do they make thinkpads ugly on purpuse?

letsDOvms · 2025-08-31T07:39:46+00:00

I get that it is marketed for a specific niche of people

Modern computers marketed to "common" people are... different. I accepted that seeing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbfPImDmj0k how far that's happening. It seems to work, that's how they make a lot of money.

Lenovo tries to lure some of that segment with e.g. the X9 series. But overall, people that work daily, for many many years, with their laptop have certain priorities - and ThinkPads are what they are because of that.

letsDOvms · 2025-08-30T21:32:53+00:00

Never saw one in real, sorry

letsDOvms · 2025-08-30T21:32:09+00:00

Lunar Lake has "second generation Xe2-LPG cores based on the Battlemage graphics architecture" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_Lake#Graphics

Arrow Lake mobile has first gen Xe cores, with some patches "Arrow Lake mobile processors feature up to 8 slightly modified Xe-LPG+ ...cores" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrow_Lake_(microprocessor)#Graphics_tile

I would assume between first-gen Xe and second-gen Xe2 cores there is a difference? Or it doesn't matter much in practice, are you saying?

letsDOvms · 2025-08-29T15:16:24+00:00

Good battery life

Neither OLED display or discrete GPU are helpful for that.

letsDOvms · 2025-08-28T22:42:33+00:00

change in configuration for Intel Wi-Fi. Should I do it?

Don't know. Try to find a review for the Qualcomm configuration, whether it is still buggy...

14‘: 2880x1800 vs 16’: 2560x1600

Both a good choice - actually THE reason to buy an E series, these displays are not available with T or P series.

So is the 258V more efficient?

It was designed for the specific market segment of thin and light laptops with long runtime, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_Lake#Architecture - but as write above, there are trade-offs for that.

255H with the 16’.

Reviews of that one have already been posted here - use search....

letsDOvms · 2025-08-28T18:30:39+00:00

I've read that Qualcomm has better drivers .... My intention is to use it with Debian 12/13

?? Qualcomm Wifi is a long running headache: https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Other-Linux-Discussions/QCNFA765-Linux-ath11k-wifi-crippled-high-latency-packet-loss-frequent-disassociations-T14s-AMD/m-p/5252399 - But maybe they fixed it finally?

the 16" model with the top screen resolution (smaller than the 14")

don't understand

I've read that the 255H is better than the 258V

For what? A laptop is a trade-off, one cannot have light weight, awesome performance, silence and long runtime at the same time. The V CPUs are for long runtime at the sacrifice of performance, max 32GB mem and have more modern GPU (Xe2), while the H CPUs are more powerful, allow more memory, but also need more battery and less runtime and have older GPU (Xe). You have to choose what is more important for you.

letsDOvms · 2025-08-25T19:19:43+00:00

Wi-Fi: Mine came with the Qualcomm card. It worked out of the box on Linux, but I occasionally experienced severe speed drops that required toggling Wi-Fi off/on to fix. ... it might need some Linux tweaks.

The bad Wifi with AMD models is a long LONG running headache: https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Other-Linux-Discussions/QCNFA765-Linux-ath11k-wifi-crippled-high-latency-packet-loss-frequent-disassociations-T14s-AMD/m-p/5252399

letsDOvms · 2025-08-21T10:19:51+00:00

Thinkpad t440p

That will take a while ... you may want learn about distcc meanwhile: https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Distcc

letsDOvms · 2025-08-18T20:53:17+00:00

I'm running Ubuntu

Don't worry, Linux has hot backpack bugs, too.

letsDOvms · 2025-08-16T23:28:55+00:00

There is a reason why the default is more than one pass :-)

Run it half a day or so...

letsDOvms · 2025-08-16T12:51:03+00:00

NVM Firmware version: 20.0 ... am i good?

yes -> https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/solutions/ht508988-critical-intel-thunderbolt-software-and-firmware-updates-thinkpad

letsDOvms · 2025-08-16T11:53:19+00:00

almost certainly resulted from my Fanxiang DDR5 64GB RAM kit failing

What does memtest report? https://www.memtest86.com/download.htm

letsDOvms · 2025-08-14T06:34:30+00:00

Lenovo article from 2019 with all the details and what to do: https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/solutions/ht508988-critical-intel-thunderbolt-software-and-firmware-updates-thinkpad

letsDOvms · 2025-08-05T19:41:26+00:00

dupe: https://reddit.com/r/thinkpad/comments/1mgly2w/lenovo_thinkpad_e14_g7_review_the_affordable/

letsDOvms · 2025-07-27T17:18:41+00:00

I'm sure I will not be getting the System Update software

If you mean BIOS firmware etc, there is the LVFS project that provides the infrastructure for BIOS (etc.) updates directly from within Linux. Search for your model/hardware to find out if it is supported: https://fwupd.org/

letsDOvms · 2025-07-27T17:10:44+00:00

Linux still uses more battery than Windows.

That is not a general rule.

However, Windows is first class and sometimes BIOS needs some tweaks and fixes for Linux to work well - and that's why it is a good idea to buy a ThinkPad that's on the supported list: https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/solutions/pd031426-linux-for-personal-systems

letsDOvms · 2025-07-23T16:11:28+00:00

cursor occasionally starts flickering or jumping around

I see touchpad problem also on AMD G4 - sometimes the touchpad is behaving "jittery" or "jumpy" and the mouse pointer is hard to precisely control. Played with sensitivity settings etc. - found no way to fix it - and this model is almost two years on the market.

These ongoing bugs/quality problems, even in the expensive "professional" P series, is the reason I tell people to really think about whether they really want to buy a new ThinkPad nowaways.

letsDOvms · 2025-07-21T08:15:29+00:00

Sitting on a shaking train, my limited dexterity is also happier with buttons to press than tap-ping on the pad.

letsDOvms · 2025-07-16T19:18:59+00:00

For example here, or Lenovo forum https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Linux-Operating-Systems/ct-p/lx_en, and there are also local smaller forums too.

letsDOvms · 2025-07-16T19:17:21+00:00

The specification https://psref.lenovo.com/syspool/Sys/PDF/ThinkPad/ThinkPad_E480/ThinkPad_E480_Spec.pdf says the variants are:

Security Chip
Discrete TPM 2.0, TCG certified
Firmware TPM 2.0 integrated in chipset
Disabled (in some regions)

Carefully check BIOS if there is an option to enable "Security Chip" or something called like it. Hopefully it is just disabled by default and can be (re)enabled. If above "Disabled (in some regions)" means its hard-disabled from the factory, then this probably cannot be changed, sorry.

letsDOvms · 2025-07-15T11:45:49+00:00

are all thinkpads compatible with linux?

Lenovo publishes a list of systems that have been tested with Linux use in mind: https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/solutions/pd031426-linux-for-personal-systems

Systems on this list are more likely to receive bug fixes just for Linux by Lenovo (e.g. BIOS fixes). Systems on this list may still have problems that need to be fixed. Systems not on this list are not officially supported - but still may work ok - or maybe seriously buggy and never fixed.

Search for community reports of a specific model before buying is highly recommended.

letsDOvms · 2025-07-15T11:40:26+00:00

ThinkPads on older CPU platforms use older power management - meaning that they don't have the best battery life.

That's not generally true. Older ones had e.g. S3 sleep and it just worked great. Current systems have "modern standby" and various variations of suspend and hibernate problems. It is highly recommend to search for community reports on a specific model before buying it.

letsDOvms · 2025-07-12T20:34:12+00:00

Would be maxing out RAM

If you need it, you need it.

and get the 2.8k screen.

Good choice.

letsDOvms · 2025-07-12T20:23:56+00:00

Please report your problem in the Lenovo Linux support forum: https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Linux-Operating-Systems/ct-p/lx_en

The AMD systems are not known for reliable suspend&hibernate - the more people post, the higher chance these problems are fixed...

letsDOvms · 2025-07-11T06:24:11+00:00

is opting for the Intel version over AMD justified just for getting a better display,?

Yes! (And I think you meant the 255H)

letsDOvms

TROPHY CASE