Does better build quality of laptops improve productivity?

Somewhat related to the thread:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...36-justifying-non-consumer-grade-laptops.html

Business grade laptops (good ones) usually "feel" better due to the better build quality - no cheap plastics, no flex, metal chassis, no creaks etc. They are more pleasing.

Does this improve productivity? Due to the user being in a better psychological state?


There was a video on TED where the lecturer was saying that better construction in general does help creativity and productivity and thats why we are attracted to nice things.

Opinions?

 

Agreed, at the very least a well made product does NOT distract you from work where other products might. Personally i do feel some sense of ease working with or on a well made product but hey, i'm an interior and furniture designer so i'm pretty much expected to appreciate that

 

In general, I would say no, as long as you have confidence in your notebook. If you don't (because you're worried about it breaking or something), then possibly a better build would increase your productivity because you don't have to worry about "babying" your unit, or if you don't have to waste time in applying tweaks to continually get the performance you need out of it. This, of course, leaves aside the obvious situations where a better build quality notebook (like a toughbook) would necessarily be better, such as military, law-enforcement, EMS services, on-site archaeology, oil drilling, or other occupations where you need to be in hazardous or semi-hazardous situations.

 

The only "real" productivity influencing factors are the input/output components of the computer i.e. the keyboard, screen and ports(and placement). Ergonomics in these areas would increase productivity in a more direct fashion. Mind you, these are not necessarily related to the quality of the build.

As for the talk of quality itself, that's highly psychological and therefore highly relative. An easy example is metal: stick metal on anything and people will intuitively assume it's sturdy/solid even when a polymer(i.e. a plastic) might do as good or better a job.

 

Correct, and I'm asking if this psychological state of people assuming good build quality will make them more productive by providing a nicer work environment.

For me, I went from a 14.1" sxga+ thinkpad (with a crappy screen) to a 17" dell business machine with a much nicer WUXGA machine. And my productivity did improve significantly around that time. Correlation does not imply causation; but I still wonder whether the machine shift had anything to do with it....

 

I purposely don't take care of my cheap laptop, so I would be more focused at the task at hand rather than waste time staring at the aesthetics.

In this sense I have better productivity on my laptop.
As I have dismantled and laptop and modified the internals optimized the OS and Dual Boot Linux and Windows, I have full confidence in the hardy workhorse abilities of my system.

It doesn't look good but it won't break and offers high performance.

Mind you a laptop is use for work, it is not a art piece.

You can have a Core i7 yet lags when loading programs due to start up trash, you can also have a aesthetically pleasing system, design to please the eyes yet with poorer specs and ventilation.

Look beyond the surface to know what is most important.

 

Build quality is not necessarily correlated with aesthetics though. Something can be perfectly sturdy and be visually displeasing(or plain).

As for the psychological effect, it's highly dependent on the user really. Different people have different psychological and cognitive reactions to things.

 

Well when you buy a business class notebook, you also get higher resolution screens at least available, which aren't available on sub 600 dollar laptops. For 700+ you get the option.

Also many business class notebooks already have more than 1 year warranty, sometimes 2-3 standard and that's business class support.

 

We're speaking purely of the build quality though, not the components themselves or the warranty/support of the product.

 

I don't know what sort of productive work you do, but I would be more likely to attribute the productivity increase to the enlarged screen and enhanced screen area than "build quality" in that particular case. Being able to fit more on your screen and work with it is just about guaranteed to raise your productivity level.

 

In order to really have a more "controlled" experiment on build quality, you'd have to take a cheaper consumer notebook and then take a more sturdy/better built laptop(consumer or business) with identical specs and have someone work on both and see if there's a positive psychological(and therefore productive) boost.

Pragmatists probably wouldn't really believe in/notice anything but maybe some portion of the population might.

 

You got better hardware, most notably in the improved display, and since people typically don't downgrade their laptops, the rest of the components should be faster as well. I don't see how build quality even plays a factor in this example.

 

In my opinion, build quality doesn't correlate to better productivity. It just gives you a bit of reassurance should you knock it around a bit but thats all. You may have a laptop thats built like a tank but if it doesn't feel comfortable to use in terms of ergonomics (i.e. bad keyboard, poor touchpad, low res screen) then you may find your work rate limited.

Previously I had a choice of using the recent Dell Latitude E6410 with Core i5 540M, 6GB RAM and high res screen or my 3 year old ThinkPad T61 with C2D T9300, 4GB RAM and the same high res screen. On paper in terms of performance the Dell should win easily, but being a seasoned trackpoint user (not a fan of touchpads) I found the Dell's to be far too sensitive and inaccurate. I spend most of my time correcting the cursor to point where I wanted it to, the T61 in comparison was just spot on. For sure I wasted a few seconds correcting the cursor point on the Dell but it all adds up in the end and that time loss in the end is wasted productivity (even though the Dell is equally a solidly built notebook).

So overall for me better ergonomics is the key for better productivity.

 

Do we correlate ergonomics with quality though?

 

You're right --- if the screen had been crappy/lower res; it would not have been good for me.

 

Good question, using the case with the Dell Latitude and the ThinkPad i'm going to specify the keyboard and built on trackpoint. The build quality on the two are very good, both have spillproof design, minimal flex and tactile feedback, nibs are quite tough too for the long run. But turn the machines on and I do interact with them quite differently, I feel I need to put a bit more work on the Dell's trackpoint to point the cursor where I want it compared to the ThinkPad where I find more comfortable to use in the long run. I think its down to the drivers, the ThinkPad uses the Synaptics drivers which I find smoother compared to Dell's ALPS.

I'm afraid i'm going to put a inconclusive answer on this, it's a Yes/No! In the ThinkPad case it's a yes, but the Dell... well not quite!

 

On a more general level not specific to the ThinkPad or the Latitude, improved build quality can be a byproduct of improved ergonomics, because if you're going to put R&D into better ergonomics, it should translate to putting forth the extra cost and effort to manufacture the part properly as well.

An ergonomic POS can exist, but it would tend to run against the purpose of the R&D in ergonomics. That said, who put forth the initial effort into the R&D and who is being a copycat? If you want to circle back to the ThinkPad and the Latitude comparison now, there is Hearst555's answer.

 

If the build quality is greater, then there is less time spend dealing with physical faults. Plus, business class laptops usually have standard 3 year warranties and usually they have better internals. I guess there is some psychological (or whatever it is) effect on us though.

 

For me no affect what so ever. I get just as much work done on this very budget laptop as I did on my X6 system. I'm too busy concentrating getting my work done than if my laptop is a "quality" machine or not. Considering I'm using the same 24.5" monitor and keyboard and mouse as I did when I had my desktop the machines build quality isn't an issue. I have more important thinngs to worry about other than build quality. If the machine can get the job done and is reliable, what more do I need?

 

I have to say at work we have a wide variety of laptops but I always find myself using one of our Elitebook 8530's over the i5 Lenovo T510's that we have.


Also, Better quality=more uptime=more usage=more productivity

 

Assuming the two machines are identical in hardware and appearence it doesn't matter much. People working on computers are staring at the screen, if they touch type they then rarely look at the keyboard. The mouse or trackpad etc are usually only observed by the peripheral vision.

Most productivity workers only want to know can it get my work done and in a timely manner. A computer to most has little else to do for the worker. The main problem is where between two workers one gets a perceived better machine or where one uses the machine as a status symbol.

If your job is in presenting to a customer having an aesthetically appealing machine is a must. Not looking like you stole your kids computer is a must too. The better the machine the more professional you may look and as we all know first impressions are the most important ones.

As they say "Dress to impress" and these days our gadgets are a definite part of the attire........................

 

I've had several ThinkPads ("T" and "X" models) and a lot of consumer-grade laptops too. It's true that the business-grade laptops generally have sturdier construction but they usually lack multimedia capability. They may have discrete graphics cards in them but the drivers for those cards are optimized for business software... not media or games.

For me, the deciding factor is price. You pay a lot for those sturdy laptops that have the same components as the consumer laptops that cost half as much. And, in my experience, the business laptops usually have matte screens that are not very good for media, such as movies.

It would be nice if someone would design a laptop that has the best of both worlds -- the build quality and great keyboard of a ThinkPad T, X, or W series with the media and gaming capabilities of a consumer media/gaming laptop.

But, to my knowledge, no such laptop exists. The OEMs are always targeting certain markets and don't cater to laptop enthusiasts, like us.

But to answer the question about productivity... I would say yes. If you can type with all your fingers, you just can't beat a ThinkPad keyboard. No other laptop keyboard can get me to over 60 words/minute without mistakes. I think it's because it is almost exactly like typing on a desktop's keyboard... same sort of pressure and finger-feedback and feel.

 

= better economic growth = better life = more love = less wars = world peace?
Seriously I know people like good looking stuff but this obsession is going way off track....

I don't know who taught such wild assumptions in making such claims.

 

'productivity' is driven by the usefulness of the software on the hardware.

Certainly NOT by the hardware itself.

 

I still don't get where/when we started correlating build quality and aesthetics...

 

Sounds like any other line out of a White House economic stimulus address.

 

Isn't build quality defined as how solid looking the laptop feels?
AFAIK at least that is how reviews define build quality.

 

Not really...you're combining how it looks and how it feels as being the same thing. It can look solid but prove not to be when you pick it up at one corner and hear it creaks or try to twist the display and feel it do that easily and the panel disforms.

A well-built laptop is well built. And yes, some of those characteristics can be seen or felt but don't necessarily mean it's true. Like when there's no space where panels meet, that would hint at a good built machine but they could still spring open when you apply pressure or something. But a lot of the times when it looks well finished it is well built.
Take food for example...it might look very taste but that doesn't mean it will be. Usually however,it will.

 

This is at best subjective, I have handled 2 identical laptops of same model, yet 1 has keyboard flex yet the other doesn't.

 

And that is the end-all of build quality? It's just one point of the whole thing.

 

No, not at all. Build quality relates to durability and quality of construction and design and has NOTHING to do with looks. As someone else said, appearance is totally subjective. Some people think ThinkPads are sexy, others think they're ugly utilitarian boxes. Either way, they have excellent build quality.

At least, some of them do. The true ThinkPads like the T, X and W series are "real" Thinkpads while the "Edge" is just a thrown together consumer model which borrows the Thinkpad name but is not a true ThinkPad due to construction (build quality).

(Edit: But you're right in one aspect, you can usually feel good build quality.)

And yes, you may see variations in build quality between two exact same models due to poor quality control by the OEM. Lenovo has been, lately, guilty of this. One keyboard will be solid and the next will flex and you'll need to put something under it.