Could they please Cooper are with Framework and create Universal Joints?
Lenovo’s New ThinkPads Score 10/10 for Repairability— Repair goes mega mainstream with the launch of Lenovo's new T-series laptops
Submitted 6 hours ago by Beep@lemmus.org to technology@lemmy.world
https://www.ifixit.com/News/115827/new-thinkpads-score-perfect-10-repairability
Comments
derAbsender@piefed.social 23 minutes ago
HCSOThrowaway@lemmy.world 1 minute ago
At a guess, such cooperation would undermine Lenovo’s profit margin and would thus be a non-starter for them.
Enter government regulation, to pinch corporations by the ear and drag them to doing what’s right for society.
pr06lefs@lemmy.ml 3 hours ago
Just a lil nitpick: article is by iFixit who is a Lenovo business partner. So perhaps less objective than one might hope.
BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
It seems to me that Lenovo’s repairably is more affected by that iFixit partnership than the opposite. I don’t see anything factually wrong or suspicious in the article.
Viceversa@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
Nevertheless, a conflict of interests is possible.
Alwaysnownevernotme@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
As someone who has changed a laptop keyboard before.
That picture says it all.
lobut@lemmy.ca 2 hours ago
I use iFixit’s guides all the time, so I would hope that their score isn’t affected by it. I’ve seen them as being fairly good at their role.
ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml 1 hour ago
This is true, but they’re also not wrong that fully-modular USB-C ports is an absolutely huge win. It’s one of the biggest things when it comes to laptops these days.
jjlinux@lemmy.zip 1 hour ago
It’s unlikely that fact will change the repairability of the devices. They risk too much by posting biased and false information on that end.
Darkcoffee@sh.itjust.works 5 hours ago
Lenovo also owns the Motorola phone brand, and they’re going to adopt/allow GrapheneOS. I think they know how to grab customers right now, and I honestly like it.
artyom@piefed.social 5 hours ago
They’re usually also well supported on Linux, and even sell them with Ubuntu pre-installed. Generally not a terrible brand.
idiomaddict@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
Is that a good idea for a non tech person* with no Linux experience who absolutely needs to send documents successfully to others the first time without delay or should I just wait until my degree is finished and I am less dependent on document interoperability and have fewer absolute deadlines?
- My level of technical knowledge is here: if a program or usb device isn’t functioning, I know to check the driver, but I always have to look up what the device manager is called. On the other hand, I am capable of looking things up and following simple instructions, which has to count for something.
currycourier@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
Didn’t they have some huge controversy for having spyware pre-installed or something like that a few years ago? Doesn’t take away from the direction they’re moving in now, though! Hopefully they continue to move in this more pro-consumer direction.
helpImTrappedOnline@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
They were also the first OEM to support steam deck on their handheld (beside Valve).
fubarx@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
There’s a difference between ‘repairable’ and ‘upgradable.’ Most of the comments seem to conflate the two. Lenovo isn’t doing a Framework.
It’s a smart move. Differentiates them from other laptop-makers for corporate IT, who can do the parts swaps themselves. Also smart is associating the brand with iFixit and working to get a 10/10. That’ll be what sets them apart from all the others, at least for the next year or two.
brucethemoose@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
The “upgradability” part in a small laptop is questionable to me, anyway.
The GPU is really compromised in that chassis, as having it in a slot compromises cooling big time, and limits how much power it can use. And while I love upgradable RAM for the CPU… it’d be better if they used faster CAMM modules. Many other brands have upgradable SSDs/WiFi.
Swappable ports are awesome, no question.
tempest@lemmy.ca 2 hours ago
A think pad t series is not really much harder to take apart than a framework. Just more screws and fewer magnets. The screen is probably an exception however.
hereiamagain@sh.itjust.works 1 hour ago
That’s his point. It’s similar to framework, but not the same.
Easy repairability is great, truly.
But framework offers more than that, easy repairability AND upgradability, because they offer new upgraded parts with the same compatibility as the old ones, so you can just drop them in.
Lenovo is not yet doing that. Which is fine. Just a noteworthy difference.
ulterno@programming.dev 32 minutes ago
Schematics or die
brie_cheese@piefed.ca 2 hours ago
I’ve been a ThinkPad user for about 4 years now, got a second-hand T470s running Fedora. It’s been an amazing experience! I’m not one for brand loyalty, but (so long as Lenovo doesn’t fuck them up) ThinkPads will always be my first choice for a laptop.
CrabAndBroom@lemmy.ml 46 minutes ago
Yeah I like Lenovo in general too! I have an Ideapad rather than a Thinkpad, but this is my second Lenovo and they’ve both lasted for ages, never had any weird problems, played nice with Linux etc.
avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 6 hours ago
Ooh yes baby! As an early Framework adopter who’s repaired it already a few times, including a solder job on the board, I am happy to see it. I am getting increasingly angsty about where Framework would go in the future as its VCs crank up the profit knob. Having the biggest real manufacturer in the world introduce an alternative is fantastic. With that said, it also depends on Lenovo actually making parts direct-for-purchase available at decent prices. Without that, repairability serves just as marketing wank.
Tywele@piefed.social 4 hours ago
An advantage that Framework still has is their upgradeability.
avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 58 minutes ago
Fact. But to be honest, the strenght of the body of the Framework is pretty weak. Drops and more pressure result in permanent bending. I’ve already replaced one bottom.
ATS1312@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 hours ago
avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 59 minutes ago
I thought they went away from it for their latest gens.
errer@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
What’s the price of this compared to a comparable (feature-wise) laptop? Just curious what the repairability premium is.
Nollij@sopuli.xyz 16 minutes ago
First, you have to define “comparable”. These are Enterprise-grade laptops. Their class includes the Dell Latitude and HP Elitebook. It doesn’t include anything you will ever find at Best Buy. It might be tempting to do so, since your visible specs like CPU and RAM are the same. But they really aren’t the same.
Within their class, Lenovo has (for over a decade) been noticeably more expensive than their counterparts. Roughly $100-150 more per unit for the T4x0/T14 vs a Latitude 74x0 (now Dell Pro) or an Elitebook 840.
Current prices are: HP Elitebook 8 G1i 14 - Core Ultra 5 236v, 16GB/512GB, $1249
Dell Pro 14 - Core Ultra 5 236v, 16GB/512GB, $1659
Lenovo Thinkpad T14 Gen 6 - Core Ultra 235u, 16GB/512GB, $1809.
All have integrated graphics.
I don’t think the detailed specs/pricing for Gen7 (what the article is about) has been announced yet. I would expect it to be in line with previous generations, since their 9/10 repairability score was.
cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de 6 hours ago
That’s nice you can replace the charging port without reflowing the motherboard now.
normanwall@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
Our business stopped buying them completely after they fucked us around with the USBC port burnouts and didn’t acknowledge it, I know it’s not a huge amount but they will lose hundreds of thousands of dollars of sales from us
So many laptops just wasted before they patched it
FireWire400@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
Ripper job on Lenovo’s part; I’d give them flack for using LPCAMM2 instead of DDR but honestly, it is ultimately the better choice for laptops and it’s totally cool to see it instead of soldered RAM.
Ideally they’d bring back the old keyboard layout based on the T25, but that’s more or less nitpicking at this point.
My personal problem are the speakers; although ever since getting my hands on an M1 Pro MacBook I’m kinda spoiled in that regard.
artyom@piefed.social 5 hours ago
I’d give them flack for using LPCAMM2
Why would you do that?
FireWire400@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
Because it’s a new-ish standard that few manufacturers use (I’m only aware of Dell and Lenovo using it) and thus, it could be harder and more expensive to replace them than normal DDR5 sticks (although those are expensive right now as well so eh.
But ultimately, they offer more benefits than drawbacks.
sic_semper_tyrannis@lemmy.today 3 hours ago
I was wondering what they meant when talking about the WiFi chip. Is it replaceable but just annoying to get to or is it soldered to the board? I thought typically WiFi chips tended to be one of the few replaceable parts.
FireWire400@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
It is soldered to the board
ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
Return of socketed mobile CPUs when?
yogurtwrong@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
Won’t laptop manufacturers need to get CPU manufacturers to produce socketed mobile CPUs again?
I don’t think that would be very profitable. Spending lots of money negotiating with the CPU company just for a very small fraction of customers.
ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
Should most electronics come with no servicability at all, because most customers are not gorillas breaking products for no good reason?
The road to enshittification is paved with people telling you to just use the popular thing everyone else, calling removable media “e-waste”, or even suggesting you to just buy a pair of Raycons if you don’t want to pay for electrostatic headphones and an audiophile external DAC.
Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
I wonder if this will suit up the “they don’t make them like they used to” crowd.
unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de 6 hours ago
Well they dont lol, they are super flimsy these days and most stuff is soldered on. Its good if this turns out to be the start of the return to good thinkpads, but i wouldnt get my hopes up yet.
Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
What exactly is soldered on that shouldn’t be? If you want a processor that’s user replaceable, you should just get a PC. If RAM SSD and the ports are user replaceable, that sounds pretty good to me.
artyom@piefed.social 5 hours ago
Not until everyone starts doing it. This used to be the norm.
UxyIVrljPeRl@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
I allready hate it. Just from looking at the pictures. Give me full size lan, i dont wabt my thinkpad wipping while typing, just so its 0.2cm thinner
Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
It says full size rj45?
osaerisxero@kbin.melroy.org 5 hours ago
I can't speak to previous versions of the hinge port, but as a network engineer who is constantly using it I've had no complaints with the one from my 2024 model.
JayGray91@piefed.social 6 hours ago
Now if I can buy it cheaper empty without microslop spyware installed on it, that would be great
ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 hours ago
frunch@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
Well i didn’t have “Year of the Linux Laptop” on my 2026 bingo card! That’s awesome!!
JayGray91@piefed.social 1 hour ago
Nice. Well actually I know that they offer linux preinstall when I occasionally look at their sales on their regional site time to time. It’s good to see affirmation that they will continue to offer no winslop option.
cabbage@piefed.social 1 hour ago
In six years I have burnt through two Lenovo ThinkPads. In the first the USB C charging port malfunctioned, and it turns out the charging port is soldered directly to the motherboard so they had to replace the whole thing. Ever since I got it back from repairs it enters into kernel panics all the time, no matter which distro I install.
I was in the middle of writing my thesis so I had no time for repairs when it broke, so I ordered mysef a new ThinkPad. I had to choose between pre-assembled models, and I wanted a high resolution display, a good processor, and some other things. I got one with not quite as much RAM as I really needed, and found out when I wanted to upgrade that they had rendered upgrading RAM completely impossible in that model of ThinkPad. It wasn’t even one of the new slim ones, but a traditional bulky one. Complete bullshit.
Both of these laptops are recent enough that had they not sucked I would still be using them years from now. I’m happy Lenovo appear to be changing their ways, but I wouldn’t touch another ThinkPad with a stick after my experiences with them.
Currently I’m using a Framework 13. Hopefully it’ll last me decades.
ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 1 hour ago
They make them that way so ram could eventually go in?
Vlyn@lemmy.zip 2 hours ago
I’ll never buy a ThinkPad again after the T16 Gen 1 that I have at work. That thing was overheating from day one, absolutely terrible for a 3000€ business laptop.
Besides Lenovo’s shitty BIOS issues (which they have tried to fix about five times in the last 3 years), sometimes boot-up still takes a minute to get past the Lenovo logo.
I don’t even have a lemon or anything, several coworkers have also complained about the same issues. One got so angry he smacked the laptop a few times on his table out of frustration (no actual damage) and forced IT to give him a different more powerful model with better cooling.
cabbage@piefed.social 1 hour ago
My most recent ThinkPad also overheated an insane amount at whatever use I could put it through, and the fan was constantly running full speed. It was like that from day one, and there was no dust or anything, it was just a terrible machine.
Vlyn@lemmy.zip 1 hour ago
Yeah, the fan control was a mess too, like you clicked the mouse once and that stupid thing randomly ramped up, then immediately ramped down again. Any time you actually used the CPU it overheated anyway.
I’m actually switching to a desktop PC now at work, that’s how sick I got of this laptop (:
jaschen306@sh.itjust.works 4 hours ago
In the early 2000s, my longest lasting laptop was an IBM T14. I replaced the battery twice and increased the memory. I retired it right before the pandemic. It lasted over 15 years.
I replaced it with another Lenovo T14. Great keyboards and comes with Fedora workstation or Ubuntu out of the box.
HyperfocusSurfer@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 hours ago
Noice. Would also be wonderful if they stopped pouring a shit ton of that nasty black underfill under the bga chips and used some regular red/clear compound around the corners instead like literally everyone else.
BlackLaZoR@lemmy.world 3 minutes ago
They got scared by Framework sucess