A bit exasperated about consumer-business dichotomy and limited choices

I live in the US and have seen the T530 and x230 in brick-and-mortar stores. Some flex in the screen bezel and and speaker grilles, but external build quality is certainly above average. Unfortunately, I have not seen Elitebooks or Precisions.

 

I'm curious, what stores sell them? I was under the impression that none did, though all I have around me are Bestbuys and Walmarts, as well as Staples and OfficeDepot.

 

Microcenter, J&R (New York), I don't know about anywhere else.

 

I doubt you will ever see Thinkpads at those, where you see them is usually in stores that focus primarily computers (like microcenter/canadacomputers).

Best Buy and the likes will stock what is likely to cater more to the average Joe and given Walmart's way of doing business, they are unlikely to stock anything that is durable because it costs more than cheaper but less durable stuff.

 

Yep, i second this.

Ever since Core 2 Duo, Intel stopped giving a Firetruck about performance and just focused on power consumption and "fitting things into a smaller packages".

Guess what? 2008 laptops are still plenty relevant today. Just pop in a SSD and your average consumer won't be able to tell the difference between core 2 duo and core i5.

I hope the Ultrabook fad dies someday, and paves the way to more open and user-customized laptops.

As for the whole business-laptop thing:

I call BS. Take care of your laptops and they will last. My old Dell Dimension still reliably works, and is from 2001.