lenovo mini 10 crack screen?

Computer case recall as screens show cracks

June 6, 2010

The Lenovo ThinkPad Mini10 issued to Year 9 students.


Faulty plastic cases for the 60,000 laptops being rolled out to NSW schoolchildren are being recalled after cracking the computers' screens.

Students are being forced to use plastic zip-lock ''sandwich'' bags and vinyl covers as temporary protective measures for the new laptops.

The bags are being issued by some schools after it was found that the hard plastic covers for the Lenovo ThinkPad Mini 10 netbooks were damaging their screens.

The Education Department, which is overseeing the program rollout in NSW, has instructed schools to stop distributing the plastic covers with the computer. The laptops are being funded as part of the federal government's $2 billion digital education revolution.

Lenovo has promised to cover all damage costs and pay for replacement covers for an undisclosed cost.

Keith Yau, a first year student at the University of Sydney, said that his younger brother, a year 9 student at a Sydney high school, was given a Lenovo laptop at the start of this school term that was meant to last until the completion of year 12.

Mr Yau said students were instructed not to close the lid of the protective plastic casing.

''With the prospect of prolonged periods in which the laptop could be under repairs if the laptop was ever damaged by the only protection which the [department] provided, I then quickly recommended that he buy another case.''

Mr Yau said that within weeks of the laptops being distributed many laptop screens were damaged.

On Tuesday, Mr Yau's brother told him the department had taken the plastic cases away from his school.

''At first I was glad that something was finally being done to remedy this problem; then I was shocked again to find the solution being provided for my brother's school,'' Mr Yau said. ''Large zip-lock bags, similar to those used for sandwiches, are now the protection students are expected to use.''

A spokesman for the Education Department said Lenovo was undertaking extensive testing on both the plastic cases and the laptops.

''Lenovo cannot say yet definitively that the case is causing screen breakages, however they are in the process of manufacturing better fitting cases,'' he said.

''The department is working closely with Lenovo engineers to identify the cause of these breakages. If a screen breaks on a laptop and there is no sign of physical damage, Lenovo will replace the screen as a warranty fault - at no cost. Lenovo will be providing replacement plastic cases to all schools at no cost.''

The spokesman said the faulty cases affected only the laptops being rolled out this year.

He said the 2010 laptop has a different sized plastic case as the device was a different shape from last year's model.

A Lenovo spokesman said its investigation related to less than 1 per cent of more than 60,000 laptops rolled out this year.

Lenovo had begun a pre-emptive redesign of the protective plastic case and has brought in two production engineers and two design engineers to examine the cases and the laptops.

''The plastic cases are no longer being distributed to the department,'' he said.

 

apparently the mini 10 is just a x100e with a smaller screen made just for the NSW high schools.

I never knew large pc makers like lenovo would design a specific model for a individual contract, why would they just settle for the x100e or a ideapad?

 

Because when there is a $110 million government contract up for grabs, you do what it takes to get it. (well, that was the value of the old contract under which they got the S10e). At least under the old contract, the per computer price had to be under $500 (AUD I imagine) including a 4 year warranty (just in case nobody ever believed me about how high profit margin extended warranties are...). Apparently the specs only called for an 8.9" screen, so put a 10 instead of an 11, give yourself some more battery life, and you come out with a better bid.

 

the size of contract makes these minor modifications quite cheap.

If Lenovo could earn 10 million dollars profit from this contract, then it is doing good business.