Are Thinkpads still that tough? Stand on yours to prove it!

These are just a few of Thinkpad stress test videos on the internet. The newer MIL-SPEC Thinkpads should still be able to withstand at least when you stand on them. So I invite those who really trust their Thinkpads to try that and tell us how it went, or even better put a video.

T410:


X201:

 

This is how a 18mm retina MacBook handles the test. Cnet, but still.

 

You first. And it would be nice if there were videos of people stepping on other business laptops rather than just that other company.

 

Challenge accepted.





No problem. :thumbsup:

 

I'll get my thinkpad after a month or so, but for now I can only test my very very old Compaq workstation. Thank you Patchy San for being the first Btw, which model is this, T61?



Sorry for the bad quality and my flip-flops

Compaq EVO N800

 

Yeah it's my 2007 14.1" ThinkPad T61. But here's my 2011 ThinkPad T420, I did a video just to prove I'm not bluffing.

 

Nice vid You're my hero.

 

Compaq N800? That is an old machine, i had one of those. My cat use to use it as her bed during winter.

 

I use the EVO sometimes when I learn/play with linux. My main computer is a multimedia Asus notebook, which would definitely break if tried this.

 

Military specs are a joke when it comes to ThinkPads of *any* era...

 

Since about 1999 I have replaced / upgraded my laptop every 1.5 - 2 years, and I always bought Dell Latitudes. By the time I upgraded, the screen hinges would always feel a little shakey and the keyboards a little squishy.

My most recent laptop, however, was a Thinkpad W510 that I got almost 3 years ago. It still looks and feels like the day I got it, with the exception of the middle of trackpad where the textured surface is worn smooth. I upgraded the HD to a SSD about 1.5 years ago which made it feel like I got a new machine performance-wise. I tend to be very rough with my hardware, and I carry this thing on an NYC subway every day. It's fantastic... most well made laptop I've ever owned.

Cheers,
Chris

 

Well I still read some great stories everyday. Some even survive appartment fires.

 

Will the t440 be more rugged then previous version of the thinkpad? how does the thinkpad compare with the macbook in terms of durability?

 

From what I've read in the forums the macbook pro gets scratches easily, however its very drop resistant.

 

The macbook pro is not drop resistant. If you drop it, it will dent slighty, but macbooks are very prone to hardware failure from drops. A Thinkpad however is very likely to have cracked plastic, but the protection systems save the hardware.

 

Macbook Pro is drop resistant? LOL. Try dropping one and see how resistant it is to drops. The corners will get dented so much, you wouldn't even able to close the LCD properly. Don't believe what the Apple fan boys tell you. I have dropped enough Macbook Pro to know how bad they are if you drop them.

 

Don't kid yourself: LCD will be the first thing to go on a ThinkPad, if dropped from a serious height. Given that the new ones are LED-lit, it will blow a fuse on the board in the process.

 

Post a video of me standing on my main work computer in order to impress/prove something to random people on the Internet? WHAT A BRILLIANT IDEA!!!!

 

Between myself, my daughter (from age 18 to age 30), and my husband, we have had about 8 Thinkpads. They ALL still work and the replacements came about because of needs for faster processors, more memory etc.

I dropped one of mine out of its case when I thought the case was zipped onto a concrete floor in a hotel lobby. There was a chip in the plastic that holds the case closed and that was all. Even with the chip, I used it until I started falling asleep because it was so slow.

My daughter took hers on a bike every day for over 4 years in college and then a newer one again on a bike for 2 years in grad school. I don't know whether she ever dropped it (those are things she doesn't usually tell me about), but I do know that at the very least both of them got bounced around plenty.

My husband kept his in the office more so it was less subject to physical mishaps but was used every day for many hours for many years.

I don't think the real issue is whether you can stand on them - I think the issue is the build and the choice of parts used. Very little has ever just quit working on any of these. And when something has broken, the company (when it was technically IBM and now that it is Lenovo), was very responsible about getting it repaired properly in a short period of time.

I have a W520 at this point and my only complaint is that the built in speakers are not very good. These are built to be "work" computers and sometimes the pleasure and fun part isn't taken quite as seriously. This is the only vaguely negative thing I can think of to say

 

newer thinkpads i guess are less built to be work computers, more tailored for consumer, something you can look forward to. i am pretty impressed with the speakers on my t430 though.

 

I had LCD screen that are LED-lit go out. It was easy to replace and there was no problem. I don't know why you would say a fuse on the board would blow out.

 

If you don't feel right about

you shouldn't do it ofc, but there are those people who doesn't mind just playing such "games" over the forum. It's not that only you do such tests for them, but also they do it for you. Nobody demands you to do this and it's your choice whether you want to do this or not. I personally find it entertaining and informative when people both have the balls to do that and when thinkpads really withstand the weight as they should, only making them more trusty.

 

Did you drop them from a few feet height while powered on?

 

the fuse on the motherboard on ThinkPad with LED LCD do go out very easily.

 

It's interesting gauging the reactions of this thread, some being impressed while others absolutely abhor from what I've just done. The two notebooks are my own personal ThinkPads, they're not work issued and are paid out of my own expenses so there's a lot for me to lose doing this! But I was confident it can cope with my weight on top and carry on like nothing had happened. Why you might ask?

A couple years ago I was involved in a high speed traffic accident on a motorway (highway/freeway) after a foreign truck t-boned me from behind at 60 mph (97 km/h). It spun my car sideways, proceeded to smash me again (seeing the front of the truck coming towards you is scary!) and then made me hit the armco barriers going backwards. The backend of my car was wiped out (it's not a big car but a small VW hatchback - RIP), everything that was in my trunk was decimated including my Nokia phone which had cracked from impact (and you know how Nokias are supposed to be tough).

The 15.4" ThinkPad R61e that was in the trunk was found in a nearby ditch, it probably got thrown out of the smashed rear window on impact to the barriers. To be honest I didn't have much hope it survived as a lot of things was destroyed that night. The following day while dealing with the insurers I decided to assess the damage to the ThinkPad. Took it out and to my surprise there wasn't much apart from a small chip on the corner.

Switched it on using the original battery and the thing worked, it powered on and went to the OS like nothing had happened. I was gobsmacked, what did they put into this thing that not only can survive a truck smashing into it but being thrown in to a ditch at speed as well!? I did later sold that incredible ThinkPad (no room to keep it unfortunately), I mentioned its epic survival skills on the eBay listing and it was snapped up pretty quickly!

So that sums up why I have trust in my ThinkPads. While it's still not a good idea to stand on it at least its assuring to know that it has the strength to cope. Modern ThinkPads still strong? From my assessment - pretty much yeah!

 

I admire the Thinkpad marketing team. You guys did a very good job in promoting Thinkpads.

 

Coming soon to a forum near you.....'Get in a Car accident with your Thinkpad inside, and Post the Results !'

jk

Actually thanks for sharing, and glad YOU, and the Thinkpad survived !

I tend to agree with the 'entertainment factor of this thread, and the backing up/proof of tried and true robust build quality and toughness of a 'legend'

I watched the spill tests on youtube for the thinkpads and was seriously impressed, BUT can I get myself to do the same ?.....nah, rather watch lol.

I am very tempted to do a stand test on video and post it, of me and my mighty 185 lb-ness on my W530

but even though the build quality is very high, and the Thinkpad reputation 'stands' on it's own....

I can't help but think....delicate electronic parts are in there....something COULD go wrong, namely screen, I have something like $2000.00 usd dollars invested in this 6 lb. marvel of blackitude

I'll pass

I DO look forward to watching others videos though lol

 

Lot of people do extreme things, but copying them may not end so well for most. Just look at the fail compilation on YouTube.

 

Hey, don't be so negative.

 

Twice from about five feet. W520 had only plastic cracked in the lid corner and in the base corner. A22m (while not LED-backlit) had a crack across the corner of the screen, but that's about it. Both dropped on the concrete, W520 powered on but with closed lid, fell on corner, A22m powered on and with open lid, fell flat on the lid and base slammed closed on top.

 

I did three of those, all three unintentional. One of them had failed, I'll explain why.

The two that my TPs survived were pure water. One on W520, one on W530. First just got some water over it that simply drained through it onto desk, laptop didn't even notice the issue, kept working like nothing happened. The other got a whole cup of water over it, it shut itself down immediately. When I opened it up to dry it out I found water inside the SSD and RAM bays - there was just too much of it for drainage holes to cope. But after few hours of drying it turned on and kept working like nothing happened.

The one that didn't survive died literally from a single drop, but it wasn't a water, it was a salty broth, something that conducts electricity way better than clear water. That single drop landed on exposed IEEE1394 AKA FireWire port, soaked through the case onto motherboard thanks to capillary action and fried the poor T61p that was turned on at the moment.

 

The biggest test for any laptop, ThinkPads included, is falling on a corner. If a laptop falls straight down, then the force of the fall is transferred through the whole chassis. If it falls on a corner, all the force is put onto that corner, and likely it there will be pretty severe damage.

 

i will test it with my dead t500, what height/surface do you suggest

 

that's one evil drop of broth lol... rip to the t61
I'm tempted to stand on my T420 main concern is the weight cracking the LCD = = the plastic cover feels really thin

 

See post #30 in this thread by me. My W520 survived just fine exactly that kind of drop. That said, don't repeat that at home

 

Can't step on my L420 (nor Y410p) without probably breaking something, and no I'm not overweight. L series doesn't have the rollcage/extra durability/MILspec.

However, both of my Lenovos have survived drops without nothing more than minor scratches. Go figure.

 

Understood, but that's not what I was talking about. Let me make my point a bit clearer:

If you drop a machine that sports a LED-lit LCD in a manner that cracks the LCD while powered on, in 9 out of 10 cases you *will* blow the fuse on the board as well.

Which brings us to something that was supposed to be my next point and a huge heresy from a long-time ThinkPad user: I always felt that the entire "roll cage" thing was little more than a very clever marketing ploy on Lenovo's part.

Having managed a field-use-fleet of 800+ (mostly T2x series) ThinkPads at one time, I'm still above and beyond impressed how well they kept with the abuse, long before anyone had decided to come up with the "roll cage" buzzword...

 

IIRC though they used a titan-magnesium composite for lid and parts of base before introducing the "roll-cage". That was also causing some troubles with wireless reception, I do distinctly remember having to put antenna in the palmrest area in the base instead of the lid on my T23 that I bought w/o WiFi originally, and even then I was still getting very crappy reception until I found the lid with specially cut out "windows" for antennas. Yet even with special lid the reception was still worse then with later models that had titan-magnesium roll cage separated from plastic casing. I think the wireless connectivity troubles was the main reason behind switching to "roll-cage" design instead of solid monolithic lid. I would say that it also probably a bit increased survivability, as plastic would be absorbing some of the impact energy while cracking whereas solid titan-magnesium lid would pass that impact shock onto electronics.

 

The lid of my T440p is so flexy I could probably use it as a trampoline

 

Just don't mention it to your insurance company...trampoline on property = major hazard = high insurance rate or cancellation...

 

Is it just me or does the T440s screen flex when you apply pressure to the bottom of it?

 

It wouldn't surprise me; my W520 does the same thing if I press my finger on it and give it a decent amount of force.

Though I can't see how it'd impact the durability of the laptop unless you deliberately target that weakness (or are extremely unlucky).

 

AFAIK the bottom of the screen bezel and the space behind the keyboard under the screen have always been soft spots, which doesn;t bother me much since that's one of the least exposed/vulnerable parts of the machine.

 

I might be just me, but when I took apart my T61 for a mainboard change, I thought the magnesium alloy roll cage was quite flimsy. It felt kind of brittle in my hand.

 

I'm pretty sure it's supposed to work in combination with other case components, but generally it is indeed supposed to be the hardest part that wouldn't get distorted, to keep electronics straight while the plastic absorbs the impact by bending/cracking/shattering. So if you're saying it was easily bending or breaking then it's not supposed to do that at all, but if it just felt brittle and flimsy then those sensations can be quite misleading - when I was in the club building airplanes we had some composite parts that were so light and felt like you could break them with two fingers, but alas you couldn't do that with two hands.

 

Me too (75 kg on the T440s):

:thumbsup:

 

Do the photos have timestamps?! haha.

 

You forgot to wear your snow boots.

 

Well, if you look closely, you can see on the second one "Freitag, 10. Januar" on the lockscreen.

I guess I don´t know where they are - there has been no snow here in Germany this "winter" (if you can call it this way) yet - I have heard in America the conditions are a bit different... (its like "Niagara-falls-frozen" cold). But thats off topic...

 

So who's going to be the first to roll a car up onto four thinkpads?