Price research done on June 24th to July 16th of 2024!

Hello everyone, not gonna do a long ass table post anymore. I’ll be working on making a fucking webpage for all the ThinkPads in the worst possible way because I don’t understand how to use MySQL and databases. There will be 400 pages I will have to do and its gonna take a long time.
Gonna be fun tho 🙂 I will explain everything to the best of my Dunning-Kruger Effect knowledge as possible.

It’s essentially gonna be like ThinkWiki minus the boring shit and with my Price research and maybe a graph if things go well.

Maybe I’ll start something and someone else will implement a better idea. If that’s the case, then I would link to their page, and i’ll be chill with just doing prices. Who knows.
TPG 9 is a bit half assed, I added a few new machines, but did not do any due diligence on specs and stuff. There’s a lot of machine i didn’t add, so you’ll see a P16 G2 but no P16v G2 or whatever. And on the P16 G2 there isn’t specs on the main file. oh well 😀

Anyways here’s the links.

Google Spreadsheet to Version 9

Price Guide image of 2000 to 2022 ThinkPads

Link to Image https://dankpads.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/TPG9-PDF-1.png
Link to PDF of image https://dankpads.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/TPG9-PDF.pdf

Link to CSV of all systems https://dankpads.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/TPG-V9-CSV.csv
Link to HTML of spreadsheet (looks like shit, use CTRL+F To find your laptop) https://dankpads.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/V9-1.html
Link to Excel xlsx https://dankpads.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/TPG-9-LX.xlsx

Price guide of 1984 to 2000 IBM Laptops+

Link to Image https://dankpads.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/TPG-9-84-01-Vis-1.png
Link to IMGUR https://imgur.com/gallery/1984-to-2000-ibm-thinkpad-prices-2024-DyqrV8z
Link to PDF https://dankpads.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/TPG-9-84-01-Vis.pdf

Previous guides

TPG V8
https://dankpads.com/uncategorized/2024-tpg-8-14-15-16-t-series-slim-a-r-l-prices/
https://dankpads.com/uncategorized/1984-to-2001-ibm-laptops-price-guide/
https://dankpads.com/uncategorized/2024-tpg-v8-ultrabook-prices-x1-x-series-most-tablets/
V7 Guide
https://dankpads.com/2023/02/24/tpg-v7/
V6 Guide
https://dankpads.com/2022/12/28/old-price-guide-v6-1/
V4 guide
https://dankpads.com/2022/06/09/thinkpad-price-guide-v4-1/

Why choose a ThinkPad? (Copy Pasted from V7)

~ 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.

Latest Era Hardware Facts

• T14s and X13 share same motherboard (same goes with T490s and X390)
• uh idk lol
• Oh yeah, Self healing bios, even if you flash the image, it’ll still have a lock with it.

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 buy a ThinkPad or any used laptop from ebay…

• You’re probably going to need to install an operating system
• Don’t buy Windows, there is a OEM key at the bottom or underneath
  • 2013 and later have OEM keys in the bios, so it activates online
• Check to see if it has a hard drive or HDD / OS
• Be skeptical of new/low feedback sellers esp if its “a steal”
  • At worst, they don’t know how to ship a laptop, esp if its super cheap
  • Or they ship it nicely 🙂
• Does it come with a charger?
  • buy used/pre-owned chargers from $12 to $30
  • DONT buy new “compatible” stick with Lenovo/IBM
  • Stock photos are a giveaway, unless its from a reputable eWaste seller
• 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

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)

OG IBM

deep dove into specs of these things… will probably make a separate TPG for them. They are not included in the PDF or image above. I started this in September 2022 but then like… got overwhelmed. eh stopped in October i think.

Slate Tablets – 1992 to 1995

2521 – high price is what i paid for, years back
710T / 730T – 4 units, 3x 710T, 1x 730T, all in really bad condition w/ screen vinegatting and one w/ LCD bleed, all units Sold for parts

3Com PDA & RISC MiniTop

all workpads – 3 laptops, 3 pdas, only non-working is one Z50
8602-10U – hardly used w/ box, but no manuals
8602-20X – unit in excellent condition, also they sell new batteries for these lol, $14 from china

c500 – Comes with charging cradle
z50 – lucky BIN as is machine, other two are working, prob will be sought after. Search is pretty wide range, just in case

I want to get a z50, it’s powered by a MIPS NEC 64bit CPU, only 131Mhz. Its the only laptop here in vs the other WorkPads here, so its not really a Thinkpad… but for its price, it seems like a decent collectable. Much more affordable than a PC110, and more units around than the much rarer S30 or S31.

700 & 720 Series
Type 9552 – MCA Architecture

REAL IBM ThinkPad, and the PS/2 copycats, I have no idea how they are different, probably marketing terms or maybe the way they sold them. I know some ThinkPads of the 3xx Thinkpads have a 0 at the end for business and others have a 5 for retail units. I want to say 380/385 are the ones… uh but yeah idk why PS/2, i know PS/1 Note was a cheaper PS/2.

general – yeah…. one 700 PS/2 screen turns on, but has busted hinges (like mine). 2nd one in amazing fucking condition, but the screen is dark (idk if it shows image) nothing fucking wrong with the paint at all and the rubber feet are perfect, the fucking connections are pristine, the hinges good, manual, some disks and charger… goddamn.!!!! Also it has a 50MHz processor upgrade… interesting
Ps/55 Note- colour me surprised no one is selling a japanese laptop from the 80’s to mid 90’s…. fuck, it was hard enough finding a 235
C52 – No laptop here. but no fucking stone unturned on this shit, i looked everywhere.

• C – Color
• V – idk
• M – IDK lol
• J – Japan? kek

750 & 755 Series
9545

all – 23 results b4 i put in “755 thinkpad” mostly parts, then it became 37 in avail units There are 2 machines that… i don’t know if they are actual units or just a fucking box. no photo.
750 – None, not even in the avail units… also shit load of IBM PC, server equipment and some RAM cards parts are all over the place. also $30 dead batteries fixing up if you know how to do it.
750C – Mid price system “works” but doesn’t come with a charger & seller doesn’t know if there’s a hard drive in there… fucker. high unit working & in excellent condition but has keyboard shine. Strangely it has brightness/contrast for the LCD but i thought those were only on the DSTN color panels… cant’ tell if its that or TFT
750P – just the battery on previous serches
750Cs – Same parts units like the other ones.
750Ce – As is from arcelectronicsllc, in fair condition w/ cuts,scratches & that stickly ugly lid situation.
755C – Eh 2 listings at 120, the other $100 as is untested… expect to pay this much anyways.
755Cs – None specifically for this model
755Ce – None sold, EX+ one unit w/ CF to IDE card, the other one looks like it has a busted LCD
755CSE – Avail unit is botched LCD, and there’s another one for $500 parts only, and only went to power on test. *what does it fucking do when turning it on? mother fucker
755CD – only sold unit has a fucked up LCD and sometimes cannot output via VGA. one unit by dreamhardware for $180. also the video sub card goes for $160
755CV – rare as fuck… yup the mid price is what I paid for one that didn’t work at all… but had to get it 😀
755CX – low price is an assumption. also someone selling a CD drive for like $45. but people paying $105 for a ‘refurbished’ one
370C – sold *low* unit was as is, but in pretty good condition. other two units are avail & have a working OS. Strangely they are in pretty good condition too wtf. screen no signs of deg.

• mono screen
• C – color TFT
• Cs – Color STN (ugly)
• P – Pen convertible (crazy hinge)
• CE – enhanced CPU version w/ color TFT
• CSE – enhanced CPU w/ color STN
• CD – color TFT w/ CD Drive !
• V – removable LCD back
• X – final CPU enhancement

760 & 765
9546 / 9547

all 9546 – more avail units in laptops category, some in vintage
pristine 760ED in Ex+ condition & an EL as well w/ some items. high mark is pretty much spot on, mid price was a lot of 3 for parts, which you’ll probably need to get one going in fair condition.. a lot of FDD and CD ultrabays for sale too. wager $20 to $30. a few memory boards for the 2 DIMM slots.
760C – 0 avail units, misc assemblies for sale… fucking $55 system board but the DC jack board costs $100??? nah, dont do that. They just be doing random prices bc fuck it, lmafo video adapter is $130. fuck me man
Untested machine at the low, and a 1 bid unit that turns on… and have the fucking cool CD drive that can be stand alone.
760CD – nothing sold just an expensive CD drive
750E – EX+ is not… perfect, missing HDD and RAM cover, has some scuffing, but lid and palmrest don’t have the messed up sticky paint yet…
760ED – Avail units have a audio DSP board for $15 or $45, and a system board for $85… RAM module is $35 ish. & Mid price is a p good condition unit, 1 bid. the EX+ has “looks new”, exctremely little dinks/scuffs but my fuckigng god… seller not lying.
760L – no avail units, some fucko selling a mobo for like $45, but took the photo on carpet and is “as is” untested, but also is selling an LCD for like $100… ugh.
as is low machine, missing like all the parts, probably parted out of working components, also left corner was broken….

That’s all for the oldies now…..

T Series 14″ – 2000 to 2021
T20 to T14 Gen 2
The Business Standard

2000 – 2003 | 13″ & 14.1″
Pentium III Coppermine, Tualatin
Pentium 4-M Northwood (low power)

T20 – General search because FUCK ALL vintage computer category. jesus christ these are expensive, lmafo someone sold one for $500
T21 – last 2 units turn on… also i like these prices more, some units with bids and a few units out of the country, like uk, germany, and canada, all with one bids! BRUH, A $80 UNIT SOLD with 850MHz cpu… probably has a SXGA+ screen, ND IT WAS ONE FUCKING BID???? LMAFO IT HAD THAT
T22 – 5 units look to be working 🙂
T23 – a lot of non-usa units, so prices are broked, but lukily USA units sold near it, so its based off that. EX+ is a germany unit that sold for about 160, so $20 shipping rounded up. probably the “best” T2x u can get in name, but this model was different than the previous, thank u breaking ram holders.
T30 – Ok… if you have a laptop bag… sell it with this machine lol it ads like $100 to it… hahahahha

Quick Info

• LCD – 13.3″ XGA, 14.1″ XGA & SXGA+ screens
  • T20 only unit missing SXGA+ as an option
  • certain mobos accept the LCD upgrade & need the cable to go along with it I think…
• Max upgrade
  • 512MB DDR & 1GHz PIII
    • T20
    • T21
    • T22
    • All subsequent A2x systems
  • 1GB DDR & 1.2GHz PIII Tualatin
    • T23, A30
  • 1GB DDR & 2.6GHz P4 SL6WZ
    • T30, A31
• Drives – 9.25mm PATA drives
  • Samsung HM160HC recommended via TP forums
  • IDE to mSATA converters
  • IDE to CF Card (i think u need certain types of ones tho)
• Hardware issues
  • Blink of Death
    • Something about a hairline crack in the motherboard? or blown IC chip?
    • It affects T20 to T22
  • Motherboard doesn’t recognize both ram slots
    • T23 and T30 suffer from this
    • somthing about the solder joint getting loose, may need mobo replacement
  • Bad inductor
    • T23 has this issue
• T23 has a different mobo design than the T20 thru T22 systems

Links

TP Forums T20 Max CPU
T30 CPU info
Blink of death
T30 RAM problem
Loose inductor T23

2003 – 2006 | 14.1″ & 15″
Pentium M
Classic IBM Thinkpad

• CPU
  • Banias
    • T40
    • T41
    • T42
      • Banias systems can be upgraded to Dothan
  • Dothan
    • T42
    • T43
      • 2.1GHz Pentium M 765 is the fastest CPU all these can have
      • SL7UZ
      • SL7V3
• GPU
  • Integrated or ATI Mobility Radeon
    • 32MB
      • T40
      • T41
      • T42
    • 64MB
      • T42
      • T43
• LCD
  • 14.1″ Only – XGA or SXGA+
    • T40
    • T41
  • 14.1″ & 15″ – XGA or SXGA+
    • T42
    • T43
      • SXGA+ IPS screens were an option on some 15″ machines
• Memory
  • 2GB DDR PC2100 or PC2700
    • T40, T41, T42
  • 2GB DDR2 PC2-4200
    • T43
• Drives
  • PATA
    • T40 thru T43
  • SATA
    • T43
      • Famously IBM made this machine have a SATA interface with a PATA connector
  • UltraBay Slim
    • All systems
    • CD, DVD, PATA HDD, or SATA HDD
• Hardware issues
  • Graphics…
    • GPU issues can be a problem of this era, but if they turn on and go to bios, you should be OK
    • Reflowing the graphics card is popular fix for bad GPUs
  • Southbridge chip Flex
    • Picking up the laptop with one hand can bend the chassis & poof southbridge disconnected
    • Pick it up with two hands to be safe, supposedly T43 fixed this problem
    • R Series don’t have this problem due to the thicker plastic base doesn’t flex

Links

T4x SSD info
T43 SATA mod
GPU reflow

2006 – 2010 | 14″, 15″, 15.4″
Core (2) Duo
Classic Lenovo ThinkPads

• CPU
  • uhh later
• GPU
• Memory
  • 3GB DDR2
    • T60
  • 8GB DDR2
    • T61
    • T61u
  • 8GB DDR3
    • T400
• LCD
  • 14″ 4:3 – XGA, SXGA+
    • T60
    • T61
  • 14″ 16:10 – WXGA, WXGA+ (900p)
    • T61
    • T400
      • LED backlit option
        • T400
  • 15″ 4:3 XGA TFT, SXGA+ IPS, UXGA IPS
    • T60
  • 15.4″ 16:10
    • WXGA, WUXGA
      • T61
    • WSXGA+
      • T60, T61
• Drives
• Hardware issues

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. A popular coolin gupgrade is using a W500 heatsink & fan, as it’ll fit most systems except 14″ widescreen i think.

2010 – 2015
Core i3, i5, i7 – 1st gen to 4th
Last of the Socketed CPU Machines

T410 – mix of junkers & no hdd/ac in the low, mid-low you got some with drives, but even past mid there are units without drives in auctions (probably bc they are in better condition and are auctions). 30 units out of USA, most from the UK and like 3 from canada, one straya seller
T410i – 3 sales fom the Uk, 3 from USA. take a guess which ones are from USA…. (mid low prices) that said only nab an i3 machine if you’re just looking for something with a good frame/chassis & are gonna upgrade to dualcore i7 (quadcore doesn’t work on bc chip limitation, seek out an E6410 instead for QC)
T420 – no hdd/ac ends between mid/low sorta. about 30 “lot of” listings, barebones machines seem to go $20-35, set up machines $50-70 each. ofc expect the battery to be replaced if u want to flip from there.
T420 coreboot – high price is a guess, or maybe mid is high price… EX+ is a GhostPad? idkdf that means. also a bare mobo costs $210. OH FUCK. Someone selling flashed BIOS chips from croata for like $16
T430 – yeah… about the same price as the T420, but no coreboot option… also same deal, no hdd/ac price ranges
T430i – d
T440p – idk i think im being generous on some of the prices… they are pretty close to the T420 and T430… which is not to far away from the T400 lol

• 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 in comparison to the past. 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.

Soldered CPU T Series
T Slim & New Standard

2009 – 2014
T Series Slim
Classic to Graphite Black

In previous versions I had separated sections for T Series Slim and standard, now they are both together, because they offer similar specs and parts interchangeability; sort of. The slim is still a bit different (mobo, internal battery, chassis).

T400s –
T410s – LMAFO. legit these are more cheaper than the T400s… really do not know why. Maybe libreboot T400 machines are why.
T410si – no search… and nothing under i3 in T410s listings.
T420s – lot units can go for $100+ each w/o drives.
T430s – These start off cheaper, but some just go the fuck up. lmafo
T430u – High price is BIN, but the seller also had two auctions w/ 1 bid on both for $50 plus $15 shipping… lel legit it is THE next one sold after those two, and then some UK guy with $95 auction plus shipping, but that one was the only one with an OS for sure
T431s – Pretty much the price jump is because they have windows installed. legit u can get. low price u prob wont have a charger, maybe a drive, and gamble on the battery, but expect to buy one IMO.

• Classic Charger – T400s, T410s, T420s, T430s, T430u
• Rectangle Slim – T431s, T440s, T450s
• 1.8″ uSATA – T400s, T410s
• 2.5″ 7mm SATA – T420s, T430s, T431s, T430u
  • 2nd Drive
    • mSATA – T420s, T430s, T430u
    • m.2 mSATA (B+M key crap) – T431s, T440s, T450s
  • DVD swapped for HDD caddy
    • T400s, T410s, T420s, T430s
• iGPU only – T431s
• Screens
  • 16:10 TN – WXGA or WXGA+
    • T400s, T410s
  • 16:9
    • TN 768p
      • T420s, T430s, T430u
    • TN 900p
      • T420s, T430s, T431s
    • 1080p IPS mod chip & cable upgrade
      • T420s, T430s
    • 1080p IPS upgradable
      • T431s
• IPS Screens – Are mostly 250 or 300 Nits luminance & 700:1 Contrast ratio til T490s
• Dual Batteries – T400s, T410s, T420s, T430s, (DVD), T440s, T450s, (internal)
• Two RAM slots – T400s, T410s, T420s, T430s, T430u
• Soldered RAM + 1 Slot – T431s, T440s, T450s; 20/24GB Max

From Version 6 – 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.

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.

2013 – 2017
ClickPad, “Nu”-Pads

• Chargers
  • Rectangle Slim – T460s only; some T470s
  • USB-C – T480s only, some T470s
• IPS Display
  • T440 it wasn’t offered but maybe be able to be upgraded??
  • T450, T440s, T450s it was an option
  • FHD IPS is Standard from T460s
  • 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
• Memory
  • Soldered RAM + 1 slot – T460s, T470s, T480s; 20/24GB Max
  • 2 RAM Slots – T440, T450, T460

T440 – So im getting other laptops in this search (as I was with other machines), its worse on this one tho. I think i need some special extension for this stuff, but yeah price drops off drastically vs non-soldered CPU. this was the unwanted macine
T440s – FYI some of these numbers are rounded to the nearest based cubic inch engine number. In this case, legit there was a 289 Ford number of results. Also, you WILL HAVE TO swap out the clickpad… so consider that in ur cost.

T450s – EX+ better come with i7 and FHD IPS. slightly higher price, but much more units sold 🙂
T460 – good amount of machines at low price can come with a drive, just no OS.
T460s – EX+ is a strech? idk about 20 “lot of” listings, they seem to go from $85 to $110 a piece, someone paid $150 each but it was a lot of 2 units with touchscreens. lmafo someone even bought bios locked units, but they had i7’s for $92 each.

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.

2017 – 2020
New ThinkPads, Last Gen’s CPU… Wait what?

Yeah, lenovo offered the previous generation CPU on some systems. I couldn’t just fucking do one search, I had to do two, becuase last thing I want is to fuck u over due to lazyness.. I rather do it via ignorance, which was done b4 i found out they had two dif cpus lol

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.

T470 all –Added this bc well… I have “T4xx all” searches but not one for this model. hdd/no os at low prices, strangely prices stay close to the T460 around the mid, but then sorta jump… maybe i did the calculation wrong. bulk lots seem to go from $100 to $160 depending whats in them.
T470 Sky – fair amount of the machines dont have HDD< but some do and can be had at the low point 🙂

T470s all – X260, X270, T490s, and other thinkpads get in the way… but whatevs, this is just a general search. EDIT i changed the search and I got 700 units, but if you look at #sold on the sky/kaby searches, it equals to 570. not gonna dive deep to figure out where the missing 120 listings come from.
T470s Skylake – lmafo, EX+ price is cheaper than the T460s. actually i went pretty far deep for this price, hmmm, oh well.
T470s Kabylake – legit the prices DROP in the mid vs the skylake machine. also high price… yeah, well someone sold an i7, 16GB 256GB ssd with touchscreen, uhm i dgaf about the other units.. oh they are fro mother countries. $400 for one if ur aussie, $360 if ur a britbong, $360 if you’re Hanz,

T480 Kabylake – eh…. prices are so weird… imo the $300 is like an EX+ price i think… such small amount of listings
T480 Kaby R – yo…. what the fuck man i fucked up on the T480 all. whatever. the pries jumped the fuck up. jesus EX+ might be $660 or somthing idk.
T480s all – 917K YEAHHHHHHH VROOOOOM. Cheapest 1TB is at high price. oh fuck i need to do prices for drives… oh wtf. I’m getting some results for the regular T480 in some of these searches, not much, but still. mislistings?
T480s Kabylake –$200 to $300 mobos. also no one sells these 🙁 good bc it should be kaby lake r
T480s Kaby R – ok i am safer for these prices. yeah i gues si can just get ridl of all T480s searche,s it must be mixed with others. as this one is zero’d in, without 167 ohter listings or something idk (im fucking tired rn)

2016 – 2020
A Series, T Performance & 25th Anniversary Edition

A475 – nab this mofo for cheap! Lame that lenovo purposely gimped them tho
A485 – slightly more money, but… these still require the same m.2 2280 adapter like the T460p, A475, & T470 if you want fast drive speeds. Not 3.0 x4 speeds, but x2 instead. vs the T480, the price drops off in the high end.
T25 or 25th Anniversary Edition – yes… someone literally sold one of these… FUCKING BUY IT NOW at the T470 price. like i. have no words. thank you freegeek_portland for that, you are fucking recommended now. the low price came with linux installed, so DONT FUCKING pay more than that. lmafo because you can mod that keyboard and palmrest onto the T480, with quadcore.
T460p – $30 to get the NVMe adapter that runs at x2 speed….
T470p – some of these came with the dock. 135W if u have i7 DG, 90W if its IG…

• A475 = AMD T470
  • No dGPU
  • Either HD or FHD IPS screen
  • AMD Pro CPUs (before Ryzen)
• A485 = AMD T480
  • same story as A475
  • Ryzen 2000 Series CPU
• T25 = T470 with 7 Row Keyboard
  • dGPU by default
  • Dualcore i7 by default
  • FHD IPS by default + w/e optional LCDs T470 had
• T460p is Skylake quadcore, T480p is Kaby lake Quadcore
  • H CPUs
  • FHD IPS by default
  • i5 systems are iGPU (i think dGPU is an option)
  • i7 systems are dGPU only
• These all use 2.5″ SATA III drives…
  • Buy the T470 NVMe HDD adapter
  • X270 has a different length of cord (lelnovo rotated the fucking caddy/connector)

My T460p & T470p info / review

T490 Comet – aye…. so my old prices are fucked idk… will have to redo whisky lake and maybe T490 all, just jumps
T490 Whiskey ok rechecked prices vs the comet lake T490… maybe EX+ can be higher, but IMO i cant justify it… it falls into where i generalize them. the comet lake version is just way fucking more money… w/e went from $600 to $700
T495 – EX+ are from the UK…. except one unit, but its 1K hahahaa
T14 Intel G1 – changed search, removed “intel” and search results went from 56 to 186! actually i added the MTM numbers and it went to 191… not much but hey, gotta try better.
T14 AMD G2 – No comment
T14 Intel G2 – EX+ basically NIB units, or should be, a few machines in high price can be NOS/NIB either firesale BIN or auctions.
T14 AMD G2 – Ryzen is still more expensive…. used. but brand new it is not. also that there is less of them, might be a reason why its higher, and well… maybe the bidders just want that arguably better ryzen machine

T490s – now the price goes up, and the listings fucking drop.guess people like their T490s 😀 oh yeah i forgot, T480s has the USB-C issue! maybe thats why there’s so many of them in the market. because they “broke” and were tossed to eWaste
T495s – legit, a brand new one went for $450, which was the 2nd to last listing, so the EX+ is the last unit sold. Also I got about 22 Ryzen 7 CPUs in the titles, so yeah, the good ones sell, kek, theres a ryzen 7 pro with 16GB RAM, and a 512GB SSD for $205…
T14s Intel G1 – EX+ can go much mor ehigher, as they are new, but the one i had was open box 🙂 so yeah. search might be too specific, not fixing it >:(
T14s AMD G1 – ok, a lot of these machines are in mid price an dbelow, the just jump to $800 but they peak there too, so thats my EX+ recommendation then.
T14s Intel G2 – issa hot item what can i say. 35 of these have i7 in them ONE 4K panel at high price…. ood luck.
T14s AMD G2 – holy fuck i should pirate software.. AHEM ipsolutionsonline, why the fuck did this thing sell for $2500. just because it has 64GB RAM and 1TB SSD? u have like thousands of dollars in software for this… they are all 2022 an 2023 uhm i thought adobe is subscription based now???? lamfo wait i think it is. >:) ok grinded all T400s machines in one day. done at 10AM need to sleep my brothas

• Healing Bios thwarts all BIOS locks using a CH14a programmer from flashing the rom.
• T490s, T495s and T14s Gen 1 and 2 use the same motherboard as their X13 counterparts.
• Processor crap
  • 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 – select 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

2000 – 2002
A Series – 12″, 14.1″ & 15″
Small Business, Economy & Multimedia

A20m – searching under all categories. shipping is expensive, all units boot, low has no drive, others do
A21e – eastcoast is fair at what they got… although it comes with a 12″ screen lol, I do want it because of that
A21m – haftu on the refurb game… overpriced IMO, i think they are scouraging for units too. but if u get tired of looking for this laptop (or other vintage ThinkPad, they sell a bit) *eyes burn& they use comic sans in the description. my eyes are bleeding, also their white bottom and cardboard backdrop makes it hard to see if there’s any imperfections. especially the sides, as the lightsource is directly above and not in front, so it casts a shadow on the edges…. I just looked at avail units, i got raged that a machine “turns on without a dark screen” but the motherfucker doesn’t SHOW IT FUCKING TURNING ON. new seller that “always leaves positive feedback” but doesn’t… have any feedback given. lmafo
A22e – similar prices to A21e if it happens
A22m – high price is the only sold unit, with 2 bids via Croatia! low price is actuhally an available unit that boots!

Finally I have added the A Series… One of my favorite ThinkPads series! Although the ones I came across don’t have that tight feelin the T2x has, they are the next best thing. These machines were catered to multimedia and small business, and the e variant was a cheaper model to get. Then the R Series came along and was a cheaper machine I believe. All units use the same bottom chassis, the 12″ just has a big ass bezel around the screen, and the 15″ had a modified keyboard bezel & palm rest to accommodate the bigger 15″ screen.

A Series Info (copied from T Series)

• m = Multimedia – 770 Series successor
• e = Economy – 300 Series successor
• LCD – 12.1″ SVGA, 14.1″ XGA & 15.0″ XGA screens (all TFT)
  • A20 thru A22m
    • 15.0″ SXGA+
    • A22m
  • certain mobos accept the LCD upgrade & need the cable to go along with it I think…
• Max RAM / CPU
  • 512MB DDR & 1GHz PIII
    • All A2x
• Drives – 9.25mm PATA drives
  • Samsung HM160HC recommended via TP forums
  • IDE to mSATA converters
  • IDE to CF Card (i think u need certain types of ones tho)
• Hardware issues
  • Blink of Death?
  • Motherboard doesn’t recognize both ram slots
    • something about the solder joint getting loose, may need mobo replacement
• Three drives
  • Floppy
  • HDD
  • Blank / CD-ROM / DVD-ROM / HDD Caddy
    • 380, 390 & iSeries also have 3 drives too

IBM Classic Desktop Replacement: 14.1″ & 15″
2001 – 2004 | A Series
2003 – 2006 | G Series

A30 – these are including shipping, which IMO is expensive for what it is, but given that’s what the bid ended to, it’s not like free shipping oging to drop off $40. $75 motherboard, also eastcoast-recycling has 3 units for $60 plus shipping
A31 – eh about the same as the A30, again haftu…. but w/e. no wait, fuck this dude lol doesn’t even max out the RAM for $20.
G40 – untested… but has CPU and RAM specs? FUCK i have to use all categories search… some one sold one from japan, without drive ofc., low price are legit
G41 – FUCKING…. lmafo cmin sold one with a floppy drive and not nVidia.. GOD WHY DID I SELL MINE??? i got like nothing, maybe $80? or $120, i forgot. FUCK. even if I still had it, I would shill it,… i wouldnt even get asking kek. or mayyybe?? nah i gotta make money the non scam way
G50 – yahoo JP auctions u gotta ugu. also john digweed <3

Quick Info

• CPUs
  • Pentium III Tualatin
    • A30
  • Mobile Pentium 4-M Low Powered “Northwood”
    • A31
  • Mobiel Pentium 4 “Northwood”
    • G40
    • G41
  • Core Duo
    • G50
• Graphics
  • ATI dGPUs
    • A30
    • A31
  • Intel Integrated Graphics (shitty)
    • G40
    • G41 (if it has a floppy drive)
    • G50
  • nVidia dGPU card (removable)
    • G41 (fan holes on left side of laptop)
• Screen Options
  • 14.1″ XGA
  • • A30
    • A31
    • G40
    • G41
  • 15.0″ XGA or SXGA+
    • All
  • 15.0″ SXGA+ IPS
    • A30
    • A31
• Drives
  • 2.5″ 9.5mm PATA
    • A30
    • A31
    • G40
    • G41
  • 2.5″ 9.5mm SATA
    • G50
  • DUAL FUCKING ULTRABAYS
    • A30
    • A31
  • NOT SO EASY ULTRABAY REMOVAL?!
    • G40
    • G50
    • G41
• Hardware Issues
  • Graphics Problems
    • A30
    • A31
      • Some add a copper shim connecting the GPU to the CPU heat sink

A31P MASTER FUCKING RACE. I fucking love my A31p! oh fuck we aren’t at this section yet… fuck. Try to get an IPS A3x system if you can… Some say the G series has a desktop CPU, and I think I fell for it too/ But honestly I’m not sure if it does… I think the confusion is that these fucking CPUs take a lot of power, and some desktops had them for a CPU. What I dislike most about the G Series is that it doesn’t have a docking port, and its actual fucking ports are limited thanks to that… And, for being the most massive fucking laptop (i think a 770 is thicker), it doesn’t have a crazy as fuck videocard… And on the G41, if it did come with the nVidia FX Go5200 (with either 64MB or 128MB), you couldn’t upgrade it… Plus the Dell Precision M60 was a better machine with that card. Oh and if you wanted max Pentium 4 performance… the Compaq nx9600 was probably your best bet. Yeah we are kinda going to workstation terrirory, but still, IBM and even Lenovo never really offered a heavy hitter GPU laptop, even when MXM cards were available, only until the P50 or P70 did they offer something.

15″ 4:3 & 15.4″ 16:10 – T Series
2003 – 2010
Classic IBM & Lenovo

• CPUs
  • Pentium M
    • T42
    • T43
  • Socket M
    • Core Duo
      • T60
  • Socket P
    • Core 2 Duo – Merom & Penryn
      • T61
      • T500
        • 1066MHz FSB
          • T500
• Display
  • 15″
    • XGA or SXGA+ IPS
      • T42
      • T43
      • T60
      • R60?
        • UXGA
          • T60
  • 15.4″
  • WXGA
    • T61
    • T500
      • WSXGA+
        • T60
        • T61
        • T500
          • WUXGA
            • T61
            • T500

Eh everything else has been covered… so yeah thats the screens you can get on a 15 or 15.4 inch unit. Libreboot starting to pop off on the T500 now. Prob would fucking look nice with a WUXGA panel. Notes were nothing significant.

15.6″ & 15.5″ 16:9
2010 to 2015
i3, i5, i7; Socketed T

• Display
  • HD, HD+ and FHD TFTs
    • All units
      • FHD IPS
        • Some T540p
  • 15.5″ 3K
    • T540p (up to T560 I believe)
• mSATA
  • T510 thru T530
• m.2 SATA (B+M Key bs)
  • T540p
• CLICK FUCKING PAD
  • T540p

A few Coreboot T520 machines are starting to pop up. Yeah the damn clickpad on the T540p might affect the prices vs the T530. If you want to go big, a W Series is the way to go, but honestly I like the Elitebook 85xx more.

2015 to 2020
Soldered CPU T Series

• m.2 SATA
  • T550
• NVMe 3.0 x2 via SATAe Caddy
  • T560
  • T570
  • T580
• UHD IPS option
  • T560 and beyond

5th Gen was just not that popular in sales/availability. idk why, its been like this for the past two price researches I’ve done. Maybe always? There weren’t any L550 machines produced. I believe UHD / 4K panels were introduced on the T560 and onward… I know the P50 has it, so I assume the T variant has it.

2019 to 2023?
Modern T Series & Performance versions

T15g = P15 with GTX Graphics
T15p = P15v with GTX Graphics (which itself is a slightly modified T15 / P15s with full pwer CPUs)

Budget ThinkPads

2001 to 2004
R Series
Classic Acer ThinkPad

R30 = T21 or A21e
R31 = R22, A22e
R32 = RB30DETT?? T23
R40 = idk… T30 design but also came with Pentium M

Originally the R Series was made by Acer, and they arguably are the successor to the iSeries in a way. It is budget but not 3 spindle like most of them were, that’s where the A Series was at. RARE because they break easily… kek we need a WATTA certificate for them.

2003 to 2007
R & Z Series
T4x Alternative

R50 = T41
R51 = T42
R52 = T43
Z60 = Widescreen T43, t for 14″, m for 15.4″, except it has SATA connector

I do want to get my hands on an R5x machine, with IPS ofc. I don’t think they officially came out that way (don’t feel like looking it up). Although the T4x is quite popular, it’s slim design is fucking badass vs the slightly thicker and stronger T6x machines, the R Series is just thick plastic and it doesn’t have the southbridge chip flex issue.

2006 to 2010
Core 2 Duo

My drunk notes at the time – im having a beer rn 😀 not buzzed yet
R60 – Core 2 Duo? no fucking hard drives, wow didnt see that one coming… only 3 units with drives, 2 of which have OSes, and they $$$$ buy a cheap (what the fuck was i saying) SSD and install instead
R60e – bruuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, 2 units so fucking expensive vs the NOT economy version
Z61t – similar to Z60t search results, one seller from italy
Z61m – why the fuck this shit so expensive, like goddamn, they still selling as is

Z61p – Shipping is fucking expensive…. but they FUCKING had one bruh! wooo, WUXGA godtier

R61 – this is a hot fucking laptop, holy shit, im surprised this many sold
R61e – there ain’t shit
R61i – 4 units have OSes and two units dont, which is the low price kek. these all have integrated graphics, and i think their mobo fits directly to a T61 so long as its a matching chassis. good if u dont want the nvidia bullcrap

SL400 – low price is the only sold unit… SPARES/REPAIR, fuck off with the wrong words. high… which i changed to EX+ price was an avail unit w/ HDD
SL400c – this POS is rare, overpay for it
SL410 – EX+ price has windows 10 installed., didnt know it would work lol, High price had a 256MB SSD innit.

R500 – some of these prices are sort of a guess on shipping… either its way too much or from overseas.
SL500 – kek these can have nVidia graphics while the T400 & T500 had ATI

L & S Series 14″
2010 – 2017

No data on these S Series… 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).

L Series 14″
2017 to 2021

15″ L
2010 – 2017

2017 – 2021

S540 is in the wrong place…. fck it.

SubNotebook, Ultrabook & Flagship
Must be X Series

Mixing 12″ X Series with S30, most tablet variations, X1 Carbon, X13 & L13 machines.

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 with a bit of 200 mixed in. 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. For anniversary editions, there are quite a bit of them in the smaller category. Technically the 700 was a small laptop in comparison to other notebooks, and such the X Series holds the flame. S30/S31 was the 10th anniversary of the ThinkPad, but they did make one with the X30 as well. Next was the ThinkPad Reserve Edition, which was a special version of the X61s with a leather bound case. 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. I can fucking talk all day about the X Series ThinkPads… they really are something special, unless you really require absolute performance, then maybe not so.

12″ 4:3 Classic IBM X
Pentium III, III-M & M

• Display
  • SVGA (800 x 600)
    • X20
    • X21
  • XGA
    • All systems here

I do not know much about these machines. No blink of death. Nothing to brag about is that these have a dGPU, because iGPUs weren’t really a thing at this time. X2x Ultrabase can have both a floppy and a CD drive at the same time, IBM quickly changed this “problem” on the X30 revision. TransNote is here because… its basically an X20 with a touchscreen, pen thing. I want that failure so bad. S30 and S31 are RARE as fuck, recently purchased a unit from a collector & thats the high price… it could be higher than that kek. I forget what they were asking on the other units they were selling.

12″ 4:3 IBM & Lenovo X Series
Pentium M, Core Duo & Core 2 Duo

• Display
  • XGA
    • All systems here
  • SXGA+
    • X60t
    • X61t (bubbly LCD problem)
• Vaporware
  • ThinkPad Reserve Edition
• ULV cpus
  • X40
  • X41
  • X60s
  • X61s
  • ThinkPad Reserve Edition
• Normal CPUs
  • X32
  • X60
  • X61

I love the fact that the X40’s performance thanks to the SULV Pentium M and 1.8″ drives sucked so much that IBM had to bring back the machine it replaced. They brought the X32 alongside the X41, yeah! Also Intel Extreme graphics were crap… I know this first hand because I’ve used a G40 and G41 w/ nVidia… it’s a load of differences. At least with the X31 the CPU didn’t need to bother with graphics, that’s where the ATI graphics chip helped out, AND the X32 didn’t even get an upgraded GPU… yup!

Lenovo pressed on with having a ULV CPU machine with the X60s, and the “full powered” CPU on the X60. From there it would have the successors, X61s and X61. But then it wanted to make special anniversary edition for ThinkPads, the Reserve Edition. NOW, it is just a X61s with a leather cased assembly, but at the time it was only catered to a select few clientele and it came with an even faster repair program, with it’s own telephone line, a big deal at the time.

16:10 ThinkPadx
X300 Executive UltraSlim
X200 UltraPortable
2008 – 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 types
• X200 and X201 both use traditional 2.5″ SATA drives, I think they are SATA III speeds idk
• all these use the classic barrel charger 

65W Big Barrel Charger – On all systems
8GB Max RAM – X300 up to X201
Two batteries – X3xx can have DVD battery, X2xx can have slice battery or thru ultrabase’s ultrabay
iGPU – On all systems, but goddamn the X300 is so lackluster with DDR2 and 1.2GHz CPU… 🙁
WXGA+ – X300, X301 as standard and select X200s & X201s (Lenovo logo on left of LCD bezel)

Libreboot is making prices for X200 higher than it should, it’s also affecting X301 as well. This also marks the end of the ‘s’ variant for mainstream sales until 2019.

16:9 Ultraportable & Ultrabook Flagship
2011 – 2014

12″ Ultrabook & 14″ Ultrabook Flagship
2013 – 2017

• Rectangle Slim Chrger – All systems
• Soldered RAM – 4GB or 8GB on all systems, max 16GB on X1C3 or X1C4 if you’re lucky
  • + 1 RAM slot – On all X2xx series here
• Storage
  • 2.5″ SATA – X230 thru X250
    • Secondary 2242 B+M mSATA – X240 to X250
  • SATAe – X260 (only drive)
  • Fucked SSDs – X1C is hella proprietary
  • m.2 SATA – X1C2
  • NVMe 2280 – X1C3 is 2×4, X1C4 is 3×4
• Meh Display – 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.

Some X1 Yoga info here… 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.

X1 Carbon 2012 – 2018 buying guide

Ok this is getting fucked… w/e 🙂
X1Y = Yoga
X270 has same HDD like X260.
X280 has a sleek case and began the internal battery only, also it’s the odd one out as the systems became 13.3″ from now on, bringing it closer to the X1 Carbon.
I added the L series and the Yoga versions from here on out.

USB-C Chargers – X1C5, X1Y2, X280, A285 some X270. and then all systems later
Rectangle Charger – some X270 systems, all A275
What the fuck? – Yeah TWO CPU generations on a lot of these fucking machines
8GB or 16GB – Max RAM on X1 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. uh idk on X series machines, I don’t think so… not looking for now 😀
Healing BIOS – Begins on X1C7…

Ultraportable & Ultrabook & Convertible
2019

Ultraportable & Ultrabook & Convertible
2019

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 & Titanium

ThinkPad Slate Tablets
2011 – 2021

• Android – TP Tablets, TP 8, 10
• PC – Helix, X1T, X12, X1 Fold
• RAM
  • 1 GB – TP Tablet 1
  • 2 GB – TP Tablet 2, Tablet 8, Tablet 10 (G1, G2)
  • 4 GB – Helix (1 & 2), Tablet 8, Tablet 10 (G1, G2), X1 Tablet (G1, G2), X12
  • 8 GB – Helix (1 & 2), X1 Tablets (G1, G2, G3), X12, X1 Fold
  • 16GB – X1 Tablet (G1, G2, G3), X12
• Storage
  • Soldered eMMC – TP Tablet (1, 2), ThinkPad 8″, ThinkPad 10″ (G1, G2)
  • mSATA – Helix
    • m.2 2280
      • NVMe 3×2 – Helix 2
      • NVMe 3×4 – X1 Tablet
    • m.2 2242
      • NVMe 3×4 – X12, X1 Fold
• Display
  • 16:9
    • HD 1366 x 768
      • 10.1″ – TP Tablet 2
    • FHD 1920 x1080
      • 11.6″ – Helix 1, 2
  • 16:10
    • WXGA 1280 x 800
      • 10.1″ TP Tablet 1
    • WUXGA 1920 x 1200
      • 8.3″ – TP Tablet 8″
      • 10.1″ – TP Tablet 10 (G1, G2)
  • 4:3
    • QXGA 2048 x 1536
      • 13.3″ – X1 Fold
  • 3:2
    • FHD+ 1920 x 1280
      • 12.0″ – X1 Tablet (G1, G2)
      • 12.3″ – X12
    • QHD+ 3000 x 2000
      • 13.0″ – X1 Tablet G3
• Chargers
  • Micro USB 10W
    • TP Tablet (1, 2), ThinkPad 8″
  • USB-ish 36W
    • Helix 2
  • Rectangle 36W
    • Helix 1
  • “Unique New Connector” 36W
    • ThinkPad 10 (G1, G2)
  • USB-C 45W
    • X1 Tablet (G1, G2, G3
  • USB-C 65W
    • X1 Tablet (G2, G3), X1 Fold

ThinkPad Yoga (some of them)
2014 – 2018

No notes… at least these are all IPS. I used a Yoga 460 for a bit, didn’t care for how it felt. IPS screen was nice, 1080p, but keyboard feel? Yuck. Studryness? L Series like. As flimsy the S230 Twist was, it FELT a bit durable… but what do i know? P40 has discrete graphics and Yoga 15 might be able to… Supposedly there are an S2, S3 and I think S3 Yoga, but I think they are codewords for some of these machines I have listed.

Performance

Classic Portables

Gas plasma display, wired keyboard, fucking funkey ass case. Check MCA mafia for info on these, good luck.

PS/55 Behemoths

These machines aren’t laptops, they are more like desktops with a clamshell form factor and they are part of the PS/55 family. So TOTALLY not a ThinkPad, however they are painted in black, have a trackpoint, fuckton of ports, and was probably built in Yamato labs. Yeah its a ThinkPad like the P110 PalmTop is, rather have one of these than that fuckshit L40 SX, oh and my buddy sharktastica has an article about what keyboard it probably has.

Overpriced Apple PowerBooks

Good fucking luck getting these cheap… FUCK me for not seeing the “lot of 2 thinkpads” one was a 600 and another, an 850 or 820, both sold for like $80… FUCK. Anyways, there was one unit being sold for like $1600 that didn’t work and lmafo, it was bc the guy bought a dud. only sold 850 was listed as a “BM PowerPC 850”. I literally hate life, the fuck i am not going to just put random letters of IBM in searches for these things, IMB should be enough. w/e

A Series Pentium III
Desktop Replacement

Damn… i forgot what is what. I think A22p is a bit different than the previous models, A30p has the best PIII you can get, and arguably can be faster than the A31p thanks to the P4 pipeline BS. A2x have a floppy built in and then the Ultrabay drive, which can be CD-RW/ROM, DVD, HDD, Floppy, ZIP, uhh idk other things? Numeric keypad too I think…. good luck on getting that (i paid about $50 for both the holder and the num pad that connects to it, NIB, i forget those P/Ns)…

Pentium 4

A31p and A30p have the same chassis, except the A31p has the Pentium 4. Though some people say it has a desktop CPU…. I don’t think it does. And there’s some that say the G40 or G41 has that desktop CPU too… really hard to say. I honestly don’t think it does, as the PSU and the FSB of these systems don’t meet what the desktops have. Yet some of the CPUs, that are Mobile Pentium 4, can be bought as a desktop CPU. I’m assuming the power of some P4s were so much, that they had used mobile P4’s for desktops and thats where, the desktop P4s come from… the CPU chip is nowhere near a desktop one IMO, but maybe I’ve come across examples that don’t have that desktop chip… so far 5 G4x machines and its all laptop CPU’s -ish.

Whats nuts is that, A3x systems didn’t (and like almost all ThinkPads prior) have a heatsink on the dGPU. One speculation why IBM sold it’s laptop/PC consumer division was of the warranty recalls, but really, it wasn’t a cash cow since the IBM PC, there were plenty of failures, despite all the IBM innovations made, they didn’t make that money vs probably what they spent in R&D (and lost with microshaft). Whatever, as obvious if it isn’t A3x can have dual CD drives, or DVD drives. These also came with UXGA IPS displays, a sight to see, unless you have a 400 nit FHD laptop, but even then, they are amazing iirc. Like the selectabase, you were able to have a dGPU on the high end dock. Badass, and another drive. fuck where is my photo of my A31p with all Ultrabays?

G Systems are a bit different. A lot different, and a bit disappointing… first off, they do not have an ultrabase connector. or whatever its called at the bottom. Next. they have jack shit for I/O ports…. and this was supposed to be a desktop replacement? Naw it was fucked. Oh, and the kicker? no dedicated graphics! The meh G40 i came aacross was fucking jarring with its iGPU intel extreme graphics my ass…. ugh. Oh and this is the best part. G systems have a crazy CPU cooler fan heatsink system. But the floppy? annoying to remove. the CD/DVD drive? its not an ultrabay drive. BUT if you remove bottom cover/keyboard bezel, yadayada… it has ultrabase FRUs. so the upgrade swap takes more time. whatever. One good thing is that G41 systems had an optional dGPU on some of their systems instead of the floppy drive. THIS was like a precursor to the MXM card, and Dell did have something similar to the Precision models. But guess what? they didnt fucking do it on their later machines… lame.

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

Thin as fuck. R series not so much, but T40 thru T42 are known to have the bad southbridge chip, that can flex by holding it by one had. IDK if its FUD, but enthusiasts say hold by two hands. It got fixed ont the T43p supposedly…. but yeah. way smaller feeling than the T60, then T61, and W500. Whatever, and when it came to the T430s i own? T43p still felt thinner…. it was like the precursor to the X300 but/… sturdy-ish munus the flex? ok thats ass.

Core 2 Duo Classic

• DDR2
  • 3GB T60p, Z61p, G50
  • 8GB for T61p
• SATA I Speeds –
  • On all machines
  • T61p can get SATA II w/ Middleton BIOS
  • T61 Wikia – Via ThinkPad Forums 🙂
• Screens
  • T60p – SXGA+ TN, UXGA IPS, WSXGA+ TN
  • G50 – 15″ XGA
  • Z61p – WUXGA
  • T61p – SXGA+, WXGA+, WSXGA+ or WUXGA for 15″
• Big Barrel Chargers – On these machines, 90W recommended
• dGPU –
  • All systems except G50
  • Z61p may be the most “safe one”, but ATI systems do sometimes fail
  • T61p is the worst w/ nVidia due to the BGA solder fiasco… ticking timebomb
    • systems or mobo’s built after August 2008 are fine tho (check mobo)

Buy a W500… but yeah, G50 is fuckign asss ass ass asss ass ass ass. dont buy one, buy the others…. T60p probably one of the best build quality machines you can get… wish they went more robust with it, but w/e…. lighter. Z series is cool too, but doesn’t get that magnesium lid… swap it. Amazingly this system, despite not really vsing the T60p (14″, 15″ and widescreen 15.4″), it had a WUXGA as standard while the T60p didnt… even though it had a UXGA variant, only a WXSXGA+ was available… at least on my notes via PSREF 🙂 G50? XGA ass fuck shit fuck whack fuck u

16:9 Core 2 Duo / Quad / Extreme

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.

• Display
  • 16:10
    • WXGA – W500, 11: W700ds, W701ds
    • WXGA+ – W700, W701
    • WSXGA+ – W500
    • WUXGA – W500, W700, default on W700ds & W701ds
  • HD, HD+, FHD
    • W510, W520, W530
      • 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
  • 8GB – Core 2 Duo/Extreme/Quad
  • 32GB max – On Quad i7 machines (if it has four slots)
• AC Adapters
  • Big Barrel
    • 90W on W500
  • Sloted Big Barrel
    • 135W on W510
    • 170W on W520, W530, some W701
    • 230W on other W701 and all W701ds
  • Rectangle Slim
    • 135W or 170W on W540/1, depending on DC/Q
• ATI Graphics – W500 machines
• nVidia 1GB or 2GB – On W700, W701, & W510 through W541 machines

• Fuck, i dont want to do this
  • AC adapters
    • Slim Rectangle
      • 65W – IG T540p, T440p
      • 90W – DG T540p, T440p
      • 135W – Dual Core W540, or W541
      • 170W – Quadcore W540, W541
  • Displays
    • HD – T440p, T540p
    • HD+ – T440p
    • FHD – T540p, W540, W541, W550s
    • FHD IPS – T440p
    • 3K IPS – T540p, W540, W541, W550s
      • Touch variant – W550s

Not a big fan of the ‘P’ variant of the T440p, T540p, because… well, intetgrated graphics and meh CPUs vs the standard they used to be, dedicated and higher CPUs. Cool that they brought back IPS displays on some systems tho!

2016 Systems

List is going Workstations 17″, 15″, 14″
Then Ultrabook “workstation”, 15″, 14″

• P15, P17 notes
  • Quadcores – P50, P51, P53, P15 G1
    • SixCores – P52, P53, P15 G1 & G2
      • Eight Cores – P53, P15 G1 & G2
  • ULV DualCore (Later quadcore)
    • P50s
• 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.

2017 Systems

2018 Systems

Notes about the P1 & X1 Extreme
They are like the same to the P15 class, except an ultrabook and centered keyboard. Except they don’t have the “old” hinges the P15 has, and use drop hinges. Because of their thinness, the cooling fans are smaller and heat sinks too, so cooling performance will be compromised, which is worst on heavy tasks vs the P15. So basically an ultrabook style chassis, and full powered CPUs/GPUs… and when the 2nd Gen systems dropped, so they brought iGPUs into the configs. so be careful. IMO most sellers say what fucking GPU comes in the machine, becauze…. idk you get clicks, and it sells a lot higher when you have non-shit graphics. YMMV on these machines, they are similar (X1E, P1 systems), so YOLO.

2019 Systems

P43s introduced, basically a Quadro variant of the T14s I think, or maybe T14… Still no full powered system in 14″ form factor. can we have the FUCKING xeon in it? Or a hyper fucking AMD? Yeah intel is shit, but goddamn do I hate the agreements some of these compabies have to having the fucking badass machine

2020 Systems

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.

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

2021 Systems

No fucking notes… for now 🙂 Ver 8 may be different.

From This part of the part onward is from Version 6….
Will update soon. Happy new years 🙂 whenever

13.3″ Non-T/X/A/R/L Systems

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 instead. 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

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. Oh fuck, I forgot about the X1 fold… smallest thinkpad i guess.

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.

Cheap Student Laptop – 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.