Sept 2021 – 15″ T Series TPG v5

What is in this guide?

T5xx, L5xx, SL5xx, & some G, R or Z Series.
Google spreadsheet w/ prices & some other things.

• medium sized 14″ laptop – 2003 to 2021-ish T Series plus R Z S A as well.
• slightly bigger 15.6″ laptop – 2004 to 2021
• 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 4 different “eras” of ThinkPads covered in this guide. This is just my opinion but I feel there are designs, build types & hardware implementations that make it that way.
IBM Era – May 2005 & before, well built machines, bulky designs, purely for nostalgia or XP program CNC machines
Classic Era – 2005 to 2012-ish. 7 Row Keyboards, Durability, & some Modding.
Modern Era – 2013 to 2018 Cost cutting, slimmer, internal batteries, & Edge style Keyboards, great for college.
Current Era – 2019 to now, Some thinkpads gone full McIntosh, sexy screens & battery life tho.

15″ ThinkPads, main biz. cheaper & small biz models. None of the P or W workstations, however the ‘p’ & the ‘g’ variant are here… more on that later.

Oh because I got so many comments on my previous post, I will not be having a crazy spec info on them. I feel they are similar to the T14 series, so… its the same. I will post LCD res options tho, but RAM/SSD/I/O isn’t on here 😉
thanks for all the comments on the last post, it reassured me to waste my time >:(

Most of this guide will focus on the T Series, as it has the best options out of the T/R/L/X systems here.

Oh yeah, Joe Biden where the fuck is my stimmy? I want 5 more of them, goddamnit, don’t cuck me bro. The Donald gave me more money & stimmys. FOH with that money for kids, I don’t have any.

Screens

Pentium M & Core 2 Duo Classic era

These laptops are pretty old but have the classic keyboard feel & build (minus the SL Series).

• R61 is ommited bc it’s mixed with 14″ machines & it’s close to the R500 price.
• On my V4 guide, sales are dwindling for the T61 & T500 machines, while T43 & T60 picked up a bit.
• Added SL510 & L510… didn’t care that they existed b4 xD
• Except for the T43, all systems have SATA drives. SSD or not, these are p slow vs NVMe shish
• 4:3 15″ screens? T43 & T60
• Max RAM
  • 2GB DDR2 – T43, Z60m
  • 3GB DDR2 – T60, Z61m, Z61e
  • 8GB DDR2 – T61, SL500
  • 8GB DDR3 – T500, SL510, L510, R500

Get one of these if you want that old feel, but it will be really hard to use one for daily tasks. Idk how Windows 10 support is on Core 2 Duo, but I did not care for it on laptop machines. Linux flavors will do a lot better if you want to use modern internet & programs with it. If you want something with a little more oomph as standard, then check the next table.

Old Workstations – Pentium M, 4 & Core 2 Duo

• G Series is cucked, a “mobile desktop” but no docking support? A3x Series had a dock w/ AGP graphics
• G50 is Core Duo, not core 2, & it won’t accept upgrades either.
• Popular Z61p mod was swapping the Titanium or Magnesium (all marketing) lid from a optioned Z61m
• You can get IPS screens in T42p, T43p & T60p
• I also searched specifically for IPS non ‘p’ thonks, however the previous prices can have those in that list, its just that specifically these have IPS on the title
• T50 = upgraded T43p
• T70 = upgraded T60 or T61
• Max RAM
  • 2GB DDR – T42p, G40, G41, R50p
  • 2GB DDR2 – T43p, G50?
  • 3GB DDR2 – T60p, Z61p
  • 8GB DDR3 – T61p, T50
  • 32GB DDR4 – T70

51nb units aren’t really for sale on eBay, you’re more likely finding them from ThinkPad Forum, or maybe r/thinkpadsforsale which is I think moderated by a used panties buyer. A lotta degens in the younger ThinkPad community, just like the ThinkMods guy likes OW Mercy futa stuff. Both T42p & T43p can had in 14.1″ form factor, likewise the T60p & T61p as well, but also have a widescreen variant that is not IPS. Remember only the 15″ 4:3 screen can be IPS on the ‘p’ variants, and unfortunately you might get a non-ips SXGA+ or XGA screen if you seek a non ‘p’ machine, there is a chance it came that way or was replaced with a meh screen. R50p has been added! The only example was a UXGA display, not the ‘rare’ QXGA option that is sought after for bragging rights.

Socketed i5/i7 – 2010 thru 2014-ish Modern Era, Socketed

CPU Price Spreadsheet for these laptops

• Best shitposting machines for those with bad eyesight
• These are all 16:9 widescreen, HD, HD+ & FHD on all of them, but none IPS…
• Except the T540p was able to get FHD IPS, & 3K IPS, w/ touch screen optional, a first for this T5xx
• & unfortunately the T540p isn’t the ultimate classic TP thanks to redesigned body & keyboard…
• Last of the socketed CPUs, try the W5xx if need 4 RAM slots & biz GPUs, otherwise systems can be the same
• T570 had the slim charger or USB-C, T580 & onward have USB-C as standard
• RAM max
  • 16GB DDR3 – T510, T520, T530, L512, L520, L530
  • 16GB DDR3L – T540p, T550, T560, T570 Skylake, L540, L560
• The i7 T530 & T540p searches have an i7, and an SSD, or at least 12GB RAM

These laptops are pretty cheap. I spent like $350 in 2012 fully configuring an X61 Tablet & it wasn’t even that amazing since my TP journey. All things said, these are super cheap, 1st gen is hitting rock bottom & 2nd gen is going to plateu soon. Corona virus did fuck prices up on thinkpads, but they have went back down or went back to the same… at least it wasn’t as bad as the HDD price surge after the Thailand flooding. At the time of this writing, I am on my second founders Brown Ale & just finished a bomb ass nacho thingy.

Late Model ThinkPads – Soldered

• Yeah this is when Lenovo offered newer models but kept the same CPU from the prior system.
• I mean… IBM did that too back in the day, but like, a 10 year old CPU was still a daily driver 5 years later.
• Uh, drunk, but yes, I want waffles
• i am pretty sure L560 is just 6th gen… but i did not know L580 was mixed… fuck their differences
• T570 can be 4K IPS, but from T580 it can be UHD IPS.
• T550 is the last one where you can get a TN FHD panel :*(
• T580 dropped the HD display and now HD+ is default

Heyyyy its the newer ThinkPads with soldered CPUs, so they offer slick performance! ofc they get overshadowed by their P Series counter parts which are built totally different, W550s is not here… fuck, but yea, these are all decent systems, although Id go for a 14″ unit personally or a workstation at this size. There was no L550 ThinkPad, and oddly there is not that much sales of the T550, so I am not sure if it was sold in limited numbers, or released really late & then overpassed by the T540p or T560.

• *T15p and T15g both come with full power CPUs like the T540p, not ULV stuff
  • **T15g has i9 and Xeon W options, T15p does not
• T15p = P15s but without GPU or a nVidia GTX optional
• T15g = P15 but with GTX graphics
  • Both systems are cheaper versions of their P15 variants bc no ISV Certifications
• T15g doesn’t use a USB-C charger, all others do
• Any L15 AMD is probably the best to get on a budget from here

End of the line, these are the most newest systems, unfortunately I really don’t know what’s to recommend. I’d say any of these are pretty good, 9th gen or 10th gen and you’re probably set for 4 years of college w/ fairly difficult computing tasks. If you’re going to get into graphics editing or anything like that, T15p or T15g if you can afford them, these are MUCH more cheaper than their P15 variants, and you can always slap a P Series sticker on them ;3