My Favourite Laptop

The writer’s favorite laptop is a battered 2015 Lenovo ThinkPad X250, valued not for standout specifications but for the combination of qualities that make it a practical, enjoyable daily machine. Its compact footprint is about the size of an A4 sheet, and it weighs roughly 1.45 kg with the larger battery. The i5-5200U processor and 8 GB of RAM are sufficient for light programming, while the quiet fan and dual-battery design make it comfortable for travel. With a high-capacity aftermarket battery, it can run for more than 10 hours during casual work, or up to 12 with careful use.

Affordability, repairability, and the typing experience are central to its appeal. Bought second-hand for about £100 in 2018, the X250 remains cheap to replace, and inexpensive used parts have enabled the writer to replace its internal battery, camera, keyboard, and motherboard. Despite more than a dozen disassemblies, it has held up well. Its ThinkPad keyboard makes extended coding pleasant, and an Endeavour OS installation takes up about 30 GB on a 128 GB SSD and boots in roughly eight seconds. The writer finds satisfaction in keeping old hardware useful, seeing it as a small rejection of a culture that prizes ever newer, faster, and more expensive devices.