Thinkpad has gone down toilet.

All motherboards by HP, Lenovo, Apple, Dell are made by one company Foxconn. Most of the other components (GPU, nic) are made by Foxconn too. Notice how they ALL have piezoelectric noise (has nothing to do with the processor).

The only thing upto HP, Lenovo, Apple, and Dell are the design and the warranty.

 

Lenovo ideapad should be made by ASUS if i am not wrong, also the Y410, Y510 use the same power connector as ASUS laptops.

Foxconn also produce Sony laptops from memory.

Also, the point of difference is their marketing strategy and supply chain strategy...

But i still prefer Thinkpads, since they are easily user serviceable compared to Dell or HP laptops, HP/Compaq laptops are the worst since they like to use Torex screws.

Thinkpad is an instantly recognised brand, unlike Inspirion or Latitude of Dell or the Elitebook of HP....

Thinkpad and Apple laptops are always easily recognised.

 

Just got my T400 and it is pretty nice. I am picky and I am grumbling about the following based on one day of use:
1. The integrated camera is borderline terrible. I cannot find the specs on it anywhere??
2. The 6 cell battery is rated @10% less than the 6 cell is rated when you buy a new one. Probably getting rid of the old ones.
3. My think light is terrible.
4. I would not call the unit bullet proof.

Anyone out there had difficulties with the camera???

 

3. In what way?

4. It is not Panasonic Toughbook, but for this price they are better than the competition.

 

"At work, we all use Thinkpads. The T400 looks great and I haven't heard anyone complain about build quality. Just my 2 cents."

Jenny,

Of course it appears that way and that is the issue isn't it? Thinkpads are getting cheaper and no one is complaining. I do not think any one will argue that thinkpads are not getting cheaper and it think the silence is a symptom of the problem because the audience shift is the problem.

I myself am a computing professional. I am NOT a business user at all but we are both interested in Thinkpads because of performance or at least we used to be. The exclusivity of the business world is dropping and that's a major part of the problem.
Renee









j

 

Yes, but at least we'll all remember how they all used to be. Nothing lasts forever.

 

A lot of users feel it is angled wrong and points in your eyes. I haven't seen this criticism in a while though.

 

thinkpads T series no longer have the large lips on the cover like the old T4x use to be, so if the LED is stuck too close to the thinklight hole or if you push the screen forward too much then this will occur.

Regarding the good old thinkpads, i use to remember them fondly in fact i look at my T4x machine if i get that nostalgic, but i also remember that it costs twice as much. So for the price i pay, i am still very satisfied with the overall quality feel. In addition now all thinkpads have full magnesium rollcage on the bottom part, which the T4x lacked and caused the infamous GPU failure if you carry it wrong.

So i am not complaining.

 

I bet that even if a thinkpad goes down the toilet it will remain unbroken. Just take it out and wash, it will still function perfectly

 

You get rep for that. :laugh:

 

"the fact that thinkpads have been getting a lot cheaper has _more_ to do with economies of scale and technological improvements than corporate directives. the fact is all laptops are getting cheaper. this is because all OEM parts suppliers (e.g. Intel) have been growing also, thus these OEMs enjoy economies of scale. technolgical improvements also meant better products can be made cheaper per unit for OEMs. although lenovo's directives certainly have an influence on the price of thinkpads also. however, i disagree with the argument that thinkpads are a lot cheaper now purely because of "

It's actually far more complicated than that. I'm thinking about, in my head of renaming this forum to "the forum of the single cause". But lets not forget that Intels have grown far complex and cheaper at the same time. So in a real way, they have gotten cheaper. Also, Lenovos have become built consistent with "less expensive". I would third or fourth, a cry that Lenovo's are being built to lower standards. If it continues, I will have no reason to buy one. That's about all sales people can hear. I'll buy one, or I won't.
Renee

 

Laptop production for most parts are now pretty straight forward operation.

So in terms of cost saving, you can do the following things, use less materials, use cheaper alternative materials, outsource manufacturing of everything including the laptop, use cheaper parts, buy in bulk, use cheap labour, cheaper freighting cost, less middle management, less warranty/service support and less warranty coverage. Basically laptops are now a commodity.

But these things would only go so far, before the quality of the laptop really drops of a cliff, which will hurt a brand image that IBM have took so long to build up.

After all Lenovo essentially just bought the brand name from IBM.... and not much else apart from some office spaces.... like how BMW bought the Rolls Royce brand name.

 

Capitalism is not supposed to work that way. It isn't advertised as being a diminshing circle. Quite frankly I don't wan't a cheap computer. I'm willing to purchase a good machine. Tell me, where can I buy it. Most of the poeple here are looking for value and NOT performance.
Renee

 

My company usually purchases Dell Latitudes, but we tried to buy 2 Thinkpads to see if we might want to switch over. Short story is no...even though I loved the old school T-series, ever since Lenovo took over it's hard to side with the Thinkpads even though I still adore their keyboards.

 

Every ideology currently has it's downsides.. i had a discussion with someone about if we could develop a hybrid between capitalism and socialism, it would not be possible for the commercial success is caused by extreme greed.

 

The old capitalists have become more socialists, while the old die hard socialists have become the new capitalists....

Regarding Dell Latitudes, they are okay...but nothing special... without the Dell logo, you wouldn't know which company may have produced it.

 

Corporatism is not capitalism. You can be corrupt and become monopolistic with government assistance. But that is not capitalism.

 

We have latitudes at work also and we go through a bid processes when purchasing them. lenovo does participate but their pricing is so much higher than Dell at the corporate level there is no way we could ever justify getting them.

 

In Australia everything is priced similiarily, so which systems a company selects depend wholly on after sale support and warranty terms. Maybe if you bought a 1000 system batch, the Dell would drop the price really low, but if every company just tries to save a couple of dollars, they might us force its workers to use chalk and blackboard.