Why ThinkPads like T420 are more expensive?

Just sayin...
Ive been curious regarding price difference between these two, it differs from model to model, some are cheaper, others pricier, but Dell seems to offer frendlier starting prices, even if it means lower RAM and HDD.

 

Dell has always been value minded IMO. All mainstream E series Latitudes come with a standard 3 year depot warranty, even refurbished units. They don't have all the features of the ThinkPad, but Latitudes are notorious for being nearly as reliable if not same as ThinkPad.

But some brand new Latitudes pricing can be as pricey if not more than ThinkPad, which is only alleviated by buying Outlet for 1/3 of the brand new price.

 

i discovered their list pricing is to be taken with a grain of salt. I got US$722 off my precision when i bargained with the sales rep. if i had not managed to do that it would have been firmly out of my budget..

 

Right you can try calling for brand new units, but it isn't guaranteed. Precision are usually discounted as it's such a niche market anyway, nowhere near the amount of Latitudes and Vostros sold. I doubt you are gonna get 700 bucks off a Latitude, though Dell did have a 300 dollar coupon off the new E6420.

 

Comparing a Lenovo T420 and a Lattitude E6420 for the following specs, the online price (without Lenovo 10% discount and Dell discount after talking to a sale representative) is $1488 for Lenovo and $1629 for Dell. Take into consideration of 10% discount for Lenovo and $300 off for Dell, Lenovo and dell are about the same price (provided you can get $300 off a Lattitude).



ThinkPad T420 - 1 Yr Depot Topseller Warranty Edit
Processor: Intel Core i5-2520M Processor (2.50GHz, 3MB L3) Edit
Operating system: Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Edit
Operating system language: Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 US English
Display type: 14.0 HD+ (1600 x 900) LED Backlit Display, Mobile Broadband Ready Edit
System graphics: Intel HD Graphics 3000 Edit
Total memory: 2 GB PC3-10600 DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz SODIMM Memory (1 DIMM) Edit
Keyboard: Keyboard US English
Pointing device: UltraNav with TrackPoint & touchpad plus Fingerprint reader Edit
Camera: 720p HD Camera Edit
Hard drive: 320 GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm Edit
Optical device: DVD recordable multiburner Edit
System expansion slots: Express Card Slot & 4 in 1 Card Reader Edit
Battery: 9 cell Li-Ion Battery - 55++ Edit
Power cord: Country Pack North America with Line cord & 65W AC adapter Edit
Bluetooth: Bluetooth 3.0 Edit
PCI adapter: IEEE 1394a port
Integrated WiFi wireless LAN adapters: Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205 (2x2 AGN) Edit
Integrated mobile broadband: Integrated Mobile Broadband - Upgradable Edit
Language pack: Language Pack US English

Accessories and options:
3YR Onsite + 3YR ThinkPad Protection Edit

 

you're partly right, for the vostros there dosent seem to be any room for negotiation but with the latitudes there usually is. i was deciding between a vostro 1720, E6500, and precision M4400, after discounts, the E6500 wasnt too much more than the vostro, and the M4400 was just a modest premium over the E6500, which is why i went for it to get the better graphics.

dont know if the country has anything to do with it- this was in malaysia.

 

So, do you think it is reasonable to get more than $300 off from the specs that I mentioned?

 

Only 1 crappy video on YT

/me wants to see !

 

As said each company has their own pricing mechanism, some are derived from years of experience, while others are worked out using some financial models that may not be applicable to the real world situations.

Also, Lenovo maybe using the market skimming pricing, while the Dell is using the market penetration pricing system. This is to do with the long term goals of the company. Since Dell is still operated by Michael Dell, while Lenovo is operated by CEO who is not the founder and is owned by external agency whom may have a different view on long term profitability and market shares.

My advice is to buy according to your need, but right now the Dell E6420 Latitude is quite a few steps behind the Old E6400, which is the only Dell laptops i would buy from that generation.

========================================

Having used Vostro 1500 and own a Vostro 1400, the currently repairing the Vostro 1510 that my friend gave me.... Dell does seem to be unsure where they want to go with many of their laptops design. Every iteration they release seems to be very different, with no design consistency to be found. This is one thing i hate about the current Dell laptops, after so many years of soul searching, they still NOT have found a design that defines their laptop model. With the Thinkpad, you know it is a thinkpad even without the Lenovo/IBM or Thinkpad logo on it.

The amount of warranty on the Dell Outlet sold machine depends on the country, in Australia from memory it is all 1 year standard.

 

Yeah you got a good point. The Vostro seems to be a bad example as their design always changes. The D and E series Latitudes they seemed to keep the same design, as Latitudes are the direct competitors to the ThinkPads.

 

Hi Guys,
With the flamboyant laptop dropping demos, infidelity confession

and the survival of the fittest accidence ranging from falling off 8’ height to being thrown out of the car to the ditch, the ThinkPads have won me over.

These sub 5 lb little ones fit my weight requirement:
X220, 3lbs or E420s, 4.1lbs?
What about T420 at 4.85lbs?
Is new Intel HD3000 good enough for me or do I need a dedicated GPU?
Will i7 create too much heat for my purposes?

General use only now and will start photo/video editing once I have my new acquisition.
I don’t play games.

Oh is IdeaPad Y470 in the same league?

 

I'm surprised nobody showed this one. Or did I miss it?

ThinkPad R61 run over by motorcycle

 

I'm not surprised given how my R61e survived my car accident! But unfortunately the R series at the time had roll cages while some of the newer models no longer have this now? Makes me wonder how the newer lines would fair up on the same test...

 

To be honest, probably not as well. I love my T410, but the screen lid is definitely not as resistant to that sort of abuse as my T500 was.

It'll be interesting to see how the T420 lid holds up. I imagine it'll be better than the T410, since it's CFRP instead of just HEPC, but time will tell...




... not that I'm about to run over it with a motocross bike.

 

in some tribal cultures, individuals destroy their own property to illustrate how prosperous they are.

if one has no monetary benefit or other direct benefit from destroying or tossing ones property around......seems like there are other more personal intrests involved, be it trying to be macho or some other display of wealth or superiority perhaps

testing by manufacturer is a different story from individuals who paid (or maybe not) for the machine.

 

50/50 for me. I'm not prosperous enough to afford to replace my notebook if I screwed up such a demonstration, hence why I'm careful to do it in a way that I know poses little actual risk to the machine. I'd never intentionally do anything to a laptop that I thought stood a serious chance of causing damage. It's definitely not something I do on a regular basis, nor do I do it when I'm not sure it'll survive unscathed.

On the other hand, I absolutely do it "just for show", so you're right in that regard. If I were a car guy the same thought process that's led me to do that drop "demo" would lead to me burning rubber or doing some other high-RPM stunt; but since I'm a geek, I guess this is the equivalent.

In other news, armchair psychology is fun!

 

nice to know that doing something like that just for show is somehow satisfying to you.

 

I thought L replaced R but minus the roll cage...so basically a cheaper replacement for R?

 

Everybody likes to show off. The only question is how.

Drifting back on topic:

More or less. There are some design differences as well. I suspect the reason for getting rid of the R series was because it had gradually grown too close to the T series. The R400 and T400 were very similar indeed, with the former basically just being a thicker version of the latter. The SL/L series, on the other hand, is substantially cheaper (in both senses) than the T series, so the product lines are much more clearly divided.

 

integrated graphics will be fine for your use and the i7 won't generate too much heat. a likelier issue might be the premium you pay for an i7 cpu.

if you can wait 4 weeks, the x220 is scheduled to hit the shelves in late april and you can see what the pricing will be on the various configs. there's little doubt that the IPS screen will be gorgeous, the uncertainty is whether it's only available with the i7 processor, or if it will be available on a cheaper config.

i really think the combination of the light weight (3 lbs), superb battery life, and and IPS display option makes the x220 the front runner in the pack. quite a few online reviews have scored this laptop well in many categories.

that said, it sounds like your budget might be a strong determinant on your final selection and the x220 is not likely to be discounted when it debuts and your posts were unclear on if you were looking to buy in the next month or two, or were prepared to wait a bit longer for more favorable pricing or conditions.

 

This is good advice. If I were undecided as to whether I wanted a subnotebook, I'd definitely wait until the X220 is released and see what sort of deal I could get on it. It looks to be a great machine from all the reviews I've read, so all that remains to be seen is pricing.

 

It replaces both R and SL. I have not much experience with the L series, but I'd assume its somewhere between the SL and R series it replaces.

R became really similar to T after a while. Lenovo made SL to replace, which wasn't that well received. Then they made L to replace both SL and R. L is most likely intended to fill the position that was traditionally filled by R until R became more like T than Lenovo wanted it to be.

 

the sl theoretically had some pretty awesome models though. in particular the 300. pity about the build quality letting it down!!!

 

As an independent IT consultant, it's my responsibility to sell myself, my services, and my hardware selection to my clients.

This is the response that my ever-so-slight risk, coupled with confidence in my selection can bring, even from my business clients. To paraphrase ThinkRob's sentiments on several occasions, I would never intentionally and willingly subject my ThinkPad, or any gadget I paid for, to any truly serious danger. However, serious danger varies based upon the gadget in question, and dropping my ThinkPad onto carpet doesn't even come close.

I do also enjoy showing off. I have no qualms with admitting it. In both my hobbies as a geek, and a car buff, showing off is part of the game. To play it right, you'd better be able to fix it when it breaks, and not rely on the warranty to bail you out.

 

In the name of service marketing and/or showing off, let's crash-demo this hardware selection:

 

To give you an idea, i have a 4 yr old Thinkpad T60 and it is running Win 7 Pro x64 just fine. The only thing I added was a Intel X25-M solid state hard drive. From start to ready to go in 40 secs. I can have multiple tabs in FF 4. Outlook 2007 and a few other things open and it is still zippy. You can't get that from a consumer machine. It would had fallen to pieces 18 months ago. One thing more is Lenovo keep their drivers very up to date. I have win 7 drivers optimized for their hardware d/l from their website.! you can't beat that.

 

Uh... well... yes you can. Chassis design and mechanical engineering don't affect performance unless they're done incorrectly.

 

Thanks filmbuff for your great advice. I love beautiful screens. Is the IPS at 1366 x 768 even better than FHD like 1920 x 1080?

There's no urgency so I can wait for the release of X220, though it'd be nice to get it sooner when you're expecting to new toy.

If I get the X220, I'd like to learn how to display it on my 60"HDTV.
What do I need, HDMI cable? Intel WiDi?

Do you do a lot of film creating/editing?

 

As a general answer, yes.

I use a ThinkPad T43p with 1600x1200 Flexview (IPS) and a T510 with FHD 1920x1080 B+RGLED by AUO. Although this T510 panel is far better than the T410 1440x900 panel and the X201 1280x800 panel, it pales next to the T43p IPS panel.

BTW, I refer to the resolutions only incidentally, as a rough way to identify the panels. Display technologies are distinct from pixel density.

 

I don't know the technology behind it. As long as the IPS is the best screen then I'll settle for the X220.