http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/ Engadget Comments for Lenovo's ThinkPad doyen Arimasa Naitoh speaks about life, liberty and the T400s http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/Nov 25th 2009 8:39AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/Nov 25th 2009 8:48AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/Nov 25th 2009 9:03AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/
Are you referring to that repair shop's study? That was unscientific, so you're quite wise to not believe it.

Thinkpads are very well built, but that's not to say they don't have the same manufacturing problems that other laptops to. If you stand on a thinkpad and a toshiba, only one will break, but both probably have faulty cathode tubes and mobos all the time.]]>Nov 25th 2009 11:16AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/
+1. Indeed, Lenovo ThinkPad and Dell Latitude are the only 2 laptop lines worth considering if you care about reliability.]]>Nov 25th 2009 2:54PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/
From the document:
1. We did not take into consideration purchase location.
A lot of computers are purchased online, and the warranties purchased are provided by the manufacturer. For example, Lenovos are mainly sold online, and Lenovo offers a relatively cheap 3-year warranty (how often do you see Thinkpads, or any Lenovos for that matter, at Best Buy?). Naturally, Square-Trade wants you to buy their warrantees instead of better alternatives. Which begs the question - what percentage of laptop owners for a particular brand buy ST warranties? And what price bracket are the computers in?
]]>Nov 25th 2009 8:16PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/
2. As there is no sharp line that divides the definition of a netbook and laptop computer, Square-Trade has used the price point of under $400 to define the netbook category in this analysis.
This includes el cheapo Compaq sub-$400 laptops with core2duos which were never meant to have high build quality.

3. Square-Trade randomly selected over 30,000 laptop and netbook computers for this analysis.
They never tell you the distribution of brands and prices in this study. ]]>Nov 25th 2009 8:18PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/
I friend of mine has gone through 3 thinkpads and the one they shipped back to him last is still messed up. He just gave up sending it back and will probably replace it with something else next year that is not a Lenovo.

Few weeks ago I ordered an IdeaPad, waited a month to get it, then they shipped it with the wrong OS. I shipped it back yesterday and will probably have to wait another month to get the correct laptop with the right OS. Insane how horrible the service is.

Never will I ever order another Lenovo laptop. Its not worth your time when there are better vendors with better service as well as better machines]]>Nov 25th 2009 9:13AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/Please. Get real! This is engadget. Did you really think you could get away with a sweeping statement like "Thinkpads are crap"? I agree they (Lenovo) have some issues with customer service, in particular returns/repairs/shipping. However, you will find several people on here (me included) who think that Thinkpads are simply the BEST laptops out there, for several reasons:

- They are incredibly rugged (mine survived having a 2L jug of water being dumped on it).
- They don't come with a lot of bloatware like Dells.
- When they do go wrong (as mine did), it is often a 3rd party issue (in my case the Toshiba hard drive died).
- The attention to detail is great... easy to use keyboards, clickpad buttons that work well, the "nubbin" in the middle, an overhead keyboard light for typing in the dark, strong WiFi antenna, decent battery life.

I have a T40 that is still going strong after 6 years (now running Win7 and on a new battery) Also I have an Ideapad U110 that is simply the best laptop I've ever had... it's lighter and thinner than a MacBook Air, runs Win7 really well, and has the full range of ports and connectivity you would expect from a much bigger laptop - its basically like having a fully featured laptop with core2duo in a net-book size package.]]>Nov 25th 2009 9:36AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/Nov 25th 2009 9:44AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/I couldn't agree more with this opinion. Nowadays, the only plus there is when using Lenovo notebooks is TrackPoint.]]>Nov 25th 2009 9:49AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/
The fact that I use OS X for work makes it difficult, because my Apple laptops don't hold a candle featurewise or servicewise.]]>Nov 25th 2009 10:29AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/
We have around 100 Lenovo laptops and 2,000 Lenovo PCs and to date, I have no see a raise in our failure rates when compared to their IBM counter parts. In fact, it is still very rare for us to have one break down on us while still in production. IBM and Lenovo have surprised me with their quality and low failure rate and that is why we stick with them at work and why I will continue to buy Thinkpads at home.

It sucks that your friend has had some many issues, but I think it is out of the norm as I or other with a large fleet of them have not seen this trend.]]>Nov 25th 2009 11:29AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/
IBM started to degrade the image by offering the low end ThinkPad. Lenovo continues it. The T series & X series are about as good as it gets for a dependable work computer.

Maybe if Lenovo put a pulsating logo on the back of the screen roll cage more folks would like it?]]>Nov 25th 2009 9:17AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/I am owner of ThinkPad X60 series and I can tell you it's a big crap. Keyboard crunches, notebook constantly overheats itself (it also shuts of from time to time because of that), in lower corners of screen is error in illumination. And there is Vista (but that's different topis). And customer support? I have the very same problem with battery as stated in here: http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/14/lenovo-issues-battery-recall-for-six-thinkpad-models/ . But, Since I don't have battery from series mentioned in text above, it's dragging for months! I will never ever by anything from Lenovo nor IBM and will recommend the same for others.]]>Nov 25th 2009 9:32AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/Sorry for typing errors:
shuts of > shuts off
topis > topic
I will never ever by > I will never ever buy]]>Nov 25th 2009 9:35AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/Nov 25th 2009 9:20AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/
A Lenovo ThinkPad is no longer a premium offering period. I seem to be seeing them merging the IdeaPad and ThinkPad lines in terms of fit, finish and build quality. This can only be based on the incredibly competitive landscape, recently dominated by the push into the North American market by Acer.

As for support, the fact is all support calls are addressed by IBM, and let me tell you, that relationship is not working. Recently, after receiving 2 DOA units, the IBM rep. showed up with no spares on three separate occasions and confessed there were no spares for the T400s in our region and that we would have to wait. We ended up having to ship one of the units back for a complete replacement. Total time to get the replacement was over 6 weeks.

These are not growing pains, this is an active attempt to compete and cut costs where ever possible.

My advice, look elsewhere until they realize the error of their ways and bring the brand back to what is was and they finally cut ties with IBM and retool the support.

Punchy
]]>Nov 25th 2009 9:28AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/Nov 25th 2009 9:53AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/Nov 25th 2009 8:25PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/Nov 25th 2009 9:54AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/Nov 25th 2009 11:01AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/
So, your underlying sentiment of "give customers what they want" is exactly what's going on, it's just that you're not the biggest customer anymore, so you're not getting what YOU want. Such is the way of capitalism -- the majority votes with their dollars, and the others lose.]]>Nov 25th 2009 12:23PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/"So, your underlying sentiment of "give customers what they want" is exactly what's going on"

That's a good joke :-)
LCD manufacturers are in fact Lenovo's suppliers, not customers. Pushing 16:9 format is just about marketing and manufacturing costs.]]>Nov 25th 2009 1:12PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/Nov 25th 2009 11:14AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/
I understand the SL line may have some issues, but they are new, give them time to work out the kinks to add another solid lineup.]]>Nov 25th 2009 11:21AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/Nov 25th 2009 12:42PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/Is it that TPM chip I read about a few years back?
I remember being afraid the technology would create a DRM nightmare for us regular folks.]]>Nov 25th 2009 2:00PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/Nov 25th 2009 12:55PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/Yes, I have had the very same feeling (that Lenovo's employees reacted) when all those lucky Lenovo customers started to post all of a sudden :-)
BTW, regarding Mr. Arimasa Naitoh, I'm bowing deeply regarding earlier versions of ThinkPads (when they were IBM), I also heard about how great their customer support was in those days. Now it's all different.]]>Nov 25th 2009 1:25PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/Nov 25th 2009 1:41PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/
By contrast, your grammar is exactly where it usually is (in the frickin' toilet).]]>Nov 25th 2009 1:30PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/So funny yet so true :-)
You have a plus from me :-)]]>Nov 25th 2009 2:34PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/Nov 25th 2009 1:44PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/I don't know whether engadget changed it or whether the text was the same from the beginning, but now I'm reading "true founding fathers of mobile computing". Word "mobile" is in fact more appropriate than "modern". I believe that to be fair, IBM was sort of pioneer in notebook business. Was :-(]]>Nov 25th 2009 2:26PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/Nov 25th 2009 5:21PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/Nov 25th 2009 5:23PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/
Really I can understand that some people dont like lenovo, but after having owned 5 of them, I would not buy another brand. And at least in Denmark their service is A+, miles ahead of all the other brands. E.g. I broke my enter key (got angry after a firefox crash... I know) I called in and told them that my keyboard was broken, 16 hours later a nice UPS guy handed me a new keyboard, no charge. Service!
Not like apple, HP, dell etc]]>Nov 25th 2009 6:09PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/Nov 25th 2009 8:29PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/lenovos-thinkpad-doyen-arimasa-naitoh-speaks-about-life-libert/Nov 26th 2009 12:42AM