All Linux Things

I have been thinking of replacing my Thinkpad X220. I am fond of that form factor, but am at something of a loss to know what would make a suitable replacement. I have always used Thinkpads for laptops. A new motherboard would fix the X220, but they are close to same price as the whole laptop, and probably not worth it. I dream of an X1 Carbon, but the budget just is not there.

I was thinking perhaps an X230 or 240, but I am really open to suggestions.

bill

X230 uses a mini displayport rather than a standard one with the x220. It requires a particular chip on the battery as where the x220 can use a variety of batteries. X230 has a chicklet keyboard vs the classic keyboard with the x220. Processor is faster and graphics are better with the x230 but x220s can be had for under $100, under $75 in some cases in excellent shape.

So for other laptops in more or less the same design, the Dell Latitude e7250 can be had under $200. Doesn't convert to tablet, but same design otherwise. It's a nice mahcine, with newer processor (Broadwell) than a x220 or x230, and the processor is more efficient than the Haswell that's in the X240 (although the larger battery and lower resolution LCD in the X240 offset that). It's also a 1080P device (if you can tolerate lower resolution then the e5250 can be found cheaper and overall has mostly the same specs other than 80% made being garbage 1366x768 TN panels (strangely my e5250 was one of the rare 1080P non-touch screens, apparently VERY few sold like that)). The Thinkpads have a slightly better build quality, but the Dells aren't bad (magnesium frame and carbon panels) and are cheaper, and usually a bit lighter for the same level of performance. And for me, the big decider is the Dell's were all available as 1080P LCD's, the Thinkpads didn't have it as an option even until the x240, and then it was only 1/4 LCD's avaialble on the model were FHD/1080P.

The 7350 is a 2-in-1 device similar to the X2x0 (detachable, not convertible), although it is a little larger. I've never OWNED one to say for sure if they're that good, however, it could be something to look at.

Thank you for your suggestions. I look through a lot of different laptops. In the end I decided to just repair my X220 and purchased a used motherboard on eBay. That is always something of a crapshoot, but it was cheap enough. Thanks again and have a nice day.

bill

If the motherboard was cheap, I can't blame you. While the X220 is older, it's not so old as to no longer be a viable machine, especially if it's been upgraded to the max ram that it can take and has an SSD.

Most of my laptops, the motherboard costs more than the laptop and I end up just buying another usually for under $50. Case in point my Dell E6400/6420s.

The replacement motherboard came at the end of last week and I got around to replacing it today. It was not hard, but it is not trivial either. The motherboard had a very old BIOS and it took about as long to locate the update CD I had made as it did to replace the motherboard.

The motherboard was replaced because it had experienced total failure of power management and it is somewhat ironical that the last OS I had installed was Haiku and Haiku does not have any power management features enabled. So as of right now the laptop is working fine, but I still have no idea if the effort fixed the power management problems.

Thanks again for the suggestions
bill

Thats really odd as Ive never had a laptop where the power management features didnt work. Ive had laptops where the bios create power management issues and updating or using alternative bios solve the issue.

I've had it happen before on machines at work. It's failed sensors, usually indirectly caused by failing capacitors (which, to be fair, what on motherboards that goes wrong other than the CMOS battery ISN'T caused by failing caps?).

Spent many a day replacing caps on mobos.