Lenovo Laptops - Insight would be nice

[Perixx]

Does anyone know if Lenovo laptops are built to last? Should I expect them to last a few years, or to not last long at all? Any insight would be nice. I have a y410p IdeaPad from Lenovo, just if anyone is wondering. 

[Guest]

The general rule of thumb is: Ideapads, no. Thinkpads (except for the E series), yes. If you treat them well all of them will obviously last, but thinkpad T-series laptops (for example) are actually meant to take a beating.

[Perixx]

The general rule of thumb is: Ideapads, no. Thinkpads (except for the E series), yes. If you treat them well all of them will obviously last, but thinkpad T-series laptops (for example) are actually meant to take a beating.

So you're saying Ideapads, for example, my y410p are not meant to last? (I treat them very well).

[Guest]

So you're saying Ideapads, for example, my y410p are not meant to last? (I treat them very well).

 

That's the general rule of thumb, you really can't generalize this too much though. Thinkpads a few generations ago were built differently, with different materials and different features, etc. The large difference is that thinkpads are classified as "business-grade" laptops, while the ideapad series is usually considered "multimedia" laptops. Business-grade means that they'll probably be carried around a whole lot and that something breaking is potentially a huge deal.

[Perixx]

That's the general rule of thumb, you really can't generalize this too much though. Thinkpads a few generations ago were built differently, with different materials and different features, etc. The large difference is that thinkpads are classified as "business-grade" laptops, while the ideapad series is usually considered "multimedia" laptops. Business-grade means that they'll probably be carried around a whole lot and that something breaking is potentially a huge deal.

When I say "meant to last", I don't mean physically as in like the screen/keyboard/trackpad, etc.. I mean like hardware wise, like the CPU, GPU, etc. More or less, do you think my laptop would fail hardware wise in the next year or so with good care?

[KemoKa]

I mean like hardware wise, like the CPU, GPU, etc. More or less, do you think my laptop would fail hardware wise in the next year or so with good care?

Old Lenovo and IBM thinkpads were built like absolute tanks, which is why they're still used on the ISS. They're the only laptops approved by NASA for space travel, a fact at which my mind reels, and if I think about it too much, I'm probably going to have an aneurism. They had to switch their OSs to Debian because XP was too unstable. And they're still running 100GB 5400rpm HDDs, which is ridiculous. One of the reasons I don't want to go into space.

Edit: So yes, it will last you many years if you take care of it. Realistically, any laptop will, unless it's an HP, or a Gateway. /braces for impact

[KemoKa]

To put it into perspective, my laptop has survived superglue, battery splicing and soldering irons for over a year without flinching, and I bought it used. if I showed you pictures of it, you would recoil in horror, but it still works.

[GoodBytes]

I agree.

 

in general Lenovo consumer grade product are built cheap, as they try to aim at the lowest price possible for the specs to be competitive, as the consumer doesn't look for build quality, cooling engineering, durability and so on, when they are at the store and looking to buy a system.

 

Businesses seek reliability and durability with long battery life as a big decision factor. The system can never throttle as well, and are willing to pay the premium price. So you have the build quality, you have the high reliability, good cooling solution and engineering, the quiet fan, and so on. And that is also why, business class system, when you order from the business section of Lenovo (similarly to Dell) their warranty service and after sale service is actually very good. Consumer side, it is sucky. If you call to order a business class system from Lenovo or Dell (depends on region) you can even see in them providing the OS disk and driver disk, which is really nice, and negotiate the price a bit.  In addition, the business class system have significantly less junk, down to even none (depends on region, and model)

[delanyinspiron6400]

I would also recommend a Thinkpad to you, if you are looking for a reliable companion for a few years to come! 

 

I currently own a Thinkpad T-440s, and with its extra battery option this beast lasts forever, unlike anything I've seen before and the keyboard is maybe the best I've seen on a notebook before! Build quality is also really good and I think the understated business look is quite sexy! 

And if you really would want to buy the coolest looking device, go for the Thinkpad X1 Carbon, one sexy beast of a notebook!

 

And they offer things like spill resistant keyboards and so on, I wouldn't try it but it's nice to have this extra security feature!