[RUMOR] Lenovo interested in acquiring MSI gaming notebook business

[cesrai]

Not at all. Their design team doesn't seem to know their target market well at all. It's all about making them sleek and sexy these days. Almost all of their recent changes have just been focusing on aesthetics, and bulldozing any useful features if they're in the way of making it look nice.

But are there sales good ?? if yes then clearly there is a place for it in the market.

What about the Carbon X1 and X2 both are great laptops.

What features do you want in your business laptop ?

[Glenwing]

But are there sales good ?? if yes then clearly there is a place for it in the market.

What about the Carbon X1 and X2 both are great laptops.

What features do you want in your business laptop ?

 

Sales alone won't tell you much. They may be good laptops, but not good business laptops from my perspective. Doesn't matter if people are buying it, it's about who is buying it.

 

I want 16:10 screens, the only advantage of 16:9 screens they use these days is in either media consumption or gaming. Web browsing, documents, spreadsheets, 3D work, 16:9 content editing, and basically everything that their target market does benefits from a 16:10 screen over 16:9.

 

There was no reason to remove the indicator lights for caps lock, num lock, battery life, etc. which were below the display, except to make it look sleeker.

 

There was no reason to remove the older keyboard layout which mirrored the desktop keyboard layout for ease of use. It's been replaced with a custom layout which is less efficient and is missing keys like scroll lock (which I do use, yes) and the context menu key which plenty of their customer base used. But hey who cares, because the keyboard is now a nice even rectangle instead of having an extra half-row on the top right. Totally worth it.

 

There was no reason to remove dedicated volume controls. They've now been integrated into the function keys, so you have to hit Fn-F3 or Fn-F4 to change the volume instead of dedicated, easy-to-find buttons. Obviously it's not the end of the world but it's very frustrating when you consider there is no reason to make it like that. Of course you can turn on Fn-lock, but then if you want to actually use function keys you have to hold Fn for those instead. Alt-F4 becomes Fn-Alt-F4, and I need to hit Fn-F5 to refresh a browser page or Fn-F10 to test a program... I use both volume controls and function keys all the time and so do a lot of people in their target market (or what they say their target market is anyway). They could have dedicated keys for all of this, which would be much more logical and efficient if they were focusing on functionality, or they could choose to combine those keys together so they get rid of extra buttons and make the keyboard look like a nice even rectangle, which would make sense if they were focusing on aesthetics. Now which did they choose, and what does that tell you?

 

I mean come on, when their new keyboard design debuted on the T430 the function keys weren't even grouped. That's an embarrassment for something supposedly designed with functionality, business, efficiency, and power users in mind, it makes it obvious they didn't think about any of those things for a single moment while designing that keyboard layout.

 

For their new thin laptops designed for portability, they sure have made some strange choices with the battery too. The extended battery makes a big lump on the bottom of the laptop, which kinda defeats the whole "thin" idea. But their older ThinkPads had extended batteries which stuck out the back of the unit instead of out the bottom, which made much more sense as it only slightly changed the form factor and didn't suddenly double the thickness of the laptop, and allowed compatibility with docking stations. Now why didn't Lenovo continue with this much more sensible design? Of course it's because they wanted the display hinges to use that cool drop-down design like the MacBook uses, where the display lid swings down and covers up the rear of the laptop, completely covering it and preventing that space from being used for something useful, like extended battery protrusions or I/O like the power jack, which now has to be on the right or left side with a 50% chance of the power outlet being on the opposite side, instead of putting the power jack in the back of the laptop which is the most flexible location for it. But totally worth it if we get to use a hinge design that looks similar to a MacBook right? That's what trending these days after all. Very important.

 

Like I said. Not a clue how to design for their target market. The only reason their target market still buys them is because they're the closest thing you can get to what they really want. The competition is even further away than this. To be honest I don't think their target market is actually their target market anymore. They just say that, leave in a few features they can use as bullet points (such as a VGA port), and design the rest toward the general consumer instead.

[givingtnt]

No, Lenovo, no! Lenovo's gaming notebooks suck and are overpriced. Stick with what you're good at!

you crazy or what ? the y50 and y70 are epic for the price

[Wander Away]

I live in the US as of now, when a friend of mine came to me asking for a suggestion on what gaming laptop to buy, I went on to newegg to see what's there. To me it felt like MSI has the better edge, as most of the laptops that ended up staying in my browser tabs were made by MSI. 
However my friend never even heard of MSI... 

 

--------------<thought_process>-------------

Wait what? 

You want to buy a computer yet you have never heard of MSI? 

%^&$%^#@&$#@

*mindblown*

--------------</thought_process>-------------

 

Apparently as somewhat of a pc nerd I took for granted that MSI is a big company and everyone should know of them. 

 

So yes. MSI does need to work on their marketing.