It is just my opinion...

...that the Ivy Bridge era Lenovo Thinkpads are perhaps the best laptops ever.

It was Saturday and I bought another, and this one was in very good condition and I paid three of the green "paper" things and three blue ones. Seventy-Five dollars for this addition to the entourage :

The laptop looks almost as though it has come from the store, although I know that it has been used, imagine though, a thirteen year old laptop that is basically untouched, just a few miles on the clock, probably driven by a little old lady...

It is a great relief to me that not many people take any notice of little enthusiast blogs on the internet, how can they as the internet is far too big for little voices to matter, I know this yet still put stuff on my blog, I never want to go and read the statistics on the blog dashboard, as they say, never google yourself.

The Lenovo Thinkpad T430s with Intel i5-3320M and 8GB of Ram, it has the webcam, one of the best laptop keyboards I have known, and backlit too, a DVD burner built into the impressive magnesium alloy case and probably would have cost around $1300 when it originally came out in 2013.

It has Windows running on it, but it will not run well, I know because I have my spare Thinkpad T530 running down the clock on Windows 10 until October, that is when Microsoft ends their security updates, same old story, greedy corporations wanted to sell more and send the best stuff into the landfill, perhaps I have mentioned it before?

The new kid on the block will join many other Thinkpads in my collection, I intend to install Linux on it and use it for a daily machine, or a backup for a daily machine. I'll go and ask one of our AI friends on the interweb what they think of this particular model, one minute...

All of this is Gemini AI, repeating what it has read from the web :

"The Lenovo ThinkPad T430s with an Intel i5-3320M and 8GB of RAM is widely regarded as a "legendary" budget workhorse. It was designed as the slimmer, lighter version of the standard T430, offering a more portable chassis without sacrificing too much power. The i5-3320M is a 3rd-generation "Ivy Bridge" processor. While it is over a decade old, it is a standard-voltage chip (unlike the "U" series chips in newer thin laptops), meaning it still handles basic web browsing, document editing, and light multitasking surprisingly well. This model features the first generation of Lenovo’s "Precision" island-style keyboard. It is frequently cited as one of the best typing experiences ever put on a laptop, with deep travel and a satisfying tactile "click." The casing uses a carbon-fiber reinforced plastic lid and magnesium alloy bottom. It feels incredibly sturdy and "industrial" compared to modern budget laptops made of thin plastic."

I find all that to be true (this is me again) and I am sad at the poor build quality of new laptops, especially when it comes to the trackpad and the keyboard, in addition, as we are "moving forward" it appears that Microsoft are going to be puching AI even more in to their operating system, mainly so that they can "nose around" in our business and learn what to sell us next.