Complete Thinkpad Buying Guide 2024: Series Explanation & Comparison

Where to Buy ThinkPad at Cheap Price？

Lenovo.com

Lenovo.com  offers lots of ways to save on the popular ThinkPad laptops. Whether it’s a percent-off sale, doorbuster deal, eCoupon offer, early-bird price, or annual sales event, you can find great prices on ThinkPads of all shapes and sizes.

【Coupons and Discounts】

1. Free Shipping sitewide;

2. Save up to 70% on select ThinkPad laptops;

3. Student & teacher discounts: Save an extra 5% sitewide.

If you want to buy a Thinkpad laptop at Lenovo.com, don't forget to Sign up at Extrabux first！(What is Extrabux), then you can enjoy up to 3% cashback from Extrabux after you complete your order at Lenovo.com! Sign-Up Bonus: Free to join it & get a $20 welcome bonus!

Best Buy

Best   Buy Co., Inc. is a multinational retailer, which provides consumer electronics including appliances, TV & home theater, computers  &  tablets, cameras & camcorders, cell phones, audio, video games,  movies & TV shows, car electronics & GPS, wearable technology,  health, fitness & personal care, home, furniture &  office, smart home, security & Wi-Fi and drone drones, toys &  collectibles.

【Coupons and Discounts】

1. Free shipping on orders of $35+;

2. Save up to $294 on select ThinkPad laptops;

Buy a ThinkPad Laptop at Bestbuy, you can enjoy up to 0.5% cashback on your order from Extrabux!

eBay
eBay is a place where many people sell used Thinkpads. Certainly, check out eBay while shopping for a computer. Often good deals can be found on eBay for varying models.

eBay US (Cashback temporarily unavailable)

eBay UK (Up to 2.5% cashback)

eBay AU (Up to 4.6% cashback)

eBay Ca (Cashback temporarily unavailable)

The Lenovo Outlet
There is also a middle ground between buying used and new: the Lenovo outlet.  The Outlet sells refurbished/restocked ThinkPads that are essentially new. There are sometimes excellent deals on the outlet and it's always worth checking out before making a purchase.

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ThinkPad Series Explained & Comparison

Each series of ThinkPad is named with a different letter and has its own characteristics. Let’s look at it.

ThinkPad X Series

Price starting from $626.45 at lenovo.com

You could view the X-series of ThinkPads as something like the premium branch of the brand. Sleekness, portability, and awesome screens are the focus here. The X Series includes the popular ThinkPad X1 line that's even thinner and faster-charging than other X Series models.

ThinkPad X1 Carbon laptops weigh as little as 2.5 lbs. and are built for superior portability, with durable but lightweight construction, integrated graphics, and multiple low-power processor options to extend unplugged time. ThinkPad X1 Extreme laptops are slightly heavier (about 4 lbs.) and boast similar thinness, but you can configure them with higher-resolution displays, faster processors, and dedicated graphics. The X Series even has 2-in-1 models: The ThinkPad X1 Yoga works as either a laptop or a tablet.

ThinkPad P Series

Price starting from $939 at lenovo.com

ThinkPad P Series is Lenovo's top-selling mobile workstation brand -- portable enough to take with you, but with advanced technology to tackle the most intense computing tasks. P Series laptops come equipped with huge storage drives, loads of RAM, display options up to UHD/4K, and ports galore (HDMI, USB 3.1, Thunderbolt™ 3, and so on, depending on the model). You can choose from today's fastest graphics cards and CPUs, including some with advanced ECC memory that sharply limits system crashes.

The pricey P52 is Lenovo’s first VR-ready certified workstation. Typical professions that would get a ThinkPad workstation would-be engineers, CAD-designers, architects, scientists working with huge sets of data, etc.

ThinkPad T Series

Price starting from $725.45 at lenovo.com

ThinkPad T Series is the flagship series of the ThinkPad line that offers the best balance between ruggedness, features, processing power, and portability in a 14 or 15-inch unit. Lightweight, and uber-powerful, the devices in this series are perfect for hardcore productivity wherever you happen to be. T-series are very versatile and offer a great variety in upgrades, screen options, and processors.

T-series ThinkPads also come in “s” versions. A T14s for example is a slightly slimmer and lighter, more portable version of the T14. It also comes with a slightly bigger battery, as mobility is the name of the game.

ThinkPad L Series

Price starting from $497.40 at lenovo.com

ThinkPad L Series laptops are built for business, but with an added focus on economy and value.  These laptops range in size from 13 in to 15 in. In terms of build quality, they are above the E series but not as good as the flagship T/X/P series.

If you’re a startup or hard on a budget, the L-series can offer great value and punch way above your expectations performance-wise, especially if you go with the latest AMD processors.

ThinkPad E Series

Price starting from $539.40 at lenovo.com

ThinkPad E Series laptops are aimed at small business users who need great productivity features at an affordable price, primarily available in a 15.6-inch form factor.

Most E Series offers great hardware and the usual ThinkPad build quality but sacrifice weight and portability. The E-Series is highly scalable. You can customize to focus on a specific feature that’s important to you or equip far higher specs for a more powerful machine.

ThinkPad A Series

Price starting from $468 at lenovo.com

A series is aimed at professionals looking to perform a variety of editing, open-source, and gaming tasks. Devices in this range are powered by AMD Ryzen processors.

ThinkPad 11e Series

Price starting from $539.40 at lenovo.com

The 11e Series is the budget ThinkPad range, serving as a great choice for a second device or something for the student. From book-bags to buses to desks, these devices are ready to foster a learning environment despite what your child puts them through.

ThinkPad Yoga Series

Price starting from $677.40 at lenovo.com

ThinkPad Yoga Series 2-in-1s combine the renowned power and reliability of ThinkPad laptops with the amazing versatility Lenovo Yoga line and its unique 360-degree hinge. A ThinkPad Yoga system works as a traditional laptop at home and in business meetings, or you can flip the screen around to use it as a tablet for casual web surfing, on-the-go note-taking, and more.

Both the ultraportable ThinkPad X Series and the more economical, eco-friendly ThinkPad L Series offer models with the Yoga 2-in-1 configuration. In fact, the name 2-in-1 might better be called 4-in-1, since the Yoga hinge allows the device to be used in four different ways. Not only is there laptop and tablet mode, but you can use it in Stand and Tent modes, too.

Three tips for Buying a ThinkPad

1. If you have trouble with choosing a ThinkPad , start with the screen size. This is an easy-to-understand specification and a good way to narrow down the choices based on the type of display you really want.

2. For most specifications, do not overemphasize. For most laptop tasks, you only need about 6GB of RAM. Pushing higher than that is mostly for designers and gamers. If there is not enough space, you can use an external SSD to offset the small hard drive. Many functions usually have solutions. However, you are confused about the display quality and battery life, so make sure they are within the required range.

3. Don't forget to pay attention to the port. Only the newer versions of the ThinkPad series will have advanced ports such as USB-C and Thunderbolt 3, which are important when purchasing new devices and accessories.

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