Decline in Quality?

Hello NotebookReview... long time no see.

I was looking at Sony laptops earlier today and I noticed what I perceive to be a considerable decline in quality since I bought my CR (which I'm still using right now) 3 years ago. Sony seems to be lacking especially in the what-you-get-for-the-money department.

Agree? Disagree? Thoughts? Alternatives?

-Peter

 

I think it's about the same now as back then, overall. Some models are better, some are worse. But Sony isn't Apple when it comes to build quality imo.

 

When half the posts you see on this forum is about how to get the notebooks as cheap as possible, this should come as no surprise. It's those who wants things for cheap that drives consumerism, which always brings the quality down to the lowest the market is willing to bear.

Price, quality, features: pick any two

 

I think that is occuring too.

The SZ came out with some issues I believe - but they fixed them in later models (which have some other issues -> touchpad).
However the Z when it came out came with problems like sticky keys and double types - where you really wonder where quality control was.

On that note though - nearly all products are getting worse as we have turned into a throwaway society - and even a 2000€ laptop isn't the same as it was 5 years ago.

 

Absolutely true (+1). As a minority user who chooses the Quality-Features pair, my choices are nearly made extinct by the majority that choose the "Price-Features" pair.

 

When I open up the Z and stare at all the tricks used to squeeze all that electronics into that small space, I tend to think that

(1) issues like plastic palm rests aren't really issues, more likely a feature Though that does sound strange...

(2) over time as things miniaturize, they also get more complex. Supposing a component has a likelihood of X% failing, and supposing that likelihood doesn't change over time. What changed is the number of components that goes into the laptop. And the effective working of the laptop is the combination of all the components working. Thus, it gets tougher over time (yes this is a simplification) for a laptop not to fail. On the other hand, people may be having higher expectations: "Hey this is the twenty-first century, why hasn't my laptop gotten as durable as my toaster back when I was a kid?!" And if they don't consciously check themselves, they may end up complaining more.

3) and the problem with growing complexity is that they don't appear to increase functionality. For instance we have the same number of ports then and now, but it is probably the case that today's ports are significantly harder to build. Just that from the point of view of the consumer, that difficulty and complexity hides in the shadows and behind the curtains and isn't revealed to the consumer. Hence the consumer doesn't quite understand what he's paying for.



And I can imagine this conversation between Sony executives:

Exec1: "Hey did you read this NoteBookReview forum? Apparently people have been purchasing our warranties just to get larger discounts, then returning them later!"

Exec2: "That's not good, what shall we do?"

Exec3: "I know, we can increase the prices of our laptops to take this into account!"

Exec4: "Brilliant!"

So, thanks a lot you guys

 

^agreed.

Added to 2: As well as smaller, people expect laptops to be much lighter than the heffers last decade. It is most likely hard to make a 3 pound laptop as physically durable as a 6 pound, two inch thick one.

In terms of what you get for your money buying a Sony laptop (the same goes for Lenovo thinkpads) compared to those made by other manufacturers, there is a saturation of laptops now, many of them having somewhat decent components but lacking in other areas. I looked around a bit before getting a z and didn't really find any competition for it that suited my needs. For me, a laptop is more than the lump sum of the price of its components, it's the worth of having a complete and balanced package. Because of that I don't feel that Sony is lacking in the what you get for your money department (at least for the z).

 

my z looked great until i took a closer look at the hinges. one didnt set flush like the other. i guess im too picky

 

Last years Z was like that. This years Z is like that. The F11 is like that too.