I’m currently using T480. Thinking of upgrading to a second hand new-ish model.
Initially I was interested in ThinkPad L14 gen 2 or gen 3, but I’ve read that the wifi card is not upgradeable. I also read that newer models block installing SSD into the WWAN slot. I prefer having separate SSD for installing secondary OS.
Any recommendations of newer models with dual SODIMM slots, upgradeable wifi card, ability to add SSD to WWAN slot?
Thank you.
I’ve given up on new thinkpads. Here are my list of grievances from Lenovo:
- faulty BIOS updates: I had to pay $130 to extend my warranty as Lenovo released a faulty BIOS update that bricked my P52. Bad QA.
- poor engineering design for planned obsolescence: loose usbc ports that are soldered onto the main board so you can’t replace them easily (and you have to replace the entire motherboard)
- poor thermals: they literally design 13/14" laptops to have poor thermals to push you towards the x1e/z16/etc. lines. For example, on the T14 AMD gen1, they hard limited the CPU temps to never go above 85C via BIOS. You cannot change this with ryzenadj. It will force TDPs to stay at 11W once it hits 85C (although if you stay at 84C, you can sustain 25W TDP)
- soldered everything (or poor build quality): they want to upcharge you out of the ass to get more RAM. Ever since after the T480, they have soldered at least one slot.
- artificially making speakers worse on the cheaper (T/L/E) lines to entice you to buy X1/Z lines. Apple has figured this out for years.
At this point, Lenovo/ThinkPad is anti-consumer/consumer hostile. The thermals and poor software development practices are an engineering culture issue. The rip-off pricing for soldered RAM upgrades ($400 for 32GB, lol) are a ripoff. They also solder the wifi card for planned obsolescence now.
I refuse to buy any laptop that I cannot swap/upgrade both RAM slots, and cannot change the wifi card. Is it my device or Lenovo’s?
I refuse to buy another thinkpad at this point. Granted, other brands (HP/Dell/Apple) are worse, but that doesn’t mean this behavior is acceptable.
Personally, I’m waiting for a framework 16. I’ve also looked at some of those Tong Fang/Mechrevo (non soldered)/Firebat laptops but I don’t know how they are long term and there is no supply chain for long term replacement parts like there is for framework.
This is a GREAT question. I have a gen 6 x1 carbon. But, everything is soldered on. So I can’t upgrade. When she eventually dies, I’d rather a machine I can upgrade. As long as it’s new enough. Keen to hear the answer.
My t480 is still running fine actually. It’s an amazing device.
I added secondary SSD to wwan slot to install Manjaro Cinnamon on it.
Memory is now 32GB.
Upgtaded wifi card to AX201, if I remember correctly.
I really want to have the option to do the same with a newer laptop if possible.
Go Wayland. Now. Try Manjaro Sway in live mode. You can’t configure Sway into any better. Wait for CosmicDE to be released.
First time hearing about CosmicDE. Will check it out thanks :) It looks very interesting.
The T480 is literally the last good Thinkpad anybody should even consider of buying. I could write a full essay rant all the tiniest details which has been changed since 2018 but nobody would care. They even expanded the size of the bios chip from 3rd gen 8 mbit into 256 mbit in 8th series. What for? Only “modern graphical UI” was added. In 2020 lineup they worsened many bios features on purpose.
After your T480 is dead, look for other brands. System76 is currently developing a Colorado-manufactured & designed Virgo laptop with hot swappable mechanical keys and a trackpoint. It will also have a Coreboot bios and their current lineup has these features in open source bios: https://github.com/system76/firmware-open/blob/77abfadf24c9a0c45ae042cd71d3ce7be26c846e/FEATURES.md
I’d like to hear any other brand in the world offering the same, lol.
I went back to classic BIOS in my L14G2A because the modern one is so bloated and slow.
I’d have to agree. I haven’t really found another laptop quite like the T480. I might just look for a secondhand i7 nvidia version for the minor upgrade haha.
I’m actually very interested in Framework laptop. Sadly I’m pretty sure that it’s not going to be available here for quite some time.
P15/P17
Or P16
All have four RAM slots.
Avoid the s-variant, which is just a T-series.
I haven’t really looked at P series because they’re too big for me. But I’ll take a look. Thank you for the recommendations.
If you check this image The L14G2A’s WLAN card is upgradable. It is slotted and ready to be taken out at will.
I own one and I checked for this before I bought it. You can also check YouTube/other review sites/with owners of the device (I am one)
I also read that newer models block installing SSD into the WWAN slot. I prefer having separate SSD for installing secondary OS.
Most ThinkPads today don’t house space for more than one drive bay anymore. You can always buy an external or get a P series.
External is not ideal for 2nd OS for me. Will consider p series thanks.
Afaik the Amd versions always have classic wifi cards in their m2 slots that can be replaced with whatever you like. They also tend to have 32gb ram options available (while the intel only offer 16 - eg x13) which helps to make them future proof. If Wwan slots can be used for ssd I don’t know. My current daily driver is a x280 with a 13inch panel and an ax201.
I can confirm that my T14s AMD Gen 2 does have a replaceable wifi card, but all RAM is soldered since it uses LPDDR_ and sadly LPDDR5 and up will be soldered only. So you have to choose between slow replaceable RAM or fast soldered RAM.
That’s an easy choice for me then ;)
The L14 gen 2 and 3 has dual SODIMMs? Cool, if so! The T14 of the same gens don’t.
Yeah. L14 is more upgradable now in terms of memory. That’s what made me interested in L series over T series when I looked around.
Nice! That’s very interesting. I’ll have to check if the Gen 3 also come with the 16:10, maybe even in an AMD version. If heard they fair very well with Linux.
Sadly still 16:9 ^^;
