I do not like to spend on new gadgets. If the device has an issue I try to get it fixed (or fix it myself). Sometimes if the device works, then I keep using it even if it has some flaws.
My Samsung smartphone has some touchscreen issues at times but it is usable so I’m still using it. My monitor has a 2 pixel wide vertical line on the side but doesn’t affect my workflow. I still use it.
Why buy another Laptop?
My current laptop is a T520 with full HD screen which I bought for ₹ 10,000 in Bengaluru. That was an awesome deal. I absolutely love the typing experience on it. It performs pretty well. It is not a workhorse but handles most of the mundane tasks without breaking a sweat.
I wanted a light, portable laptop which I can carry in my backpack along with clothes and other things.
T520 is thick and heavy. It also has some battery backup issue. So I thought let’s buy a thin one this time.
ThinkPad X1 Carbon is amazing!
After going through a lot of reviews and videos, I decided to buy a used Thinkpad X1 Carbon.
I bought it for ₹ 46,000 which is reasonable I guess for a i7 7th gen processor.
When buying used laptops, I usually visit the shop, check the laptop thoroughly with ubuntu live USB, and check how it performs. This time I got it delivered to my place because the seller had good reviews.
It had some scratches at the edges but nothing major. The keyboard touches the screen a little when closed. I don’t mind it much but I wish it did not happen. The entire laptop is a fingerprint magnet but again it should be fine.
Svelte has a role in it.
My workflow is mostly web design stuff. I mostly use web-apps for most of my work.
I need something that can handle VScode and chrome together. Previously when I was on Windows, I used to use Photoshop, Illustrator and what not.
Now they are replaced by amazing web-apps like photopea, figma, tinypng etc.
In the recent days, I mostly develop websites on Sveltekit and rarely on Jekyll. Sveltekit doesn’t demand much CPU or RAM and so is Jekyll.
Also, I do not game on my Laptop. I do not need super specifications.
I thought ThinkPad X1 Carbon can handle these pretty well and now I know it can.
Why a used ThinkPad?
Used Thinkpads are better in many aspects because they are cheap and with Linux they perform really well.
The X1 carbon came with a fresh install of Windows 10 on which it was using 1.5GB of RAM on idle. Installing Ubuntu was the first thing I did on it and it uses around 400MB of RAM with i3WM.
I’m going to use this new laptop mostly for the personal tasks, chess classes and as a work laptop while travelling. It is very light at around 1.2Kg!
Performance is good so far. I haven’t tested any heavy apps on it. I don’t game on laptops but I do serve websites while developing and use webapps like Figma, Photopea which need some processing.
Battery backup is around 5 hours when actively using it. I think it is enough but it is supposed to be higher than that.
I’m counting on its typing experience. I will update soon on how it feels.