the thermal paste on the x1 is probably quite old and needs to be replaced

I used to work for a college. I've seen a few buying the HP Stream because they liked the size and the price was affordable for them. After a few weeks of trying to use storage heavy engineering software, the students became frustrated and wanted to sell their underpowered laptops.

This pretty much mirrors my real-life laptop circumstances this year. For Christmas, my stepmother got me an HP Stream. Only 64 GB of storage, weak speakers, and the only redeeming qualities were the webcam and that it was convenient to carry for typing documents on the fly. A week ago, I bought myself a used ThinkPad x260 off of eBay for $109. 8GB RAM, 500GB HDD, solid speakers, and faster performance. I’m also purchasing another ThinkPad with no HDD to install an SSD with Linux Mint to tinker around with and get back into learning Linux.

Even a refurbished t420 would be so amazing

I didn't know that Lenovo had a touchscreen like a row for the function keys. This was made before Apple started putting in Touchbars in the newer MacBook Pros!

2:58 not offended at all. Everyone knows the keyboard and trackpad of lenovo machines from that gen were absolutely garbage.

I gave it a thumbs up for the very excellent, barn-burnin' Lagavulin single malt at the 13:12 mark.

WHAT WERE THEY THINKING? WHERE IS THE CAPS LOCK KEY ON THAT X1 GEN2? I MEAN INTERNET WAS ALREADY INVENTED WHEN THE GEN2 CAME OUT. IM SORRY FOR THE CAPS BUT I CANNOT TURN IT OFF BECAUSE I HAVE A LENOVO THINKPAD X1 CARBON X1 GEN2. I WISH I HAD A GEN1 OR A GEN3 OR LITERALLY ANY OTHER LAPTOP EVER MADE.

Some don't like the keyboard on the X1C 2nd Gen but I found it very endearing even if it had a learning curve. I really enjoyed it when I had it in the studio.

I bought a fully functional and fully loaded T420S Thinkpad on eBay for under $60, including shipping. Hi-res screen and USB 3.

Amazing video as always!

Unfortunately it seems there is just this common "frown at used things" narrative today. My sub-$100 ThinkPad T430 despite having more processing power than the macbooks and other junk people use is constantly frowned upon by people who will always come up with an excuse as to why my machine is just bad. That's why so many people buy these "new" HP junk at retail stores, its because they can't fathom anything used.

As a Thinkpad fan I'd suggest avoiding the x40 era clickpad "experiment" to anyone. Thankfully Lenovo fixed it back in the x50 era.

I bought a used T430 and love it. I upgraded the memory and threw in a large SSD, and it’s a beast as a daily driver and is good enough for light gaming.

Man it has been a while since your last video. Is everything OK? I hope so. BTW good to see you back.

Agree 100%. For a tiny desktop the Lenovo ThinkCentre line is readily available.

Congrats on 50k subs

You could get an X220 for cheaper than the X1C and it can support 16GB of RAM.

nice preface...3:11 I can almost audibly hear everyone scream "how dare you!" haha

This is good to know. I’ve been seeing a lot of these around (second hand) and they look pretty but that’s probably the least important thing about tech. I love messing around with machines and I’m also big on recycling etc. so I’ll definitely be sharing this video. Plus, now I also know not to be tempted to buy that bright red machine I spotted on marketplace 😊

i have the x1 carbon 2nd gen and tested the keyboard flex on my unit and it was not NEARLY as bad as the video showed, i guess you just have to get lucky.

Hey on the budget Linux topic could we get a review of the arm powered pinebook pro?

I just recently purchased a similar Thinkpad setup with an amazing docking station for around $200 on Ebay. It's the best computer I've ever owned, and a premium experience in every way.

Man there is a major issue with that X1 Keyboard lol. I have a ThinkPad (Albeit not that model) and you could push all day long and never get it to spring up and down like that. Great video, thanks.

The HP stream like all "cloud books" (MS lingo for their laptops with > 64 GB storage, there are windows tablets with similar specs) due to the limited storage space forces the need to purchase of additional storage (memory card, the "hd" is a fixed emmc chip on the mainboard). The only three options I think the HP stream is better on paper is weight, battery life, and built-in bluetooth. It should also have Office 365 for a year, but if you use Open Source like Libre, so unless you're a power user, I won't recommend HP stream.

Also, great place to buy laptops if you live in Australia, is Gumtree. Got an Acer Aspire with 8GB DDR4 RAM, Dual Core AMD A9, with dedicated Radeon graphics, for about $150. Runs CS:GO at 60fps at Med/Low 1080p, runs Minecraft flawlessly, and you can get some good 1080p video editing done with Hitfilm. Great daily driver, and you can get similar deals like that if you've got a good week to watch and wait for a good ad.

Watching this on my ThinkPad x200s that I bought used 4.5 years ago and that's still serving me perfectly fine. :)

I got a used T500 for free about 4 months ago. It is old and definitely needs lots of care and parts, but I have great plans to prepare it for 2021. As I enjoy going down "the fun way" and don't have immediate need for it to be used productively, it will see upgrades one at a time.

I bought a used HP Elitebook 8440w back in 2015 for $125 on Ebay. I've only upgraded the ram to 8gb but I can put a quad core i7 and 16gb ram in it. Brushed aluminum finish... just a great machine

I watched this video on a 2019 HP Stream 11. I got mine at Target as an open box for $126 right after black friday.

You should check out undervolting with Intel XTU. Might help the throttling, my 6200u doesn't throttle when undervolted.

Likely just need to open and clean the cooling fan and exhaust port filter for the X1. Also if you can remove heatsink from CPU on that X1 it might be time for some new thermal paste.

Have you tried Neverware CloudReady on the Stream 11 yet?

You might want to give the L series a look. The L512 has back panel that opens to the whole heatsink/fan and both RAM slots. The fan is held in by one screw, heatsink by 4 -- it all pivots out easily to change the thermal paste. It's much easier to work on than the T series.

How can you tell what generation you are buying or looking at in reference to the Lenovo X1 Carbon?

You can actually grab the latest trackpad driver and install it manually, but it isn't an official driver update. Although the keyboard part you have to customize it yourself, or have someone else do it.

The stream 11 was my first computer... I still have it, and it is running Ubuntu 19.04.

Thanks for this video - very interesting. Personally, I love secondhand ThinkPads. At the moment I have an X250, X260, T450, T460s, T470, and a T470p. I'm also a huge Linux fan, so they're all running Linux :) I picked up every single one for next to nothing - real bargains. It's like a have a laptop for every occasion!

What do you think about the ThinkPad yoga 12, for 180 to $300 depending on your configuration, it's a lot more limited but you get a 1080p touchscreen with a 360 degree hinge. Can you get one and tell us if there's any other drawbacks other than upgradability? I'm thinking about getting it for my sister who's really in the part and it would be an upgrade even over her desktop

Got a Thinkpad Yoga 12 for 150 quid! Pen, 1080p IPS touchscreen 2 in 1, 5th gen i5, 8gigs of ram and an SSD!

I've managed to do this with a Haswell laptop for $120 before - I have a Latitude E6440 I bought with backlight issues for $50. It needed some work (primarily a new screen, but I upgraded it to an HD+ screen assembly for $30; $4 more then the matched bare panel). Also needed a drive but I got a 240GB PNY SSD for $40. Granted mine came with a i5-4300M CPU (4200M base, so minor upgrade from the factory), which I am completely happy with to the point I see no need to change it. Since I work with Dell laptops a lot, the charger was not an issue for me but if you needed one plan to spend ~$20 for a used slimline adapter. The OEM ones are cheaper but not by much and I prefer the loop around cord design so it's worth it to me. My battery is a bit weak (31.6% health; ~1H 52M of run-time left), but I'm not going to change it until it gets worse since I don't need the battery to hold hours of charge. However, if you had to buy it you can get a aftermarket one for $30 or so.

My T440p has that same trackpad and I do have to agree that it is absolutely crap. I did hear that you can swap it out but I honestly can't be bothered at the moment. There's a few things I need to do such as install an SSD and new battery so maybe I'll do it all at once when I find some time.

I love how he says "da" instead of "the"

3:00 That's when I clicked Like

i totally agree with all you say... once again, this is a really good video and i'm going to do what i do all of the time i'm going to tell my story about pro laptop love. the first pro serie laptop i got that really impressed me was a gift. it was the DELL Latitude E6500 because of it's build quality... that thing is really made for last forever it's really good and so easy to take off one screw to access to everything like memory, all the MPCI-E cards and all you need to replace in a really short time. to take off the screen, when the bottom plate is off you need to remove the screws that attach the hinges and unplug the cables that are all in easy access under that bottom plate so, for fast repair of a PC that need to be used right now with a spare screen assy it can be replaced in less than 15 minutes so for a pro who need his laptop now that's just awesome if the screen got broken. and, about broken screen, that laptop resist to a lot of bad treatment it's really made for las as i said but now, it's really limited specially if you buy the version with the Nvidia Quadro NVS160 that's going to not be able to play a video in full HD on youtube and, if you bought the version with the 1980x1200@60hz screen, you want that to be possible and it's possible (only if you have the version with the Quadro. if it's inltel HD you can't it's not really the same laptop), you can buy a motherboard for a DELL Precision M4400 and it fit in the laptop no modification need they are both the same and well... after than on ubuntu you can play full hd video with youtube (even now you still can but with something lite like LXDE. now, i got a newer laptop that is a real killer it's the DELL Precision M6600. it have a full HD anti glare screen, backlight on the keyboard (as the latitude E6500 or Precision M4400), a really not bad I7 2820QM, and the original GPU was a Quadro 4000M. i bought it for 200EUR (218.82USD) and i replaced it for a AMD FirePro 6100 with is way better (easy to get in the USA for something like 35USD i added a MPCIE SSD for 60USD and it was sold with no memory so i toke the ones of my old garbage laptop so, 8gb of DDR3 1333 and that thing is super powerful and totally kick asses of the new garbage you can get now for the same price. as the M4400, it's made for lase but it's a super big and heavy 17" laptop but for games.... it's still really good so, continue your video and doing that is also good because it's recycling so it's also good for our poor planet!

I have been trying to convince anyone with a small budget just to go down this route. Some listen and get Lenovo laptops others buy heaps of crap that are not worth it :)

I would say I love that X1 Carbon, but when launched everybody hated the keyboard and trackpad. Especially everyone I knew that have another ThinkPad. I tested it in an event and the trackpad situation was hilarious, but it was compensated with the touchscreen for an UI like Windows 8 at that time.

The WWAN slot on the X1 Carbon might also be able to take a SATA 2242 m.2 SSD. The ability to have two SSDs might be enough to get some to buy that computer.

What happened to your dell inspiration 15 3251

Got a 4th gen i7 6600 carbon x1 on ebay for about 200$ really great deal just needed an M.2 and os install. Changed to arctic silver paste and is a bomb computer.

I had that same x1 carbon. I paid $128 CDN for it and sold it for $380 CDN after putting a new SSD in it.

Its a shame that the X lineup is aways overpriced where i live (and actually all thinkpads, but the X lineup about 3x more)... I like thinkpads, just cant pay a price from a 4th, and maybe even 7th gen intel i5's for a first or second gen thinkpad.

After watching your last video about cheap Vs ThinkPad I just picked up ThinkPad helix for about 125 Dollers. Really like it quite fast and very good nick.only thing pen does not work think windows 10 problem ??

How about a second-hand HP Stream?

4:36 yeah i known which machine i'd rather use on appearance at _very_ least

It might be interesting if you compared two laptops in the same class!

I need me to find one of well priced carbons tho, I'm glad I didn't jump the gun on a refurbished x220 on sale lol

I bought a used X1 Carbon 6th gen. Wow the keyboard and trackpad are much improved and i actually prefer it over my surface laptop. Just throwing my 2 cents out there. I'm glad i didn't get a 2nd gen.

Still using t450s, working as a gem❤️

Can you please do a video on cloudready os on touchscreen windows device.

What would be a good sub 200 14 or 11 inch option new or used that is thin,light, fast boot time, long battery life. This would only be used to office work and web browsing.

You can actually upgrade the trackpad with a later version, one with buttons.

Normies buy the hp stream because “It looks pretty so it must run better” 🤣

My Lenovo x1 Carbon 2nd gen came with a 1920x1080 display with 8gb RAM and a core i7 dual core and well.... same ssd

Seller linked in video didn't have any X1 carbons, but a good assortment of T and X series thinkpads. Most of those are a good choice and CHEAPER!

I hate the trackpad on my 2nd gen X1 carbon. However, I didn’t have any problem with the keyboard despite the “special” touch functionality of the function keys. Also mine did come with a 1440p display, 8gb of ddr3 ram, and an i7 cpu. I recommend applying new thermal paste and cleaning cooling system thoroughly. The battery sucks too btw “2 hours of battery.”

I have a thinkpad tabletpc, no idea what to do with it, any suggestions?

I recommend the HP Elitebook 820 G1. Hands down the easiest to upgrade you literally just flip a switch to take the panel off. It has all the ports you need. The only down side is the screen is a bit low quality and cannot open all the way flat like the thinkpads can.

My first computer was the stream 11. Those were not fun times. Then I got an HP stream 14. I was exited for an upgrade until I found out that I was the same thing internal, just bigger.

the only upside of the HP Stream is that its an indestructable word processor for non-tech Uni/College courses. You can throw it in a bag and not worry about it breaking. Buy second hand if you want a word processor for lectures purely.

How heavy is the x1 and what's the battery life

From a ThinkPad fan: We agree that 40 series ThinkPad trackpads are trash. That keyboard is specific only to X1 Carbon 2

I got a refurbished 17.3 inch HP Notebook off Amazon for $430 back in August. It has a 1 terabyte hard drive, optical disk drive, touch screen, AMD processor, touch screen, and more. If a laptop ain't got a built in optical disk drive, that's a deal breaker for me.

I got an elitebook 9480 about 9 months ago and it’s about in the price range and age of the carbon, imo hp has really good keyboards and trackpads in their corporate level devices. If you took the fun route I took the amazing time route. Mine looked like it fell off a truck (broken screen, broken trackpad, case in really bad shape), the motherboard was good and I got a dead one and married the two devices. I got an i7 in rough shape for $40 and about another $60 for one with a dead motherboard and a perfectly working laptop was the result.

The first thing that gets plugged into any laptop I work with is a Logitech wireless mouse. Ironically enough, the MS wireless mouse I had plugged into a T430 caused the Win 10 install to barf, but not the Logitech.

My mom and sister grabbed 5 HP stream 14's on a black friday sale like 3 years. I had to do a clean OS install on all of them and disable windows update on ALL of them and optimized them ALL to be a lil more snappy cuz the emmc memory in them are HORRIBLE. I have one of them now that I installed android x86 on and I have to say they work alot better with Android x86 and lynix than windows.

I got a $170 (it's now $150) Asus X441BA laptop new from Micro Center - it couldn't even SETUP Win 10, popped in an SSD and installed Ubuntu MATE. Runs like a champ!

Does it have Bluetooth?, if you wanted to use it as a portable console for emulators and low-end / old games, and never used it for web browsing be on streaming.

I did just this, bought a stream in a pinch. I just spent $175 on a used i7 T440P on eBay, and $100 on a 1TB SSD, and I’ll never look back!

Thinkpad guys might hate me but I bought a 2010 15” MacBook Pro for $175 upgraded the Ram & Storage and been using it daily for the last year and it’s been great 👍🏻

What's the best used/refurbished laptop for gaming under $200?

You can upgrade the X1 Carbon's trackpad.

The x240 might be a great option compared to the stream 11. It's not that much thicker, not that much heavier and also has a slightly bigger 12.5 inch screen. In the UK, an ideapad s130 with an n4000, 4gb of memory and 64gb of storage is available for £229 whilst an x240 with an i5-4300u, 320gb of storage and 8gb memory can be bought used for about £150

I have a thinkpad l440, i think it’s the mist underrated thinkpad ever, i think it’s the best.

because of all these videos, prices of most of parts for upgrading the thinkpads have gone up.

I'm still faintly proud of the used XPS 15 9560 I picked up for £550 earlier this year

Wish used thinkpads were as competitively priced in UK as they are in USA.

How can you offend anyone saying that the chiclet keyboard of a ThinkPad sucks? It's the reason why people puts the *magnificent* T420 keyboard in the T430. It's a thing that it's universally agreed in the ThinkPad community.

Hello sir I bought laptop recently then after 3 months I returned it to the store and turned out it has a factory defect is it still good to use the laptop after repaired? What is the pros and cons ?

when i was younger my friends had blue hp stream's and i had an old hp g6 from around 2011 and its safe to say that the g6 demolished the stream's.

hp 9770w and 8900 series are around the 180 240 bucks and run circles around the stream

Wait, does that lenovo basically have a touch bar?

Hi im planning to buy x240 i5 8gb ram 128gb ssd. U think its ok this 2022? Im using it photoshop video editing. Google chrome. Office works.

I got the HP stream as a graduation gift when I graduated in 2016- and have not been able to update windows at all since I got it. 🙃 I'm using it to learn python currently, while I save up to get something better.

if you don't mind losing the Delete key you can remap it using Sharpkeys and have it as a Backspace too. Also 170USD for an X1 is an insane deal I couldn't even dream of

Can you put a graphics card in the HP xw9400 pls.

7:31 perfomance PROOF

There is a use case where the stream would be better, streaming or playing games in a car. But I would only suggest it if you regularly had 3 + hour road trips.

I have similar experience with a HP 15 with 4GB Gen7 i5 laptop, works just OK on AC power, Keyboard and Touch pad is great but speed step and energy savings on the laptop make the laptop so slow and unusable on battery. I guess that is how they get 10hr battery life rating.

Lifetime ThinkPad user. There is a reason why combo buttons and that horribad touchpad didn't last long. They were universally hated by users and even Lenovo employees