A couple of months ago, I bought a used Thinkpad X200t in excellent condition. I knew about the popularity of the older Thinkpads and libreboot, and I was interested in a tablet pc because I wanted to use it to read and make notes, so when I came across that X200t (in excellent condition and good price) it was an easy decision to buy it.
Its specs are low (256GB SSD, Core 2 duo, 4GB RAM, 1280x1024 screen), but I find it very usable for browsing, reading and annotating pdfs. It runs Debian stable with KDE Plasma (the pen works well with krita, okular, xournal). The battery is old but is still holding a charge for several hours. I thought the screen would be annoyingly small, but I noticed that it is actually just fine for most web pages. I like the old 1280x1024 a lot more than the nowadays popular 1366x768. I really like it, it's also small and easy to travel with.
What you can do with it, is however limited by the Core 2 Duo chip, and the amount of ram. It's not gonna run a heavy IDE, and as a developer that's a bit of a pity, but was also completely expected.
I just checked how much people ask for old Thinkpads X200 and X200t and they really ask a lot for them, especially for ones that are already librebooted. That's amazing if you realize that those came out in 2008.
The X200 officially only supports 2x2GB, but seems to work fine with 2x4GB, as long as it's the correct type of ram (single-sided if I remember correctly). So I need to find the right type of ram and it's something I plan to upgrade, but didn't get to it yet.
It is probably better to stick with 2G+4G combination, as in that case it is less picky about the correct type of the 4G module (as in, there are modules that work in this configuration, but not as 2x4G) and IIRC the chipset cannot address the entire 8GB of RAM anyway.
Mine has had 2x4 in it since app. 2010. I tested it in the shop so I knew it worked and right after I walked out of there I called one of my nerdy friends and we talked for a very long time about the an obscene amount of RAM I had.
That machine developed a screen fault later, but I replaced it with another X200, which is still my personal machine. I have a T490 for work and the experience makes me want to stockpile the older models.
Its specs are low (256GB SSD, Core 2 duo, 4GB RAM, 1280x1024 screen), but I find it very usable for browsing, reading and annotating pdfs. It runs Debian stable with KDE Plasma (the pen works well with krita, okular, xournal). The battery is old but is still holding a charge for several hours. I thought the screen would be annoyingly small, but I noticed that it is actually just fine for most web pages. I like the old 1280x1024 a lot more than the nowadays popular 1366x768. I really like it, it's also small and easy to travel with.
What you can do with it, is however limited by the Core 2 Duo chip, and the amount of ram. It's not gonna run a heavy IDE, and as a developer that's a bit of a pity, but was also completely expected.
I just checked how much people ask for old Thinkpads X200 and X200t and they really ask a lot for them, especially for ones that are already librebooted. That's amazing if you realize that those came out in 2008.