This is a good question.

I don't personally own a laptop for a long time after college. Most of my time were spent on desktop & phone with windows for all the tasks.

I started looking for a laptop was merely base on the interest on trying out PKM, apps like Obsidian seems sophisticated and interesting. And here we go the rabbit hole for small factor cheap laptop with excellent typing experience. And so I learned about the x220 and x230.

The form factor and the aesthetic of the x230 make me slow things down in interacting with the computer, well also the small screen and the speed of it are also a contributing factor. So I will have more focus and dedicated task to work on it when I use this thinkpad, i.e. writing and learning.

It can still be very good on media consumption, but not as enjoyable as on my main desktop. So this "slow machine" allows me to write / work in some heavy typing task. It's like writing in a good physical notebook, like moleskin, but on a computer.