Laptops
In Use
From most to least recently added.
Work Laptop: Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen6 (leros)
- Model 21QYS0BV00
- Screen: 14" 1920×1200 (162 DPI)
- CPU: Intel Core Ultra 7 258V “Lunar Lake” (8 / 17 / 37 W TDP)
- GPU: Intel Arc 140V
- RAM: 32 GiB (2× 16 GiB 8533 MHz LPDDR5x)
- Storage: 4 TB Samsung SSD 990 Pro (NVMe)
- OS: Debian Sid
In use since July 2025. I had heard lots of talk about degrading hardware and firmware quality in Lenovo laptops, so I was a bit sceptical at first. So far, I have not run into any of those, and the machine is working just fine.
Coming from an eight year old X270 laptop, I really appreciate the improvements in information technology since then. Single-threaded LaTeX compilation is about twice as fast, and the laptop is running much cooler. Of course, battery runtime is also pretty good, easily lasting for an entire work day with plenty to spare.
Lenovo ThinkPad X270 (vatos / fragment)
- Model 20HMS00T00
- Screen: 12.5" 1920×1080 (176 DPI)
- CPU: Intel Core i5-7200U “Kaby Lake” @ 2.5 GHz (15 W TDP, 3.1 GHz boost)
- GPU: Intel HD Graphics 620
- RAM: 16 GiB (1× 16 GiB 2133MHz DDR4 SODIMM)
- Storage: 1 TB WD Blue SSD (m.2 SATA)
- OS: Debian Sid
A former (and long since written off) work laptop that fell into my hands in late 2025, having been used for research and teaching from mid 2017 to mid 2025. In hindsight, the acquisition of seclusion was kind of redundant due to fragment's slightly better specs. At least I can dual-wield X270s now.
Lenovo ThinkPad X270 (seclusion)
- Model 20K5S5Q502
- Screen: 12.5" 1920×1080 (176 DPI)
- CPU: Intel Core i5-6300U @ 2.4 GHz (15 W TDP, 3.0 GHz boost)
- GPU: Intel HD Graphics 520
- RAM: 16 GiB (1× 16 GiB 2133MHz DDR4 SODIMM)
- Storage: 2 TB Samsung SSD 990 Pro (NVMe)
- OS: Debian Sid
This one is a former leasing device; I bought it in early 2025 for about 150€ and upgraded its NVMe SSD to 2 TB. It's become my daily driver next to illusion, depending on whether I deem a ThinkLight or a high DPI screen more important.
Lenovo ThinkPad T470s (momentum)
- Model 20HGS0A600
- Screen: 14" 2560×1440 (210 DPI)
- CPU: Intel Core i7-7500 @ 2.7 GHz (15 W TDP, 3.5 GHz boost)
- GPU: Intel HD Graphics 620
- RAM: 16 GiB (2× 8 GiB 2133 MHz DDR4 SODIMM)
- Storage: 2 TB Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus (NVMe)
- OS: Debian Sid
Successor to illusion, used from 2017 to late 2024; since then only occasionally and preferably not on battery power.
Unfortunately, Lenovo built the T470s with two internal batteries, and Linux always first discharges one of them to near-empty and then the other one. As the batteries aged, this would cause the laptop to shut off at about 50% total battery capacity because one of the batteries was already near-empty and no longer able to supply sufficient power, likely due to increased internal resistance of its cells. I tried replacing them with no-name clones from ebay, but that did not work out too well – they lasted for about half a year before the first one turned into a spicy pillow, and I don't trust any of them since. It is now back to its deteriotated original batteries, and manages 30 to 60 minutes of battery runtime on a good day.
The screen has amassed quite a bunch of (mostly green) stuck pixel, which are surprisingly subtle on a high-DPI panel such as this one. As keyboard and touchpad were also starting to fall apart and suffer from occasional bouts of unreliability, it is now mostly sitting in a quiet corner, waiting to maybe be resurrected as part of a docking station and/or server setup.
Lenovo ThinkPad X230 (illusion)
- Model 2325CN3
- Screen: 12.5" 1366×768 (125 DPI)
- CPU: Intel Core i5-3320M @ 2.6 GHz (35 W TDP, 3.3 GHz boost)
- GPU: Intel HD Graphics 4000
- RAM: 16 GiB (2× 8 GiB 1333MHz DDR3 SODIMM)
- Storage: 1TB Samsung SSD 870 (SATA)
- OS: Debian Sid
Still doing fine, despite being more than a decade old. I used it from 2013 to 2017 as a successor to descent, then lent it to someone else for a few years, and am now using it again as a replacement for momentum since late 2024. All it needed was a RAM upgrade (original configuration: 4GiB) and an SSD upgrade (original configuration: 500GB HDD).
Thanks to a sketchy (and not at all spec-compliant) DIY USB-C to ThinkPad barrel plug adapter, it can be powered from most USB-C power supplies and power banks. The adapter simply negotiates 20V and then passes everything on to the barrel plug. This turned out to be not too great of an idea – the adapter just draws up to 3.25A at 20V even if the supply does not advertise it, and it looks like it bricked a multi-port USB-C supply that needs to dynamically re-allocate maximum power between different consumers. It's probably best to only use it with single-port supplies, or not at all.
Attic
From most to least recently discarded.
Asus EeePC 1000HE (descent)
- Screen: 10.1" 1024×600 (118 DPI)
- CPU: Intel Atom N280 @ 1.66 GHz (2.5W TDP)
- RAM: 2 GiB
- Storage: 160 GB HDD
- OS: Debian Sid
Successor to nemesis, used from 2009 to 2013. This cute (and surprisingly sturdy!) little device accompanied me basically everywhere. I really liked its small form factor and the fact that it used its keyboard as a heat sink, meaning that you'd never get cold fingers in the winter months. However, at some point, I really needed something slightly bigger and more powerful to accompany me through university.
IBM ThinkPad T40 (nemesis)
- Screen: 14" 1024×768 (91 DPI)
- CPU: Intel Pentium M @ 1.5 GHz
- RAM: 512 MiB
- Storage: 250 GB HDD
- OS: Debian Sid
My very first own laptop, bought second-hand. Unfortunately, it suffered from the infamous “flexing” issue, and after a few repairs there was no point in trying anymore. So in the end, I only used it from 2007 to 2009. Still, it accompanied me to my very first hackerspace visits and CCC events, and I have fond memories of its 4:3 screen ratio.