--- title: My Favourite Laptop | daily.dev description: A 2015 ThinkPad X250 is the author's favorite laptop, prized for its combination of features rather than raw specs. It weighs about 1.45 kg, runs an i5-5200U... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/my-favourite-laptop-iwklxaafy twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: My Favourite Laptop | daily.dev og:description: A 2015 ThinkPad X250 is the author's favorite laptop, prized for its combination of features rather than raw specs. It weighs about 1.45 kg, runs an i5-5200U... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/my-favourite-laptop-iwklxaafy og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/IwklXaAfy.png og:image:alt: My Favourite Laptop og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # My Favourite Laptop **[Hacker News](https://daily.dev/sources/hn)** · 4 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A 2015 ThinkPad X250 is the author's favorite laptop, prized for its combination of features rather than raw specs. It weighs about 1.45 kg, runs an i5-5200U upgraded to 8 GB RAM, and can run for north of 10 hours on casual work with the largest after-market external battery. The author has previously replaced the internal battery, lid camera, keyboard and motherboard, and has done more than a dozen tear-downs. It runs EndeavourOS on a 128 GB SSD with a trimmed systemd setup that boots in about 8 seconds, and was bought second-hand for about £100 in 2018. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What CPU and RAM does a ThinkPad X250 typically have and is it enough for coding? A ThinkPad X250 can run an Intel i5-5200U (4 logical cores, up to 2.7 GHz) with RAM upgradeable to 8 GB, which is described as more than enough for light on-the-go programming. The fan rarely runs noticeably even under full load, and the laptop weighs about 1.45 kg including an extended battery. _Weighing an older ThinkPad against a new machine for coding on the go? daily.dev surfaces real-world hardware experiences like this._ ### How long does a ThinkPad X250 with an external battery last on a charge? With the largest after-market external battery available, a ThinkPad X250 survives north of 10 hours of casual work, stretching to 12 hours with careful use. It also retains an internal battery slot, giving it dual battery capacity rarely found in modern thin laptops. _Developers hunting for long-lasting repairable laptops can track hardware longevity reports on daily.dev._ ### Which ThinkPad X250 components can be replaced by the owner at home? Owner-replaceable parts on a ThinkPad X250 include the internal battery, lid camera, keyboard, and motherboard, all doable with just a pocket Phillips screwdriver. Despite more than a dozen tear-downs, one unit has never sustained major damage, and replacement parts sell cheaply on eBay thanks to the model's popularity. _Anyone extending a laptop's life through repairs can compare notes on durable, serviceable hardware via daily.dev._ ## Community take How the wider developer community reacted, aggregated from 1 discussion and 124 comments across hackernews (as of 2026-11-03). **TL;DR:** Discussion largely turned into nostalgic sharing of favorite old ThinkPads (and some MacBooks), with heavy debate over physical trackpad buttons, trackpoints, repairability, and whether modern hardware is actually an upgrade over decade-old machines. **Sentiment:** 45% positive · 40% mixed · 15% skeptical **The case for** - Older ThinkPads with physical mouse buttons/trackpoints are praised as more usable and precise than modern touchpad-only designs. - Many report years of reliable daily use from old ThinkPads and even old MacBooks with simple upgrades (RAM, SSD, battery, WiFi card). - Repairability and part availability (batteries, keyboards, trackpads) are seen as major long-term value drivers. - Some argue CPU performance gains have been marginal for years, so old hardware still feels adequate. **The pushback** - Newer ThinkPad models are criticized for worse keyboards, slower trackpoint refresh rates, and buggy Linux WiFi drivers compared to older generations. - Modern laptops increasingly ship without physical trackpad buttons, which several commenters find frustrating for precision tasks. - Prices for used ThinkPads of this era have risen significantly due to popularity, undercutting the original bargain appeal. - Framework laptops are seen as a reasonable alternative but still trail ThinkPads in some repairability/design aspects and have shipping limitations. **By community** - hackernews (mixed): Nostalgic appreciation for the ThinkPad's repairability and input devices mixed with pointed complaints about newer models' declining keyboards, trackpoints, and the industry-wide disappearance of physical trackpad buttons. **Hottest debate:** Whether physical trackpad/trackpoint buttons and trackpoints are essential good design or an outdated relic being rightly phased out. **Open questions** - Where to reliably source non-knockoff aftermarket batteries for older ThinkPad models. - How to configure Linux power management so an external battery depletes before the internal one. - Whether a modern laptop could successfully combine ThinkPad-style repairability/input with MacBook-level build quality. **Highlights** > Reading about so many people daily-driving laptops built around a decade ago, if not more (which includes myself, happy owner of a T480s), and not suffering any major penalty in terms of overall usability and battery life, it really shows that the returns of having more CPU power/smaller lithography have been marginal for a very, very long time (CPUs haven't been an enabler for new use-cases/a major incentive to upgrade a laptop in recent history, AFAICT). That's not to say there hasn't been progress in this space, but I'm also amused by the many comments along the lines of "my 2020 M1 is so revolutionary that it's all I need in 2026" in every other Apple thread. Probably all we've been needing has been some 14/10nm 8th/10th Gen Core i7 in a decent package? And about package, how come that this era's ThinkPads and pro Dells/HPs get a bigger "love-factor" than their contemporary intel MacBooks? Now, reading more into it¹, it appears that what Intel was shipping 8th-generation Intel Core i5 8257Us (i.e. a 2017 Coffee Lake chip) in its MacBook Pros for as late as 2020, before switching over to the M series. No wonder they weren't getting much love! ¹: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacBook_Pro_(Intel-based)#Tech... > — [ezst on hackernews · 2 comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50343155) > > I heard Mac OS quality has been going downhill since a few years ago It really has. I bought a MacBook Pro in 2011 and used it throughout college. Worked great. I gave it to my friend’s little sister when she started college, and she ended up using it throughout her undergrad. She loved it, zero issues. So, that one MacBook got at least 9 years of use. Fast forward to 2020, my wife needs a laptop for law school. I figure a MacBook pro would be the simplest, easiest, and most reliable option. It wasn’t. Not only had the cost gone up (I paid ~$1,300 for my MacBook pro, while hers cost ~$2,000 for the same options, but less), but using Microsoft apps like excel, word, and powerpoint was such a hassle sometimes. The apps kept signing her out or didn’t have certain options (like formatting) that were available in the Windows versions. Installing and working with third party apps that some of her professors and classes required was also a hassle, and those apps worked inconsistently. I remember having to give her my laptop a couple of times just so she could get her work done. The battery life was significantly worse compared to my older MacBook. Her MacBook seemed so much slower, couldn’t handle as much, and was overall a crap experience. The simplicity, reliability, and ease of use that used to separate Macs from windows laptops, especially for the average user, just didn't seem to be there anymore. It’s like whatever worked before, they got away from it. So, anytime I hear someone say, “a MacBook is the best” these days all I think is, “yeah, nah, it’s crap, just like everything else, but slightly more expensive crap.” > — [blueone on hackernews · 1 comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50341677) > It would be amazing to have somebody put together a modern laptop kit build around the x220 keyboard with a modern screen. it didnt last long, but the dimpled texture on the x220 trackpad was something I really liked, and i still miss having a middle click scroll button on trackpads. it was so nice to hold down a button and put slight pressure on the trackpoint to slowly scroll a webpage. I'm not 100% on it but I believe an ips x230 is considered the pinnacle. the x240 is slower than the x230 because it was when strong optimization for power savings started to occur. > — [basch on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50344051) > I still own and use my original X250, which I bought new in 2015. I recently replaced the batteries and swapped out the internal Wi-Fi adapter for a €20 AX210NGW. It's almost laughable how easy both upgrades were. Everything works out of the box with every Linux distro I've tried, including the fingerprint sensor. I prefer the keyboard on my T430, but the much better screen, slimmer form factor, and still pretty good keyboard make the X250 one of the best devices I've ever owned. > — [vlowrian on hackernews · 1 comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50342924) > >I bought mine second-hand for about £100 in 2018. They’ve only got cheaper since then. You'll be surprised. Due to surge in popularity within the last few years, in part thanks to youtubers, it's gotten hard finding old ThinkPads at this price, let alone cheaper. They've gone from their function over form and low used cost due to corporate surplus as their main appeal, to being geek-y lifestyle objects, not much different than Apple products for the mainstream. They're great machines but paying ~£150 for 10yo system, not even with great specs, is laughable. > — [forgotpwd16 on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50343439) **Source threads** - [hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50339815) · 151 points · 124 comments ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Lenovo's ThinkPad T14 Gen 7 is proof that sticking to your roots is a winning formula](https://daily.dev/posts/lenovo-s-thinkpad-t14-gen-7-is-proof-that-sticking-to-your-roots-is-a-winning-formula-xbqtzzkkz) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Lenovo's Googlebook 15 is a fantastic laptop held back by an OS that isn't ready for prime time](https://daily.dev/posts/lenovo-s-googlebook-15-is-a-fantastic-laptop-held-back-by-an-os-that-isn-t-ready-for-prime-time-wiyubzwvw) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 8: A High-End, Intel \+ NVIDIA Mobile Workstation Great For Linux Use Review](https://daily.dev/posts/lenovo-thinkpad-p1-gen-8-a-high-end-intel-nvidia-mobile-workstation-great-for-linux-use-review-i6pjmihov) · Phoronix · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [What laptops are Lobsters rocking in 2025?](https://daily.dev/posts/what-laptops-are-lobsters-rocking-in-2025--stu7g9ulx) · Lobsters · 3 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#linux](https://daily.dev/tags/linux) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/my-favourite-laptop-iwklxaafy) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"My Favourite Laptop","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/my-favourite-laptop-iwklxaafy","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/my-favourite-laptop-iwklxaafy"},"datePublished":"2026-11-02T19:11:23.977Z","dateModified":"2026-11-02T22:34:21.587Z","description":"A 2015 ThinkPad X250 is the author's favorite laptop, prized for its combination of features rather than raw specs. 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