2010 – 2014 ThinkPad Pricing Guide | Spring 2019

“Miss my x230” – Asuka#1563

What’s new?

• On the google spreadsheet, I am adding the first four digits of the MTM. This will be useful on older Thonks missing the model name/number, and good for X1 Carbon or Yoga variants.
• On laptops that have more than 500 sales, I added in a second price for units with an i7. The search with optimized to list units with a 256GB SSD, 500GB, 750GB or 1TB HDD in the listing title.
• 51nb units will be added on an as is basis
• I am considering adding a price difference percentage from the previous price guide. Currently haven’t figured it out on google sheets, might just have to get Excel to do this job.
• When I do configure a price difference, I’d like that information to be on a separate page/post. 🙂
• This layout will be different than the previous. Sue me.
• Yitty has my full support for ThinkBa.se <3

Buying these used instead of brand new

• Used ThinkPads are cheap thanks to businesses always buying new equipment every 2+ years.
• Unless you’re really concerned about battery life, the worst these perform on a good battery is one hour, and the best work you can get done with 2 batteries is 7 hours.
• The old laptops become tax write offs by sent to local recyclers or IT groups.
• An abundance of laptops eventually flood the market on eBay, sellers start to list them off at low prices, 99 cent auctions or offers in bulk.
• Warranty is most likely expired on these Thonks unless they have an extension.

Why choose these aging ThinkPads

• Spill proof keyboard or backlit keys
• Excellent keyboard feel for ThinkPad newcomers, modern-ish hardware
• Good durability, & functional matte black design
• ThinkLight on some models – A little LED prior to illuminated keyboards that can help you read a comfy book
• Great Linux compatibility, various guides, programs, & scripts specifically for ThinkPads
• Well maintained due to being business laptops, most are written off & auction starts at low prices due to so much inventory
• Easy serviceability, abundance of parts, wealth in repair guides.

What are you looking for?

• Medium Size – T410 to T440p, L412 to L440, L512 to L540, S430, S431, S440.
• Big Screen – T510 to T540p, L512 to L540, S531 & S540
• Small & Portable – X201 to X240, X120e to X141e, Yoga 11e, & X1
• Ultrabooks – T410s, T420s, T430s, T430u, T431s, x240s & X1 Carbon
• Wacom Tablet – X201t, X220t, X230t, Yoga S1, Helix S230u Twist, & some W701(ds)
• Workstations – W510, W520, W530, W540, W541
• Desktop Replacements – W701, W701ds ~ or get a dock for your Thinkpad, preferably 4338-30U or 4338-35U (USB 3.0) models
• Avoid – E Series, X1C2, X100e, Mini 10, T410i, & T510i

Pricing Guide Abbreviations

The following is what you should expect with what you paid for. If some of these things are missing, its not recommended to pay that price.

Low     – Broken, ugly and/or laptop only without RAM/HDD/AC/BATT
Mid      – May have HDD, maybe working battery, & AC adapter.
High     – HDD or SSD w/ OS, good battery, higher spec.
# Sold   – How many sold in the last 3 months. The higher the better (300 great) or 0 means very uncommon or rare on eBay.
EX++ – Originally my absurd pricing. However these can be refurbished, modded or brand new units. EX++ is more like a camera lens term.
Why I don’t have a EXC++ pricing for all? Because either they were just a little bit pricer than my high recommendation or just didn’t set the bar.

Hardware
Arrandale – 1st gen Intel Core, poor battery, meh performance
Clarksfield – 1st gen Intel Core, more power, but without an iGPU!
Sandy – 2nd gen Intel Core, ok battery, bad to decent performance
Ivy – 3rd gen Intel Core, gud battery, bretty gud performance
Haswell – 4th gen Intel Core, better battery, GOAT performance because Intel lazied out.
Atom, Fusion – Intel & AMD Netbook CPUs.
Multi – Two or more CPU options, usually an i3, Atom and AMD CPUs.
The descriptions above are comparing them to buying a new laptop, with a newer CPU & technology.
S – Soldered CPU
Q – Quadcore by default (some exceptions)
1 – 1 RAM slot (and maybe one soldered module)
4 – 4 RAM slots
No # – 2 RAM slots 

Edge laptops are not recommended, so most were ignored at this time, and in the past. Additionally they used a mix of AMD and Intel CPUs on their systems. Please use L & S Series as a price guide, they are about the same, maybe 20% more expensive.

ThinkPad T4xx Series – 14″ Business Standard

• There is a fuckton of T430’s, holy shit.
• T440p is probably the best one to customize with
• T420 is the best if you want to core boot and has great build/pricing
• T410 is for the 16:10 meme, interesting frame it has, felt super durable

ThinkPad T4xx (s suffix) Series – 14″ Business Ultrabook

• T430u – Visually it is super similar to the SL412, like an inbetween the L and T ‘s’ series. Not really recommended for upgrades.
• T431s is like in between the T430s and T440s, but can house 12.5mm thick HDDs while the others can only do 7mm. U N I C O R N !
• T420s and T430s have the FHD/QHD mod chip, T431 and T440s are drop in FHD upgrades.
• T431s and T440s have ‘U’ processors, that have lower base frequency vs the ‘M’ CPUs found in T420s and T430s. The M CPUs can theoretically beat them in performance (and also have biggur heatsinks to boot.

ThinkPad T5xx Series – 15″ Business Standard

• These aren’t as popular as the T4xx, kinda surprised by that.
• I’d try to get a FHD panel on these if possible, but considering thats near impossible, 900p isn’t that bad…

ThinkPad W5xx & W7xx – 15″ & 17″ Business Workstations

• A few less W701 sold this time around. Rare machines indeed.
• There are actually W701ds laptops on market, about $1600 for barebones and $2400 for a decent one. Overpriced for sure, but hey at least they are there.
• W541 has more sales and is a little bit pricier, is this because that dreaded clickpad hinders sales?

ThinkPad X2xx – 12″ Business Standard

• An X240s showed up and… didn’t have a rare premium price.
• X240 had lost its price luster, getting into X220 territory
• Apologies, I couldn’t find any ‘i’ variants of the X Series, putting -i3 had hindered some searches
• The X210 shouldn’t be here because Kaby, but it is pretty much a dream X201s so its here anyways?

ThinkPad X2xx (Tablet variant) – 12″ Business Pen Tablet

• X201t is surprisingly pricey, probably worth it for its superior keyboard.
• Found a baller ass X230t, what I paid to fix up my X61T back in 2011.

ThinkPad X1 Series – 13″ & 14″ Business Ultrabook

• Looks like I forgot the original X1 had one removable ram slot from the post prior. Ok guess this guide is worthless
• X1C2 is such a weird fucking laptop still in 2019. You can fix the touchpad, but you can’t escape the keyboard.

2nd Tier ThinkPads

The following ThinkPads here aren’t as great like the ones above, mostly due to less a utilitarian and robust build to something closer to (then) current consumer market demands. With that said, none of these Thinkpads on this page GOAT Tier like a 600X, T30, 755, or Tadpole ThinkPad…

ThinkPad X1xx Series – 11″ Business Notebook & Education Series

• Is there an X121e? Maybe not in the states…
• X130e, X131e and X140e can have an i3 CPU & are fuckin thicc!
• Edge 11″ here? Might add it one day

ThinkPad Yoga & Tablet – Mixed Models

• Yoga S1 is the only FHD tablet here other than the 51nb X210
• I actually like this 11e more than the X131e, even tho it has a celeron CPU.
• I haven’t tested a Yoga S1, but I can say, the Helix here is the worst ThinkPad tablet I’ve used.

ThinkPad L Series – Economy Class

• I don’t think L series came with 900p or 1080p LCDs…
• All these L5xx have numberpads on the keyboard
• I believe the L4/512 had a faulty speaker design due to its placement

ThinkPad S Series – A Swanky ThinkPad?

• There isn’t much of these sold, guess they were not that popular
• Sadly Lenovo likes to make a new line, but if it don’t sell well, they drop them… like the last 12″ X Series
• I could not include the empty results, but its just for consistency

So thats its for now, next post will be the newer models, 2015 to present. Due to the timing, the prices might change drastically when the *90 series thinkpads arrive.