Noticed a weird shift in how old ThinkPad batteries hold up these days

I picked up a T420 from 2011 and the original battery still keeps a 3 hour charge. But a T460 I got from 2016 is dead after 20 minutes off the charger. Anyone else seeing newer vintage gear fail faster than the real old stuff?

2 comments

2 Comments

jade22124d ago

Oh man, you're totally onto something here. It's like everything built between like 2010 and 2015 had this weird sweet spot of quality before companies started cutting corners to save a buck. I see the same thing with kitchen appliances - my mom's blender from 1998 still works perfectly but I've had to replace two newer ones in the last five years. It's just that whole trend of planned obsolescence creeping into everything, even stuff that used to be built to last.

betty_scott1824d ago

Bought a T430 from 2012 and that thing still runs for like 4 hours on the old 9-cell. Meanwhile my buddy's X260 from 2016 barely lasts through a movie. I swear they started putting weaker cells in around 2014 or something. My T40 from 2003 is a brick but the battery still holds a solid 2 hours. Its like the older tech was overbuilt and the newer stuff is just good enough to get out the door.