Which Thinkpad model in history has been the most reliable?

Talking about hardware aspects, which model of Thinkpad, past and present, has had the least problems, and is most reliable and durable? Answers will be subjective, but hopefully there is some kind of consensus? (or is there any statistic data?) From my own experience, T61 seems quite solid. I've had power problems with some x-series models, including the new x200s.

 

The most proven are probably some of the later IBM models (e.g. T3x, x31, A31). There are still quite a few of those working even after 7+ years. The T60 is also very solid as well, but the oldest of them are only about 3-4 years old.

 

I'd pick the T41 (compared to the T61 and T400), though I never tried the T31.

 

T41-T43 aren't great at all. Heat problems and the serious one was the gpu solder becoming undone over time if you picked up your laptop with one hand. H append to mine as well as many others.The cage in the T60+ models fixed that problem and made them very very solid. Some of the T60/p's had some heat problems too. T61's are really solid. They got the cage added to the lcd assembly as well.

 

Going to have to agree sadly. I love the T4x, but my T40 was one of the ones that suffered the GPU desoldering (fixed under warranty after about 2.5 years). However, aside from that I had no issues and it served me very well for a full five years.

 

Really? Every one of them? I don't want to be a troll as ThinkPad.Forever has said, but that problem was corrected when the T43 was released. I'd have to say the T2x's for me, i still have a T21 from 2000 that is over 9 years old now, it still functions perfectly apart from the LCD, which is starting to die. I installed XP Pro on it when i got it for free, on 128MB of SDRAM...my T43 that is use most of the time is really good too, rock solid keyboard and great build. I once walked on it to see how the roll cage protects the internals and mobo from flex.... worked fine afterwards.

 

Maybe I got lucky then... just like I never experienced any problems w/ the G86M.

 

hahahahahahahahahaha that's true..

 

hahahahahahahahahaha

Sorry to double post, clicked twice somehow

 

T42 was quite good in terms of overall spec and stuffs, the T43 heats up considerably, but it is usable.

While the X31's fan is on constantly when it overheats, but the quality is good.

Never heard of T31 thinkpads before.

 

Yes the 30 "series" wasn't a series at all so i guess he made a mistake by adding the x as a variable number but didn't need to.. since it was only 1 laptop.

 

The 600 and 600E were tanks. Lasted forever, never had and issue. Eventually the screen dies out, but that's true with all laptops.

I think these days, reliability is also parity across most laptops for anything that is non-moving (with exception of display)

LED backlit displays will last longer than traditional ones (i.e. will be usable longer). Keyboards wear out too - gotta love Chicony keyboards - you put one in, and the laptop feels new. Hard drives are reliable as well among the top 3 players (Seagate, WD and Hitachi).

You really buy a laptop for design/durability (like the roll cage and liquid drain on the T series), and the service (ex. next day onsite).

Sure, one might have a better display than another, but that is less the case now. Same for optical drives.

I have to say, I'm very impressed with the recent T series from Lenovo - well engineered, and very reasonable price.

 

In my personal experience, the T21 that I have has been kicking around since 2001, if I remember correctly. I picked it up as my first real 'modern' laptop at the time in 2004, almost five years to the day.

This has been my most reliable Thinkpad to date. I was young and dumb when I bought it so it had been subjected to immeasurable abuse. Drops, a couple of spills, running 24/7 for weeks on end... this machine has been with me through three girlfriends, three cars, one move, and a few weeks out on the road. I have used it as a music player in my car, countless hours of Doom(on the Zdoom front end), playing Half-Life(which it just barely managed), taking notes and countless experiments while I was at trade school... now I'm just plain getting nostalgic.

I ended up retiring it in '07 after picking up a T40, and not too long after that my cat jumped from my bookshelf to my desk, landing on it and busting the screen. I stashed it in my closet and forgot about it. My T40 developed the 'loose GPU' issue and I went on to an old Dell XPS.

I had to sell that XPS in order to purchase my M1730... that left me completely without a computer. I dug out the T21, hooked it up to an external LCD, and it fired right up. After I got my M1730, I decided to replace the screen and worn-out keyboard... and here it sits today, chugging along as a makeshift wireless NAS. This notebook will never leave my hands; it will be a working museum piece displayed on a shelf once it gets too old to really do anything else. When I was looking for a notebook all those years ago, an old friend of mine told me that I had no business looking at anything else. He was right.

As far as the more modern Thinkpads, I feel my T60 has very much the same build quality as my T21. I'm sure this machine will stand the test of time and will also be displayed on the 'museum shelf' when it comes time to do so. I also just purchased an X60s, but it remains to be seen exactly how good that model will be.

Either way, I'm pretty much a diehard Thinkpad fan.

 

x60s is a extremely good machine, as my x60 have been dropped a few times and there are numerous cracks. I didn't like the x61 due to the heat problem, so i picked up a refurbished x60 machines. I was looking for a x60s before i got the x60, but couldn't find a decent one.

If 3 gigs of ram and the intel 950 gpu is okay, then the x60s is still the perfect machine.

 

Absolutely NO heat issue with my X61, thank you very much!

 

I agree and would add the 600x to that list. Mine mostly just takes up shelf space these days, but when I pull it out, it still just works.

 

The 600E/X were great except for the battery issues...

 

Good for you, while mine one did and numerous other X61 that my friends got also did. So i am just talking about my experience and personal usage.

 

I donated a 560 to my dad and it's still running to this day.
Dunno if it's the winner of this but also the 701c was quite a tank as well.
Sorry - I'm not that old but I'm sure those two references make me sound it.