Why are Lenovos so expensive?

I was looking up the E220s, and even priced at $900, it only came with 2GB of memory and no Bluetooth! I am prepared to pay a premium for quality, but at this point in time, it should be common practice to supply at least 4GB in a computer in that price range. A 500GB option would be nice too.

Anyways I'm sure I could get the parts at a local store for less, it's just irritating that I have to do so.

(Oh and a bit off-topic, anybody here order the E220s? Did you notice the 40Whr battery? What happened to the 42Whr one?)

 

There is a premium to be paid for quality, durability, and reliability. If you want a business notebook to last a while, prepare to pay a pretty penny. And if you actually think about it, notebooks have actually come down. Old school IBM ThinkPads could easily hit 1500+ dollars.

Alternative is you can pay for a crummy consumer notebook and it will be a piece of junk and die within 14 months.

Goes back to debate between consumer vs business notebooks. Business notebooks are better built, are more reliable, built with higher grade materials. Also many share the same parts over generations and standardizing parts so IT departments do not have to keep on buying new equipment. Also business class support is far superior to consumer level. Parts are almost always in stock so getting replacement parts isn't an issue.

 

I dont know about the non thinkpads build quality, but that is the reason why thinkpads are expensive just like latitudes. Build quality.

 

^^^ Please tone down a bit before people suspect you're a Lenovo agent. A similar message may be posted on the HP and Dell forums just as well.

Lofty rhetorics aside, the OP was asking "Why are Lenovos so expensive?" and mentioned the E220s. I never thought the Edge models were offered as premium business notebooks!

A correction: Old school IBM ThinkPad could easily hit 3000+ dollars (back then).

 

Yeah, when IBM owned the ThinkPad line, it was definitely a lot more expensive than it is now. I supposed part of that could be due to advances in technology after IBM sold their line to Lenovo but I think a lot is Lenovo making it more affordable. If you're considering a business laptop, I would highly recommend sticking with the classic ThinkPad lines e.g. the T or X series; maybe W if you need a more powerful laptop. I think that the new T420 are reasonably priced and you can get good specs on it (using aftermarket upgrades for RAM and HDD) for around $1000.

 

the edge series are not as rugged as the T/X but they're good nevertheless. certainly better than consumer grade.

 

2gb ram... $20,
Bluetooth... $30,
500Gb hdd upgrade... $70,
Complaining about product being too expensive... timeless and priceless.

 

I tend to agree w/ the OP about RAM prices, that is something that confuses the hell out of my about Lenovo's RAM offerings. 2GB standard is unacceptable, Lenovo's prices for upgrading RAM are a joke. I bought an 8GB kit for $55 from newegg, that upgrade would have cost me around $250 from Lenovo.

My advice to you OP, leave the RAM as is and upgrade it yourself, its much cheaper.

 

Cue Apple tax discussion in 3...2..1.

 

$900? Is that USD? The E220s base price is $749 on the U.S. site. The battery shows as being 43Whr. Also it appears that right now an upgrade to 4gb RAM is free. Check the memory option, and it should show 4gb $0.00. Bluetooth is $18 I think. Under $800 is not a bad price at all for a notebook like this.

 

Wow I really stirred up a hornet's nest here!

I'm not saying that the machines themselves are overpriced, just some components are. I'm mainly irritated about the anemic RAM offered by default.

In comparison, if there was an Acer 1840T with an i7 ULV, it'll also be in the $1000 range, with the paper specifications that I want. But the E220s has a better build, and I have fallen in love with the new chicklet keyboards from Lenovo!

The notebook only has one DIMM, so I can't just pop in another 2GB; and it doesn't even have a 500GB upgrade. I also said that I don't mind getting the upgrades myself, it's annoying that some options aren't default, and some aren't even offered.

Yep, Memory Express is pretty close to me.

The Apple tax isn't money, it's if you can handle using OS X. I love Apple hardware, just not their software.

I'm ordering from the Canadian site. And I'm not getting it right now, my purchase time in mid-summer.

 

ah ok. I just checked out the CA site. $899cad base, yikes. Base price on the U.S. site is $749 which I think is about $716cad.

I just configured an E220s with an i7-2617M/4gb/bluetooth/1-year onsite/thinkpad sleeve and it came to $805 USD with the academic price+5% coupon.

Price should come down. Better coupons here and there, and possibly good deals through resellers. Best of luck.

 

Thanks!

I configured mine with the i7 and the Intel Wi-Fi (better Linux support with Intel), which would've come in at $969 CAD. Aftermarket upgrades for 4GB of RAM and a 500GB HDD would cost me atleast another $120 CAD (most probably less).

The battery on the Canadian site is shown as "8 Cell Li-Polymer Battery 40.7Wh"; I'm guessing that it's just a typo.

 

I just bought a T420 for $900 after tax and shipping. Only got 2gb of RAM and 250gb of HDD, but the rest of the specs are actually decent.

I think Lenovo's strategy is to cut down on the cost of entry on their Thinkpad lines, so those who want one can buy one w/ minimum specs without having to shell out a ton of money like we had to for the old school Thinkpads when IBM was in charge.

When you upgrade your RAM, HDD, and SSD though, I think that's where Lenovo makes a ton of money, given the high upgrade costs. But this makes sense IMO, since a large part of their business comes from enterprises, and enterprises generally buy a big quantity of laptops at a standard specification. This way, Lenovo earns revenue from upgrade costs from their enterprise sales, and individual consumers can save some money by doing their own aftermarket upgrades.

 

You realize the price will probably drop by then, as those of who "just can't wait" (myself included) are, even with coupon codes, paying a bit of an early adopter tax?

With no disrespect intended, Dell charges a premium for the same parts you're talking about in their current Latitude line at the moment. While I haven't checked, I'm guessing HP is doing the same for their Elitebook.

As for the Acer you mentioned, well...I don't know of an Acer that can stand up to a ThinkPad, Dell Latitude, or HP Elitebook (all business-line notebooks) for durability. Acers compare more to the IdeaPad line.

 

Well sure. Upgrades are the only way Lenovo or any other manufacturer really makes any money on these machines. There is hardly any profit in machines, manufacturers have to sell upgrades, accessories and software to make any profit. Some people just don't want to do the upgrades themselves so they pay the premium but they also want the warranty on the upgraded parts.

 

keep in mind for enterprise grade notebooks, companies rarely ever pay list price, and sometimes if u have a good rep you can bargain with them and get a good price for yourself.

for example i got $722 off my precision, specs in sig, and a whopping $1300 off a W701DS for a business partner of mine.

i config online, record the specs and price, call them up, give them the specs, and ask for their best price, then when they come back to me i negotiate a bit. seems to work.

also, if you order more than 5 units, the discounts get really steep. if a lot of people on this subforum are shopping for a X220, it might be worth purchasing together

 

I agree, the Acers don't have the build that premium notebooks do.

Ahh, I see. Finally my question is answered. Well too bad for Lenovo, I know how to tinker with my toys.

The E220s is already 30% off on release day, so I think I'll leave my luck at that.