I wonder why other competitors don't copy the idea of having a sturdy bulky laptop with hardware switches, lots of keyboard buttons, trackpoint, and but battery. Is the market really that small?
Dell and HP both have comparable laptops for the enterprise market. But Thinkpad has done a good job of not diluting their lineup with cheap, crappy laptops.
I have a Thinkpad Edge from 2009 that is still working "fine", but it has very little in common with a real Thinkpad. My rationale for buying it for 1/3 the price of the mechanically robust real thing was that I was capable of handling it gently, and wouldn't cry if it got stolen or crushed. It's my expendable travel laptop, not my daily driver. For the same use-case today, I'd probably get an off-lease refurbished Thinkpad rather than a new cheapo.
As a student, ThinkPad Edge was my laptop for a while, and despite some some hinge issues (that were caused by a drop), it's still working 5 years later. I don't think it was too bad.
I got an edge laptop for my (now) wife as well when I still was a student. Huge mistake. It had mediocre hardware that didn't work well with Linux (crappy wifi support and bad power usage), it was slow and had a keyboard that was pure garbage as well. Even thought it was small it was heavy, thick and the fan was loud. Battery life was crap as well. Spend more time than I care to admit optimizing it.
It still kinda works, I fixed the keyboard and all, but I don't want to use it anymore and just got it as a backup. It was the worst laptop I ever bought. Granted I can't say for sure that every edge laptop is like this, but I never want to touch one again.
Exact same, I'm staring at an E520 which I've used every day for the past few years, which now has a busted left hinge (until I get around to putting some sugru on it). Other than the bum hinge, a really solid laptop which has survived quite a few beatings.
I have a Dell Precision M4700 at work that seems nice compared to recent Thinkpads. That's not to say I really like any of them... They're all piles of low quality plastic junk with zillions of pain-in-the-ass fasteners. I suppose it's worth something to say that the Dell has held up to economy class air travel and abuse in meat processing plants, though the thin metal case retain dents.
I have a Dell Latitude for work and it's reasonably comparable to my Thinkpad T470s. I still prefer the Thinkpad but the Latitude doesn't make me constantly hate it every second I use it, unlike lots of other laptops these days.
* Sturdy bulky: It's got sturdy and bulky in spades. Not quite as bulky as the police/military grades mind you, but bulky enough. Rather light (3lbs?) and stupid durable. Nice wrist strap.
* Hardware switches: No, but I find the keys comfortable enough.
* Lots of keyboard buttons: Such as? I miss actual page up and down, but have gotten accustomed to Fn+Up/Dn. I don't miss anything else.
* Trackpoint: Yep.
* "But" battery: I assume you meant to say big battery. No, but I bought several extras since they were $12 on eBay. I can hibernate, swap, and go all day.
I have just about maxed mine out with a 200GB SSD, 1.6GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM, and Win10. Not a screamer but fast enough for my needs. I am running KiCad, Netbeans, OpenOffice, and Chrome most of the time.
I also added a PCMCIA (yes, not CardBus) USB adapter, extra power supplies, and extra units for spare parts. All are super cheap. Total cost is somewhere south of USD $400, and probably closer to $250. (I didn't keep track.)
Only real complaints: Not really enough horsepower for standard rez YTube videos (I rarely watch them and when I do I put them on low rez) and the screen is dim in the sun. It's 1024x768 which I know would make many of you scream, but I connect it to an external monitor at home and dual displays, and I'm happy. Am accustomed to working at that rez. Oh, and the speakers are not terribly loud.
It's not for everyone. I have low requirements if you couldn't tell :-)
My working hypothesis is the majority of business laptops sit on desks all day. They’re never using any of the built in peripherals and the price isn’t worth it to the OEM.
That's right. Laptops are used to give the option of working from home, and a kind of BCP for when the office is inaccessible. Docks, multiple monitors, and real keyboards and mice to make the setup usable.
idk about ruggedness, for me it has been the track point and what used to be amazing support for Linux.
I've met anybody who thought thinkpads were cool, I usually get snobbed by Mac owners, although these days they look at my escape key with envy for some reason.