The Laptop computer That Received’t Die. My $200, 12-year-old Thinkpad has… | by Clive Thompson | Nov, 2023
My $200, 12-year-old Thinkpad has outlasted two high-end Macbooks
That laptop computer above?
It’s essentially the most indestructible, nonstop, received’t-die pc I’ve ever owned.
Full. Cease.
I’m going to jot down a complete rattling publish about it however the tl;dr is …
If you would like a contemporary, horny, light-weight, high-powered laptop computer? Go get one thing expensive from Apple or Microsoft.
However if you would like one thing that’ll price virtually no cash and maintain working till the solar explodes?
Get an outdated, used Thinkpad.
Enable me to unpack this …
My {hardware} story begins per week in the past after I was engaged on my Macbook Professional.
It’s my most important laptop computer, which I purchased in 2017. I wanted a machine {that a}) may run Logic Professional (the best music-editing software program accessible to humanity), b) had a high-resolution display screen for my awful eyesight, and c) had a 1-terabyte arduous drive. It was the one machine that match the invoice.
It was tremendous costly, however my objective with laptops is to purchase one thing with sufficiently wonderful build-quality that it’ll final for years. I additionally hate e-waste, so I attempt to repair my laptops to maintain them going so long as I can. I purchased my first-ever Macbook Professional in 2010, and I received seven years out of it — together with changing a fried motherboard (fortunately simply earlier than the three-year guarantee ended, so: It was coated! Woo)
This newer, 2017 Macbook Professional? I’d additionally had it fastened a number of occasions earlier than. It had gotten water injury in an accident, which required some inner work. I’d had the loathsomely awful “butterfly” keyboard replaced when it died. I’d changed the battery twice.
However after six years, it was nonetheless chugging alongside!
Till final week, when out of nowhere it went kaput.
I used to be engaged on the Macbook, and closed the lid to have lunch. Once I opened it once more quarter-hour later, the machine had shut down. Nothing I did may coax it again to life.
So I jumped on my bike and introduced it to an area laptop computer restore place. A number of hours later, the technician texted me to elucidate what had gone kablooey. Apparently there was {an electrical}…