I’ve been looking to upgrade our laptops here at TfW for a few months now. We’ve been using what would be politely considered as ‘vintage devices’, and new computing devices were well overdue.

The laptop I’ve been using since November 2011 is a 15” Apple MacBook Pro (early-2011) which I absolutely loved working on. It’s gotten me through various projects and one Master’s degree, but I’ve had my issues with it. Due to a manufacturing defect with the discrete AMD GPU’s soldering, my motherboard was replaced thrice under warranty and once out-of-warranty. As the device was originally purchased in California, I was even contacted by Whitfield Bryson & Mason LLP about being included in a class-action lawsuit against Apple! I understand that this lawsuit was part of the reason Apple finally allowed for out-of-warranty motherboard replacements on this series of laptops (justifying my 4th free motherboard replacement). After the final motherboard repair however, I felt that any further use I got out of this laptop would be a bonus, and didn’t really expect it to run for more than a year or so. I swapped out the HDD for an SSD in 2014, the optical drive for a secondary storage tray in 2015, and replaced one of the two fans in 2017. When the GPU finally gave up in November 2019, I found some code online that bypassed the problematic discrete AMD GPU and forced the use of the integrated Intel GPU. When the screen started up with vertical line displays halfway through 2020 (indicating some sort of hardware failure), I knew that the end was in sight. Rather than wait for the device to fail catastrophically, I decided to decommission the laptop. On the 2nd of January 2021, just over 9 years after I received it, I backed up my data one final time, stripped out both SSDs and packed up the laptop along with its much-soldered charger (which is another story entirely). It’s now sitting in a box waiting to be taken to a repair station for its final end-of-life diagnosis (refurbish and donate, or dismantle and recycle).

Working at the juncture of technology and conservation, I used to feel an immense amount of guilt every time I considered purchasing a new piece of equipment. I’ve never actually felt guilty about actually buying any equipment though, and that’s because on average, I spend between 6 months to a year studying my options, really working through what I think I need and why. Meanwhile, I solder and hack and do whatever I can to keep existing equipment in action for as long as I can before it just isn’t worth the time and effort anymore. Then, it’s disposed of as responsibly as possible. iFixit has a huge part to play in all of this; I rely on the guides to fix malfunctioning or broken hardware, and on the repairability scores when considering new equipment.

At TfW, we work with a lot of visual data, and manipulate it using spreadsheet, statistical computing and GIS software packages. Most of the commercial GIS software we use, for satellite and drone images, has been optimised for Windows machines. Even so, I would have considered MacBooks dual-booting OS X and Windows for our new machines, if not for their terrible repairability scores, high prices and lack of a touch screen. With the newer MacBooks, it is almost impossible to perform any upgrades or repairs without replacing the entire motherboard, as every component is just soldered onto it. This is clearly visible when looking at iFixit’s laptop repairability score; a MacBook Pro 15” from 2012 has a score of 7/10, while one from more recent years, complete with Retina Displays and/or Touch Bars, have scores of 1 or 2. In practice, this means that after the 1+2 year warranty period is over, it’s much cheaper to just throw a MacBook away than to repair it. This is true of laptops from other companies as well, but Apple’s egregious battles against the global #righttorepair movement have left a really sour taste in my mouth. The design and UI/UX may be great (though that’s disputable what is the Touch Bar even for?) but why buy from a company actively opposed to a) fixing things and b) environmental sustainability?

So in 2020-21, when considering new laptops, MacBooks were out of the question. My desired features were a touch screen, portability, repairability/upgradability and price. The laptops I was seriously considering (as of Nov 2020) were the Microsoft Surface Pro 7, the HP Envy x360 and Spectre x360, the Dell XPS 13” 2-in-1, and the Lenovo Yoga C740 and Ideapad Flex 5. Except for the Surface Pro, all the others seem to be great machines; while it does look quite nice, it’s over-priced with the keyboard(!?) and pen only available as even-more expensive extras. Based on the fact that I found a rather nice deal on the Ideapad Flex 5, I finally picked up two devices (Ryzen 7 processors, 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD; ~INR 63,000/- each) directly from the Lenovo online store, inclusive of a 3-year warranty, free shipping and Lenovo Active Pens (see that Microsoft?).

The laptops arrived within a week of placing the order, in cardboard boxes with a little too much plastic wrap. Aside from that, they seem to be fit-for-purpose; the RAM and processor aren’t upgradeable, but the storage SSD and battery can be replaced. After the Lenovo/Superfish bloatware scandal of 2014, I was concerned about the pre-installed software, but aside from two MacAfee trialware packages (which I quickly uninstalled) the laptop seems to be clean. The pen works with QGIS, so we can now finally draw polygons by tapping on the screen; now we’re really doing geography in the 21st century! It’s been less than a week since these devices arrived so it’s too early to tell, but my hope is that these laptops allow us to work until at least 2026.

To close, I’d have to state that this is not a Lenovo advertisement, and we’re not technology evangelists; if you need a laptop and can’t fix your old one, buy an appropriate device from any manufacturer you like. Just try and make sure that it’s possible to make it work at least a little longer than it’s been designed to.