Edit: Jesus Christ, people. If you buy a $150 Thinkpad made by slave labor instead of a $1,200 MacBook made by slave labor, you're still supporting a capitalist economy based on slave labor. We all do. We have no choice. The number of smug liberals in the comments saying "well I buy a cheap used laptop" or "well I buy coffee beans and make my own coffee" are completely missing the fucking point.
Don't tell yourself your consumption is moral. All of us make unethical choices every day because there is no ethical consumption under capitalism. Accept your shame and guilt and let it drive you to do better.
Asus > Lenovo
They're very similar, but you get to support Taiwan with Asus. You don't have a pointing stick, though; if that's something you care about. The hardware is also similar, but Lenovo generally has better cases/ outershells, but Asus also outperforms them on price point and internal hardware and software.
Not really supporting either business by buying a used laptop tho?
When people make memes about you using it, you’re supporting the company with good exposure. They should be grateful.
I'm down with that, too. Depends on your needs, though.
Are there Asus laptops out there that support the same level of reparability/upgradability as ThinkPads?
Yes! Here's one example: https://www.asus.com/us/laptops/for-students/br-series/asus-br1402c/
Like I said, they don't offer as many external accessories, but they're pretty close.
This is coming from someone who grew up using thinkpads. If I were to buy a used laptop for something personal, I'd go with a thinkpad. If I have to buy something new, it's Asus.
That's kind of neat. At that price point it seems kind of in between a ThinkPad and Framework laptop.
Cool but kinda slow. Would be okay as a Linux machine I imagine, but so would a used ThinkPad.