the amount of research put in this video series for a laptop that not a lot of people now is astounding, i will be looking forward to future installment of this series, great job man.
Wow, so glad I found this channel when I did. Just got myself an X301 to play around with and restore. So great to learn more about what made this series so special! Top notch content, Laptop Retrospective, you have a new subscriber.
I love these modular bays (for the time, of course), if you were at home or at a certain event that you need to transfer a lot of files, you just change it to the HD bay, if you want to install a software or watch a movie, change it for the DVD bay and if you are going to a place where you wouldn't be able to charge, you could change it to a second battery. That is really awesome.
This always struck me as an oddball among ThinkPads. I get the feeling that it's the least remembered model from its generation, but it's such a cool one. I mean, during the same time they were selling 15" models with a 1280x800 CCFL backlit display, and along comes this thing with 1440x900 and LED backlight on all models. I wasn't really into laptops back when these were new, but from what I gather the price was actually in the ballpark of a T500 as well. I know I would have chosen the X300 form factor over the T500 performance.
I just finished reading How the Thinkpad changed the world and it brought me here. I've had 3 thinkpads over the years, the first two were handmedowns (T40, T60), and my current 6th Gen X1 Carbon I use for work. I really do like the X1 Carbon and I would still say it's the best buissness class laptop you can get. That said, it does not hold a candle to the build quality of the older IBM "real-carbon" Thinkpads. I've also had a lot of issues with my X1 that I have had to troubleshoot. Mostly with 'trackpoint drift' and CPU throttling/power management. Basically, when the X1 Carbon was pluged in the fans would spin at full speed no matter what. This issue has been addressed with a recent firmware update but it took over a year for Levovo to patch this. The golden age of the Thinkpad is certainly over, but until further notice I'll still be using them as my traveling/'on the road' business machines.
Haha, that's awesome that book led you here. I hope you enjoy the series. I'm nearly done Episode 5. I strongly suggest Steve Hamm's book be your next read. While no computer is perfect, you stand a better chance with a ThinkPad than most other options out there. Regarding the older IBM ThinkPads, quality is hit and miss on those when they were going through their cost cutting phase as they were trying to sell the PC division for years.
@@LaptopRetrospective I have already ordered the book. I appreciate you for recommending it. I love the series and hope that you'll do in depth retrospectives on some of the older Thinkpads. I would be really interested to hear a more in depth history of the Thinkpad 701C for instance. The only other buissness class machine I had was some early 2010s Dell Latitude which was a huge POS compared to my X1. I guess I'm just disappointed because in my personal life I have always had windows desktop PCs for gaming, and Mac Laptops for music production/giging. For some reason I always expect windows laptops to be up to the same standard as the newer apple stuff and I'm always disappointed. Still I would never use a Mac for real business work for a number of different reasons.
Awesome, I hope you enjoy it. I plan on doing a video on that book and a few others later on. Thanks for your feedback on the series. I have one more that is just entering the planning stages and we will see what happens from there. Not all computers have so much of their development history laid bare for us to tip toe through and explore. As for laptops, gotta use what works for you. I used a Macbook from 2012 until about 2018. After that, they didn't meet my needs any longer.
@@LaptopRetrospective Awesome! I'm looking forward to that episode. I have a 2014 Macbook Pro right now and I suspect it'll be my last Mac honestly. I'm going to hold onto for awhile though. I'm not sure what's going to happen to the Macbook line now that Apple plans on switching a chunk of it over to ARM.
I've always thought X300s and X301s are cool, they're basically the windows macbook air of 2008/09 but.. better in nearly every aspect. It's so interesting to see the development of this and to have somebody dive into the history to share with others. I'm excited for episode 4! Keep up the good work.
Amazing battery life for a laptop from that era. The boot time wasn't too bad, either. All in all, it's aged well...unlike that on-the-verge-of-burning-the-house-down Asus you looked at recently!
It would be okay but the CPU would likely show it's age in since situations. It is a lovely computer though, a great addition to any kind of connection to boot.
I lucked out and found a store on the other side of the country that didn't return my emails but thankfully I knew somebody that lived nearby that was able to buy it and ship it. Way more effort than I would have liked, but can't argue with the results.
As a X301 owner I am very interested in this series and I hope you’ll mention the difference between the 2 (maybe in the last episode about legacy?). I am not sure what’s different (well, based on this video the X301 has DDD3) but they look very similar. It’s an impressive machine, especially for the time, in terms of weight and thinness, although the relatively low clocked core 2 duo makes it too slow as a primary pc today... My quad core hp laptop from 2009 (one of the first at the time) while with DDR2 is instead relative usable even today.
Laptop Retrospective ok, interesting... It's a pity they couldn't put a higher clocked CPU, but I guess it was too thin for that...Mine is clocked at 1.4 GHZ and even my 2006 laptop with one of the first core 2 duo clocked at 2GHZ feels snappier (with an ssd), but that is a 17in beast... Other than that this laptop feels "modern", even more than the x220 that I sold last year. It's as light as modern laptops, the screen is nice once properly calibrated, sound is decent, fan is almost silent, DDR3 is cheap, contrary to DDR2 (I put 8 but I could have put 16, but pointless with that CPU), great keyboard, even if it developed a partially non resposive key like the X220. I keep it for nostalgia but if it had a better CPU I'd still be using it today...
running linux mint 20 XFCE is something really reasonable and sensible, cause using windows 10 on X300/1 will be slow as molases even with SSD, maybe if my X200t came back from repair might be try mint as well
@@LaptopRetrospective No worries, I'll just have to do without it, or find a dead one off ebay and rebuild/reverse engineer it. Thanks for this video series by the way, I didn't realize how unique this X300 is.
great video and series. what are the bios options for the x30X? custom, advanced menu, coreboot, libreboot? does the wifi card connect to modern routers with modern encryption?
Loved the look at this guy! Reminds me of my X301, one of my all-time favorite ThinkPads! I do have a couple of questions: 1) How did you secure the mSATA board in the drive way? 2) I know the X301 also came with a DVD bay cover, do you know if that was introduced with the X300?
A "travel cover" is mentioned in the HMM of the X300 as well, 42X5137. Interesting. I'm not sure what the purpose of it would truly be but these seem quite rare indeed. I only found one image of them. I also haven't seen them mentioned on any common spec sheets... Hmmmm.
@@LaptopRetrospective It's the same part number for the X301. I always suspected it was for those who didn't need a DVD drive and could then carry around a lighter laptop.
Consumer grade machines the L don't show up very often around here. If you are buying used of that era, the T series is generally more favoured. If one ever comes across my desk I will review it of course.
@@LaptopRetrospective Thank you for answer my questions. I have an l530 and works very good, its fast and battery holds verry good. Like any other thinkpad. Like your videos
i have the x 300 but in bad condition keyboard keeps pressing different letters it's overheating and the drive bay not working😞😞 anyone knows where i can get replacements
*ThisOldTony Screeching voice* Oh boy oh finally oh boy i can't wait oh boy... Finally the next part! Yes please, would Like to see those books in a video! Please review them. This time tho, I'll forgive you for not taking them appart ;) :P Can you do a review about the X301 as well, and compare them? I'd be interested in buying an X301 sometimes in the future. The 1st gen Core CPUs are still quite useable imho. But Core 2s... Not that much to be honest.
Noted on the books. As for the X301, if I can source one for a reasonable price perhaps. Major difference is CPU, DDR3 RAM and a display port connector.
Essentially not available. I'd have to order one from the US and thats $50 in shipping before the price of the unit. There was one in Canada, but the listing was super sketchy with stock photos of an X220 taking from Wikipedia, so I gave that a hard pass.
@@LaptopRetrospective Well if we are already here... Lemme brag: Today I found at work a LP150E05 (A2) (K1) (FRU: 42T0325) display, from a dead T60. I wonder if it's any good... I really want it to work, but I can't test it with anything... More on it here: www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/comments/i0s339/i_may_or_may_not_have_won_the_ips_lottery/
Flash Middleton BIOS for the SATA II speeds, that will make hell of a difference for that SSD. I'm sure you know it already, but might be useful for others. Link: www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Middleton%27s_BIOS
Thanks for the distro recommendation. As for keyboards, it depends too on the manufacturer. I wrote a whole article on ThinkPad keyboards on my website.
Congratulations! You have earned the most prestigious honour of telling others so there can be more of you. Go! Spread the word. After you watch the video of course. 😁
the amount of research put in this video series for a laptop that not a lot of people now is astounding, i will be looking forward to future installment of this series, great job man.
Thanks for your support! I really want to share how important this laptop was and I am fortunate so much information is available.
Wow, so glad I found this channel when I did. Just got myself an X301 to play around with and restore. So great to learn more about what made this series so special!
Top notch content, Laptop Retrospective, you have a new subscriber.
Thank you so much for the praise! I'm glad you found the series too. I hope you'll enjoy the next two episodes and thanks for your support!
This is not a laptop. Its a work of art. Just finished troubleshooting it, and of course dissasembly it. I will save this boy for the history books
It is indeed a piece of history.
Yes, I want to hear more about those two books.
Noted, we'll see if there is more interested parties out there. 👍
I love these modular bays (for the time, of course), if you were at home or at a certain event that you need to transfer a lot of files, you just change it to the HD bay, if you want to install a software or watch a movie, change it for the DVD bay and if you are going to a place where you wouldn't be able to charge, you could change it to a second battery. That is really awesome.
Yeah they were and still are awesome!
This always struck me as an oddball among ThinkPads. I get the feeling that it's the least remembered model from its generation, but it's such a cool one. I mean, during the same time they were selling 15" models with a 1280x800 CCFL backlit display, and along comes this thing with 1440x900 and LED backlight on all models. I wasn't really into laptops back when these were new, but from what I gather the price was actually in the ballpark of a T500 as well. I know I would have chosen the X300 form factor over the T500 performance.
Yeah, it had a short life cycle before it was succeeded by the X1 and X1 Carbon line.
I would enjoy if you covered the books a little more in-depth. Seems interesting. Great work on the series
Thanks for the input Winston. There seems to be growing interest. Hopefully it will continue and I will start putting together some thoughts.
Really great Laptop Reviews, underrated channel on RUclips, deserves more subscribers
Thanks for the kind words Walid. Happy to have your support. We will get there one day.
I just finished reading How the Thinkpad changed the world and it brought me here.
I've had 3 thinkpads over the years, the first two were handmedowns (T40, T60), and my current 6th Gen X1 Carbon I use for work.
I really do like the X1 Carbon and I would still say it's the best buissness class laptop you can get. That said, it does not hold a candle to the build quality of the older IBM "real-carbon" Thinkpads. I've also had a lot of issues with my X1 that I have had to troubleshoot. Mostly with 'trackpoint drift' and CPU throttling/power management. Basically, when the X1 Carbon was pluged in the fans would spin at full speed no matter what. This issue has been addressed with a recent firmware update but it took over a year for Levovo to patch this.
The golden age of the Thinkpad is certainly over, but until further notice I'll still be using them as my traveling/'on the road' business machines.
Haha, that's awesome that book led you here. I hope you enjoy the series. I'm nearly done Episode 5. I strongly suggest Steve Hamm's book be your next read.
While no computer is perfect, you stand a better chance with a ThinkPad than most other options out there. Regarding the older IBM ThinkPads, quality is hit and miss on those when they were going through their cost cutting phase as they were trying to sell the PC division for years.
@@LaptopRetrospective I have already ordered the book. I appreciate you for recommending it.
I love the series and hope that you'll do in depth retrospectives on some of the older Thinkpads. I would be really interested to hear a more in depth history of the Thinkpad 701C for instance.
The only other buissness class machine I had was some early 2010s Dell Latitude which was a huge POS compared to my X1. I guess I'm just disappointed because in my personal life I have always had windows desktop PCs for gaming, and Mac Laptops for music production/giging. For some reason I always expect windows laptops to be up to the same standard as the newer apple stuff and I'm always disappointed.
Still I would never use a Mac for real business work for a number of different reasons.
Awesome, I hope you enjoy it. I plan on doing a video on that book and a few others later on.
Thanks for your feedback on the series. I have one more that is just entering the planning stages and we will see what happens from there. Not all computers have so much of their development history laid bare for us to tip toe through and explore.
As for laptops, gotta use what works for you. I used a Macbook from 2012 until about 2018. After that, they didn't meet my needs any longer.
@@LaptopRetrospective Awesome! I'm looking forward to that episode. I have a 2014 Macbook Pro right now and I suspect it'll be my last Mac honestly. I'm going to hold onto for awhile though. I'm not sure what's going to happen to the Macbook line now that Apple plans on switching a chunk of it over to ARM.
Wow i was not at all aware of this laptop and i am amazed cause this looks perfect for the base to build a frankenpad
It's an underappreciated classic!
@@LaptopRetrospective yeah right,if this can have a motherboard with 8th gen CPU and thunderbolt with 14 inch IPS display.
Closest would be an X1 Carbon Gen 6 I think.
I've always thought X300s and X301s are cool, they're basically the windows macbook air of 2008/09 but.. better in nearly every aspect.
It's so interesting to see the development of this and to have somebody dive into the history to share with others. I'm excited for episode 4! Keep up the good work.
Cheers! This series has been a lot of fun to make.
Amazing battery life for a laptop from that era. The boot time wasn't too bad, either. All in all, it's aged well...unlike that on-the-verge-of-burning-the-house-down Asus you looked at recently!
It's aged very well indeed. So close to still being 100% usable today I'd wager. Will confirm percentage over time.
Recommend this in 2021? Found one in mint condition on eBay. With arch Linux and an SSD it would run like a dream.
It would be okay but the CPU would likely show it's age in since situations. It is a lovely computer though, a great addition to any kind of connection to boot.
Thank you for the interesting videos you make! I hope you'll able to keep doing them, good luck.
Thanks Milen, that's the plan.
Man, an X300 drive battery! Still have not been able to find one...
Yeah, not quite as rare as the 7mm HDD Caddy, but really close.
Where did you source the dvd bay battery? I have an x301 and would be quite interested.
I lucked out and found a store on the other side of the country that didn't return my emails but thankfully I knew somebody that lived nearby that was able to buy it and ship it. Way more effort than I would have liked, but can't argue with the results.
As a X301 owner I am very interested in this series and I hope you’ll mention the difference between the 2 (maybe in the last episode about legacy?). I am not sure what’s different (well, based on this video the X301 has DDD3) but they look very similar. It’s an impressive machine, especially for the time, in terms of weight and thinness, although the relatively low clocked core 2 duo makes it too slow as a primary pc today... My quad core hp laptop from 2009 (one of the first at the time) while with DDR2 is instead relative usable even today.
I mention it in the next episode. Beyond the RAM the other two main difference was better CPU/options and Display Port.
Laptop Retrospective ok, interesting... It's a pity they couldn't put a higher clocked CPU, but I guess it was too thin for that...Mine is clocked at 1.4 GHZ and even my 2006 laptop with one of the first core 2 duo clocked at 2GHZ feels snappier (with an ssd), but that is a 17in beast... Other than that this laptop feels "modern", even more than the x220 that I sold last year. It's as light as modern laptops, the screen is nice once properly calibrated, sound is decent, fan is almost silent, DDR3 is cheap, contrary to DDR2 (I put 8 but I could have put 16, but pointless with that CPU), great keyboard, even if it developed a partially non resposive key like the X220. I keep it for nostalgia but if it had a better CPU I'd still be using it today...
Yeah, it doesn't help that the X300 is capped at SATA 1 speeds, a BIOS unlock gets you up to 2.
running linux mint 20 XFCE is something really reasonable and sensible, cause using windows 10 on X300/1 will be slow as molases even with SSD, maybe if my X200t came back from repair might be try mint as well
I thought so as well. Still might try Windows 10 at some point to see if it handles the battery life better. That is still a criticism of Linux.
I've got an X300 that I'm trying to find an Ultrabay battery for, any chance you're able to link the source for yours?
I bought the last one at the time on clearance. Sorry. UltraBay accessories for this model are essentially unobtainable.
@@LaptopRetrospective No worries, I'll just have to do without it, or find a dead one off ebay and rebuild/reverse engineer it. Thanks for this video series by the way, I didn't realize how unique this X300 is.
@404-ThisUsernameIsAlreadyTaken Keep me posted on your efforts and I'm glad you enjoyed the series.
great video and series. what are the bios options for the x30X? custom, advanced menu, coreboot, libreboot?
does the wifi card connect to modern routers with modern encryption?
Middleton's BIOS is available so you have some options. Not sure about the others. WiFi card recognized modern networks no problem.
@@LaptopRetrospective 😄
Am i dumb or did you start the startup timer at the wrong time? Anyway great video.
No, you're not dumb, I messed it up by about 5 seconds. Sorry about that!
you going to sell this or keep it? and thanks for the shout out :)
For now I am probably going to keep it and no problem! Thanks again for helping me acquire that part. You're awesome.
Any chance of sourcing a bay battery in UK/Europe? I have a X300 but have not been able to find one for years
I was lucky to find the one I did.
@@LaptopRetrospective Found one but very expensive and not worth it just for novelty of it
Sad but true. I found mine in a clearance section.
Loved the look at this guy! Reminds me of my X301, one of my all-time favorite ThinkPads! I do have a couple of questions:
1) How did you secure the mSATA board in the drive way?
2) I know the X301 also came with a DVD bay cover, do you know if that was introduced with the X300?
1) Friction fit for now.
2) You mean like a blank? Not sure I understand.
@@LaptopRetrospective Yes, like a blank. I believe it's listed in the X301's HMM as well, iirc.
A "travel cover" is mentioned in the HMM of the X300 as well, 42X5137. Interesting. I'm not sure what the purpose of it would truly be but these seem quite rare indeed. I only found one image of them. I also haven't seen them mentioned on any common spec sheets... Hmmmm.
@@LaptopRetrospective It's the same part number for the X301. I always suspected it was for those who didn't need a DVD drive and could then carry around a lighter laptop.
Perhaps. It's strange though, beyond the HMM and one archived picture on a Chinese website I can't seem to find much about it.
Thanks for doing this.
Thank you for watching!
Hello. About lenovo tkinkpad l530, do you have an oppinion? Are you going to make a video? I would like to hear your toughts about this laptop
Consumer grade machines the L don't show up very often around here. If you are buying used of that era, the T series is generally more favoured. If one ever comes across my desk I will review it of course.
@@LaptopRetrospective Thank you for answer my questions. I have an l530 and works very good, its fast and battery holds verry good. Like any other thinkpad. Like your videos
Glad to hear it works well for you!
L530 is fine, better than E530
where in canada are you from brother?
Stranded out west for the last few years.
i have the x 300 but in bad condition keyboard keeps pressing different letters it's overheating and the drive bay not working😞😞 anyone knows where i can get replacements
eBay is probably your best bet.
*ThisOldTony Screeching voice* Oh boy oh finally oh boy i can't wait oh boy...
Finally the next part!
Yes please, would Like to see those books in a video! Please review them. This time tho, I'll forgive you for not taking them appart ;) :P
Can you do a review about the X301 as well, and compare them? I'd be interested in buying an X301 sometimes in the future. The 1st gen Core CPUs are still quite useable imho. But Core 2s... Not that much to be honest.
Noted on the books. As for the X301, if I can source one for a reasonable price perhaps. Major difference is CPU, DDR3 RAM and a display port connector.
@@LaptopRetrospective are they expensive in your region?
Essentially not available. I'd have to order one from the US and thats $50 in shipping before the price of the unit. There was one in Canada, but the listing was super sketchy with stock photos of an X220 taking from Wikipedia, so I gave that a hard pass.
@@LaptopRetrospective Well if we are already here... Lemme brag: Today I found at work a LP150E05 (A2) (K1) (FRU: 42T0325) display, from a dead T60. I wonder if it's any good... I really want it to work, but I can't test it with anything... More on it here: www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/comments/i0s339/i_may_or_may_not_have_won_the_ips_lottery/
Nice!
Flash Middleton BIOS for the SATA II speeds, that will make hell of a difference for that SSD. I'm sure you know it already, but might be useful for others. Link:
www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Middleton%27s_BIOS
Yep, its on my to do list in fact for "Bonus Content." ;-)
Love the videos!
Glad you like them! I have two more in the works and then there is the matter of "Bonus Content."
Try Zorin linux on this
Interesting suggestion. 👍
xx00 keyboards are fantastic and xx20 ones are trash compared to them - only good they still are 7row
and mint is too heavy for this - try antix
Thanks for the distro recommendation. As for keyboards, it depends too on the manufacturer. I wrote a whole article on ThinkPad keyboards on my website.
first
Congratulations! You have earned the most prestigious honour of telling others so there can be more of you. Go! Spread the word.
After you watch the video of course. 😁