The laptop market is highly commodified(products from different brands that are more or less the same). However, there is certainly a unique selling proposition with each of the top brands. There are certain advantages of ThinkPads over other laptops that is why ThinkPads are so popular.
Some unique features of ThinkPads
Some of the best points about them are:
- Military graded physical structure. In plain English, it means that your laptop is going to be highly durable. ThinkPads undergo rigorous testing that is as per MIL standards. They are dropped from several feet above the ground. Exotic materials like carbon fiber and magnesium alloys are the secret behind this muscular strength. Some of the models even feature water drainage under the keyboard. This makes the keyboard spill-proof.
- A top end thing back typically has a battery life between 12 to 20 hours. What is even more important is that ThinkPads batteries are highly modular. It is much easier to swap out a ThinkPad battery than any other laptop. Of the ThinkPad, such as the X series, also featured double batteries. What this means is that once one of your battery is almost gone, you can swap out a spare battery without shutting down your system. If you have a lot of spare batteries than ThinkPads like X280 can run for as long as you can exhaust all your batteries.
- Ease of availability of spare parts. ThinkPads have a particular naming convention for their parts. Each part has got its own FRU number. This makes them highly serviceable. On the other hand there are companies like Apple are moving towards non serviceable laptops and mobile devices. A non-functional or broken ThinkPad can be fixed in the middle of African jungle. You just need to order the right parts and wait for them.
- Best keyboards among all laptops. ThinkPads typically have one of the best keyboards compared to any other laptop. Firstly, the keyboards have a higher travel distance. This makes typing much easier compared to the shallow keyboards found on many laptops. Also, shallower keyboards tend to fail more often compared with the thicker ThinkPad keyboards. Secondly, the ThinkPad keyboards have a little bit of Ark and they also feature some kind of tactile rough surface. Therefore typing experience on ThinkPad is unparalleled. Some of the laptops that can beat ThinkPads in keyboards are gaming laptops with mechanical keys. However, they are bulky and not very suitable for business environment with glaring LEDs and loud fans.
- The Trackpoint. The ThinkPad Trackpoint is one of the navigational devices included in the keyboard. It acts both as a mouse as well as a pointing device. However, the most common use for a trackpad is for scrolling documents and spreadsheets. It makes the job much easier compared to any other inbuilt scrolling mechanism. Trackpoint also acts as a secondary. Or a backup mouse when your touchpad fails. You can use it to point your mouse in any direction and even use it to click on an icon.
What makes ThinkPads so popular for business users?
ThinkPads are known for their reliability. We have already discussed some of the key differentiators between ThinkPads and other laptops in the previous section. However, there are certain things that are hard to capture in the spec sheet. One of those things is the reliability and practicality of a laptop. ThinkPads stand against the crowd of different laptop brands in this regard. This was a product strategy crafted almost 26 years ago by IBM. Lenovo is taking it forward with the newer lineups. Their constant efforts explain why ThinkPads are so popular.
When we talk about the practicality of ThinkPads, one of the differentiators is also the sheer expandability. Generally, ThinkPads have plenty of ports. When you compare that with or diametrically opposite design of a Mac book, it comes as a shock. While many ultra-thin and light built laptops like to have only one USB C port or two USB C ports, you’ll typically find 5 to 6 ports on a ThinkPad. Some of the common missing ports from other laptops are Ethernet(LAN) port and multiple monitor port. Most other laptops provide one HDMI output. On the other hand, many ThinkPads have one HDMI as well as a DP output. Therefore you can connect to external monitors with a ThinkPad. In fact, you can even connect more than two if you Daisy chain the DP port.
In the end, it is the combination of unique no-nonse design, reliability and functionality that makes these laptops are best business laptops. That being said, Dell and HP also have their own business/enterprise laptops meant for professional use. They have their own unique features as well.