never owned a sager/clevo before - how is build quality? how long do they last? how's support?

title says it all - i've never owned a sager/clevo before - how is build quality? how long do they last? how's support?
i've owned everything from HP, Dell, Toshiba, Asus, and lots of Lenovos, how does it compare?

on paper, the specs look good for the price, but are you sacrificing quality? for example, a lenovo ideapad with same specs as a lenovo thinkpad is about 50% cheaper. that's a HUGE price difference, 50%!!! but everyone says you get what you pay for in terms of the quality when going down from thinkpad > ideapad

when i ask how support, what i mean is by warranty and stuff. since sager/clevo isn't mainstream, how response/helpful/good is their support if things need to get fixed?

thanks in advance for replies!!

 

hi
as you mention sager i guess you are buying in america.
if so i would not buy direct from sager but buy from xoticpc / prostar / powernotebooks / mythlogic who from what ive read over the years have given much better support than direct from sager. they also have reps on here.

im on my second clevo now and wont buy any other make. my previous m860tu is over 6 years old and still going strong. the 9800gt graphics card and hard drive died and both were replaced under warranty. one of the best bits is they are user upgradable so will not void warranty if you go inside and change things unlike quite a lot of other companys.

 

Clevo/Sager are the best bang for your buck absolutely. Build quality is pretty good, on the lower end models they tend to skimp on audio quality and limit keyboard backlighting to the more expensive models. I've had great support from LPC-Digital and XoticPC in the past. They are Sager resellers and will manage your before and after sales concerns/warranty for you, or you can deal with Sager directly. Clevo rebuilders like Mythlogic actually build and repair the machines themselves based on the same Clevo chassis as Sager uses. But their BIOS and support may be a bit different. Overall they've been supportive on this forum and with users in general.

 

Comparing construction quality and reliability between brands tends to become hazy as manufacturers tend to use similar materials and principles in design. You'll get a well built machine out of Clevo in the P series lineup, while the W series sacrifices some for the price but is still basically reliable. In terms of support, the various Clevo/Sager resellers will almost certainly give you better support than the big names.

 

You often get extended warranties and better support hours when you do purchase from a reseller. When you purchase a "Sager" branded computer, most of the time any repairs will go directly to Sager to get fixed but you never have to deal with them directly. Your reseller will handle all of that for you.