Retro computing - review of the Lenovo Thinkpad X201

Lenovo Thinkpad X201

A blast from the past, a machine that has been in active service for staggering 12 years and still rocking is certainly worth reviewing of. It is a 2010 fine specimen of the ultra-portable X-series line, which traces its roots back to the year 2000. when IBM introduced the X20. Thinkpads need no introduction, as they are iconic machines that set standard some 30 years ago, as a complete desktop-replacement solution which was able to mimic the look and feel, as well as performance, of a classic desktop PC - which was unheard for the era.

Overview

This particular model was introduced in 2010 (see initial review here). It originally sported a mobile version of the first i5 generation, coupled with a 4 GB RAM and usual suspects like radio module (Bluetooth 2.1 and a WiFi 4 a/g/n adapter). It has a 3G module as well, which was an optional feature. Surprisingly enough, it has a modem (trully blast from the past!)

The initial asking price in Europe was 1500-1800 EUR (depending on the configuration) which was a lot of the money back then, especially considering its form-factor. The 15.6” top-of-the-line Dells and Toshibas were sold for equal or less amount.

I bought it refurbished in 2014 At the time I just discarded my old Thinkpad T60 (which was legend itself back in the time) and needed something newer - dual-core hyperthreading CPU was fine. The X201 came with a preinstalled Windows 7, 160 GB HDD, and a wiggly radio adapter which soon stopped working.

As I recall, the BIOS came locked-out, meaning I could enter it and see the configuration, and at most, change boot-order, but everything else was inaccessible. Which meant no WAN card swaps. I tried to flash BIOS that accepted unlisted WAN cards (Lenovo locked-out unapproved adapters), but that never worked properly. Then I installed small mPCIe to USB adapter and hooked an USB WiFi adapter with a detachable antenna, which worked fine for a couple of years but that died as well. From that point on, I used external USB WiFi adapters and wired connection.

As Windows 7 was relatively snappy with 4 GB RAM, the significant limiting factor was a spinning hard drive. Somewhere around 2016 I upgraded it with a SSD, which brought new life into this small machine. Although X201 supports only SATA II interface (max. 3 GB/s), the performance gain is vastly improved due to much shorter random seek-time in comparison to mechanical disk.

Windows 7 functioned really fine, especially when I maxed-out the RAM to 8 GB, adding one additional 4 GB module. As Microsoft ended long-term support for Windows 7 in January 2020, I could either switch to Linux, or try to install and use Windows 10.

At that moment I was still Windows-oriented, and have had not fully explored alternatives to it, so I was keen enough and installed Windows 10 on the machine, which was 10 years old at the time. After 6 months, this showed to be a mistake, as Windows 10 hogged up laptop’s resources especially with its frequent updates and fixes. During that time, I found alternatives to mostly all the software I use and switched to Linux.

After trying a couple distros, I finally settled on a Linux Mint. Less demanding MATE desktop environment runs really fine; in comparison to Windows 10 it flies. It is continuously updated hence the machine can be used online (but the update process is much more smooth, simpler and faster in comparison to the Windows 10); it is snappy and feels happy with the 8 GB RAM and it heats up the case way less than Windows 10. So, even after 12 years, the machine can still be used in a productive manner which is awesome and it justifies the high initial investment.

Pros

1. Build quality and design

   Although being small, this is the classic Thinkpad: a bit uninspiringly-looking to some but very sturdy. It does not bend, does not squeal, if water is spilled on the keyboard, it is drained without side-effects. The case is made of magnesium alloys and the inner side of screen is of plastics that can bend but not much. Thinkpads were never flashy machines, they signify functionality, usability and practicality over attentive showiness.

2. Keyboard and touchpoint

   The keyboard is the famous 7-row classic Thinkpad one: it is considered the best in the business. Sadly, Lenovo switched it later to chicklet-style starting from X230 onwards (which does have some advantages) and the position of the keys from that model onwards no longer resembles the classic PC keyboard’s look. Here, you can be in full control just by touching the group of keys and sensing the particular key or group (without looking down) as for instance Insert, Delete, Home, End, PgUp and PgDown are separated (rather than in-line integrated). The big Enter button (not halved-one)is really an enjoyment to use as well. The touchpoint enables spotless movement of the mouse cursor and the user has the two groups of mouse keys to its disposal, which taken together with the touchpad brings outstanding control options. The feedback from the keyboard’s keys is great: one just needs to try typing on any newer laptop and then compare the experience. Thinklight keyboard backlight lights-up the keyboard, enabling typing in the dark conditions.

3. Battery life

   This particular model has a heavy 9-cell non-original, replacement battery which was purchased 5 years ago. The battery life ranged from 8-ish hours when it was new, it degraded pretty fast since then though, so it currently gives around 2 hours of life. Additional point with the 9-cell battery which protrudes on the back side is the feat that the user can hold the laptop with one hand safely (even inverted). Smaller and lighter variants of the battery (4 and 6-cell) were also available.

4. Upgradable

   Just like an ordinary desktop PC, this line of laptops was made upgradable. I think that the CPU itself is not soldered on this particular model; in addition, the memory slots are easily accessible; user can replace a hard-disk as well and add other devices through the PCMCIA/aforementioned mPCIe/memory card slot, as well as through ordinary USB ports. A docking station called Ultrabase adds plethora of ports including Display Port, 4 USBs and CD/DVD unit which essentially transforms this tiny laptop into the fully-fledged PC.

Cons

1. Screen

   The only significant downside to this machine is the very faint and incapable display. The resolution is passable for the time; however the brightness and the viewing angles are really bad and the color representation is not inspiring to say at least. This was not the laptop for the image/video editing. The screen could be upgraded to IPS which solved much of those problems, but it didn’t provide higher resolution.

2. No HDMI or Display Port

3. Thick and heavy for today’s standards

4. Multimedia features are weak

   Speakers, microphone and web-cam were mediocre even back in the 2010. They are usable, but the engineers’ focus was obviously elsewhere.

Conclusion

This ancient machine has won many computing battles and earned my stripes through reliable, hassle-free, consistent functioning over the 8 years in my possesion. Thanks to Linux, it is still a viable machine for most of my use-cases and I intend to use it for a foreseeable future. Hats off to classic Thinkpads!