‘Low End’ Means Good Enough
So I recently switched from a brand new top of the line Ideapad Yoga to an older Thinkpad from 2012. Sure, it&#x27;s kind of thick. 1.2&quot; thick actually. But it has a 3.8GHz processor that can actually sit at 3.8GHz for a very long time because of the giant fans and fat copper heat pipes, and it has 8GB of ram upgradeable to 16, and a decent solid state drive. It looks like a giant hunking black thing, and I love it. Doesn&#x27;t look expensive, so it won&#x27;t get stolen, and it cost me $250, so even if it does it won&#x27;t be the end of the world.<p>I think there&#x27;ll be a minor trend of people keeping the same laptops they have, or buying older laptops to save money, now that improvements have stagnated. Processors are literally getting slower - I challenge you to find a laptop today that is faster than my X230T. Sure, manufacturers might claim a higher clock speed, but with modern horrible thermal management they can only sit there for brief amounts of time. The X230T can literally sit all day at 3.8GHz, and fairly quietly too.<p>Sure you can go 0.6GHz faster, with the Alienware 18 with a 4.4GHz processor, but that costs six thousand dollars, is as thick as six laptops stacked on top of each other, and is twenty two inches measured diagonally. Oh yeah, and people found that because of heat problems the processor wasn&#x27;t able to reach the clock speeds claimed. This review [0] shows that it only got to 3.2GHz, which is substantially slower than my $250 laptop. Oh yeah, and that laptop easily goes over 100F on the outside of the case in normal use, so not only will your legs be crushed by the 12 pound 22&quot; monstrosity they&#x27;ll also be burned if you dare put it on your lap.<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.notebookcheck.net&#x2F;Review-Alienware-18-Notebook.102566.0.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.notebookcheck.net&#x2F;Review-Alienware-18-Notebook.1...</a>