Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E530 ... any good or barge pole?

[rednight]

Hi there,

I have been reading through some threads about laptop preferences and wondered if anyone has any experience of these and the after sales service that comes with them. They have a 3 year NBD warranty but I have no experience of them. We have always had Dell here and have always received really good service when it comes to warranty issues etc. Is it time for me to move on, or should I stick with Dell?!

Lenovo spec: E530 Core i3-3110M 4GB DDR3 500GB/7200rpm DVD CD Multi Burner 15.6 INCH HD

If anyone has any advice I would be all ears!

Thanks

[wedemire]

I have one e530 (replaced a stolen e520) and about 35 e520's (older version...older CPU). We've had 10 of them for over a year and a half and just bought 25 for a mobile cart in August. I haven't had any problems with the 25 but had to warranty 2 from the older group. One needed a new motherboard and the other wouldn't take a charge. I ended up taking them to a local depot so I don't have experience sending them away, but Lenovo phone support was easy to deal with. I was very happy when I found out I don't have to call support and can just go to the depot without a support ticket number. Both of these had a one week turn around at the depot.
The laptop with the power issue was an e520 with an i5 and only came with a 1yr warranty. The problem happened after warranty but I was able to purchase another year from Lenovo and drop it off at the depot the day after getting the new warranty.
I too have had great warranty experience with Dell but Lenovo has been awesome so far. We've only been buying Lenovo's for 2 years.
As far as the computer goes you still get the thinkpad keyboard (which is the main reason I buy thinkpads) at a very good price. The screen is not that great, but they had to cut corners somewhere for the price point they're at. They are fairly light for a 15.6" laptop. I will continue to buy these for my non-teaching staff that don't need a more powerful machine.

[FN-GM]

To be honest, if your happy with Dell why change?

[glennda]

Can't recommend the Lenovo's enough - they are the only ones my company recommend and I have a E420's which i put an ssd in and was running 5 servers off it the other day.

[XiJ]

I was always a big fan of Lenovo hardware and the support - when IBM did it.

My recent experience is that the hardware isn't so robust and the customer service / support is getting worse.

Having said that I like the all-in-ones and the laptops are still reasonable to good quality and reliability wise.

[glennda]

IBM still do the support in the UK. And it depends what machines you get. My lenovo is very robost and so are the other machines i have worked with.

[XiJ]

Re: IBM - really? I find the whole Lenovo support poor recently.

But i really like the all-in-ones and they're a great fit for our primary schools.

[glennda]

if you ring the uk pro number you speak with IBM. The only issue i have had with the support was on a brand new lenovo twist which had an issue on arrival and they didnt have the parts as it was so new!

[GondorUr]

I've never really had an issue with the Lenovo support, maybe just because I'm across the pond. But we call in a support ticket for a computer and they are out the next day with the part and replace it. I just received an order for seven of the E530's and they seem a little cheap with the plastic body but the department the purchased them had a limited budget. The only big issue I have with them is the trackpad, I'm a button mouse kind of guy and I've never liked trackpads, my thumbs always seem to think that it's the spacebar and before you know it my reports turn into a mess.
Going back to Lenovo, they are a great company we've used them since they were still IBM and we have not noticed any issue with their service.
I'm in the same boat as XiJ, we use the All-in-Ones in our labs too and they're great for the application. Now if only I can get our kids to realize that the screens are not touch screens.......