5 ms·

A T420 was my daily driver through undergrad, and then collected dust during grad school when I was issued a Macbook. When I returned my Macbook I dusted it off

A T420 was my daily driver through undergrad, and then collected dust during grad school when I was issued a Macbook. When I returned my Macbook I dusted it off and was surprised by how usable it was (and how usable and well-supported it was running Arch compared to debian in the early 2010s). I finally gave in and upgraded the memory (DDR3!) to 16 GiB recently, and am considering getting a third-party 9-cell battery, as my 9+ year old one has gotten long in the tooth (i3's battery "widget" reports ~70% fully charged). I dare say it's my most usable travel laptop outside of my work-issued Yoga, which it still trounces in terms of keyboard ergonomics. It absolutely dunks on the bargin-bin laptops I've tried out over the past few years, I think in part because of ergonomics but also because Arch on old (but well-supported) hardware feels snappier than Windows 10 on new (but low-cost) hardware.

NikolaNovak 5y ago
If you like t420 try the t420s. Same laptop but slimmer and makes it much more transportable. Still has ultra bay, great keyboard, and easy access to everything. I have 3 around the house for various family members and it works great :)
- zwog 5y ago
  I t420s fell out of my opened backpack a couple of days ago. Not the first time it fell, once I even stepped on it - but after the last drop the display has some problems and i have to push on a certain point to get it working, which made me put it to it's well deserved retirement.[*] In need of an quick alternative I bought a Dell XPS 13 9343. I like this a lot - it has a way nicer display, the form factor is just great for my needs, build quality is good and even the keyboard feels right (missing a trackpoint tho). Unfortunately it supports Microsoft's "Modern Standy", which is a fancy name for s2idle - which just doesn't work using Linux, at least I couldn't get it to work . When in s2idle it looses power and does not reliably wake up, in s3 it goes to sleep but needs a hard reset to wake up. Waiting for my t470s now, as far as I know the latest Thinkpad generation stat supports classic s3 sleep. *: Actually it lives on as a small NAS/Homeserver. It even packs three disks (M2 SSD, HDD in the HDD slot and an Ultrabay-HDD adpter).
  - paulmd 5y ago
    haha, a number of years ago I stepped on my W510. It fell out of bed and under the covers without me noticing, it fell screen down and I stepped right on the display flat against the floor. I didn't put my full weight on it before I realized it was there, but I figured it was toast anyway, surprisingly it was fine! I really miss the Ultrabay as well. I did the same thing, used to use it for a second HDD for extra storage. Really though I miss the old old days when you could get an ultrabay battery. What do I need in a laptop more than storage? Battery life. I had a Fujitsu Lifebook which had an "ultrabay" (their version of it, at least) and that was the feature I used most for it. It seemed to disappear all at once, I wonder if it was FAA regulations around flying with batteries that killed it or what.
    - petschge 5y ago
      I have a X1 Carbon that is a few years old now.A couple of years ago I dropped it (lid closed) from about 2 feet up (70cm). And it hit the tiled floor, pointy corner first. I thought "welp here go $2000". But no! A 2x3 mm part of the black surface finish chipped of and I see the bare silvery metal now. Oh and the tile cracked.
    - zwog 5y ago
      > Really though I miss the old old days when you could get an ultrabay battery. What do I need in a laptop more than storage? Battery life. I had a Fujitsu Lifebook which had an "ultrabay" (their version of it, at least) and that was the feature I used most for it. Well, nowadays you can get a power bank with Power Delivery and charge your laptop via USB-C port
      - paulmd 5y ago
        It’s a nice idea on paper, but I don’t think there are many power banks that support 100W+ discharge. Moreover, that’s a relatively recent technology and there was a good decade (or more) between the point when bay batteries disappeared and usb-c charging became any sort of commonplace occurrence outside Apple products.
    - 5y ago
- boneitis 5y ago
  I had to upgrade my i7 T420s with maxed out memory and solid state, because work video calls brought it to its knees, and it couldn't push 60 frame videos in the browser. I had to use streamlink for practically all live video consumption. (Linux Mint) Don't get me wrong; I'm proud of how far I stretched it (and it remains a respectable machine for what it is), but I just want to put this out there if anyone's thinking of trying to dump heavy modern web processing on the T420/T420s dinosaurs.
jacquesm 5y ago
Do your homework before ordering that battery, there is a ton of trash out there that is unsafe to use. Make sure there are quality cells in there (Samsung, Sanyo, LG) and that the original BMS is in there with all of the protections enabled. This is not something you want to take any chances with, and aftermarket counterfeit batteries with incredibly dangerous guts abound.
- ho_schi 5y ago
  If the manufacturers only provide batteries for at least ten years, don't lock it with dongle chips and provide specification requirements for third parties. Well. Lenovo doesn't sell new batteries after fives years, uses dongle and doesn't provide any specs for third party manufacturers. It is not possible to get an battery for X220/230, T420/T430 which is manufactured after 2017. At least I don't get anyone but Lenovo prints on the label "2020" :angrysmilie:
  - jacquesm 5y ago
    I've successfully refurbished batteries for items that were no longer supported, it's a bit of work but doable and dirt cheap ($5 / cell, and about an hour of work).
    - metters 5y ago
      How do you refurbish batteries? I mean, you are not only cleaning the outside, are you?
      - jacquesm 5y ago
        You open them up, carefully document how they are put together, remove the cells, put new cells in and then put the whole thing back together. I've done this now for laptops, cameras, a couple of drills and a vacuum cleaner and they all work 'better than new' because the new cells have far more capacity than the cells that were in there originally.
dotancohen 5y ago
> Yoga, which it still trounces in terms of keyboard ergonomics As you seem to care about the keyboard, beware the T-14 laptops now. The keyboard looks like any other ThinkPad keyboard, but it is beyond cheap. The plastic feels paper thin, the keypresses are stiff then bottom out suddenly, and the keycaps wobble. I've seen better keyboards on Asus laptops.

NikolaNovak 5y ago

If you like t420 try the t420s. Same laptop but slimmer and makes it much more transportable. Still has ultra bay, great keyboard, and easy access to everything. I have 3 around the house for various family members and it works great :)

zwog 5y ago
I t420s fell out of my opened backpack a couple of days ago. Not the first time it fell, once I even stepped on it - but after the last drop the display has some problems and i have to push on a certain point to get it working, which made me put it to it's well deserved retirement.[*] In need of an quick alternative I bought a Dell XPS 13 9343. I like this a lot - it has a way nicer display, the form factor is just great for my needs, build quality is good and even the keyboard feels right (missing a trackpoint tho). Unfortunately it supports Microsoft's "Modern Standy", which is a fancy name for s2idle - which just doesn't work using Linux, at least I couldn't get it to work . When in s2idle it looses power and does not reliably wake up, in s3 it goes to sleep but needs a hard reset to wake up. Waiting for my t470s now, as far as I know the latest Thinkpad generation stat supports classic s3 sleep. *: Actually it lives on as a small NAS/Homeserver. It even packs three disks (M2 SSD, HDD in the HDD slot and an Ultrabay-HDD adpter).
- paulmd 5y ago
  haha, a number of years ago I stepped on my W510. It fell out of bed and under the covers without me noticing, it fell screen down and I stepped right on the display flat against the floor. I didn't put my full weight on it before I realized it was there, but I figured it was toast anyway, surprisingly it was fine! I really miss the Ultrabay as well. I did the same thing, used to use it for a second HDD for extra storage. Really though I miss the old old days when you could get an ultrabay battery. What do I need in a laptop more than storage? Battery life. I had a Fujitsu Lifebook which had an "ultrabay" (their version of it, at least) and that was the feature I used most for it. It seemed to disappear all at once, I wonder if it was FAA regulations around flying with batteries that killed it or what.
  - petschge 5y ago
    I have a X1 Carbon that is a few years old now.A couple of years ago I dropped it (lid closed) from about 2 feet up (70cm). And it hit the tiled floor, pointy corner first. I thought "welp here go $2000". But no! A 2x3 mm part of the black surface finish chipped of and I see the bare silvery metal now. Oh and the tile cracked.
  - zwog 5y ago
    > Really though I miss the old old days when you could get an ultrabay battery. What do I need in a laptop more than storage? Battery life. I had a Fujitsu Lifebook which had an "ultrabay" (their version of it, at least) and that was the feature I used most for it. Well, nowadays you can get a power bank with Power Delivery and charge your laptop via USB-C port
    - paulmd 5y ago
      It’s a nice idea on paper, but I don’t think there are many power banks that support 100W+ discharge. Moreover, that’s a relatively recent technology and there was a good decade (or more) between the point when bay batteries disappeared and usb-c charging became any sort of commonplace occurrence outside Apple products.
  - 5y ago
boneitis 5y ago
I had to upgrade my i7 T420s with maxed out memory and solid state, because work video calls brought it to its knees, and it couldn't push 60 frame videos in the browser. I had to use streamlink for practically all live video consumption. (Linux Mint) Don't get me wrong; I'm proud of how far I stretched it (and it remains a respectable machine for what it is), but I just want to put this out there if anyone's thinking of trying to dump heavy modern web processing on the T420/T420s dinosaurs.

jacquesm 5y ago

Do your homework before ordering that battery, there is a ton of trash out there that is unsafe to use. Make sure there are quality cells in there (Samsung, Sanyo, LG) and that the original BMS is in there with all of the protections enabled. This is not something you want to take any chances with, and aftermarket counterfeit batteries with incredibly dangerous guts abound.

ho_schi 5y ago
If the manufacturers only provide batteries for at least ten years, don't lock it with dongle chips and provide specification requirements for third parties. Well. Lenovo doesn't sell new batteries after fives years, uses dongle and doesn't provide any specs for third party manufacturers. It is not possible to get an battery for X220/230, T420/T430 which is manufactured after 2017. At least I don't get anyone but Lenovo prints on the label "2020" :angrysmilie:
- jacquesm 5y ago
  I've successfully refurbished batteries for items that were no longer supported, it's a bit of work but doable and dirt cheap ($5 / cell, and about an hour of work).
  - metters 5y ago
    How do you refurbish batteries? I mean, you are not only cleaning the outside, are you?
    - jacquesm 5y ago
      You open them up, carefully document how they are put together, remove the cells, put new cells in and then put the whole thing back together. I've done this now for laptops, cameras, a couple of drills and a vacuum cleaner and they all work 'better than new' because the new cells have far more capacity than the cells that were in there originally.

dotancohen 5y ago

> Yoga, which it still trounces in terms of keyboard ergonomics As you seem to care about the keyboard, beware the T-14 laptops now. The keyboard looks like any other ThinkPad keyboard, but it is beyond cheap. The plastic feels paper thin, the keypresses are stiff then bottom out suddenly, and the keycaps wobble. I've seen better keyboards on Asus laptops.