They clearly show wear.
I am not sure if they were replaced from another older device, or the entire cover is from L390, but that one would have a plastic cover for where this one has a stylus. It doesn’t seem like anything was snapped out of there.

I couldn’t find replacement ones online, and I am not sure if contacting the shop is a good idea. See, the L390 Yoga has a touchscreen with better colors and seems to be a bit more expensive (but not much).
However, I bought this as “L390”. I noticed the description said “Touchscreen: yes”, which I realized meant they likely mistook the Yoga version for the base version. Indeed, that is the case.
Currently they have one L390 Yoga in similar condition and same configuration, but the screen has some white spots (this one is flawless), …and it’s €46 more expensive.

If you’re curious, i5 8365U, 16GB RAM (single-channel), used 256GB Samsung SSD (I don’t remember if SATA or NVME), €180 and 2 year warranty.

Also, if you’re wondering what that port with network symbol is, it appears to be a proprietary connector used on ThinkPads requiring an “Ethernet Extension” adapter to be usable.

  • @talEnglish
    9•10 days ago

    It’s of poor quality (the rubber of the cable on mine is turning into a sticky mess) and entirely passive.

    Maybe ten years back, a whole ton of consumer electronics were made with some rubberized coating which felt great when new, but over the course of several years, degraded into an incredibly sticky mess.

    I had a Grundig shortwave radio covered in the stuff. A couple of other gadgets.

    Eventually, after I went to a lot of work with different substances, I discovered that isopropyl alcohol and some elbow grease could get it off. Didn’t look or feel great anymore – just plasticky, no rubberization – but it was a lot better than being sticky. But if this is the same stuff and it’s just a cable, I’d probably just replace the cable.

    EDIT: Probably the same stuff as here:

    https://old.reddit.com/r/hardware/comments/6fznfp/cant_companies_stop_using_coatings_that_make/

    The main reason why this happens is the “soft touch”, rubbery coating that gets put on plastics is a substance called “TPE”.

    TPEs are popular for this sort of thing because they’re quite cheap to apply, look and feel good and quite importantly compared to genuine rubber coatings, don’t smell bad.

    The problem with TPEs is that they experience a chemical reaction when exposed to oils which causes them to degrade into a goopy-sticky mess.

    The way to avoid this happening prematurely is to ensure that your hands are clean when using your mouse/headset etc., both bodily oils and environmental (food etc.) oils can and do affect the TPE.

    It still happens after some time: I bought a rangefinder in a sealed plastic box at a fleemarket and it was somewhat sticky. It was the kind of welded box that needs scissors to open it and it was manufactured only a decade ago.

    • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️English
      2•9 days ago

      As somewhat of a retro '90’s-2000’s electronics collecting nerd, this stuff is the bane of my existence.

      It seems like in the early 2000’s there were only three types of finishes applied to electronics products:

      • TPE “soft touch” coatings that turn into snot after a few years (many game console controllers, binoculars and other optics, some portable tape/CD players, etc.)
      • Crappy metallized silver paint that starts flaking off immediately (basically every digital camera ever made from 1999-2006, and quite a few computer input devices)
      • White or Bondi Blue plastic under a clear acrylic layer trying to ape an early iMac or iPod, which gets dirt trapped between the layers and then turns yellow (the Nintendo 3DS Lite, innumerable computer mice, USB hubs, and knockoff MP3 players)

      You just can’t win.

      • @talEnglish
        2•9 days ago

        Crappy metallized silver paint that starts flaking off immediately (basically every digital camera ever made from 1999-2006

        Oh, man, yeah, I’d forgotten about that. Had (have?) a camera with that.

        White or Bondi Blue plastic under a clear acrylic layer trying to ape an early iMac or iPod

        Hah, I avoided those. I think I had one translucent device at one point.

        That being said, from the 1970s and 1980s, you had all those light beige things that yellowed. It wasn’t the worst kind of aging, and it was treatable, but there were so many items whose age was visible…most of those later trends weren’t as universal across items.

        https://www.henningludvigsen.com/index.php/2020/06/03/sun-fading-old-yellowed-plastic/