I Couldn't STEAL A Better Laptop... I Tried - Lenovo Thinkpad T470s

Today I am looking at the Thinkpad T470s. A serious laptop if you're on a tight budget and really need something that just...works for $200 with good build quality.

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[xrZt]

Everyone reading this, be warned. Thinkpadphilia is an uncontrollable urge to collect IBM/Lenovo Thinkpad-series portable laptop computers. It is an extremely addictive affliction that goes hand in hand with GNU/Linux mania (or as I've recently taken to calling it, GNU+Linux mania) that might, in extreme cases, escalate to BSD-fetishism and other obscure conditions.

- Sent from one of my Lenovo Thinkpads

[vivthefree]

It's not a nipple. It's the clitorus. And learning to use it can indeed change your life.

[HunterRodrigez]

One thing I love about Thinkpads is the drainage holes. Those are little holes under the keyboard that go through the entire laptop so if you ever spill any liquid onto the keyboard, it can safely drain through those holes instead of into the laptop.

Thanks to this, I only had to replace the $50 keyboard of my sister's Thinkpad instead of the whole laptop. And the keyboard was super easy to replace on top of everything else.

[thomasculkin]

My bargain was a T480S, Core i5 8250, 16 gb RAM, in almost perfect condition, purchased a year ago for $250 on Craigslist . I like it just as much as a Yoga 9i I bought a month ago (yes, I'm somewhat of a hoarder) for almost $1000! Plus, the T480S doesn't burn my legs like the Yoga 9i. Older doesn't mean obsolete.

At work I had a Lenovo ThinkPad T460... I fell in love with the keyboard. I bought a certified refurbished T470 for personal use. It came with Windows 10 Pro. I'd say its lean, meaning I use it primarily for writing, surfing the net, watching YouTube videos, and doing classes and meetups via Zoom and/or Microsoft TEAM. I'm not a gamer so that kind of horsepower is not an issue. My plan is to move it to Linux when Windows 10 is no longer supported. I've installed Linux on a few old laptops of mine in the past. Again, it's has a great keyboard and with the docking station I have a 2nd monitor and am connected to stereo system when I'm watching videos. When I head out I can just pop it off the docking station and carry it in my briefcase. I paid about $270. One of the best tech purchases I've ever made.

[TheSonnyGo]

I currently have a T460s and it does everything I need of it. I've always wanted to own a Thinkpad, and I finally got one this year. One of those few times when my expectations weren't disappointed.

[Tripplebeem]

I have a T470 currently for work, I was a contractor when I came on with the company originally, and now that I am a direct hire, I am supposed to get a new one, but I have to say that the 470 is rocking it out every day!

[notloki]

Screen going flat is useful when using it in a work environment. I use an HP that does the same thing at work, and can literally use it in any situation whilst still being able to access the keyboard. It becomes an oversized tablet. You can lay it on your legs, you can hold it with one hand vertically against a wall, power board, server, racking etc. You can walk through a warehouse with a powerful data accessing machine at your fingertips. In meetings, you can sit up, and lay the screen further back to actually see it. etc

[hoppysport]

Just love your review and humor. Everything you mentioned is spot-on. I bought a 6300u i-5 T470s about 7 months ago for $175, after answering a Craigslist ad. Like yours, mine needed one battery, but it was still getting about 3.5 hours. It came with 16 gb of RAM, but I purchased another 16 gb from Crucial from a sale for $56. So I'm in it for $281.

When I went into the system, I noticed that it still had 3 months left on its warranty. I had the screen, bezel, lid, and keyboard replaced for free under warranty. The Lenovo tech met me at a local Starbucks and did everything there within 20 minutes. He steered me to an ebay sell that sold quality OEM batteries for a lot less than Lenovo. I replaced one and I'm now getting almost 7 hours of battery life. The 1080p screen is sharp, but isn't the brightest. That said, I always turn the brightness of my screens down, so nothing lost here.

I'm not a gamer so speed is not an issue. It's fast when using Photoshop or editing video. I've been a Thinkpad user for years because of the keyboard and Trackpoint. Honestly I can't use a notebook without that little red trackpoint. My everyday notebook is still a Lenovo Thinkpad T430s from 2012. It's an i5 with 16 gb of RAM and a 256 gb SSD. I use it constantly and it's never let me down. It's still powerful enough to do Photoshop and video edition...and it's 10-years-old.

The reason that I purchased the T470s was to have a light computer to take on the road. It's certainly filled that and more. It's a coffee shop warrior. I always enjoy using it. One strange thing is that card slot. I have no idea what it's good for? But I do appreciate the Thunderbolt 3/USB 3 port, two separate charging ports. 3 USB-3.0 ports, Ethernet port, and full-size HDMI port.

The previous owner installed Windows 11...not quite sure how. I spent 2 hours un-Microsofting Windows 11. Windows has gone from being an operating system and morphing into a data collection service. It's a shame but I was able to clean the T470s using some great YouTube instructional videos. At least I'll be futureproofed after 2025. Given how long my T430s has lasted without issue, I would think that your machine will be chugging away in 2032.

[fritz]

Great video! Some time ago I bought a refurbished T460 and I just love it. It had a dent in one of it's corners. Rest of the laptop was in great condition. I installed Linux on it and couldn't be happier. Most of heavy processing I do in the cloud anyway. Checked the batteries with upower and they still go around 85% of max cap. One thing which is cool about those refurbished laptops is, that accessories are super cheap. I bought a docking station for less than 20€. In the future I will probably mostly try to buy refurbished laptops.

[budmonk]

My favourite laptop is the HP 840 series. My company issued one and I loved it to bits. Bought a couple of them from a dinky shop and they run great. Added memory, storage and they suit my purpose nicely. I got a cheap Thinkpad, but didn't like the placement of the Cntrl and Fn keys. But I keep hearing about these legendary pieces and I am tempted. Thanks for the information about the pawn shop, got a new haunt to look for deals.

[SPDATA]

You did great. I really like the T-series. As a Field Service Technician I have worked with a lots of ThinkPads....a lots of guarantee errand.

[TotallyNotBepsi]

i got my own bargain like a week ago aswell, a gen 1 yoga x1! paid £209 for it and was the top of the line version in 2016 with 6600u, 512gb nvme, 1440p touchscreen oled and 16gb ram! couldnt be happier with it, bonus with it having a rather great wacom pen. these gen thinkpads are so easy to come across now for cheap

[seanpaul]

right on and great video. subbed. I picked up a T480 for $480 CAD and its an amazing machine.. I was also on the fence to spend $3000 for the MBP 14" and I couldn't justify spending that much for my workflow.. This is my first Thinkpad and it's absolutely stunning. My brother used T61 before and he still has it running Win 7 I believe. I feel like its better to get older Thinkpads than newest laptops if you don't run resource heavy task. My concern with MBP was that you can't upgrade anything anymore and Apple wants $400 for 16GB upgrade (MBP comes with 16GB already) for total of 32 but then I realized that its quite steep for what my needs are. So then I started searching for used market and came across T480 and apparently its the last model which you can upgrade ram and hard drive for.

[James_Knott]

Back in the late 90s, I worked at IBM Canada as an OS/2 product specialist, where I provided 3rd level OS/2 support and also supported some apps on Windows 95 & NT. I was also on the team that built standard desktops for IBM Canada employees. At any time, I might have a half dozen or so ThinkPads, of different models, at my desk. Back in those days, the hard drives were user swappable, so I had several of those at my desk too, with different operating systems on them. In addition to our regular work, we were also encouraged to start working with Linux on company time. Since then, I have been partial to ThinkPads, whether made by IBM or Lenovo and over the years bought a couple for myself. One problem with ThinkPads is they're so durable they're obsolete long before you find a need to replace them. My current E520 was bought in Oct. 2011 and it's still going strong. I have openSUSE Linux on it, as well as Windows 10. However, I would never buy a non ThinkPad Lenovo, as they're garbage in comparison. BTW, that red thing is called a TrackPoint, which I greatly prefer to touch pads. The first time I used a touch pad was on a Toshiba notebook, with Windows 95. I've hated touch pads ever since.

Incidentally, I also have Windows 10, Windows 98 and OS/2 Warp 4 in Virtualbox VMs on it. I have also maxed out the memory at 8 GB and replaced the hard drive a couple of times. It currently has a 1 TB SSD in it.
What's missing is 5 GHz WiFi. If it was practical to replace the WiFi card, I would have. Otherwise, it still continues to meet my needs, more than 11 years after I bought it.

[CainanParker]

I have put the T470 through it’s paces working on communications equipment in mines. It meets a bunch of Mil-specs so it’s definitely durable, and it’s built so well.

[AlistairBrugsch]

Welcome to the thinkpad club! I think you've hit the best generation, the *70 series. I have a L450 which is great except for the weak i5-5200u but I've had it since a black friday sale and still love it to bits. Keyboard is amazing, pointing stick is great (wouldn't have a laptop without one - though my work HP elite has one that sucks ballz) and it's all user servicable with no soldered RAM (or anything except CPU/GPU)
You also have the same camera/laptop bag as me and yeah the 4xx size is a perfect fit for it! Yay for 14" laptops!

[ianboard]

I've bought 4 thinkpads over the years. My winning formula as been to buy something that was bleeding edge 2 years ago. I have put linux on all of them and they just worked. I had one that finally died - I took the SSD out of it and put it in a significantly newer one - and everything just worked.
(writing this on a 5 year old X1 Carbon which is still going strong).

[pepederien]

I have a T450 with Linux Mint (as well as Win7) and it's perfect for any task. I like typing on it because its keyboard very comfy. I think that from T450 to T480 they are good in this series. When I was using, a T490 was killed in action with many wounds on it. So I've bargained my second T490 for a P53 on my workplace. In the P53, I feel that the the old school Thinkpad series were reborn.

[kj-marslander]

You''re really funny, I love your humor and review style. subbed.