Thinkpad

10 May 2026

I got an x201 thinkpad off ebay.

The specs are:

• 2010 vintage
• CPU: i5-520M dual core, 2.4 GHz
• RAM: 6 GB DDR3
• Disk: 128 GB SSD (I replaced the HDD)
• Display: 12 inch TFT, 1280x800
• Keyboard: excellent
• Nipple: present

It came with a hard drive with Windows 10 on it, which was so slow it was completely unusable. I replaced it with an SSD with Arch (btw), and it's fast again. I've been using netsurf as a browser, and also the text-based chawan which is pretty good.

This thing is *so* nice to type on. I've been using it to do some distraction-free programming, using yewtube to listen to music from the terminal. I find that a bitmap font (I'm using Terminus) works nicely on the display.

The only issue I have is the battery. It's a 9-cell, 80 Wh, which should give 6-10 hours of usage (power draw is about 8 W normally, 14 W when playing music). But it cuts out when it gets down to about 75% so I'm only getting a quarter of that. Still not awful, but I'd like to re-cell the battery at some point. They are just standard 18650 cells in a reasonably easily-opened plastic case, but I might need to get a spot welder to put tabs on the cells.

Sent from my ThinkPad