US/Canadian price differentials and customs

Hello everyone. I have been reading the boards a bit since becoming interested in the Thinkpad line. Currently, American pricing is either equal or less than the Canadian prices, including a massive difference in the extra warrantee plans. In addition, the lenovo outlet seems to be marketed for the US market.

So I guess the question is if there is a difference between ordering from the US site vs the Canadian site? If the products are always sent from China, does it really matter which site it's ordered since the products will always need to clear customs?

Also, from where does the outlet ship? Again, I'm asking because of customs issues. I'm particularly interested in the 1440x900 thinkpads, rather than the 16:9 that is now standard in the current line. Sure, the first generation i-cores are not as powerful, but I do think that the latest processors are probably more powerful than I will ever need.

Thanks in advance for your replies

 

I believe you need to buy from Lenovo Canada to get the laptop shipped to Canada and vice versa. It does need to clear customs but obviously its different customs for Canada and US

 

Thinkpads bought in the Lenovo Outlet do not offer IWS, which may be something to consider.

 

If you order from the US site, you can only ship to an US address. If you order from the Canadian site, you can only ship to a Canadian address. I believe Infonec or some other stores in Canada still has a few last gen ThinkPads.

Edit:
Just checked their site. Yes, they have them, but for the price, you are much better off just ordering a newer model when a sale comes by (yes, the newer models are probably about $150 cheaper configured quite a bit higher). There are 1600x900 options for the T420, T520, and W520.

 

Thanks for the replies so far.

@ZaZ thanks for the heads up bout the lack of international warrantee service. Do you where they ship from? China or US?

@Kirayamato26 and mikecc6 thanks for telling me about shipping addresses. It does seem that the newer models are cheaper and of higher spec. I suppose I was looking more for the 10x16 rather than 9x16 screen dimentions. This issue has been discussed a lot on this forum and I noticed the problem especially when I used an old school 4:3 lcd on an older desktop. I hadn't seen so much of a document in a long time.

 

Whoops, I found my answer. Outlet only ships to USA addresses

 

I think it is fine as long as you have the same amount of vertical pixels. I personally have never owned a 16:10 (or 4:3 for that matter) LCD. I have owned a 5:4 (19", 1280x1024) Samsung and a 16:9 (21.5", 1920x1080) BenQ. I have owned a 4:3 (19") Dell CRT, though. My W520 has a 1600x900 LCD in it. I find it to be fine, as it has enough vertical pixels. If your eyes are good enough and you are comfortable with a 140-ish PPI display, the T/W520 has a 1080p option on them. I personally am comfortable with ~130-ish PPI only, and optimally 120-ish for laptop displays (the 1600x900 in a 15.6" has a PPI of around 118).