You simply never experiences a real ThinkPad - meaning the ThinkPad T4xx/X2xx/W4xx business notebook series that originated from the IBM ThinkPad T40/T60 series.
Your older notebook is just a low budget consumer device with the ThinkPad brand name attached. Sad, but true, Lenovo recently transformed also their business notebook series to low quality consumer style form factors. The last good devices are the T420/X220 series.
I've also used the X1 Carbon and the X230. Both had many small issues (and a few big ones) that made them feel like alpha-quality prototypes. Even simple things like trackpad gestures and scrolling were borderline-unusable. Instead of scrolling proportionally to my finger movement, their trackpads just triggered a "scroll mouse wheel" event, moving up/down by 3 lines. Options like smooth scrolling did nothing but add an animation in the 3 line movement. It's ridiculous. An iBook from 2005 has better trackpad scrolling.
I'm surprised by the "no true ThinkPad" responses. How am I supposed to know which ThinkPads are real ones? Apparently the X220 is, but not the X230? The only differences seem to be some keyboard tweaks, the trackpad, and newer CPUs.
Lenovo decreased the build quality with every iteration. The original IBM ThinkPad T60 was rock solid. The Lenovo T400/T410 and X200/X210 were great too, but already with thinner plastic case. The T420 and X220 were the last good series. The T430 and X230 came already with a bad keyboard&trackpad and was made of less durable plastic. It all started with the faulty T410s (mind the "s") which plastic was way too thin. The X1 is not a ThinkPad, just a generic notebook with its name attached. Maybe Lenovo changes their product strategy, then one can buy new products again.
Your older notebook is just a low budget consumer device with the ThinkPad brand name attached. Sad, but true, Lenovo recently transformed also their business notebook series to low quality consumer style form factors. The last good devices are the T420/X220 series.