Does GH like Thinkpads or Macbooks

[Belfong]

I used the Thinkpads for almost 16 years of my life because I thought they are the best - until I discovered MacBook Air. Nuff said. No need to vote. Ha ha.

[byker]

If you know of any equivalent laptops that aren't macs for better specs or budget please let me know!

Dell XPS 13.

It's about the same price, much more powerful CPUs, more options, standard 1080p display, better battery life.

Compared with the 13" MB Air, it's a strong competitor.

Yeah the Dell XPS 13 seems to be the best competitor. I probably would have bought the Dell had I wanted a 13" laptop.

[tp4tissue]

If you know of any equivalent laptops that aren't macs for better specs or budget please let me know!

Dell XPS 13.

It's about the same price, much more powerful CPUs, more options, standard 1080p display, better battery life.

Compared with the 13" MB Air, it's a strong competitor.

Yeah the Dell XPS 13 seems to be the best competitor. I probably would have bought the Dell had I wanted a 13" laptop.

Hrrmm.. looks like a nice kit, but the color range is a bit weak.

[NoblesseOblige]

Have no use for either, but if I had to pick one I'd take a Thinkpad over Macbook any day.

[swill]

The old thinkpads have a wonderful place in my heart.  When my T42 got stolen it was a very sad day indeed.  I have had a few things stolen in my lifetime, but I think that one hurt the most.  Haha.  It might also have been because it was running my CNC machine and I didn't have a backup of the install .  I had to find a new machine with a parallel port and rebuild it from scratch to in order to get my production going again. 

I have enjoyed Macs for the last 7-8 years, but their obsession with trying to make things small has probably finally killed them for me.  No ethernet and limited thunderbolt ports is very limiting.  Trying to do two monitors and a wired connection is impossible on most recent Macs.  It is too bad. 

[tp4tissue]

I miss the old ThinkPad keyboard layout (with the proper Nav Cluster).  The new ones are a let down.

I think people are nostalgic of the Old "BRICKS" , sure they're sturdy, but they're bricks..

This is nostalgia, which in this case is against practicality..  you just can't carry it around

[baldgye]

If you know of any equivalent laptops that aren't macs for better specs or budget please let me know!

Dell XPS 13.

It's about the same price, much more powerful CPUs, more options, standard 1080p display, better battery life.

Compared with the 13" MB Air, it's a strong competitor.

Yeah the Dell XPS 13 seems to be the best competitor. I probably would have bought the Dell had I wanted a 13" laptop.

I had an xps13

its the perfect formfactor but it's nearly 8years old and is just ****ed... everything on it is ruined lol... the same time I got that laptop a mate got a white bottom of the range macbook... both lasted about the same time...

I love the Thinkpads and I think I would go for one of those over a Mac, simply because I like gaming. I wish the Pro had more options for inputs, but its a beautify made machine which is only held back by OSX

[Flyersfan1]

I've been using a Lenovo x230 for the past two years and have really loved every moment with it.  Despite the annoyingly low resolution, and newer keyboard design, there's really not much I dislike about it.  It's light enough that I can carry it around with other textbooks and not have it put any strain on my back.  I recently just swapped out the spinner in favor of a Samsung 840 256GB SSD and holy crap, it's like a brand new machine again.  I'm really not a huge fan of some of the changes Lenovo has made to the thinkpad lineup, so I'll likely be using this until I'm forced to buy something else, and when I do, it would likely be a Microsoft Surface or something similar.

[Matias]

I miss the old ThinkPad keyboard layout (with the proper Nav Cluster).  The new ones are a let down.

I think people are nostalgic of the Old "BRICKS" , sure they're sturdy, but they're bricks..

This is nostalgia, which in this case is against practicality..  you just can't carry it around

Just to be clear, I don't miss the computer itself.  I miss the keyboard layout.  It was the perfect combination of spacesaving and functionality.

[tp4tissue]

I miss the old ThinkPad keyboard layout (with the proper Nav Cluster).  The new ones are a let down.

I think people are nostalgic of the Old "BRICKS" , sure they're sturdy, but they're bricks..

This is nostalgia, which in this case is against practicality..  you just can't carry it around

Just to be clear, I don't miss the computer itself.  I miss the keyboard layout.  It was the perfect combination of spacesaving and functionality.

which cluster specifically, there's been many iterations over the years.

[Altis]

I liked the MacBook Pros and Thinkpads before they ruined the keyboards. Both had exceptional keyboards until just a couple of years ago.

Apple still sells the non-retina, thicker MacBook pro with the good keyboard, but the computer itself is outdated and I'm not sure why it's still around.

The Lenovo G510 has a great keyboard, but most of the newer ones have moved to a shallower depth (like the Apples), making them light and shallow.

[tp4tissue]

I've been using a Lenovo x230 for the past two years and have really loved every moment with it.  Despite the annoyingly low resolution, and newer keyboard design, there's really not much I dislike about it.  It's light enough that I can carry it around with other textbooks and not have it put any strain on my back.  I recently just swapped out the spinner in favor of a Samsung 840 256GB SSD and holy crap, it's like a brand new machine again.  I'm really not a huge fan of some of the changes Lenovo has made to the thinkpad lineup, so I'll likely be using this until I'm forced to buy something else, and when I do, it would likely be a Microsoft Surface or something similar.

The x230 is essentially the newest of the X series currently worth buying..

x240 didn't have the mouse buttons, and the x250 doesn't have dual channel memory(WTF!!)..

The x260 i think will probably knock it out of the park.. and be the ultimate machine..

[baldgye]

I liked the MacBook Pros and Thinkpads before they ruined the keyboards. Both had exceptional keyboards until just a couple of years ago.

Apple still sells the non-retina, thicker MacBook pro with the good keyboard, but the computer itself is outdated and I'm not sure why it's still around.

The Lenovo G510 has a great keyboard, but most of the newer ones have moved to a shallower depth (like the Apples), making them light and shallow.

I really liked the old keyboard style that the macpro's used to have before they went all scrabble keys style... though I do like the scrabble tiles

[swill]

I miss the old ThinkPad keyboard layout (with the proper Nav Cluster).  The new ones are a let down.

I think people are nostalgic of the Old "BRICKS" , sure they're sturdy, but they're bricks..

This is nostalgia, which in this case is against practicality..  you just can't carry it around

There is nostalgia because their entire purpose was practicality.   They were built like tanks and could survive anything.  You could always count on a thinkpad.

[Matias]

I miss the old ThinkPad keyboard layout (with the proper Nav Cluster).  The new ones are a let down.

I think people are nostalgic of the Old "BRICKS" , sure they're sturdy, but they're bricks..

This is nostalgia, which in this case is against practicality..  you just can't carry it around

Just to be clear, I don't miss the computer itself.  I miss the keyboard layout.  It was the perfect combination of spacesaving and functionality.

which cluster specifically, there's been many iterations over the years.

The ThinkPad X220 was the last good one IMO.

[tp4tissue]

I miss the old ThinkPad keyboard layout (with the proper Nav Cluster).  The new ones are a let down.

I think people are nostalgic of the Old "BRICKS" , sure they're sturdy, but they're bricks..

This is nostalgia, which in this case is against practicality..  you just can't carry it around

Just to be clear, I don't miss the computer itself.  I miss the keyboard layout.  It was the perfect combination of spacesaving and functionality.

which cluster specifically, there's been many iterations over the years.

The ThinkPad X220 was the last good one IMO.

LOL..

x220 was the only machine to support 1866 ram for a while.. + 5 to 20% gpu performance, + 10% cpu score as well.

They're talking about unlocking for other laptops over at bios-mods

[user 18]

For my uses, both are overkill. I'm running a 6yo HP that was only worth about $400-500 new. Throw linux on an SSD and it does everything I need it to do.

6yrs is right around c2d..  anything pentium m / athlon 64 3xxx  ,  that's usually too slow

Athlon neo MV-40, IIRC. It's fast enough to do basic web browsing, coding for school, and doesn't lag when I type. I have newer and faster machines (laptops and desktops), but this one has a smaller form factor and is still the one I go to for day-to-day use.

My personal opinion is that it's not too slow until it can't do what I want it to do.

That is not usable.. lies...  passmark 400 points..

anything less than 1000 is going to be SLOW

anything less than 700 is going to be VERY VERY slow even for firefox..

And yet I'm using it now without any trouble

Yes, if it still ran Vista, it would be unusable. Yes if it still had a spinning disk, it would be much less snappy. A lightweight OS makes a big difference, and I fully expect to continue to use this same machine until support for Debian Wheezy ends.

A benchmark can only tell you so much, and you shouldn't conflate it with actual user experience.

[Findecanor]

ThinkPads and MacBook Pro's were good back in around 2010-2011 when they had optical drives, some expandability, ports and really good keyboards.

After that, they have got progressively worse. I want none of them.

[tp4tissue]

ThinkPads and MacBook Pro's were good back in around 2010-2011 when they had optical drives, some expandability, ports and really good keyboards.

After that, they have got progressively worse. I want none of them.

2011 was really PRE sandy bridge

So basically BEFORE ultrabook..

Sandybridge was the game changer.. because it made it possible to make smaller form factors..

PRIOR, they Had to make bigger chassis just to fit the battery, so they decided hell, i'm gonna put some ports in.

But Sandy changed all that, so everything went more "svelte"

[slip84]

Just got assigned a new Thinkpad at work.

The trackpad is ****ing atrocious. Like easily the worst I have ever dealt with. The click motion is about 6" down and back up, which knocks you off what you're doing. It's virtually unusable. I'm not a fan of tap-to-click (accidental input), so that's not an option. No one beats Apple on trackpad tech/software. No one.

[Altis]

I've heard they can be pretty bad, slip84. Which model did you get? And how's the keyboard?

[tp4tissue]

Just got assigned a new Thinkpad at work.

The trackpad is ****ing atrocious. Like easily the worst I have ever dealt with. The click motion is about 6" down and back up, which knocks you off what you're doing. It's virtually unusable. I'm not a fan of tap-to-click (accidental input), so that's not an option. No one beats Apple on trackpad tech/software. No one.

LOL,

Go into the UltraNav options, and start disabling all the stuff you don't use like tap zones, etc..

It makes the trackpad much better..  this is a known "software" overcomplication issue.. the trackpad itself is fine.

[bueller]

Just got assigned a new Thinkpad at work.

The trackpad is ****ing atrocious. Like easily the worst I have ever dealt with. The click motion is about 6" down and back up, which knocks you off what you're doing. It's virtually unusable. I'm not a fan of tap-to-click (accidental input), so that's not an option. No one beats Apple on trackpad tech/software. No one.

The trackpads are one of the biggest selling points for me on Macbooks, no-one does them better. My 5 year old MBP pad was like a million times better than the near new Lenovo one I had.

[tp4tissue]

Just got assigned a new Thinkpad at work.

The trackpad is ****ing atrocious. Like easily the worst I have ever dealt with. The click motion is about 6" down and back up, which knocks you off what you're doing. It's virtually unusable. I'm not a fan of tap-to-click (accidental input), so that's not an option. No one beats Apple on trackpad tech/software. No one.

The trackpads are one of the biggest selling points for me on Macbooks, no-one does them better. My 5 year old MBP pad was like a million times better than the near new Lenovo one I had.

not true.. it comes down to the ultranav software.. by default it's kinda buggy, but they perform equivalently once properly configured.

[bueller]

Just got assigned a new Thinkpad at work.

The trackpad is ****ing atrocious. Like easily the worst I have ever dealt with. The click motion is about 6" down and back up, which knocks you off what you're doing. It's virtually unusable. I'm not a fan of tap-to-click (accidental input), so that's not an option. No one beats Apple on trackpad tech/software. No one.

The trackpads are one of the biggest selling points for me on Macbooks, no-one does them better. My 5 year old MBP pad was like a million times better than the near new Lenovo one I had.

not true.. it comes down to the ultranav software.. by default it's kinda buggy, but they perform equivalently once properly configured.

The software wasn't too bad, it just felt flimsy to me compared to the Macbook. It was a low end lenovo though so I can't speak for the higher end models.

[baldgye]

Just got assigned a new Thinkpad at work.

The trackpad is ****ing atrocious. Like easily the worst I have ever dealt with. The click motion is about 6" down and back up, which knocks you off what you're doing. It's virtually unusable. I'm not a fan of tap-to-click (accidental input), so that's not an option. No one beats Apple on trackpad tech/software. No one.

The Alienware (inorite) track pad is IMO the nicest to use... not sure about the rest of the laptop mind

[jamster]

The trackpads are one of the biggest selling points for me on Macbooks, no-one does them better. My 5 year old MBP pad was like a million times better than the near new Lenovo one I had.

Did you have a Lenovo Thinkpad, or a Lenovo non-Thinkpad (e.g. Yoga, IdeaPad, etc). I have a Yoga which has the biggest piece of **** trackpad I've ever come across on a laptop. On the other hand, my Thinkpad trackpads are fine.

My opinion is that Thinkpads retained some vestige of serious-use design from the IBM days (well, I stopped paying attention around the x220), but the standard Lenovos are the usual pieces of consumer crap that most laptops have turned into these days.

[davkol]

X200T Master Race. I have absolutely no idea, what to pick as an upgrade, when the need comes. Probably FS LifeBook T902 or T734, but replacement parts, or even refurbished laptops are nearly non-existent. I might have to cut some edges here and there, which would allow me to look into the new shapes (something like thinkpad yoga). Decisions, decisions, decisions…

For the record, Apple is completely out of question. I can hardly imagine anything worse than a macbook for my use case.