ThinkPad X60 - Still Amazing After 10 Years 

"If my house was on fire and I could only take one computer with me, I would take this one." It's a ThinkPad. Just leave it. Grab a computer that is actually susceptible to fire.

If only There was a laptop with modern specs but that legendary IBM build quality

We still use some T60's at work in our production line, some still with XP (no internet access of course) and some already with Win 7 and you really can't kill them. We had one with a failing screen backlight for about a week but someone gave it a good wack and it works since years again. We had some HDDs failing but that's normal for the amount of abuse these things already got. Even the fans are fully blocked with dirt and so on but they're still running like nothing happened, all the dirt on the keyboard and it still works, the missing mouse knob, the super worn touchpad but still working, the broken cases and missing edges and still... working. Like nothing happened... These things surprise me till this day, and the fact that even with Windows 7 they're perfectly fast enough for production usage is amazing.

Still have my X201 after 8 years. Still loving it.

Excellent video review. I bought a ThinkPad x61 from eBay, and modified it with Middleton's BIOS, installed 8 GB of RAM (probably not necessary, but wanted to see if it could be done) and a 240 GB Crucial BX200 SSD. It runs Windows 10 flawlessly. While the 1024x768 display is somewhat grainy by today's standards, the compact size, nearly instant boot-up with the SSD, and fantastic office/web performance makes the x60/x61 family a winner. I liked this one so much, I bought a second one for my wife, who uses it as her daily driver. The lack of a webcam isn't a huge issue (no video conferencing), and I like the peace-of-mind in knowing that it does not have a webcam. Bluetooth 4.0 can be "added" to this machine by placing a mini PCIe adapter in the WWAN slot (since that slot has the USB signal), and then plugging in a suitable low-profile Bluetooth adapter ("low profile" enough that the palm rest will snap back into place). All I really need to figure out now is to replace the older CCFL backlight with an LED backlight, if it can be done.

The X200s came in 2008 and only featured a track-point (NO track-pad). In my opinion the X200s is the "last" of the IBM Thinkpads, it was probably the last one designed by IBM themselves even if it came out with Lenovo branding. Had it for 8 years now and still running great! It was and still is a functional work of art. Take a look: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ThinkPad_X_Series#/media/File:ThinkPad_X61_and_X200s.jpg PS: I still have an X24 and that's still running great though the hinge needed fixing in it's later years.

I picked up on on eBay for 20$, put some ram and a ssd in it. Installed Windows 7 ultimate, it works flawlessly, no problems whatsoever I really suggest this laptop to someone even though it's over 10 years old.

Nice review! I still use a T60p with a 2.33GHz Core 2 Duo as my primary computer - plays HD RU-vid video fine, edits video in Premiere fine, and has a nice 4:3 15" IPS display that looks great. It may be a decade old but it does everything I need (I'm not a gamer) so I plan to keep using it for the foreseeable future.

Memories. Bought mine new in 2006 - I still have it and it still works like a champ. Mine has the IBM logo. SSD installed long ago and it has gone from Win XP up the scale and is presently running Win 10 with no issues. What caused me to replace it (with another Thinkpad, of course) was the need to handle 4K video. Other than that, it would still be active.

Watching this on my T60 right now. Best computer I have ever bought. Dropped it a hundred times, spilled liquid on it on multiple occasions and it's still going strong.

I got myself a T43 for about $35 and it has been doing really well. I need to upgrade it a bit since it shipped with a Centrino Mobile processor and 40GB of internal memory, but it is so easy to mod this machine. IBM knew how to leave their computers pretty wide open to modding, and that was especially the case with this model.

I had one of these (X61) a few years back, was fantastic. Also had the Lenovo dock for it, just plug it to a big screen, real keyboard, mouse,...and leave it on your desk. I used to take the X61 to go to uni, and when I would come back at my flat, just drop it on the dock and bang, full desktop computer experience. Nowadays it seems easy, but hey, 10 years ago, it was mindblowing !

merry Christmas to you and your family

I had one of these up until 2015 until I started using architecture programs. Despite 7 years of rough service, it kept on kicking while most friends had to replace their broken laptops every 2 years or so.

WOW so many ignorant people in the comments this is incredible .... This is an ultraportable Thinkpad business machine ! 1.This is not a gaming laptop this is ultraportable business machine like i sad so integrated GPU is suitable. 2.Build quality and keyboard are superior to basically any new 11"/12" netbook today ( the fact that this laptop is working perfectly after 10 years is also speaking a lot about reliability ). 3. 4GB of RAM is plenty for WEB browsing , coding , gaming etc...on this machine and enough for moderate use even on desktop. 4.Business laptops tend to have these old and "obsolete" ports which is a good thing you don't have to fiddle with dongles to connect an old camera or printer/scanner/ext HDD. 5.This machine can handle 720p just fine ( this is a 1024x768 screen ). 6.Windows XP is lightweight and perfectly usable OS for light to moderate use today and it is supported by many companies with some tweaks you can still receive security updates + antivirus + "basic understanding of web" and you are fairly secure. 7. 4:3 or 16:9 is a matter of preference.... iPad has 4:3 screen...... 8.There is a docking station for this laptop ( which adds CD rom,and even more ports ). 9.Price for this Thinkpad is ~100$ sometimes even less. 10.X60 has a fingerprint reader. 11.With extended battery autonomy of 5-6 hours can be achieved even more with X60s. Compared to an average new 12" (~300$) netbook today this machine lacks integrated web cam, trackpad , Bluetooth , slightly lower resolution 1024x768 vs 1366x768 . Is this a deal breaker ? For web browsing , coding , text editing , old school gaming on the go this is an excellent choice for much less money. Web cam can be added via USB and BT via pcmcia slot however lack of trackpad can be a problem to some people but once you get used to track point , trackpad is not nedeed .

I got a T61, same specs as this, just a different form factor, these things are great, much better than the laptops on sale now.

I will agree that buying used laptops in the same price range as a cheap new one is a much smarter idea. Back in 2014 I bought a 2011-era ThinkPad T420 for $450 and it wiped the floor with anything new in the same price range (and probably still does). And now those are going for much cheaper and are excellent performers. Mine's equipped with the less-common i7 2640M 2.80 GHz CPU, 8GB of RAM, a 1TB 7200RPM HDD, Intel HD 3000 graphics and a 14" 1600x900 display. Got a 250GB Samsung mSATA SSD coming for it too, which will definitely bring some new life into it. One thing I'd like to add is that the T420 (as well as it's smaller sibling, the X220) were the last mainstream ThinkPads with the classic style keyboard, which is still a pleasure to type on. It's one of the reasons I hold that generation of ThinkPads up to a higher standard, because they were an end of an era.

Merry Christmas VWestlife.

Wow, that's surprising usability for such an old machine! I'd be interested to see a video on you switching to one of the latest ThinkPads, and your thoughts on how much better the experience is or isn't. Gotta love the faithful companion ThinkPads!

I am so bored, that watching a review of a 10 year old laptop seems like a good idea.

Great job. I'm inspired to refurbish my X60 and put it back to work.

I have a ThinkPad X200 with windows 7 and an ssd inside. It still performs beautifully. It can also run Windows 10 64bit decently.

The song I played in Adobe Audition can be downloaded here: www.amstereo.org/files/80s%20test%20track4.mp3 Corrections: The ThinkPad X61 and T61 were also available with the IBM logo, although it is uncommon to find them equipped as such, and the X200 (the X61's successor) was the last ThinkPad to only have the TrackPoint and not a touchpad. (You could also get the X201 with only the TrackPoint, but most of them came with a touchpad as well.)

Awesome video! I received a secondhand(but in mint condition) X60s from a coworker a month or so ago. I decided to turn it into a project; upgrading the motherboard and a few other things to X61s spec for very little outlay. After tossing in an old Intel X25M SSD I had sitting around it's been a rather good machine. Just in time too, as my main laptop(a T430) suffered an unfortunate accident. Currently I'm daily driving the X60/1s until its replacement arrives, and I'm pleasantly surprised with how much I've been able to get done with it!

I've been saying IBM was ahead of their time... Best Desktop I've ever owned was an IBM unit, those things take a pounding and still run amazingly.

So my Core 2 Duo T7200 is definitely faster than an atom Z3735F. If only it was as power efficient.

It's coming to the end of 2019, just seen this video and coincidentally had only last month (August 2019) retired my faithful IBM/Lenovo T60, due to a failed backlight and battery. Purchased at the end of 2006, It was my main driver then backup workhorse for the last 13 years. In that time, I have looked after it well and it did the same for me. I never spilt any liquids onto it, periodically cleaned it inside including fan and dropped it only once. During its lifetime I had upgraded ram from 2 to 4GB, cpu t5600 to T7600 and the most significant upgrade, a 240GB SSD. It's an amazing piece of well designed engineering and dependability. I'm already missing my sidekick. I will keep it of course and may replace the backlight/display. Who knows, in the future someone maybe able to mod it with a hacked modern cpu based motherboard with all the bells and whistles and even kickstart(er) a 4:3 display revival.

Not even Mjölnir could damage a true Thinkpad.

I bought an X200 from a recycling shop for school presentations and such and the thing was amazing. Have only bought a new charger for it since the one that came with it broke down (although still works after a bit of fiddling) but otherwise the laptop itself is still 100% functional.

Things to watch out for after this time: The lubricant in the hinges can gum up. Replacement hinges should still be available though. The fan can start ratteling due to a worn out bearing, which isn't a problem in the first place and can be remedied by extracting the fan, opening it up and putting a drop of bearing oil onto its shaft. If it becomes worse, the fan might be in danger of breaking electrically, then it would need to be replaced. Regular cleaning of the fan grill + replacement of the thermal paste on the CPU and GPU is also recommended (about once every 4-5 years), but I'm sure you'll have done this at least once already.

"Windows 7 style gadgets" I love the Vista denial here

Keyboard drip holes, now that blew my mind.

The T60 came with a Core Duo CPU in some models, so it had only 32 bit, and that isn't very recommendable today, since practically everything is 64 bit nowadays. But you could still swap it out for a Core 2 Duo CPU rather easily (unlike in the X-series, where the CPU was soldered onto the board, so it was much harder to change the CPU and involved some BGA rework).

We have one of these at work, use it as a networking laptop. I recently refurbished it with a 250GB SSD and 8GB of RAM. It runs like a dream and is extremely durable. Really good bits of kit the Thinkpads of old IMO.

Seems like running Windows XP can make quite a difference. I was going to go back and check the specs again just to confirm, but I believe your X60 here has the same CPU and RAM as my X60 Tablet, but this does feel slower running Windows 10. Using MS Edge to comment, it's relatively quick to type if it's the only tab open, but I was commenting on another video earlier with a reddit page open and the lag was intense. Either way, really cool video, glad to see channels like this out there! You've got yourself a new subscriber.

I still use my T60 for daily work, 12 years and working every day.

i have a Compaq EVO N610c that i still use and it plays youtube videos fine at 720p as long as i open the video in vlc player it runs really well i think i will updated the 40gb hdd to an ssd soon to make it even better

Techmoan... you have a great taste.

Bought one of these this last weekend at the Lisbon flea market - it cost me less than 10€ since that’s what I paid for the laptop and a Samsung laptop power adapter. It included the docking base and I guess that it was the combined height of the x60 with its base that kept buyers away - it looked like a heavy, old laptop. This is a hell of a machine! Small, sturdy and super expandable.

I just bought my first thinkpad (T440p) this week. It's such a good feeling to know that most reviews about thinkpad I found so far are positives.

Pretty sad that a 2006 ThinkPad has smaller screen bezels than 90% of laptops produced today, including new ThinkPads.

It's a shame that these older chipsets are so power hungry, because the design of the entire computer is superior to that of modern laptops. The atom's benchmark may be inferior to the core2's but it has incredible performance per watt. With the push into ARM-based processors on laptops, we might be close to seeing a great compromise between the versatility and resilience of older computers and the high power and high efficiency of laptops today.

Wow! That's really fast for a 10 year old computer! It only takes a little bit longer to boot up than new gaming laptops!

I only recently realized that you play classical music in the background while you're recording. I think that's cool. I love the way you make your vids, man. Keep up the good work.

I still use my IBM Thinkpad t43 that I bought in 2005 almost daily. It still runs like new, boots quicker than most new computers and is still good for basic web surfing. Mine also has a finger print reader that works great and it still holds good charge! I will continue to use my thinkpad for hopefully years to come for word processing.

22:49 Of course gonna be faster because that Intel Atom is crap.

Business-class Thinkpads are still great. I'm talking about the T-series.

I have a fairly newer thinkpad, maybe 2012/13, or something. And it's awesome! I have no issue with older thinkpads, the main reason I use a newer one is for the gigabit ethernet and USB 3.0 support. But other than that, thinkpads really have not changed much since the old days. They still have great build quality.

I'm currently rocking a Lenovo ThinkPad T440S running macOS 11.6 Big Sur. It has an Intel Core i5-4300U, 12 GB of DDR3 RAM, 512 GB SSD, and 16 GB SSD. I use it everyday for school, work, web browsing, email, light gaming, and video editing.

I had a three ThinkPad's back then. One was a T60 in 2007 or 08 and it was a fantastic machine. Also had two T43's, purchased in 2007, which I still have to this day. I sold the T60 to a family member but still use both T43's. IBM made two different T43's. One was a little larger than the other but both used the same optional accessories (RAM, CPU, battery, dock, etc). I have two of the better docking devices. I say the 'better' one because IBM made two types of docking systems back then. The docking device made using your ThinkPad VERY convenient because when used with a compatible ThinkPad the PC could be used as a full-featured desktop and, at the push of a button, was a laptop again. The dock also had a single PCI expansion slot that permitted almost any type of expansion card to be used when the laptop was docked with it. The docking system I have came with a key and you could 'lock' the laptop in place if desired. The whole system was quite ingenious and I still use both T43's to this day, albeit, for less strenuous tasks since this is a single core PC. I replaced the battery a few times and the keyboard and CPU fan assembly once (so far). All can be found on Ebay quite inexpensively and except for the battery the other two components were genuine IBM replacement parts. These were top-of-the-line systems back then and I hated it when IBM sold this line off to Lenovo because the quality has waned over the years both in their portable and desktop line :>\

The X200 also only had the trackpoint so the X60 was not the last..

you neglected the most important feature: you can install libreboot on your X60 so nothing on your computer is tainted by nonfree software

So cool. Thanks for the video. One question for you. Why did all the computer companies change to chicklet laptop keyboards? Like it was some great big thing to do.

Looking forward to X60 still amazing after 20 years soon!

I miss 4:3 screens. 16:9 and 16:10 suck for anything but gaming or video consumption.

Would have installed windows 7 or 10 for personal use, but XP likely still works for most things!

Why do most modern laptops have no VGA screws?

I had one of these laptops when I was doing professional services for a data security company. Lots of horse power, 6-hour battery, eraser-head pointing device, and an optional docking station in case you needed to run a second HDD for a multi-VM environment. It even had a built-in WAN so I could send and receive email on the go via celluar. A kick-butt machine. Only the X61 was better because it was 64-bit where as this unit is 32-bits.

I would LOVE a new version of this laptop. I got rid of mine (might have been an x200s or x61, but it definitely had no touchpad) a few years ago and originally bought it when I was curious about Linux and wanted a machine to play around with. The quality of the screen was pretty awful (consistent with all Thinkpads until the last 2 years or so), and the chunky battery sticking out of the back was awkward, but aside from that it was fantastic. The keyboard was incredibly comfortable to type on, and I quickly grew to love the Trackpoint. I know it will never happen, but a machine with this form factor (4:3 screen with minimal bezels, keyboard taking up most of the top surface of the base and a trackpoint instead of a touchpad) and modern technology would be amazing. The size was perfect, but quite chunky compared to something like a Macbook Air or Dell XPS 13, so if the least useful legacy ports were removed, I'm sure it could be powerful and have awesome battery life. I can only imagine the awful reviews such a laptop would get on the mainstream tech news sites such as The Verge, but there are still plenty of Thinkpad fans that would lap it up. The 25th Anniversary Thinkpad is a huge, expensive letdown, and I doubt Lenovo will ever make anything like the X60 again, but hopefully someone will step up one day.

The Core 2 Duo laptop processors are great for basic computing until you try to play x265 (HEVC) videos at 1080p. Even my Core 2 Duo P8600 struggles very hard to play back some high bitrate 720p HEVC videos.

Back when they had the build quility of IBM Thinkpads and didn't tried to mimic apple.

18 second startup Pretty good (My ssd laptop will turn on in 5 seconds....... although this is 10 years older than mine..... )

it is still relevant if you are using it for light surfing or Office. The screen resolution isn't great by today's standard but you get larger text for those weary eyes. DDR2 rams are cheap on Ebay, few dollars will get you to 4GB. And couple tens of dollars will get you a brand new SSD on any retailer.

I still own and use my IBM T60 1951 Thinkpad which i bought refurbed nearly 10 years ago. I replaced the Hard drive with a WD black drive and bought a sleeve for it and its never gone wrong on me, no dead pixels, no bad inverter, no broken hinges, nothing, just replaced the battery every couple of years and occasionally needs a blow out with compressed air and a fresh application of thermal paste on the CPU. Its been through XP Pro, Win 7 Pro and now Windows 10 Pro with no issues. Thinkpads are like Volvo's, you either see the beauty in their build quality and design or you don't.

Good video, VWestlife! You're videos are very interesting. I'm only an 12 year old. However, I know a lot about computers. You should make a video of you trying to get custom OS'es on old computers.

13:24 Lol Ubuntu 6.04 is from '06!

Thinkpads have always been among the best of laptops.

7:11 I remember when I'm like 8 years old that Drip hole thing is one of the most advanced things I see in laptops, yet I never see any of the modern XP laptops in 2011 and up that has that feature. It's a huge bummer that modern laptops are weaker to spills.

I have several Thinkpads and the recent Lenovo models are still great machines. Credit to Lenovo to largely keep to the original design while making nice incremental changes along the way. I don't know of any make of laptop where you can add a dock that gives a laptop 10 discrete USB ports, 3 displayport outputs, an second battery dock, an option to add a 3rd battery by swapping out the dock's DVD drive, and oh, the dock works across several dozen of Thinkpad models.

If you put an SSD in almost everything, it feels brand new. I just installed an SSD in my 3 year old laptop and it feels 10 times faster and boots 10 times faster.

A great little laptop indeed, I miss 4:3 laptops 16:9 was a horrible idea.

19:10 "AustinTechTips"

The size, screen aspect ratio, keyboard and overall build quality makes me fall in love with this machine. Gonna probably get one of those by the end of the year but now I'm waiting a T430 workstation.

After 10 years, it's really proven itself to be a good, durable laptop! I'm AMAZED the keys are only slightly worn... my Acer E15's keys took about a month to wear down like that, from the time I bought it, to when my rubber keyboard skin arrived from eBay. I like how the "eraser head" doesn't stick up higher than the keys either; I had a Dell Latitude laptop that had a permanent mark on the LCD display from the "eraser head" (but why complain; I got a fantastic deal on that laptop used, because of the mark. Haha) I like the way you edited this video too, really cool.

I have an old x60 sitting in my office closet. Guess I need to get it out, dust if off, and see what it can do now.

Hey! A video where you simply mention Linux in a neutral tone instead of dumping on it.

Not to bad speed similar startup time to my modern 800 dollar gaming laptop with windows 10

I rescued an X60 from a dumpster in 2013. Cleaned it up and rammed it up to 4gb, it is currently dual-booting Windows 10 and Fedora 25. I love the 'GBH nipple' tracker, it just feels so natural as a left-hander. My X60 is dated 2005 and has the IBM logo, it outperforms most of the entry level 2016 machines on the market, and it's an ice-breaker too as some say 'what's that?', and others say 'wow, a Thinkpad, I remember when I had one'. I leave my work issued laptop at home these days and use the X60 as it's so light and compact, yet lightening fast, faster than the clunky I-3 Toshiba that work gave me.

Got myself 2 T60s a week ago. Been loving it so far!

I still use Microsoft Office 2003, and I am running WINDOWS 10 on my PC!!

I wonder if osrs runs decent on it.

This is very cool, but why not install a windows 7 on it? thats cool too

I have two Lenovo’s from the same period. I upgraded both to SSD drives and they are lightening fast and both run windows 10

I have a ThinkPad R51 from 2005. Mine has a trackpad, and I didn't realize it had a keyboard light until watching this! Thanks! (although mine is amber colored and does little to illuminate the keys)

It is a crime to use windows xp instead of linux on a X60... Seriously

Old Asus laptops look like pieces of cheap plastic.

why ibm quit the market it created? clones taking over?

I gave my father a X60 a few years ago as a daily laptop, which he uses still without any issues or complaints. I was using my 2005 X60 upgraded by a X61 years later for 8 years before replacing it with a Carbon X1.

I've got a T60, love it so much. 1400x1050 IPS screen, C2D T5600, ATi X1400. Replaced the HDD with 2TB 5400rpm. Still use it very much today. Though the fan is making a very unpleasant noise, I will have to replace it sooner or later, and also the plastic has now cracked in some places too. But considering how much abuse it's been trough, it's amazing it still works fine :)

Maybe the reason you don't see all them dinosaur ports on modern laptops and computers becuse thee obsolete and not needed.

I've got a Dell Latitude D630 that I JUST retired yesterday, and I feel the same way about it. I kept it in use for so long because it still had a serial port with which I could "console" into routers.

Ah, the Thinkpad, one of the true greatest. One of my personal favorites as well, I used one for about 4 years as well as the T60. I'm typing this on my Yoga Pro 3 from about 4 years ago, still an amazing device, love it.

My first ThinkPad was an 8-year-old (in 2011) IBM R32 with the 14-inch 1024x768 screen and a Pentium 4 Mobile. Worked great until the mainboard shorted itself out one day. I've had a flurry of laptops since - none quite as agreeable as that ThinkPad - and a couple years ago, I found my current T430 in a pawn shop. Bought it for $250 as an 18-month-old machine still under factory warranty. :) Yes, it's got the chiclet keyboard, but it feels almost as good as the old-tyme ThinkPad keyboard, plus it's backlit for when you don't wanna disturb other folks around you with the ThinkLight. It came with the dual-core hyper-threaded Intel i5 and an SSD, and ever since I upgraded it to 16 GB of RAM, it flies like a jet liner. I can't come close to bogging it down on Windows 10 using Premiere Pro, Photoshop, Audition, Firefox, and Office '16...at the same time...on multiple desktops. Build quality is still excellent, with a only a few plastic pieces chipped off due to a couple of falls out of a backpack from 4-5 feet in the air. I agree with some of the other commenters that a 16:9 display is absurd (I much preferred the 16:10 1920x1200 display on a former HP EliteBook workstation), but as my T430 has a 1600x900 screen, it's somewhat more manageable. I'm wanting to upgrade to a T460p with discrete graphics and the 1440p screen, but I'm not sure how I feel about these rigs only having one year of factory warranty (with no warranty upgrade available) instead of the three years to which I grew accustomed.

You really peaked my curiosity on this item. So I decided to find one on EBay. I bought a ThinkPad T61 for $66. It came without an OS on the HD, but in otherwise fine condition. I installed Windows XP (SP 0) on it. I finally got it up to SP 3 - what a job that was, and managed to acquire all the drivers. These laptops were really the crème de la crème of laptops.

Bulletproof - I have an X60s with an SSD. I dual boot "Hackintosh" Mac OS 10.6 SL & a 32 bit Linux Mint distro. It's my travel & Coffee shop writing system. And yes, I do final edits on my MacBook Pro too (LOL).

Damn it you killed me when you played the 'how to leave a youtube comment' vid lol Good stuff. I just watched a vid on that laptop from 1987 that cost $5.7k. Love your stuff man

I have owned a number of thinkpads or been issued them in my work. My first thinkpad laptop was issued to me in 2004-5 time frame when I was lucky enough to be issued the excellent T41p model. After leaving that job I was lucky enough to find a T42 laptop at a pawn shop for cheap and bought it right away. I then was issued other thinkpads at work and recently found on ebay a thinkpad T60p in fantastic shape which I'm using as a daily driver today. Love it. I would like to find a T61 with a 4:3 screen thought but they seem to be tough to find given that laptops had begun a wholesale switch to 16:9 screen ratios by the time of the T61...

Gotta love the good ol' Thinkpads, i love restoring them , people generally "throw ehm out" here in denmark for 100-300kr, around 15-30usd. they are soo rugged and worthwhile!

I agree that in many ways the improvement offered by new laptops has almost completely stalled. I also agree that you can get amazing value for money with 2nd hand laptops and they are still perfectly powerful enough for average user's needs. Main problem is old devices have old ports, no HDMI, no USB 3 etc, so factor that in when considering old vs. new.