Ultraportables & Tablets | 11″ to 15.6″ ThinkPad Buyer’s Price Guide

Laptops models this guide:
12″ X Series | X31 (2003) to X280 (2018)
13″ X Series | X300, X301, X1, X390, X395
12″ A Series | A275, A285
13″ L Series | L380 to L13
11″ X Series | X100e (2010) to 11e Gen 4 (2018)

Laptop Tablet Convertibles in this Guide:
12″ X Series | X41T (2005) to X230T (2012)
11″ X Series | 11e Yogas
12″ S230u

Models NOT covered:
Yoga X3xx or L3xx Series
Yoga 12″ Series
X1 Yoga
Helix

Models def not researched
ThinkPad Tablet
Transnote
700T

Google Master Spreadsheet

The X Series laptops are probably the “Sexiest” models that Lenovo Produces. The X1 Carbon may look the sleekest, but there is a charm that the 14″ machines can’t cover. I started my ThinkPad journey with an X61 Tablet in… 2011? From there I started buying other models and started taking risk with “as is” laptops on eBay. Soon I would find out that most machines sold by sellers were fully working. I was avid of R2 (ready for reuse) sellers on eBay and flipped machines with healthy batteries for a decent profit. I am a bit biased with the 12″ X Series as they are the perfect machine for a portable, cheap, durable laptop. The Dell E62xx series is a a let down (except the E6240), and the HP 25xxp series are pure wtf garbage with their keyboards and looks…

If you’re thinking of getting a ThinkPad, the X Series may be the one for you. Their slightly smaller size makes them lighter and easier to carry, plus most of them have the same build structure as T, W, X1 Carbon and P Series, but will actually suffer less from chassis flex just because they are smaller. FHD IPS displays are offered on the X240 and later machines, but they aren not available on the rest of them here…. this could be a deal breaker but it would not matter if you’re looking for a small machine on a budget. 🙂

Pricing Guide Layout

Low     – The bargain bin of an ugly laptop, most likely it will be missing a power cord, drive & OS. Most of these are R2 Ready for Resale, & liquidated, in some cases they are broken systems from the original owner. Best for those who can repair computers & replace parts.

Mid      – The expected price of a decent, fully working laptop, available at a Buy it now price & best come with a power cord. For those who just want one to be fully working, this is recommended. For those outside the America, this might be the low price for your market.

High     – Typically laptops with great specs, lightly used and in excellent condition.
EX+ — Most of these are sold by top end refurbishers & or are brand new in box. For those who need warranties or for collections.

CPU — Denotes what processor generation a ThinkPad has. Additionally “S” denotes the system has a soldered CPUs (broadwell & later they are all soldered) & a “1” denotes the system has one RAM slot, & “0” means it has soldered RAM, unless otherwise stated.

# Sold   – How many sold in the last 3 months. The higher the better (300 great) or 0 means very uncommon or rare on eBay. These guides are done in six month intervals.

i7 — Some laptops have a lot of sold listings, so I did a higher spec search for them, these are listings that are sold with with an i7 CPU & one of the following; an IPS display, 16GB RAM, an SSD w/ 256GB or higher, or a HDD with 500GB or higher. I guess i gotta make one for the i9 CPUs and Xeons…. Next time!

Classic 4:3 12.1″ X Series

• Best Value – X61
• Next Best – X60 (and sexiest)
• God Tier $$$$ – X62 SXGA+ modded
• X41 Advice – Get a mSATA to 1.8″ PATA adapter!!!
• These are all 4:3 XGA aspect ratio displays
• The SXGA+ will soon be extinct

I am biased, but the X61 is probably the best model to get out of these. Although the X61s is slightly slimmer, it has a Low Voltage CPU and parts aren’t really compatible. But with both models, your right palm will be burning if you’re on wifi and haven’t done the wifi mod! The X60 has a way better aesthetic with the fingerprint reader in the center, Many buyers complained about the X40 because of its use of the slower ULV Pentium M CPU (thank you Windows Vista), downgrade to crappy integrated graphics and even slower 1.8″ HDDs for the sake of thinness. So Lenovo made a revision to the X31 and made the X32 but kept the old graphics. I only found one 51nb unit sold, not that many even in the ebay streams, RIP production.

Pre-Ultrabook 13″ X Series Executive

• Best Value – X1
• Next Best – X300? X1?

Lenovo makes something really good sometimes, then changes it up when it’s successor comes along. The X300 series and the 13″ X1 are just that. The X300 harkens back to a design that looks like a 600 series, has the softtouch palmrest like it, the speaker placement, and the nifty design, and an incredible typing experience. Lenovo went more “Macbook Air” with the X1, but lost a lot of the charm that the X300 series had. Unfortunately the successor of the X1, was the X1 Carbon and became a 14″ laptop, not making it much different than the sleeker MacBook Pro or Dell XPS.

16:10 & 16:9 X-Series, The Old Guard

• Best Value – X230
• Next Best – X220??
• Libreboot money – X200
• 16:10 display – X200, X200s, X201, X201s
• 16:9 display – X220, X230, X330 (13.3″ XPS LCD mod)
• X220 and later can do mSATA 🙂
• X230s – Limited production run, supposedly only released in Asia

Due to market demands, the X-Series also went to the widescreen format. These machines are quite durable and still had the ultraportable name, before Lenovo turned a new direction.

I am biased here but I love the X230 over the X220, mostly due to USB 3.0 as default on these machines. Although there are a few laptops with a 3:2 display ratio and now some 16:10, the last classic from Lenovo is the X201. The typing experience is better on an X301, but the X201 would be much more practical to use & repair. Oh yea, the X200 would of been cheap, but it is absurdly priced and sought after thanks to Libreboot. As a matter of fact the T400 can be librebooted as well, but it isn’t as simple of a process or small…

Modern 12″ X-Series

• Best Value – X250
• Next Best – X270 Skylake
• Gimped – 1 RAM slot alongside soldered RAM…

Lenovo wanted to refresh the ThinkPad line during the 2014 Haswell launch. Like the T440/s, they changed the X240 but more drastically. First off the machine is slightly narrower than before, however it still retains a fullsize keyboard layout. The next big change was the addition of an internal battery and the removal of two ram slots, for just one slot and some RAM soldered. Also there are no swivel tablet version of these laptops, Lenovo got rid of that for the Yoga series, with completely different parts.

13.3″ Current X & L Series Laptops

• Best Value – L380
• Next Best – X395
• L13, X13???? – Too New, not sold via eBay

I have no personal experience with these machines, nor seen really much owner’s input about them to comment about it. As far as options go, the L series missing features the X series counterparts has. Although they are the similar size, the L series looks to have RAM slots, while the X has soldered RAM. Basically nab the X variants if you want lightness, or go L series if you want to upgrade RAM? Idk, oh yea they dropped the A series but followed using the odd number at the end to differentiate Intel/AMD.

X100 Series – 11″ Economy

These small laptops are directed to the Entry & Educational market with their very low price. TrackPoint on a budget, t

• Best Value – X140e
• Next Best – X131e
• Try not – To buy the chromebook versions
• Surprising – Some unit come installed with a small 2.5″ 60GB SSD 🙂
• Mini 10? – no results but here for that one day Australia sells them

It’s been awhile since I’ve used these laptops, I still want to nab a i3 X131e or Edge 11″ one day. You’ll def want to install Linux on these machines if you daily them, Windows 10 is a chug on these underpowered AMD systems.

11e & 11e Yoga – 11″ Economy

No trackpoint, no problem? X100 series successor.

• Best Value – 11e 2nd Gen Intel CPU
• Next Bext – 11e 4th Gen
• Insufficient spec info posted by sellers are excluded from results

I believe the yoga variant has a hinge that pulls all the way around and comes with a digitizer. When searching for these, I gave up trying to separate them, because people would list the Yoga version but be the non-Yoga, or vice versa. There are probably more units available, however I omitted all units that do not specify the CPU these were designed for… because I did not want to look at every photo to figure out if its a Gen or Gen 3 system and tally up their prices individually. 😛

Swivel Tablet Convertible

• Best Value – X200t
• Next Best – X220t
• Bunk – X41t
• Worse – X61t SXGA+ w/ bubbles
• No FHD displays here 🙁

These tablets were amazing to have, I’ve come across every model except the X41t and X60t. Most of these would run an offline version of Windows 7 perfectly, I’d skip Windows 10 for linux. Ubuntu “just werks” with the digitizer and many other distros too are fine too. Prior to the X200 tablet, the swivel hinge was known to be a weak point and the display would often fall. It is a tedious process to replace a hinge, but quite easy thanks to repair guides thru Lenovo, my first laptop repair was done this way on my X61 Tablet <3

12.5″ & 13.3″ Thinkpad Yoga – Folding Tablet

Lenovo ditched the swivel hinge and used a drop hinge design like the rest of the market. A successor to the ThinkPad Twist, Lenovo went with a 12″ chassis size, experimenting with others, before following to a 13.3″ size… for now at least.

• Best Value – Yoga 260 by far
• Next best – yoga L380
• WTF – 72% color gamut displays…. Good but not great in its class
• Yoga X13? – CES just happened and there are ZERO units sold on eBay

I don’t know any of these machines, never had them, know anything really bad about them, but from reading the PSREF, almost all of them have soldered RAM or meh displays. Although yes these IPS displays look great, come across other machines and Lenovo really doesn’t want to take the limelight away from the X1 Carbon or P Series.

14″ Yoga & X1 Yoga Folding Laptop

Lenovo experimented with a 14″ Yoga laptop before realizing it could probably make more money by re-purposing the X1 Carbon, but holding nothing back with it’s display.

• Best Value – Yoga 460
• Next Best – X1 Yoga… 1 or 2
• Diamond Tier – OLED X1 Yoga w/ it’s 2Mil Contrast Ratio

More laptops I never came across, but looking at reviews and information about these displays, this would be a considerable upgrade from my ThinkPad Helix & W550s… The X1 Yogas are very expensive, probably because they are the top shelf ultrabooks and are not the first choice for a business to pick from. However compared to the Wacom specific tablets, it can be a bargain.

15.6″ Yoga Folding Tablet – Failure

• Nah just buy an Acer touchscreen instead
• This shit is a failure, but not cool like the 730TE or TransNote
• Sure you can like it, but… why, when there are better options?

X1 Tablet – Executive Slate

“Get that whack ass iPad Pro out off my desk, I got an X1 Tablet running i3, BITCH!!! Do you even know what that is? No its not an Intel processor, dumb motherfucker. The fuck you know about compiling? Oh wow, you are proficient in Java, Ruby & C++, lemme get the SparcStation for you. Wait, what the fuck is that in your bag? The fuck you doing with an off brand Bluetooth keyboard and the 1st gen AirPods, like bro, u don’t even use the smart features. Bro just get the PowerBeats Pro or Shure SE846 if u want hifi. What, they look whack? LMAFO bro that’s comedy, I like you. You’re hired, when can you start? Huh? Nah this is unpaid internship, idk where the FUCK you heard this was paid”

yo uh, I drank a bit and uhm, half assed it here. 🙂 Buy the X1 Tablets because them 3:2 aspect ratios, uhh Helix 2 might be legit, i liked the OG helix’s display, but fucking hated the CPU performance. Dont run heavy shit on it. 😀