Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by ww520 966 days ago
The last AMD based Thinkpad T14 I got was horrible. It had great numbers on paper and benchmarks, but horrible performance in real usage. Switching between programs was very slow. Even switching between tabs in browser was slow. It tended to overheat which throttled down the cpu. It had really bad idle power management for background tasks. This had never happened before on any older T14’s with Intel cpu. I won’t get another laptop with AMD again.
2 comments

I had the same problems with Lenovo Intel chips. Constantly getting thermally throttled.

Switched to Dell and couldn't be happier.

I hate dells. Not being able to open the screen that much was a major annoyance.

I actually refused a new dell to remain with an older thinkpad just because how uncomfortable they are.

Agreed. I prefer the 180 degree hinge provided on the ThinkPad line up.
I thought I was the only one. I was excited to get a Thinkpad because just about every nerd praises them all the time and I thought the AMD one would be a great experience, but it was terribly slow. Additionally, the trackpad, the screen and the camera broke independently of each other and needed to be replaced which makes me really doubt the build quality (though having a technician come to your home tk repair it is great).

All in all, it was a bad experience and didn't even last 2 years for me. I don't think I'll be buying another Thinkpad soon.

ThinkPads are coasting off the reputation that was built up under IBM ownership. If you're not married to the trackpoint, then a Dell Latitude/Precision or HP EliteBook/ZBook is equally as good.

Lenovo went down the route of trying to chase the MacBook Pro crowd and ended up compromising on durability, repairability (soldered components) and keyboard quality (traditionally the USP of ThinkPads).

That happened nearly two decades ago. I mean, there are college students about to enter the workforce who weren’t even born yet when IBM was making Thinkpads. Lenovo has been making Thinkpads for nearly twice as long as IBM did.

Lenovo makes missteps occasionally, but I think whatever the Thinkpads reputation is, Lenovo is more responsible for it than IBM.

I have an AMD L14. The damn keyboard has a hardware fault. I have to close and open the lid so it suspends then wakes up to get it working again. Not a great experience, obviously.

The Thinkpad I had previously had some wonky wifi chipset. Got it working, but it was a pain.

I'm not buying anything else from Lenovo.