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Long-term update makes it unrecommended.

I got the machine on 20th Nov 2024. It's about 1 year now and I can tell you that it's simply not worth buying stuff like this.

As soon as the six months warranty was the over, the fan started to make a lot of noise and after contacting the seller they made it clear that they won't give any hardware support even if I pay them for it. Like I knew I wanted a new smaller fan for it but they simply said no.

After a few weeks of usage, the battery life was so little that I had to keep it plugged it all the time.

And the final nail in the coffin, around one year mark, the display started to show lines on it. It only shows up on certain angles so it might just be the cable but at worst it can also be the display.
Regardless of what the issue is the bigger problem is where am I supposed to get replacement parts for it? It might be okay in tier 1 cities(I am no longer there so I am not sure) but anywhere else you are mainly dependent on the local service people.

These were with the fact that they installed a brandless firmware hacked SSD so I can never be sure when it might suddenly fail on top of it.

Used Laptops only make sense if you can readily get replacement parts for it and you buy it from someone you trust who won't cheap out on replacement parts inside the machine.

Links

Thinkpad L470 Refurbished i5 7200U-8GB-256GB→ Amazon India (Only NewJaisa Seller)

Note: I got it for Rs. 16000 but the price keeps around 14000 even from this seller. Any price around 15,000 is alright.

Before you buy

Can you build a PC and are fine with a machine that can't be moved? If your answer is yes, stick to a PC. Lower temperatures, easy cleaning, cheaper to repair in many cases is more than enough to justify a PC over laptop BUT if portability is a big concern, then I guess this.

Why this Seller?

I have no idea about NewJaisa but all the refurbished sellers on Amazon including NewJaisa have many many negative reviews, I just went with the one that had a lot of ratings and also I have my eyes on this seller for quite some time. All the reviews and everything is with this seller only.

Why?

I made a promise when I had a few hundreds subscribers that I will buy a used thinkpad once and do a proper review on it. Most of my youtube career I have focussed on laptops which cost more than Rs.50,000, anything below only durin sales and even then they are more than Rs.40,000.

I come from a poor family. The first used black and white computer that Dad got me, he had to take on so much shit from other people because back in 2000s these were considered stupid purcahses in India, atleast by my relatives. So I do understand budget a lot and I know that even for so many people even Rs.15,000 might be too much

Summary

Once proper review is done, only then.

Videos

Driver Updates

The laptop came with everything working out of the box. The battery capacity confusion led me to install this battery driver update with the Lenovo System Update tool already installed.

BIOS: I didn't go with BIOS updates fearing that some parts might have been messed with in this laptop.

Windows: Disabled Windows Update with wumt.

Security Updates: Did those and had to temporarily enable Windows update for it so Windows also got updated.

Benchmarks

SSD shows no data at all about the model and brand name so I can't be sure if this is a new or not heavily used SSD, maybe it is, maybe it isn't. Can't say from the SMART data. The speed is fine for a SATA SSD though.

Before Changing Paste

  Didn't do timespy here.

After Changing Paste (Not Recommended)

Don't change the thermal paste because in doing so you will void the six months warranty the laptop comes with. You can do it after the six months is over though and that is the time one should do it anyways. Also, the applied thermal paste was the cheapest one that was dry on opening.

Pros Cons and Service

Laptop Pros

1. Office and Windows were pre-activated so no complaints there.

Laptop Neutral

1. I was ready to clean install Windows 10 Pro but seeing the laptop doing just fine I thought to give it a try. And in any case, most people might get this laptop first time and they would want to know how this laptop performs out of the box without much tweaks in them so that is what I will do. Will use the laptop as it is.
2. Battery needs calibration out of the box. No way it got charged under a few mintues and even after running youtube videos for about an hour now, it still says 100% so either the a clibration is needed or this being an old machine the calibration can't be done. Will call the New Jaisa seller for the same once.
3. The extendable battery seems to be tampered with, and I am unsure if it's a good or a bad thing. Sure the battery is 8 years old but if the internal batteries have been changed, maybe they last longer but we can only be sure if the batteries inside is worth it.

Laptop Cons

1. NO HDMI
2. The small plastic nub came out accidentally. I fit it again but I guess it was to be expected.
3. The internal battery is dead, the external battery housing which should be 48Whr is actually half that because it has been tampered with.
4. The SSD shows no data at all in terms of model or brand name which means the read/write cycle shown here might also have been tampered with. Now I want to know what else has been tampered with on this machine.

NewJaisa Service

• They don't have service centre everywhere in India but service engineers at many places in case a visit is needed or that's what the service guy told me.
• I called the customer care because the battery percentage didn't seem correct. It looks like it needed calibration because it charged very very quickly but even after an hour of youtube videos it gone down only 5%. Normally I would have calibrated the battery myself but it's a good opportunity to see how the service people handle this case.
• After talking with the agent and he checking details he noted down the complaint and asked me to use the laptop for one full day going through the complete cycle and he will call me back tomorrow. I think that is an excellent solution.