Lenovo’s new ThinkPad can be repaired or completely upgraded with just a Phillips screwdriver and a guitar pick. And you don’t even really need the pick.
iFixit and Lenovo Team Up to Make Laptop Repairability the Standard
Your old laptop is slow, full, hot, or just plain broken? What do you do? The old answer was “Take it in for a pricey repair” or “Replace it.” But if you own a Lenovo T14 gen 5, or another ultra-repairable laptop like the Framework, fixing it can be as easy as replacing the battery in a smoke detector. Maybe even easier, since you don’t need a ladder. Lenovo’s new machine, announced at Mobile World Congress 2024 in Barcelona and going on sale in April, shows exactly why we think repairability matters to pretty much everyone, including you and me.
“Lenovo is innovating in exactly the direction the world needs: making their products last longer by increasing upgradeability and repairability. We’re excited to partner with Lenovo to bring repairable designs to the world,” iFixit founder Kyle Wiens said in an interview.
Lenovo has been in talks with self-repair advocate iFixit over the past few years to improve the repairability of its T14 and T16 laptops, attempting to bump them from a 7/10 repairability score to a 10/10. The company earned a 9.3. I spent the weekend with iFixit at MWC Barcelona, demoing the new laptop at an off-site Lenovo event, so I'm very familiar with the improvements. Full disclosure: iFixit's marketing team paid me to attend. I received nothing from Lenovo, though I did eat some of their catered snacks (good) and drink some of their coffee (really bad).
