Although I usually use my classic desktop tower as my main workstation, I have been using a Dell Latitude E7440 notebook since 2015 as a second working device. With the increased use of online/video meetings and running multiple communication tools (Teams, Slack, Skype, ...) at the same time, this 9 year old device did not perform well anymore.
Time to look for something new.
I loved that Dell notebook. It featured a thin design (Ultrabook) and just the right amount of important plugs (HDMI and RJ45 have been crucial over these years). The keyboard felt great to type, the size of the notebook was perfect for a secondary (and not daily used) work machine.
Over the years this notebook traveled a lot - especially before COVID-19. The sticker collection on this Dell Latitude speaks for itself:
Note: I only used stickers from software, vendors or products I have personally worked with or attended a convention or completed a certification.
I am a nostalgic person. Every sticker represents its own story and experience. Getting rid of that notebook with the stickers on it was a difficult decision.
But at the same time it became inevitable to get a new notebook. Working for multiple companies (customers), communicating with multiple teams through different communication channels (Teams, Slack, Skype, without even counting numerous video call tools in the browser) had its toll. The performance was sometimes that bad, I had to quit all programs to just join a Teams call.
The final moment, where I took the decision to replace my beloved Dell notebook, was during a Teams call with one of my customers. As the integrated camera is quite old (I guess 9 years can be described as old) the quality is nowhere near the newer models. The customer mentioned if I took out an old webcam from the 90s - and even I could see my pixelated self in the overview.
Time to look for a new notebook!
During my last vacation (autumn 2024 in the USA), I decided to visit a BestBuy and stroll through the laptop and notebook section. Most of the devices were ugly as hell and there would be no way I would decide for such a model. Something I noticed on almost all new models: The arrow keys (especially up/down) have become very small.
Must users probably don't care much about these. But I'm primarily a Linux Terminal user and navigating through the history using up + down arrow keys is very frequent. Having to "bend my fingers" every time to correctly hit the up or down arrow key with a fingernail is not my intention.
Besides having a keyboard with "real" arrow keys, there are also other important points that the new notebook needs to fulfill.
After I compared multiple notebook models for the must have and nice to have features (and their prices, too), one particular notebook model stood out.
The Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 5 turned out to be on the top of my new notebook list. The Generation 5 is a 2024 version of Lenovo's ThinkPad T14 series; the name T14 highlighting the screen size (14 inches).
An interesting fact is that this model can be chosen with either an AMD or Intel processor. As AMD Ryzen was on my nice to have list, I decided for the model with the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 8840U CPU; a fairly new CPU model released in 2024 with 8 Cores (16 Threads) and integrated Radeon graphics.
Everything looked great so far: Small size (14 inch screen) but normal sized keyboard, a fast CPU, Linux hardware compatibility seems good, decent amount of USB plugs - basically all the must haves and most of the nice to haves are ticked. But what about battery life? Actual experience working with this notebook? This is when I stumbled on this YouTube video, where Mash IT reviews the Lenovo T14 Gen 5 and highlights the robustness and good battery life of his favorite ThinkPad!
Another very important information retrieved from this video was the fact that memory and storage upgrade was very easy to do. Older generations of the T14 had soldered RAM, which made this impossible.
After I watched the full video I made my decision: The Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 5 with the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 8840U will be my new notebook. I added the notebook to my "todo purchase list" on my favorite Swiss online shop but did not buy the notebook just yet. This turned out to be a good decision. By chance this particular AMD model got a special discount of roughly 20% and I went ahead and purchased my new notebook in November 2024 - along with 32 GB memory and a larger NVMe M.2 SSD for an immediate hardware upgrade.
Now placing my old and new notebook next to each other revealed that the ThinkPad T14 is even a tad smaller than my previous Dell Latitude. The Dell notebook is a bit wider and higher than the new ThinkPad. This is mainly due to the larger surrounding/casing of the screen on the older Dell notebook.
I made a great experience running Linux Mint on my Dell Latitude notebook. Almost every device was working smoothly, only some Bluetooth audio devices sometimes ran into a pairing issue. For me personally there's currently no other Linux distro than Linux Mint as Desktop Linux OS. And as Linux Mint 22 got meanwhile released, it was time to install that and verify the hardware works correctly.
Linux Mint installed without any issue, all the hardware components (to my knowledge) worked right out of the box.
The hardware upgrade, I mentioned above, was surprisingly easy and Lenovo provides helpful videos how to do this. I will eventually write a separate blog post about this.
The battery life of the new notebook with Linux Mint is great. In December 2024 I made a practical test where I worked on a 2.5 hours train ride, connected to a mobile hotspot, purely on the battery. Working in this situation meant having multiple communication software opened (Teams, Slack, Skype), however I did not join a video call during the train ride. Besides this I had Firefox and Chrome open in parallel, used for Teams, to check/respond to e-mails and do research. And at the same time multiple terminal windows were opened and connected to servers around the globe. When I arrived at my destination and had to leave the train, the battery still had a capacity of 30%. This shows me that I could easily work 3-4h purely on battery in the train. If the location would be on a fixed position without a mobile hotspot (and running into mobile network holes from time to time), the battery would most likely hold even longer.
The notebook performs very well during video/conference calls. But I had to expect this, from much newer and powerful motherboard and processor. The integrated camera has a decent quality, optimal for today's video calls.
There's one annoying topic though: Docking stations. Although the ThinkPad T14 Gen 5 offers a Thunderbolt 4 plug, I've ran into multiple issues trying to use USB-C/Thunderbolt Docking Stations. I tried Dell, HP and even a Lenovo Docking Station, all with mixed results. At the fourth try I eventually came across one working Docking Station from Lenovo (a different model than the non-working Lenovo one). I will write a separate blog post about this ThinkPad T14 Gen 5 Docking Station experience with details about the models and their particular issues at a different time. But let me just say I would have preferred if this worked just out of the box. I'm not sure though if this is due to the hardware of the ThinkPad T14 or because I'm running Linux Mint, which might not properly detect the docking stations.
Now after the first two months working with the ThinkPad T14 Gen 5 I am happy. The notebook performs as expected and fulfills all the needs for my work situation.
CK from Switzerland wrote on Jan 8th, 2025:
Vytenis, because I want to use Linux as OS and don't want to use 500 adapters XD. I know the macOS pretty well, I used Macintosh in the 90s and 2000s, did a lot of macOS upgrades in the past years for customers. So for me personally I feel I get the most from a Linux machine with fully supported hardware :-). But everyone should choose the OS and the suppported hardware according to personal preference.
Vytenis from Vilnius wrote on Jan 8th, 2025:
Why not mac?
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