What are consumer laptops?

I know this thread is not very relevant here, but I'll feel more comfortable.

As far as I know, some laptops, such as HP Pavillion, are called consumer laptops. I read somewhere that manufacturers, like HP, do not produce, or even design these laptops, but hire other ODMs, such as Quanta, to do all works.

Now I need clearer definition about consumer laptops. Are Lenovo Idepad Y/G consumer laptops? Non-consumer laptops, such as Thinkpad T/W, what are they called?

Thank you for answering this.

 

Yes, the Lenovo "consumer" laptops are all of the ideapad series, and basically anything that's NOT a Thinkpad (although a lot will argue that the Thinkpad "SL" series is borderline consumer laptop too).
All of the Thinkpads are known as a "business class" laptops. In other words, they were not built to look pretty, with nice screens, etc. They were built to take abuse (is- constant carrying around, and handling, etc.) so most will have metal screen hinges, a MUCH better overall build quality, and will therefor last MUCH longer than your average consumer laptop.
Most consumer laptops (Dell Inspirons, HP Pavilion, etc.) were built for your "average Joe" and do NOT have things like built in roll cages, crash protection (where your harddrive stops spinning if ti sense it's falling, etc.).
So, yes in general the Dell Latitudes, Thinkpads, and HP elite books, etc. are all known as a "Business Class Notebook".
So, what it boils down to is:
- Style, comfort, good screens, and looks, or
-Better build quality, longer lasting, tough overall workhorses.
Hope that helps !

 

Consumer laptops are basically laptops built more for looks and multimedia functions (i.e. blu-ray disc players, hdmi, subwoofers, LED lights around screen) than robustness. Many consumer laptops are also cheaper than a comparably featured business laptop to entice the price conscientious consumers, whom doesn't really value outright build quality (they probably find out why quality is important after a year or so) when selecting their laptop for purchase from say Best Buy.

Consumer laptops are usually sold through the retail stores, rather than made to order through the laptop companies website, there are exceptions but this is the general rule. As bulk production by the ODM is cheaper than made to order machines, this is one way of keeping the price down. Those really cheap consumer laptops are usually pretty much all designed by the ODM using the cheapest parts available. You will find that most netbooks are made by only a few ODM manufacturers.

Professional Business laptops are the other end of the spectrum (i.e. Thinkpad T series), where the laptop companies usually do much of the laptop's design and some of the testing to ensure that they meet the quality standards they require. These laptops generation to generation change are usually small, as many features like HDMI or bluray in consumer laptops are NOT widely used in business or corporate environment. Also, having incremental changes in features allow a smaller learning curve for many business end users.

 

I would actually say a business grade, as opposed to a consumer laptop has added security and manageabilty features.

Things such as vPro, AMT, TPM, biometric, and smart card support come to mind. They also usually have docking station options to use an external monitor keyboard and mouse.

All of these features adds to added cost, but are cheaper to a company than to go without (imagine a company laptop that's not secured were to be stolen!)

I guess I'd also say business machines are more durable, to reduce downtime and thus cost to a machine that would otherwise go faulty.

Product cycles are usually more stable and slower, too. The benefit herein lies that the more types of machines a company has to issue, the greater the cost to support them. My company I work for instance will only issue one make/model (for new machines) of laptop to every employee. Also companies are not going to jump the moment a new generation is for sale. Business machines of a previuos generation are usually available for sale much longer after a new generation is released, than a consumer laptop (assuming there is even a successor). I think mine waited almost a year to start issuing the new generation's model after it came out.

 

What about the Thinkpad Edge? It doesn't look like the toughest computer on the block and appeals to a more non-business crowd than the other Thinkpads. It seems to be a consumer laptop with a Thinkpad logo stamped on to it. I'm not saying it's terrible in anyway, but should it be considered a Thinkpad or not?

 

As far as the Edge goes, I would say no. While it may "look" like a Thinkpad, I think it is in no "true" way a Thinkpad.
At least I don't qualify it as a Thinkpad.

 

Nope.

I consider the T-series, the X-series and the W-series Thinkpads to be business machines. The SL machines? Edge? I would consider those to be small business oriented only.

To sum it up, all business/corporate grade Lenovo laptops are Thinkpads, but not all Thinkpads are business/corporate grade laptops.

 

Sounds better than how I said it lol
But yes, I 100% agree.

 

Well I've done laptop/desktop qualification for Enterprise use for many years so I know specifically what to look for

The SL series may have some durability features, but it certainly lacks security and management features Enterprise buyers specifically look for.

The Edge? Probably an over glorified Netbook where Lenovo put the Thinkpad name on in order to get more buyers from the Thinkpad circle!!

 

A tad big for a netbook .

 

SL doesn't have the stainless steel hinge or the internal magnesium rollcage. It is more of a consumer laptop wearing a Thinkpad covering, but it is priced as such. So i guess you get what you pay for.....

I miss the R series, but now the T series are so cheap, i guess i could give R series a miss for future Thinkpad upgrades.

 

The T and R series were getting very close in the last gen. IMO, the difference was so minor, it probably wasn't worth to keep both lines. Now, the T410/T510 is like the R-series, and the T410s is like the old T series - lighter than the T410, but with almost as much horsepower.

 

Actually the T510 has became the new R series, since it uses the same size ultrabay enhanced drive that is available in the R series. While, the T410 is just a revamped T400 with more ports and better CPU/GPU.

 

In lenovo's brand it's any non-thinkpad and the edge. The edge is more marketing than anything to get users who love the name 'thinkpad'. Kinda like designer underwear, you pay for the name but at the end of the day it still smells like, well... In non lenovo terms consumer notebooks are targeted at home users and generally lack the security, data or network management features of business class notebooks.

 

Right right. But, historically, hasn't the spirit of the T-series been to make a mid-size laptop as small as possible while not compromising performance? The T410s comes the closest to this. The T410 doesn't really offer much advantage over T410s (drive size and battery options, but not much else) but is much bigger & heavier.

 

Interestingly, the new L-serie reintroduces quite a few security and management features that were missing on the SL.

When you consider ports layout, weight and size, the SL, Edge and L are incredibly similar. The Edge looks like the shiny offspring of the SL, aimed at SMB while the L-serie looks like a SL serie modified to fit bigger corporations needs (docking ability to start with).

 

From the definition of the T series given by IBM that is correct, as it stands for thin and light.

 

Netbooks and most of other notebooks that you see from Bestbuy.

 

Just because a machine is consumer doesn't mean there isn't variation in build quality, for example my Asus EEE PC 1000H versus my Dell Studio 15.

My 1000H, which I used for approximately a year before ditching it because I just couldn't stand to use eclipse/visual studio at 1024x600, was an excellently built machine. I think that thing could have gone through a hurricane (I'm fairly rough on things apparently).

My Dell Studio 15 however has been used under a year. About 5 months into being used the hinges loosen a little (which is really an approximation because I didn't even know what had happened until the tech fixed it). About 7 months of use, the side of the screen (down at the bottom where it connects to the base peice) cracked on both sides after a less than 1.5 foot fall onto a textbook. I've gotten it fixed and am selling it pronto.

In terms of build quality, the $450 (at the time... it's probably 250 tops now) netbook outright laughs at the $1200 laptop.

I can say the best thing about the laptop was that the keyboard is backlit, the screen is beautiful, and the machine does a good job of working when it's not moving around.

Fortunately, my replacement will likely be an X201.

 

The EEE is substantially smaller as well which makes it less prone to stress damage on the hinges and small drops.

But that being said, yes, there is indeed variation among consumer lines. There is variation among business-oriented lines too.

 

Heh, I had my brother solder in a spare PCIe slot in my 1000HE. Yeah.. he said it's a shoddy, cheaply made board...

I'm not seeing how the L series are corporate grade laptops. SMB, yes but not Corporate...

 

There are penny pinching corporation around.... GFC has allowed these corporation to thrive like weeds in unattended garden.