Lenovo laptops

[kerrymoralee9280]

Am I right in thinking Lenovo is a branch off from IBM or something?

The H/T is looking for laptops and these seem pretty good value. Can anybody recommend, or let me know how sturdy and reliable they are. Thanks,

[beeswax]

I think Lenovo, a Chinese company bought out IBM, or that division of IBM responsible for laptops.

[CyberNerd]

The old IBM range (t series, r series) are very good, sturdy and reliable.

[kerrymoralee9280]

But Lenovo.....?

[torledo]

Am I right in thinking Lenovo is a branch off from IBM or something?

The H/T is looking for laptops and these seem pretty good value. Can anybody recommend, or let me know how sturdy and reliable they are. Thanks,

Lenovo did buy ibm's pc division a few years ago. Which included the thinkcentre pc's and thinkpad laptops. But lenovos budget laptops are their own designs.

What Lenovo have done is keep the thinkpad as the premier business laptop with it's reputation for sturdiness and performance. But they have also a less impressive 'budget range' of laptops that are carry their own brand- but they're not thinkpads so they're not as good but they are styled similarly and are reasonable as budget laptops. If you've got £700 odd to spend buy a thinkpad R61 with extended life battery instead.

The thinkpad name is important whether it's ibm or lenovo. So when you buy a thinkpad you're getting quality.

If you're a fan of the ibm logo you can still request your laptop to be shipped with the logo on the thinkpads.
But the new thinkpad logo also looks good.
IBM and lenovo have a very close relationship - the lenovo website is styled identically to the ibm site and lenovo is known as 'big red' in reference to the fact it's a chinese company.

Also consider Dell or HP if you're looking for a budget laptop, but if you want a quality laptop that won''t break the bank don't look beyond the Dell Latitude D630 or the Thinkpad T61.

[speckytecky]

Am I right in thinking Lenovo is a branch off from IBM or something?

The H/T is looking for laptops and these seem pretty good value. Can anybody recommend, or let me know how sturdy and reliable they are. Thanks,

I'm pretty sure that Lenovo is the new brand name for IBM - hence the shed loads of money they have parted with on the F1 circuit. We recently bought one of their Lenovo R60 (Thinkpad) notebooks through Maypace and the school is very pleased with the quality / value of the kit.

[Grommit]

We buy Lenovo and they are good and value for money..... not had a problem yet... and we have 40..

Here are good ones for £350

http://uk.insight.com/apps/productpr...K%3D%26M%3DLEN

But we also buy Toshiba as they are also value for money...
as they have money back promotions

[broc]

IBM used to manufacture all its own laptops in Greenock. Then they 'outsourced' the manufacture of their budget models to Lenovo, retaining design control. Most recently they sold the whole business to Lenovo, transferring the staff responsible for design & support.

The 'corporate' Thinkpad ranges T and X series will still reflect the IBM brand quality, the R series is somewhere below that, their own brand products will be more like the budget brands you can get from any other mainstream laptop supplier these days.

Many (most?) laptop brands are 'badge' engineered these days from an increasingly smaller number of sources; what differentiates the brands in my opinion is support.
My measure of how good a supplier is starts with the information they have available online, take a look at the support information available on the IBM/Lenovo website, look at DELL, then look at brands like Toshiba, Acer, Sony and see what they offer. Look for driver support, BIOS updates, availability of spare parts, warranty, and you will soon see why some laptops are cheaper than others.

I stick to 'corporate' brands like IBM/Lenovo, Dell. They may look dull and be low on 'wow' factor compared to other brands but you can at least get support when you need it.

[torledo]

IBM used to manufacture all its own laptops in Greenock. Then they 'outsourced' the manufacture of their budget models to Lenovo, retaining design control. Most recently they sold the whole business to Lenovo, transferring the staff responsible for design & support.

The 'corporate' Thinkpad ranges T and X series will still reflect the IBM brand quality, the R series is somewhere below that, their own brand products will be more like the budget brands you can get from any other mainstream laptop supplier these days.

Many (most?) laptop brands are 'badge' engineered these days from an increasingly smaller number of sources; what differentiates the brands in my opinion is support.
My measure of how good a supplier is starts with the information they have available online, take a look at the support information available on the IBM/Lenovo website, look at DELL, then look at brands like Toshiba, Acer, Sony and see what they offer. Look for driver support, BIOS updates, availability of spare parts, warranty, and you will soon see why some laptops are cheaper than others.

I stick to 'corporate' brands like IBM/Lenovo, Dell. They may look dull and be low on 'wow' factor compared to other brands but you can at least get support when you need it.

Thanks for the info broc. It figures they transferred ibm's thinkpad staff to
lenovo with the purchase - as the new models actually improve on the thinkpads elegant design and build quality. I personally think you won't find a better looking laptop - even including the apple powerbooks.

The differences between the current T and R generations are negligable. Other than the addition of 802.11n and a WWAN option in the T series.. And i think the lack of WXGA+ resolution in the R products, the two product lines are practically identical. They both weigh roughly the same, use the same batteries and share almost identical dimensions. Personally don't think the X series represents good value for money becuase of the lack of a trackpad. And it's underpowered compared to the very portable T series. But what you pay for is ultraportability with the x series.

The T61 is a fantastic machine - the feel and responsiveness of the trackpad and buttons are excellent, it's a joy to use.

Would agree with sticking to 'corporate' brands. Lenovo/IBM in particular are excellent for updates via the website and the thinkvantage utilities are very useful. Dell are excellent for phone support, if you're willing to wait.

You can't go wrong by standardizing on thinkpads for all staff (T or R).

[jcollings]

We've bought loads of Lenovo kit (laptops and desktops) for the primary schools we support and it all seems pretty good. Reasonable quality and no (touch wood) break downs yet.

[SpuffMonkey]

We're all IBM/Lenovo - and we've noticed a significant degrade in kit quality/service since the transition to Lenovo, to the point that we will not be considering them in the refresh program.

[torledo]

We're all IBM/Lenovo - and we've noticed a significant degrade in kit quality/service since the transition to Lenovo, to the point that we will not be considering them in the refresh program.

Do you have Lenovo thinkpads ?

[rrichmond]

Hi,

I work in Australia, and since the swap over in Name from IBM to Lenovo, I have noticed the quality of service degrade.

We are about to replace 20% of our workstations with Dell PCs. We now have a foot in each area, so we will see. I suspect however, Lenovo are coming into some harder times, with more competition being offered to the consumer.

[Grommit]

The bottom line is for the price Lenovo Laptops are Sturdy and reliable.....

[TronXP]

I use Lenovo desktops/laptops have replaced almost all my desktops with Lenovos and replaced around 60 laptops with Lenovo R and T series. Dekstop wise, out of 300 I think we have had 3 faulty keyboards and that is all. One Laptop had a faulty external graphics port. All were fixed in quick time and if you are willing to buy in good numbers you will get a good discount.

My understanding is that Lenovo aquired IBM desktop/laptop division, but part of this agreement was that support/customer service had to be kept at IBM's high standards which they had at the time.