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IS IT SPILL PROOF? Lenovo Thinkpad P50 review + spill damage test

Louis RossmannCited 5× on HN, 2018–2025
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demo · general · 2018–2025 on HN

Louis Rossmann reviews the Lenovo ThinkPad P50, covering build, thermals and throttling, then spills liquid on it to test the keyboard drainage and spill protection.

Cited as evidence that ThinkPads survive spills thanks to their drainage design, often with timestamps for the spill test.

Consumer devices & gadgetsRepair, teardowns & right to repair#thinkpad#spilltest#louisrossmann#thermals

5 comments from Hacker News

@upboundspiral2025-10 · in “I spent the day teaching seniors how to use an iPhone”

▶ this video Rossman running benchmark suite after spilling water all over his Thinkpad keyboard (about 28:00 in)

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@pxc2022-12 · in “Apple GPU drivers now in Asahi Linux”

Me neither. I think everything after that (bogus) original point has just been others highlighting that some ThinkPads don't have spill trays as awesome as those that are demonstrated at 28:30 or so: ▶ this video I was just agreeing with you that the situation with spilling water on a macOS keyboard still definitely seems worse.

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@mikece2022-04 · in “Ask HN: MacBooks seems to be the only viable option these days”

The author doesn't say what the intended purpose/use of the laptop is; it's interesting to me that in the Dell and Lenovo lines the author isn't going for the Precision or whatever the current version of the Lenovo P50 is (I bought my P50 in August 2016 and it's 4-core CPU, 1TB SSD, and 64GB of RAM still gets the job done and the hardware just won't quit). The tradeoff of the units I mentioned compared to what the author mentioned is weight... I get that if you're constantly on the move with your machine it's nicer to have a 3 point laptop versus an 8 pound laptop but personal preferences being what they are I would rather have the more robust hardware and heavier duty system than something lighter. Oh -- and my P50 could apparently withstand waterboarding... though I'll just take Louis Rossmann's word for it (and video) rather than trying to duplicate the experiment myself: ▶ this video

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@45ure2021-01 · in “Lenovo’s new ThinkPad X1 Titanium Yoga is less than half an inch thick”

I found myself hankering after a P-series Thinkpad, after watching Louis Rossmann, near enough destroying one of them! ▶ this video

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@modernerd2018-10 · in “How IBM’s ThinkPad Became a Design Icon (2017)”

It's pretty amazing what you can put them through too. As a MacBook owner Lenovo's dust tests have me wincing: link link And the waterproofing is kind of incredible: ▶ this video link Now that they make a solid, thin, repairable, upgradeable 15" laptop for creative types (ThinkPad X1 Extreme), it's becoming increasingly tempting to switch as a MacBook owner, even if I have to ditch macOS.

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