How IBM’s ThinkPad Became a Design Icon (2017)
Last year, I decided to build an X62 (Thinkpad X61 or X60 with custom hardware) after reading about it here [1]. Shipment of the modification kit (some plastic parts + a new mainboard) took 2 months from China to Germany. It took me a while to find a brand-new screen as a replacement for the original 1024x786 screen (which has to be modified, including some minor metal-working).<p>After roughly a year of heavy daily use, I must say that this is the best laptop I have owned in my life (including previous Thinkpads R60, T510 and and T460s). The size is just perfect. With the new hardware, it is incredibly light-weight. The 4:3 screen is something I have been missing for a long time on my laptops, and the classic Thinkpad keyboard is just a million times better than the new model. The quality of the original X61 chassis is also very good, and it looks just great.<p>Overall, the laptop cost me roughly 1000 EUR and around 20 hours of work. This includes 32 GB of RAM, a brand new 100 GB SSD and a brand new replacement screen I bought at Alibaba. I started with a broken X61 I bought for around 40 EUR on eBay, on which I replaced the new Lenovo &quot;ThinkPad&quot; logo with the original IBM ThinkPad logo that was still used on the X60.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;geoff.greer.fm&#x2F;2017&#x2F;07&#x2F;16&#x2F;thinkpad-x62&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;geoff.greer.fm&#x2F;2017&#x2F;07&#x2F;16&#x2F;thinkpad-x62&#x2F;</a>