When comparing Lenovo ThinkPad P53 vs Librem 15, the Slant community recommends Librem 15 for most people. In the question“What are the best laptops for Linux?” Librem 15 is ranked 9th while Lenovo ThinkPad P53 is ranked 17th.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Still built like technology was a generation ago
The P Series is still built to be worked long and hard and come back for more; if the nerds ever go to war the winning army will choose this as their standard issue service weapon. Not a wiggle or a creak anywhere in the chassis, and all the old upgrade paths are available from memory sockets to second storage drive.
Pro Optional physical kill switches for microphone/camera and wireless/bluetooth
Pro Built with security in mind starting from each chip placed onto the motherboard
Pro Good connectivity
3 USB 3.0 (one being type C) and 2 USB 2.0 with the HDMI feels very nice to have on such a lightweight laptop. Sadly no Ethernet port, otherwise it would have been perfect.
Pro Good keyboard
Keyboards are usually bad on laptops, companies reusing small version ones on bigger size laptop with big paddings. Purism managed a good quality and use every bit of space to get a keyboard that feels good to use.
Pro Runs privacy focused software
Librem runs PureOS, a privacy focused operating system, and runs software that respects your rights.
Cons
Con It's quite expensive
You'll be paying a higher price for Purism's commitment to secure, privacy, and freedom respecting electronics.
Con Wifi is weak
Any other laptop or smartphone will have better signal than the Librem 15. Having a strong signal is very rare (you need to be in the same room within 10m of the router), it is still working but a Ethernet port as back-up would have been very much appreciated. This is probably due to the FOSS constraint for the hardware.
Con Speakers are bad
The sound feels really wrong, the trebles are way too high and there is no bass.
Con Touchpad not centered
Touchpad is not centered due to addition of little used numeric keypad keys on the right.