 11e Yoga G2
• Power Adapter
  • Rectangle 45W – 11e Yoga G1 thru G5, CB3, CB4
  • USB-C 45W – 11e Yoga G5, 6th Gen
  • 65W Rectangle or USB-C – 11e Yoga 6th Gen

First off, to shill the ThinkPad Timeline I made, you’ll see what year all the thinkpads are made. Literally all, ok most of them, I may be missing a few… sadly idk how to count them, but there’s 208 models listed with the MTM of 20xx… maybe 100 or so before 2013. Ok i forgot where im going with that originally but the 11e Yoga G5 is still being made today in 2022 and it outlived the 11e Yoga 6th Gen, which was made like 2 years later. Also yeah, I shortened Gen 5 to G5 and etc if you didnt notice, but lenovo calls the G6, 6th Gen… no idea why they changed it out of nowhere, but thats how it is. yes the 11e Yoga G2 has the “best” screen out of them all, with 300 nits brightness and 800 to 1 contrast ratio, idk if the 50 nits really matters, but i guess it did with lenovo so they downgraded them.

Tablet Convertible

Honestly if you’re thinking of getting an ultraportable ThinkPad, these tablets are a good start. Either 4:3, or 16:10 machines will be great, the TransNote isn’t IPS, but the rest of them are. I started with the X61 Tablet, and despite its XGA resolution, it was an awesome machine for me in…. 2012 i think or maybe 2013? It was my first ThinkPad my obsession for these machines was cemented by it, because I was so amazed by what it can do. Now it is laughable, but to everyone else in my town, i was in cutting edge; it was like I was the only one who had the cellphone or the beeper in the 80’s. The iPad been out for awhile but no one knew in my town there was a machine that could be like an “iPad” but also be a laptop…. it even surprised German tourists at one time when they wanted to see where Route 66 could take them from Victorville lol.

• 10.4″ TFT? – Transnote
• 12″ XGA IPS – X41T, X60t, X61T
• 12″ SXGA+ IPS – X60T, X61T (nab the former)
• 12.1″ WXGA IPS – X200, X201
• 12.5″ HD IPS – X220, X230
• 12.5″ HD IPS glossy – S230u Twist
• Memoryh
  • 3GB DDR2 Transnote?, X41T
  • 3GB DDR2 – X60T
  • 8GB DDR2 – X61T
  • 8GB DDR3 – X200T
  • 16GB DDR3 – X201T, X220T, X230T.,S230u
• Drives
  • 2.5?” Pata – Transnotek X41t
  • 2.5″ SAtA – X60, X61, X200, X201
  • 2.5″ SATA + mSATA = X220, X230t, S230u?

Yogas/////

Yeah… im not reas[ating what i swaid earlier on the other shit. drunk as hell, fuckign wack as shit going on 😀 but its basically like the other machines/ Yoga 12, 14, 15 are like 5th gen machines similar to other 5th gen things but L/E class.

Yall see the ‘snotes.FOH i aint righting no more, fucking god fuck drinking all nighr and day jesxus, toook nice asss photos of qualcomm and other buildings around 😀 the job is finally completed on august 12… a friday, not friday the 13 sadly but close enough. “how about you,… snaaake?!” revolver ocelot.

nah seriously. this is done, it is finish. THE TPG V6 is finally fucking done, the post took 4 months later and the image ws like…. 2 months from that. I’m sorry bros. Hopefully V7 will be sooner 😀

August 01 202022 – fuck em fucking fuck

im done with this shit na this is the en dof the blog fuck. this hoe eaint gt not bitches, espite them living me, fuckem 😀

hacker – death grips

literally my jam