Why I still use a 7 year old laptop

Nov 10, 2019 in #minimalism

I'm often asked, "Why the Fuck do you still use that piece of shit?". (I have very eloquent friends)

Well, this old piece of shit is amazing, that's why!

I am still using a Lenovo x230, and despite buying several laptops since, I always return to this. My x230 in particular has been upgraded from an x230i (which was a core i3, 8gb of ram and a terrible 120gb hard drive) to the core i5 (from a standard x230) and the IPS screen upgrade. I also bought a modern Samsung 500gb SSD which means that this thing flies.

My only gripe with the laptop was the empty express card slot on the left, which flexed a lot when picking up (and cracked my palm rest). This was solved by buying a 3d printed SD card storage widget that fits into the slot, which for me is just adding some structure 🤲. After this, the machine is a tank, I do not need to worry about putting it in a bag without a case, or damaging it in any way.

I think the real draw of this laptop for me comes from the combination of it being cheap, easy enough to source spares since it was a popular laptop for businesses as well as it performing really well considering it's age. Sure it's not going to play any games, or crack any passwords, but for most things it rocks. You can take your £2000+ thin and light machines and leave me alone with my baby.

That being said, I am tempted to go for the FHD mode that allows you to use one of the display ports that the dock would use and install a 1920x1080 panel into the laptop. Hmmmmmmm 🤔

👋

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