Replacing a Thinkpad?

An anonymous reader writes "As a very happy Thinkpad T20 user (still working after 7 years), I always planned on replacing it with another Thinkpad T-series. However, Thinkpads are now produced by Lenovo, a Chinese company, and I can't quite bear to buy Chinese while the Burmese military are shooting at monks with the Chinese Government as their biggest backer. Maybe this is silly, as whatever I buy is likely to be made (at least in part) in China... but still, what are my options for something as well built as the Thinkpad T-series?"

Comments

the t series

[bakamaki]

I've repaired and issued a lot of laptops in my day and I'm not aware of a true competitor to the T series in terms of chassis design. The current T lineup is really nice, but expensive. I'm starting to think I'll get myself a Dell 1420n with Ubuntu for my next box. Granted it's not a rugged laptop but I don't really need that kind of durability. You could consider the Toughbooks, but I really don't have any practical knowledge of them.

Ummmm

[tgd]

You do realize Lenovo is selling the Thinkpads now because... *drumroll* they were the company that made them all along?

Re:Ummmm

[OS24Ever]

How do you define 'make'?

Reason I ask is the same building where Lenovo computers are 'made' (IE Physically Assembled) is also the same building Apple, Dell, HP, Acer, and many others are made. The company is contracted out to make just about everyones laptop.

China has taken over the manufacturing of *so* many products that we use day to day in the United States (and every other country) that it would be downright impossible to function by 'boycotting' anything Made in China.

I started to look into it after the tenth toy of my kids was recalled. My son's wooden trains, my daughters dolls. Fun stuff. Not that my kids chew on them or anything but still, figured I'd send em in.

So I started wondering what I could get as far as a toy without Made in China on it.

in Short, you can't easily. A specialty store sometimes you can find things made in maybe Europe somewhere, but US made things are hard to find and anything non-chinese is pretty hard as well. Forget about shopping at Wal-Mart. That's the retail arm of China now.

In this current global environment it's impossible for a company to be cost competitive because as a consumer we've been trained to throw out everything and focus on price. If this toothpaste is $0.50 cheaper than that toothpaste, I'm gonna buy it. Never mind that one keeps a family in the US employed and has strict laws about what can go in it vs. the other guy putting antifreeze in his mixture in china.

What's a person to do? It can be done, but it's not something that is easy.

Re:Ummmm

[OS24Ever]

Strange, the 10,000 some employees here in research triangle park, nc would probably disagree with you about their nationality.

That's a tough one.

[ErichTheRed]

Very little compares to the durability of the ThinkPads, at least in the non-rugged category. You pay dearly for them, but they last forever compared to other notebooks.

Even Dell's Lattitude business line still feels like a toy. Dell really improved their notebooks over the last iteration, and they're still crap. HP's business line (not the consumer junk with the blinky blue lights and 17" monitors) is the only one IMO that comes close to IBM/Lenovo's case design and construction.

If you really want rugged or semi-rugged, you probably need to look at the Panasonic Toughbooks. They're solid, but they're 20% heavier than they should be and you compromise on case design for durability. (Side note, if you buy the true rugged Toughbook, it's assembled in the US (probably for military contract requirements.) You pay accordingly too...list on some of the rugged models is in the $2000-$3000 range.

Your other choice might be a MacBook Pro, but those aluminum cases don't look like they can take a beating the way the old ThinkPads can.

(By the way, everything's made in China now. If it wasn't, you wouldn't be paying the cheap prices you get for hardware now.)

Re:clarification

[onemorehour]

According to wikipedia, the Chinese government owns a large share of one of the companies that owns stock in Lenovo, and so it effectively owns 27.5% of the company.

If the original poster is advocating for responsible consumerism, and suggesting that we look up the shareholders of a company and only support the company if we support the shareholders, then I'm all for it. However, it sounded like the original poster was saying: "Lenovo is Chinese. China is bad. Therefore, I don't want to buy a laptop from Lenovo."

Possibly Asus?

[Entropius]

You could get an Asus laptop. Owned by the Taiwanese, and made in Taiwan (or at least that's what's stamped on the bottom of mine).

Why just buy from not-China when you can buy from their enemies?

Re:Yes, you're being silly

[1u3hr]

Well, yes, but ALL the money, at least in this case, goes to china

Of course not. Unless you mail order it from Beijing. Where are you going to buy it? In the US. At least half the money will stay in the US. From Wikipedia

Its executive headquarters are located in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA, the home of IBM's former ThinkPad group, and in Beijing, China. It is incorporated in Hong Kong. As of May 31, 2007, 39.6% of Lenovo is owned by public shareholders, 42.4% by Legend Holdings Limited, 7.9% by IBM and 10.1% by Texas Pacific Group, General Atlantic LLC and Newbridge Capital LLC. Because the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a Chinese government agency, owns 65% of Legend Holdings, effectively the Chinese government owns about 27.5% of Lenovo and is the largest shareholder.

Buy a second-hand Thinkpad in the US, then 100% of your cash will stay here.