Lenovo X250 12.5", Core i5-5300U, 8GB, 128GB SSD

A compact, reliable relic that's great for typing and terrible for everything else. Buy it for the keyboard, not the specs.

The Core i5-5300U with 8GB of RAM handles web browsing, email, and Office docs without throwing a fit, but don't expect miracles. The 128GB SSD is the real bottleneck, sitting in the bottom 7 percent of all laptops we track. You'll be playing storage Jenga after installing Windows updates and a few apps. The integrated graphics are a weak spot, landing in the bottom 14 percent, so forget anything beyond solitaire or 720p video.

Stacked against the Apple MacBook Air M4 or ASUS Zenbook UX3405CA, the X250 looks like a museum piece. Those machines have modern ARM or Meteor Lake chips, 16GB+ of RAM, and SSDs measured in terabytes. The X250's only real advantage is its size and that classic ThinkPad keyboard. The Microsoft Surface Laptop 7th Edition is also far more capable, but costs significantly more. If you need a cheap secondary machine for travel, the X250 makes sense. As a primary laptop, it's a hard no.

At around 533 CAD, this is a tough sell unless you specifically need a tiny, durable laptop for writing or light admin work. You're paying for the ThinkPad name and compact form factor, not performance. If you can stretch your budget, a used MacBook Air M1 or a newer budget Chromebook will run circles around it.

The Lenovo X250 is a refurbished workhorse from a decade ago, and it knows it. The one thing to know is this: it's a compact, reliable typing machine for basic tasks, not a modern laptop. That 96th percentile compact score means it's one of the best tiny laptops we've seen for slipping into a bag, but the internals are firmly stuck in 2015.

If you're looking for a laptop that can handle photo editing, gaming, or more than a dozen browser tabs, this isn't it. Go get a used M1 MacBook Air or a newer budget Windows laptop instead. The X250 is for minimalists who value portability and keyboard feel over raw power.

Buy the Lenovo X250 only if you want a tiny, reliable typing machine for basic tasks and you're on a very tight budget. It's a niche pick for writers, students with light workloads, or anyone who misses the old ThinkPad feel. For everyone else, save up for something newer.