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<h1 id="converting-my-x201-thinkpad-into-a-slabtop">Converting My X201 ThinkPad into a Slabtop</h1>
<p>2023-05-01</p>
<p>I recently wrote <a href="/x201/">about physically disabling the WiFi toggle switch on my X201</a> which was a fun &#8220;hack&#8221; to an annoying issue I was running into. Since then, the laptop has been running flawlessly.</p>
<p>The only other <em>minor</em> issue I had was the poor display quality. The screen works perfectly fine but the X201&#8217;s age prevents it from being the best possible display for day-to-day tasks. Both the resolution and viewing angles are quite poor.</p>
<p>So, what were my options to remedy this problem?</p>
<ol>
<li>Swap out and upgrade the laptop&#8217;s display (not many options for this though)</li>
<li>Connect an external display, keyboard, mouse and dock the X201</li>
<li>Something else?</li>
</ol>
<h2 id="looking-into-something-else">Looking into &#8220;Something Else&#8221;</h2>
<p>I found that the possible replacement screens weren&#8217;t worth the cost&#47;hassle to swap out. And setting the laptop aside, docked with external peripherals sounded fine in theory - but then I would be missing out on the X201&#8217;s amazing classic keyboard&#8230;</p>
<p>Then I thought to myself, &#8220;Why not just remove the display <em>entirely</em>?&#8221;</p>
<p>So that&#8217;s what I did.</p>
<p><img src="/public/images/slabtop-1.webp" alt="The main X201 display and lid disconnected" /></p>
<p><em>The X201 display (still inside the top lid) disconnected from the body of the laptop.</em></p>
<p>Removing the entire top lid was easier than I initially thought it would be. The beautiful thing about these older, classic ThinkPads is the ability to completely dissemble them. I won&#8217;t go into heavy details on how to take one of these machines apart, since great documentation <a href="https://www.ifixit.com/Device/Lenovo_Thinkpad_X201_Tablet">already exists</a>. But once you have the keyboard and hinge screws removed it is essentially as easy as <em>lifting</em> the lid out of the chassis. (After disconnecting the small display connectors, of course)</p>
<h2 id="ditching-alpine-for-debian">Ditching Alpine for Debian</h2>
<p>I love Alpine Linux. It&#8217;s normally my <a href="https://as.bt.ht">go-to distro</a> (paired with dwm) for most of my laptop devices. Unfortunately, I find tiling window managers a slight pain to use on larger, 4K displays. I also wanted this slabtop to &#8220;just work&#8221;, instead of needing to fiddle around with WiFi, <code>xrandr</code>, audio etc. Not to mention that Debian is rock solid stable. Defaulting to the XFCE DE was a no-brainer as well since this device is somewhat <em>old</em>.</p>
<p><img src="/public/images/slabtop-2.webp" alt="The X201 slabtop connected to my 4K monitor" /></p>
<p><em>The X201 &#8220;slabtop&#8221; connected to my 27&#8221; 4K monitor via the ThinkPad UltraDock.</em></p>
<h2 id="closing-thoughts">Closing Thoughts</h2>
<p>This slabtop gives me those old-school &#8220;Commodore64&#8221; vibes (or more recent devices like the Raspberry Pi 400). This setup certainly isn&#8217;t for everyone but for my use case it&#8217;s working well. Traveling with a machine like this might prove a little more challenging - although you could simply pair it with a smaller travel monitor (I&#8217;m sure the overall carrying weight would be similar to the standard X201).</p>
<p>If nothing else, it is good to keep this option in mind if you ever break your laptop&#8217;s display and don&#8217;t feel like spending the money to fix it. Just grab an external monitor you have laying around and make a slabtop!</p>
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