2017 Thinkpad vs.1997 Thinkpad – 25 Anniversary Edition Review
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2018-05-06
·
1,391 words · ~6 min read
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ah that's better
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if you guys watch this channel chances are you've got a fond memory of a
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thinkpad whether you were trying to get need for speed 2se to run on your
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parents work laptop or you were actually doing important things for yourself the
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thinkpad was always up to the task with its rugged design and nipple for a mouse
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but are those just rosy eyed memories or
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were these actually fantastic machines
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that would still hold up today well the 25th anniversary edition is here and
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it might be everything i remember
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and more speaking of remembering remember to
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check out sennheiser's pxc 550 wireless
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headphones they feature up to 30 hours of battery life noise guard hybrid
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active noise cancellation and more you can learn more at the link below
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rising out of its box the thinkpad anniversary edition is soaked in
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nostalgia everything about it just feels
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right the keyboard the track nub and
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even the way it beeps at you when you press too many keys at once
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the outer build quality feels exceptional dare i say it even up to the
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old ibm standard and every surface is
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sturdy while also surprisingly smooth i
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o wise the modern minimalistic trend is
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nowhere to be seen it's got Ethernet HDMI 3 usb 3 ports an sd reader and
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Thunderbolt 3 so you won't be left stranded no matter what you need while
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you're working just like an old thinkpad
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on that subject let's meet the og device that we'll be
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comparing it to we took a trip down to the local electronics recycler free geek
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vancouver and picked up this sweet thinkpad 560x a model from before
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ibm had stopped making laptops and sold that business unit and its trademarks to
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lenovo at 20 years old this thing
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well before we would even think about using
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it it needed a really good scrub but after some love from a smooth
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removing tool a new cmos battery
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wow look at that duct cursor man and some old school Windows know-how
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from Anthony it was ready to go so let's look at the specs of both computers the
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thinkpad anniversary rocks a solid the last gen core i7 7500u dual core CPU
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which is so much faster than the pentium
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mmx tillamook in the 560x that there is
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no meaningful way to compare the two it's got
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170 times more memory with
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128 times the storage and the only real
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disappointment here is probably the GPU
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10 series graphics cards have been out for about a year and a half now and the
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gt 940 in here is better than nothing but it won't handle anything but older
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games and maybe a bit of acceleration in photoshop or premiere
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to its credit though the anniversary edition kept all of its components nice
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and cool while remaining quiet although it can air sometimes on the
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side of lower clocks for longer battery life and lower temperatures rather than
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higher clocks with more heat and more power the keyboards on both feel almost
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identical save for the very soft semicolon on the 560x and that's a good
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thing since they both have amazing keyboards the keys have a super long
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travel with this great tactile feedback
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and the layout this might be a bit strange these days i might be wrong it
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would be easy it's morning shut the [ __ ] up like it would be easy
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to accidentally hit function s instead of actually saving your work for example
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but it's nothing you couldn't get used to and pretty much every key you could
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need is present i give it an a as for the track pad to its credit it
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tracks well and is surprisingly smooth to the touch
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but it is pretty small since most of the
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vertical space here is taken up by the left right and middle clicks for the red
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pointing stick between the g h and b keys
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let's talk about that with how god-awful the track trackpads
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were 20 years ago it is no great mystery
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why people who actually had time-sensitive work to do preferred
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these little nubbins but these days not everyone is going to
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like a point even with the four nipple
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options included in the box and it does take a little getting used to
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but we would never take points off for
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including it because for us the anniversary edition ended up being all
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about options for certain tasks like highlighting text
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or quickly switching between mousing and typing the track point was as the kids
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say on point for casual one-handed operation while sitting back the
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touchpad was generally preferred and for bigger movements the included touch
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screen was a definite blessing
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though i wish i could say the same about other
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aspects of the screen what the balls lenovo
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where is my dedicated brightness adjustment slider
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this experience has been totally ruined for me ruined
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yeah i'm just kidding the 1080p ips display with a matte finish
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isn't cutting edge but it's still great for productivity and is definitely
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better than the 560x's 800 by 600 hpa
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display that has pixel response times in the hundreds of milliseconds it really
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is too bad that its old owner didn't spring for the tn panel
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so the thinkpad 25th anniversary edition also includes lots of options when it
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comes to authentication with Windows hello added to its perfectly acceptable
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webcam and speakers and a fingerprint reader to the right of the keyboard then
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once it's unlocked assuming that you went for the option with a second
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hot-swappable battery this thing will keep going almost all day
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now unsurprisingly the thinkpad anniversary edition isn't the premiere
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multimedia laptop on the market no high resolution display no amazing
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speakers with dolby atmos certification and it sucks for games
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but it is easily one of the best laptops for productivity and in many ways it
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makes other devices these days feel like
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decorations or toys with its excellent
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keyboard pointing stick and battery life
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now i don't know if it'll still be working 20 years from now
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like our 560x but i also don't see why it would let
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you down it's everything we like about modern notebooks with everything we
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remember liking about classic ones so if you were thinking about pulling
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the trigger i say go for it as long as you can afford one
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or even get one since it's a limited production run
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