thinkpad t510-t520

Hello,

I'm considering getting a thinkpad t510 or t520 however I've been seeing some disturbing reports of low build quality with thinkpads when it comes to keyboard flexing, crackling in the palm rest, etc.

Are incidents like this rare or is this a common occurrence for thinkpads?

Few video examples...

YouTube - Lenovo Thinkpad T510 Palmrest Removal and Fix -- Part 1/3
YouTube - Lenovo Thinkpad T510 keyboard flex #1

Thanks

 

I had 2 Thinkpads T400 and T510 and both of them are solid.

 

I'm sure you have. I am also sure that I can find numerous disturbing reports about the build quality of pretty much any major brand/model computer out there.

Here's the deal. There is one key thing to keep in mind when reading *any* negative reviews of *any* laptop: happy people don't post. For just about any piece of electronics that's manufactured in large quantities (i.e. thousands or millions of units), there will be a portion of them that have manufacturing issues. It might be that the parts don't fit well, or that the coloring is off, or that it doesn't even work -- the QC issues are varied in nature, but their presence is a constant. It's an unavoidable fact of mass production.

Computers are no different. There will always be a portion of laptop buyers who get a unit for which things just plain "weren't built right". For brands with a reputation for good engineering this generates more ire -- brands like Apple and ThinkPad in particular draw a lot of flack from the unlucky buyers -- than for those that are generally accepted to be cheap and low-quality (Acer, Compal, other generic systems, etc.)

Let's say there's a product that's shipped 1000 units. Now this product has some pretty good QC -- let's say that only 1 out of every 1000 units is below standards.

By the time you've shipped a thousand units, there will probably be somebody who got a unit with serious QC problems. To that person, it will be a complete disaster, the product will be utter garbage that was clearly thrown together with no thought by a cheap, careless company with monkeys for engineers and with absolutely no consideration of the quality that their users expect.

For the other 999 users, however, the product is just fine.

Now which of those two groups do you expect will post about their experience on YouTube or on their blog?

ThinkPads are widely deployed in enterprise settings, often thousands at a time. If there really are widespread issues with a model (like the T4x GPU failure or the T2x/T3x RAM slot failures), you hear about it -- and you don't just hear about it from some random jerk on YouTube.

Although I certainly can't speak for them in any official capacity, my workplace deploys a large number of ThinkPads and has recently rolled out a number of T410/T510/W510s. The only complaint that I've heard has been the that T510/W510s are "really big"... which is somewhat humorous, given that you can't really make a small 15" laptop.

 

That was, in fact, my initial reaction to the T510! What people mean by "big" is actually "wide." And the two "big" speaker grills seem to make the perception worse. In any event, the T510 is my daily work machine, and I like it.

BTW, you can really make a "small" 15" laptop by using the "right" aspect ratio for the display.

To be fair, though, it would be a disaster, especially if one is an individual customer sitting at home, with no corporate IT specialists to lean on. Logically, ThinkRob, you make perfect sense, and I'm with you. But, realistically, we should take into account the fact that the customer has high expectations of a premium product from Lenovo and has just spent close to two serious grands on it.

 

While I agree with this for the most part, Im 110% satisfied and Im here all the time. NBR even offered me a space to rent in the lenovo forums recently.

 

I dont care if happy people dont post.
Im quite sure that corporations who buy these things in bulk dont frequent any forums at all, yet statistically they should be getting lots of sub-par quality machines. I dont have any numbers to back up my claim with, but Im sure everyone gets equally built laptops from the same batches and factories made from the same materials and by the same people.
Average Jane/Joe whos looking for laptop wont be even bothered by testing lcd rigidity so they wont come here compaining that ones ThinkPad didnt turn out to be as well built as they might have expected it to be.
Average J/J's wont be looking for imperfections such as minor flex here and there, especially if they are coming from poorly built budget consumer laptop with terrible keyboards and flexy screens and other plastic parts, they will be happy using they ThinkPad/other major business laptop and wont be as picky as some of us are.
First ThinkPad I got was a lemon, second one is better, yet quite far from perfect - less than should have been battery life, weaker lcd protection, squeeking palmrest with little give to it throughout whole front of the laptop, very annoying loud cooling system, buggy software and drivers, hyped ThinkPad customer service has been 50/50 for me thus far.
And Im pretty sure there are hundreds or thousands of ThinkPads like mine, so stop exagerating ThinkPad like its perfect and has no problems, people who have got their lemons have all rights to complain, those who take such complaints into consideration before buying laptops are not paranoid or fools, they are smart buyers who dont want to buy crap just because of hype.
Yet I would give Lenovo a third try when buying full featured "real" ThinkPad regarding build quality and if first specimen would be up to it I would do anything to make Lenovo to replace it with perfect one and only then if second laptop would turn out to be as bad as first one I would start to reconsider returning it or make Lenovo do another replacement before venturing into alternatives from HP/Dell
I prefer TP's over others due to their design and rather well informed and developed community of users, thats a big plus from me to be able to communicate and get advices and information.

Budget ThinkPads are another story, Edge/SL/L series while being cheaper would get a little bit less picky attitude from me, after all, if it costs far less, then I would expect it to have less of LCD protection, bigger weight, dimensions and less battery life and some minor flex here and there would be acceptable.

I would love to make comparison in year or two buying two ThinkPads of the same size intended for the same use, one could be "real" X/T/W ThinkPad and the other could be L/Edge and compare them and their price-performance ratio and build quality.
Some nice surprises could arrive indicating that average user might not even need to buy top-line X/T/W series laptops and rather opt for cheaper alternative. In fact, its how it is now, go compare Edge/L with far more expensive X/T/W(price difference greatly warries by region, but not always you need features available only on expensive series) and see if its worth to pay hundred more for something you dont need and will never use.

Ok, little off topic

 

"The only complaint that I've heard has been the that T510/W510s are "really big"... which is somewhat humorous, given that you can't really make a small 15" laptop. "

Small is a relative word. My 15'' T61p seems small enough to me.

Renee

 

The thing about "reviews" is some people who abuse the crap out of their notebook and do god knows what then go well ThinkPads are supposed to be godlike and tanks. Especially with Newegg reviews, you have idiots practically posting random bs reviews.