I've had a x201 i7 620m for over 4 years and I love it. An SSD allows it to run Windows 10 at full speed, no delays. They mechanical keyboard is a joy and you cannot get this feature in modern laptops. One very little known feature is the display port on the dock allows you to run super high resolution in a 2010 laptop. I purchased a HP curved monitor and was able to run 3440 x 1440 pixels. This is a very advanced capability for 2010! The only issue I have is it shuts down when really pushing it hard but as soon as my thermal paste gets here I expect to resolve that. Ive used the latest laptops and I really dont see a huge difference in speed using common workplace apps, certainly not enough to warrant spending $900 on up to get something comparable. My only wish is a bezeless screen with high resolution built in but Im not mobile with it so a large monitor works great. I use mine as a desktop with a mechanical keyboard and turbo ball mouse. If I truly thought I would have a better experience Id buy a new PC of some sort. Its rock solid (other than aforementioned overheating) and plenty of performance.. plus if I need to I can tuck it in my bag and go. I would say the x201 is the best built, best designed laptop of all time. Oh and where can you get a laptop with an overhead LED light? Impossible! :) I LOVE my x201 and am on the lookout for a 740lm i7. though I expect it will be expensive. Thank you for this review but you just let the best kept secret out.. thanks for making them more expensive on ebay :)

Still using my X201 as my main portable machine - just treated it to a new SSD last year. With 8 gigs of RAM it's still a perfectly viable machine even after all these years.

I use a Thinkpad X201s i7-640LM 2.13ghz with 8gb ram as my daily use computer with Windows 7. Wish they still made laptops like this, I would have upgraded by now.

I bought mine from eBay with ultrabase. i5 4gb ram. Upgraded the is to windows 10 latest build. This is my primary laptop. I am a heavy user. I use my x201 to run program like Adobe InDesign CC2018, Illustrator CC2018, Adobe Photoshop CC 2018, Finale Music Application....they just run perfectly fine. This laptop can even run those application in power saving mode. It's almost two years since I bought it from the US. I have ordered a 9 cell battery and excited to use it once I install it. Super in love with this vintage machine that has survived till today 🙌

Still using it as my main laptop since 2010, switched the hdd with ssd and upgraded the ram to 4gb, still runs pretty good for a "retro" laptop !

I'm still using my X201 as my main Laptop to this day. Well maybe more of a X200/X200s/X201 hybrid. Bought the X200 with an C2D P8600 new in 2009. Somewhere around 2014 the mainboard broke and I replaced it with one from an X201 with an i5-540m. Around the same time I got my hands on a broken X200s that was a lost cause, but had an 1440x900 LED Backlight panel. Swapped this panel in as well and now Its an X201 Mainboard in an X200 Case with an X200s Display.

Linux is a great way to breath new life into these older machines. I just resold an even older IBM R51 with MX Linux on it and it probably runs as well as it did brand new with Windows XP 14 years ago.

Very nice job on the intro! Lovely! As for X201, it's an excellent laptop! One could write an entire good laptop design 101 just by describing this model... One great feature of X201 is that a touchpad-less palmrest from X200 fits perfectly! It's like ~10$ upgrade that makes it look very clean and nice, plus trackpoint feels great without that pesky touchpad! Plus you can get 1400x900 LCD screen upgrade for these, bit expensive, but truly perfection. Too bad they are a little bit slow and not very power efficient now. It was my greatest days of computing when I've used it. Sadly, there won't be laptops this great any time soon. P.S. You got a bottom case from an X200. X201 actually has stereo speakers, which won't fit into X200 base. As for the modem, not all models have them. Mine has no modem, just a little pastic cover for the socket hole.

This is the best video of a think pad I've seen on KZfaq, and I've seen a lot in the last couple of days lol Yours is very clean. I'm about to buy an X201! Just bought a X220 and 755CX. I'm excited for those arriving than the gaming laptop I recently bought 😅 Thanks for the vid!

I have a 2nd X201 with i5 560 manufactured in Nov. 2011. I upgraded it to 8G rams and 500G SAMSUNG SSD. It is snapping fast and a powerful machine after the upgrading. The fan noise is quiet. I really like its original IBM thinkpad keyboard. The later models (chocolate keyboard)do not have the original keyboard. The build quality is so solid and I feel I can still use until its major components fail, such as the screen or fan. Probably another 5-8 years? amazing product!

Thanks I sure appreciate it. love to see more in depth smack down between the early x sears laptops

Still using mine as my only computer. Got it in 2015 from an ex corporate laptop dealer with the Dock. Does everything I need and more. Dual booting Win10 and Linux. I maxed out the RAM last year and don't see myself replacing it any time soon. It's gets a massive amount of use to be fair and has survived lots of spillages and drops. Good machine.

The 'delay' you notice on windows 10 will be pretty much gone if you go SSD. No need to temper expectations. Ive been running one of these (i7 model) for a couple months now as a daily driver and it been an absolute blast.

My M540 model has been my daily laptop with FreeBSD 10 and 11 for years. Very nice experience. And with 8G RAM ZFS is running very well.

Really fine review!!! Thank you. :) I have two (2) of these things, and they are amazing - one is my DD (daily driver) and its been through 3 keyboards since i bought it used, and a few battery packs. Updated to 8GB Ram and Win10 Pro, and these things still get the job done for the basics, easily. Buddy stopped egging me on to switch to a Macbook years ago, when he kept calling me to do this or that for him - usually communications hardware installs, auto OBDC reads, programing, etc. - and his Mac wasn't going for it. Think i'll keep mine! :) Beautiful units.

I'm really surprised to learn the X201 came with one or 2 speakers flavors. Mine has two. In 2022 I still use it with an SSD, 8GB and Win10, and runs pretty well compared to my very much newer thinkpads. For normal use, this beauty is still a very viable machine if you don't want to spend 500+ USD on a newer machine which will perform almost identical.

This channel is one of the best channel for Lenovo X Series Reviews

Nice, 51NB/reddit are doing a custom group buy of a custom "X210" (now called X2100). It is essentially the body of the X201, but they have completely developed a new motherboard. It lets you have this laptop with an i7-10710u or i7-10510u, a 3K 3:2 screen, an NVMe drive and a bunch of other things. Thinking of ordering it now I've seen this. Would be great if a KZfaqr like you could join the group buy (I think it's around $1200) to show one off on camera.

I got the Lenovo X201 i5 , 8 GB RAM, SSD 480 GB, Linux Mint, works amazing!!!

As of 2024, I can say that my x201s with i7, ssd, 8gb RAM, 1400x900 pixels screen and a docking station are the best spent 60 dollars of my life:)

Bought one of these for U$40. The screen has a couple of white spots (only visible on white backgrounds) but other than that it's an awesome little computer. The fans only kick in when watching vídeos and the performance is respectable for an old machine. Windows experience is tolerable but this laptop really shines with Linux.

Great channel thanks for these videos not tons of people doing older laptops content

the small door covered by black tape on the lid of the X60 to X201 is where the bluetooth card sits so maybe they put a hole there to let the card send and receive signal

Excellent dissection of a vintage device. Thank you

I was lucky enough to find a new old stock X201 3 years ago, enjoy using it more than my late model X1, I believe the X201 is the last Thinkpad to use a magnesium lid. Your video makes me like it even more now !

I’m watching this video on my x201 😩

I still use my X201 tablet now and then, especially when I go somewhere and a lot of typing is involved. I especially love the keyboard. Mine has a Core i7 640LM cpu, I upgraded it with an ssd and 8 GB RAM. It is still really usable and durable in 2021, everything except the 3G modem works like a charm with Windows 10 :) The only thing really in need of replacement is the battery... A major difference between the X200 and X201 is that the X201 came with a touchpad where the X200 did not. I actually like the design of the X201 more than that of the X220.

So, I have one of these with the i5 processor, 8GB of ram and a 256GB Adata SU800 SSD and while it's not a outright fast as my X230 or my T480 it is a heck of a lot faster than some of the crap Walmart is selling as new today. Add to that, its a daily driver. It spends most of it's time on my soldering bench in my electronics lab sitting in a docking station with a 24" monitor attached where it get's used to bring up schematics, component data sheets, do google searches, play YT videos and stream some relaxing music. I will often undock it to use as a terminal for my IMSAI 8080 or my Altair 8800. I got it for free from someone that "upgraded" to a POS Acer Aspire 1 he got from a big box store for something like $350. I offered to upgrade it for him to it's current spec for $150 but he was dead set on wasting his money. It will eat the Acer alive in almost every respect (keyboard, build quality, style, speed, features, ports, available accessories, etc..) and I will keep it until hell freezes over.

Hey Thinkpad Man.... I love your channel. Keep up the good work!

The adaptercables at 15:40 are for a WWAN card (some models like mine allow you to insert a sim card for mobile internet/Wireless Wide Area Networking)

I'm still using X201 with i5 CPU, 8GB of RAM and SSD disk, it is running Windows 10 x64 without any problems (well, with one - unstable WWAN Gobi 2000 card driver). P.S. x201 has 2 speakers, but as you've mention, your particular unit has a bottom case from x200.

I am watching your video in Aug 2020 with the Thinkpad X201 Tablet :)). Actually, I am using eGPU with Nvidia 980Ti with the Thinkpad X201 Tablet, Windows 10 and it runs flawlessly. Love the build quality of the laptop.

I was surprised to see there's still a lot of these bad boys still in circulation. And being one of the last thinkpads you can get without a touchpad even though it isn't the most practical is, to me very heartwarming. Reminds me of the ibm models and pre x200 lenovo models.

This intro is epic my friend :)

I am still using my X201 as my regular laptop. Core i5 2.67GHz,. 4GB original RAM. Windows 7 64-bit. I upgraded the hard drive to a Samsung EVO 500 SSD a few years ago. It made a huge difference in speed and gave this Thinkpad a second life. I like that it has the classic Thinkpad keyboard and the width of the laptop is the max that it can be to just fit the keyboard. It can get hot when pushed with gaming or video, but I can run a 24 inch monitor along with the laptop screen for regular work. Never taken it apart. I have two identical Thinkpad docking stations, one for work and one for home. The laptop is still in perfect condition. I never dropped it or used the Kensington lock. Probably will upgrade to an X1 Carbon or X1 Yoga in the next year or so. I will try taking off the keyboard to blow out some dust from the fan. Up until now I have been just blowing compressed air through the vents on the bottom and the exhaust vent on the left side.

i'm watching this just after i bought a for-parts x201 for a very low price, it's a lower spec than yours and it's missing a few things but i hope i can bring it to life and keep it out of the landfill for years to come

Awesome content! Thank you for these Thinkpad videos!

I still use the X201 today as my daily driver. It works good. Only have 4gb of ram in it though. But it still handles software development just fine.

I love my X201. I take it to work everyday. Recently dropped windows 10 for linux. Windows 10 ran beautifully for me though.

Tengo un thinkpad t61 de los últimos con el logo de IBM y la verdad es que son muy bueno y vale la pena conservarlo, mi Lenovo está en condiciones de nueva aún con los años de edad que tiene 😂. Saludos cordiales desde RD y buena revisión.

I have a think pad X201 that I used in school. I started using it recently again at work.

The section next to the WLAN is used for the Gobbi 2000 Modem for GSM connection, I've currently got one fitted to my x201 with 3G. (takes a full size sim card). There is no caddy for the sim card tray. As for using it today, I'm running mine with windows 10 and makes for a great Student Laptop, Runs all the office programs i Need as well.

I just bought one off ebay which came with an ssd and it's by far the fastest machine I've ever owned, which is kind of sad because this laptop is from 2010 and most of the pc's I've owned came well after that. I will say that the speakers are terrible but I'm going to see if I can splice in some old speakers from a couple of broken smart phones. When it was on Windows 7, Google Chrome would boot up faster than I could put my fingers on the keyboard to type! I just wish Windows 10 were as fast, it seems to take twice as long. Boot up is now about 20 seconds instead of 10 and I have to wait a few seconds longer for Chrome to load, not a huge deal but ideally it'd be better if there were no downtime. Having said that, I might try Linux for the first time and see how that goes. What a great introduction to the world of Thinkpads, I must say. I can't wait to see what kind of trouble I can get into with a t440p.

I am watching this on my x201T and with the top of the line i7 model it is not bad at all under Linux. The biggest wall you will probably run into is memory usage. I have 4GBs in it and Firefox can eat through all of it if I am not careful.

X201 is supposed to have two speakers. I guess one got snipped off to fit in the X200 base because X200 only had one speaker.

Actually, the DP out is on the digital dock connector. Just not added to the side ports. The second speaker (stereo) is on the left under the ExpressCard slot

Love your work. Definitely one of my favourite ThinkPad. I hate the newer X series ThinkPad. Cheers 🍻

I have an X140e with and AMD A4-5000 I upgraded to 8GB of DDR3L RAM, and I'm running Linux Mint 19 mate with good results on all except VGA/HDMI out where the system will go nuts, and sometimes lock up when trying to use them, so if anyone has any suggestions for fixing this please let me know, and yes I've upgraded the kernel via Ukuu with the latest open source AMD drivers. Also great intro, and review. :-)

thanks for review...... this thinkpad x201 is usage for work.... upgrade ram and ssd is easy

My daughter is running a x201 with windows 10 and she is finding it more than sufficient for her daily need apart from it missing the "A" key

14.56 i have watched this video many times i just saw that it has a philippines NTC sticker (national telecommunications commission). your x201 originated here in the phils or the original owner is from the phils. i have the x61 with docking station, x230, t430 and t530 (with the 30's 1 docking station) with maxed ram and 240/500 gb ssd's. i would love to get the x201 to add to my workhorses.

been using my x201 as a daily driver, too. getting ready to replace it with the t440p, though (;

Thanks for the video 🙏

I love and appreciate very much all the work you put into telling the THINK story! I have one question for you or anyone who can provide feedback : In 2008 the x61 had an Exec or CEO version that was "clad in Leather" according to the Literature on the product at the time. I saw one picture and it looks very nice and classy! Anyhow , my question is if anyone can point me to examples of perhaps an aftermarket cover that may fit either my x61 or x201 ? I still use the x201 because it was the last to have the audio in and out rather than the "combo" jack my t420 has for example. Also, I am told there is a very good USB3.0 card that works? OK< that was two questions but any info would be greatly appreciated!

X201i also has the latch. X201i used to be my daily driver.

Love the video. I got an old x201 with 4G ram from work, was gathering dust and unusable at work. Put Linux Mint 19 cinnamon on it. Can't get the fingerprint scanner to work. Installed Fingerprint GUI but that does not recognize the scanner. Any suggestions?

8GB ram, 128GB SSD and Kubuntu 18.04, boots faster than Windows 10 on x260's at work.

I don't run Windows 10 if I can help it but your using a mechanical hard drive. Of course Windows 10 is going to crawl. Another mute point is the 3gb of ram. But, if your using 32-bit Windows, I guess that works. But just swap the HD for an SSD and you'll have something far faster than say the HP stream series. Now, that's painful running anything. But Ubuntu, Mint or Arch runs really good with just an i5. It's not going to compete with say a Dell e7290, it's just not. But it's still a very useful computer.

Does anyone's X201 has overheating problems?

Hi! man, where can I install a bluetooth module? Is it on the left hand side under the palm rest? or behind the screen? thx!

likely picking up this laptop later today.. cost around 100-110 USD and has 8GB ram and 560m CPU along with a 3-month-old battery. so yeah. a steal in my eyes

One of the few brands that can survive UPS...

How much SSD can you put in there and what kind of SSD is supported?

Why didn't you show how to change the thermal paste on the CPU?

One of my favorites. Mine has a couple of white spots on the screen but I cant find a reliable source for a new lcd panel. Still, it's very usable and it has a really good keyboard.

love my x201. just put linux on it and its pretty interesting. still have windows 10 installed on my other SSD

Does x200 and x201 has the same screens? I checked the manuals but can't find the answer the question of mine.

Thanks! Am trying to solve overheating problem in my X201 i5 Tablet. I'm wishing you'd gone all the way and removed mobo to show how to get to CPU.

Hello, should I buy this for coding , I already have a pc as main workstation , I just need a laptop for remote work, iam cs student.

I love the x201 although i was being annoyed by the power drain mine had ... in atempts to fix the issue at component level( it think it was the main 3V3 and 5V reg not shutting down) i unplugged the monitor with the battery in and killed my cpu ... my first think pad, dead :/ I did end up ordering a new board for it though. Can't wait for it to arrive since I might actually want to daily this machine again :D

I want to buy x201. Is it fine to go out with that laptop at present .. seller says it's 250 dollar and no webcam on it .. its fully refurbished undergone all test ..

Best model. I like it!

Hello, does somebody know if I can change the battery to the pen? or how to use it in another device like modern laptops that support this pens. Thanks in advance

Great video!! But do you think this device would be usable in an i7 skew, 8 gigs of ram, ssd, in mint linux?

Is it possible to replace the graphic card?

Upgraded to SSD, upgraded RAM, changed keyboard but I would also like to change the base cover but that seems like a rather hard thing to do. I have two X201 but the one in good condition has a dead screen so I would like to take the base cover from it and put it on the X201 with a working screen since I figured that would be easier than switching screens (also I would not need to remove the cover for the screws on the screen) advice please.

Can we upgrade the ram from 4 to 8 G ?

How to upgrade lenovo x201 i7 HDD to SSD?

Hello, How much ram can you put in a x220? I have just gone over to computers from smartphones, can you recommend some apps and programmes for my x220? I am using Microsoft Windows 10 64 bit. Great channel! Thank you for your time.

The X201 in the video, does it config with SSD?

Debating on an x201t i saw on offerup. On one hand the 2 current thinkpads will cover my needs(once properly uograded) but i do like thinkpads enough to kinda want to collect them

Hey mine is dead, turns on for a few secs and than it shuts off... Any idea where I could get it fixed? Thanks loved the vid

Upgraded mine with SSD, USB3x2, dock, 9cell battery. Have it for years. WLAN died and the screen kinda sucks (resolution and viewing angles) but still kick ass.

I'm watching this video on a x201 running Ubuntu. :)

theirs thier werid mod were you could soder some wires from the dock connectors and add a mstata slot and a better display

Why "ThinkPad X201s" is not found expect for Japan???? WXGA+ (1440×900) resolusion display is so good !

CAN ANYONE HELP ME PLS i have some problems with the graphics card. I think it is because of the drivers but idk. My x201 got ssd disk and 8gb of ram but it says something about the grafics card and most of the games cant be played. I have this problem now in windows 10 but i didnt had it on windows 7. Could anyone send me the drivers from the graphics card on windows 10 or tell me what is the problem? PLS I HAVE BEEN SEARCHING AWNSER FOR MONTHS

does it have pre-installed bluetooth ??

Can we upgrade the cpu?

I got my x201 to run 16GB of ram, but only in Linux. Seems to be a bit unstable though.

watching this on my x200 tablet tbh

Should I get one with an i5 m540? is it worth it or should I look for better? It also has 8g ram and an ssd

I ve had an x201 x220 and a t470

I'm thinking buying one with i5 520m with 4 gb ram. 160 HHD. Wdy think

its price for bd??

It has i7 640m too. I have that model.

Watching it on a x201 i5

You are missing a speaker!

Can it run games? Like dota 2?

Can I run games with it like Minecraft or roblox at least hahaha I play something like War thunder tho