I cannot tell from the photos, but sadly I bet they didn't return the far superior 7-row keyboard to us stalwart ThinkPad owners.

The latest (sucky) layout doesn't even have a Fn toggle to use a 10-key numeric overlay so using extended (ALT+<n> chars) practically impossible. And no Pause/Break key kills me. Every. Single. Day. </rant>

Tip: If you're shopping/researching Thinkpads (or any consumer Lenovo gear), the "Product Specifications Reference" — aka 'PSREF' — documents are the bee's knees. (Last rev. was 20 Dec 2017, so this new stuff is not yet listed.). Link, http://psref.lenovo.com/

Well, I for one prefer both the current Thinkpad USB keyboard and the keyboard built into my X1 Yoga to the classic keyboard in my old Thinkpad X220.

You get [Pause] by pressing [FN] + [P], btw.

Are Intel's 8th gen processors affected by Scepter and Meltdown?

Yes

Spectre, not Scepter :D

The X220 has the superior keyboard and really isn't underpowered unless you're interested in gaming. Coreboot allows all sorts of upgrades beyond the OEM firmware.

Before I switched to Mac, I was a major ThinkPad adherent. It was the best laptop hardware. Anyone have experience running Linux on one of their recent models?

I run Ubuntu out-of-the-box on a ThinkPad Yoga X1 and everything works pretty well, including the docking station, the digitizer, touch screen, hotkeys, battery life. Same was true with my older Thinkpad T420 (which had Nvidia Optimus). The good hardware combined with the good drivers is the reason why I did not yet switch to Mac.

On a Thinkpad T Series T460 I have had some issues with getting the correct setup on the touchpad for gesture use on arch but if you are a mouse user regularly, this issue isn’t much. Past that, arch ran wonderfully.

I have a 2017 Thinkpad X1 Carbon running arch--I can't seem to change my trackpoint sensitivity, but that's about the only issue I've had.

No removable battery on the x series. Lenovo is really trying really hard to kill the brand.