!Caution - Bad build quality on the latest Lenovo laptops but good service

Gadgets and Devices Laptops & AIO Desktops
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Hi, i dont know who this is going to be useful for.. but im just going to share my experience here.

a bit of context.. I’ve almost always been a Windows user with occasional macbook ownership but still very little compared to windows.

from me owning the macbook m2 and the m4 air for a short while i knew there is no defeating the macs on battery life..

but still after hearing about the advancements on battery life and performance for the lunar lake cpu’s i had decided to give windows a go again.

I wanted a no compromise machine, did some research and narrowed it down to the Lenovo Yoga Pro 7 aura edition ultra 9 285H | 32GB | 1TB | Oled - 120hz laptop.

Almost all reviews promised it to have the best built quality of all windows laptops in the segment.. the best keyboard.. the best speaker set.. so even tho it was expensive for the specs i decided to give it a go.

Having used the macs battery life was straight up a dissappointment.. multi tasking and opening/closing was nowhere as fast as my desktop.. i was really hoping it to be a no compromise machine.. but no.. still the occasional stutters and lags were seen.. the occasional windows slowdown would have been fine aswell if it had somewhat decent battery.. but barely 3 hours of battery is nowhere decent.

the keyboard backlight from below the keys.. bleeds so much at night. it really makes it look cheap.. but almost all windows laptops are like that only.

charger was also really low quality.. the USB-C quality was like a 100rs cable.. fine whatever i was satisfied.. most of these are nitpicks nice to haves but were especially highlighted to me because i had come from a macbook.

another reason i bought this laptop was the speakers.. yoga series supposed to have the best speakers of all.. and it had 2 additional bottom firing speakers.

the fan design is also really bad.. if you use your laptop on the bed or somewhat covered.. the fans suffocate and laptop gets really hot.. this is also expected.. but macbooks dont have this issue even the pro variants dont heat up.

a week into use.. i noticed.. whenever i picked up the laptop or opened the hinge.. it made a really cheap clicky clacky sound (think dust stuck between 2 metal parts).. almost made it sound like a plastic laptop worth 10-20k.

did some googling found other users with similar complaints specifically for this model.. so i complained to lenovo aswell.

shared details, engineer came.. saw that it did make these weird built quality sounds.. and declared it DOA.. sealed the laptop and told me to take it to the dealer to get a new one in replacement.

I didnt want to get the same laptop as i was extremely dissapointed anyway.. and convinced the dealer to get me the new Macbook pro m5.

and my god what a difference.. display even tho not oled, the scaling inside macbooks are as such that readibility is much better compared to windows.

speakers are literallt 4x the quality of the best speakers a windows can offer.

battery life is also like 4x the amount of my lenovo laptop.

build quality is also twice as good.

so moral of the story basically is that windows laptops still dont come close to macs.. the price premium over windows is worth it.

the most annoying thing now is that i would have to procure or pirate MS office on mac even tho i own a subscription for the PC.

and do simialr shit for things which would have been really easy to do on windows. :smiley:

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Brands like Dell, Asus, Lenovo, HP, and Acer often feel built around cost cutting rather than craftsmanship. They lack a certain soul.

I’m not talking about the software just the hardware design itself. Disassemble one of these machines and then compare it to an older Intel Mac, and the difference is striking. The Mac feels like it was engineered by someone who truly knew what they were doing, while the others look like a jumble of components crammed together just to make it work.

2015 Mackbook Pro

  • 1.5 lakh machine at launch.

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2024 Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 13)

  • 1.5 lakh machine today.

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Apple plays with memory and storage shenanigans, that is a pain but they don’t compromise on the quality of their entry level products, they are the same standard as their top tier products.

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I think it’s not that.. it’s simply having the ability of making less sku’s.

When you don’t have to worry about pulling out 20 new sku’s every month.. u can really focus on optimization and providing quality to your customers on just one product.

All these companies competing with apple really need to slow down and focus on creating one good product instead of 100 avg ones.

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At this point, What is an actually good brand for windows laptops or at least suggest some good series of laptops.
I thought Lenovo ultrabooks were the ones i could trust :frowning:

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None its all luck,my old acer laptop is still working fine but my friend who bought the same laptop with me has constantly faced issues with it,so its all luck

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My Lenovo V14 plastic hinge broke within the first three months because its screw was slightly overtightened compared to the other one.

This caused huge stress on that single hinge when the laptop was closed and opened, because the load was not getting evenly shared between the two hinges.

I fixed the broken part with glue that turns into a hard material and made sure both hinge screws on the left and right are equally tightened.

Now it’s been running fine for three years.

So design of the laptop itself is fine, it’s the assembly where things go wrong.

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Guys pardon me if it is the wrong thread for this post.

A friend here has offered me his Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 10 Laptop, for which the warranty will expire in one month, for Rs 41,000. The configuration details are as follows -

https://www.lenovo.com/in/en/p/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpadx1/thinkpad-x1-carbon-gen-10-(14-inch-intel)/len101t0009

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 10 (14, Intel) - Type 21CC

Model S2XJ19
12th Gen Intel Core™ i5-1245U (1.6GHz) vPro® Processor
32 GB RAM LPDDR5 5200Mhz soldered down (dual channel)
256 GB SSD, I will upgrade it to the 2TB PCIe SSD Gen 4
65 W Charger

Is it a good buy for Rs 41,000 ? My main use case is to use this laptop to connect with two external monitors of 4K resolution at 60hz, by using a Lenovo Dock. I also have the option for buying other laptop at half the price, from here - 2x Dell Latitude 5420 i5 1145G7

Not able to decide, if I should spend the extra money for this Lenovo Thinkpad or not.

Any suggestions would be a great help in deciding about this laptop buying.

Thanks a lot.

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Yeah good buy

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It depends on your use case. Go for Dell one if you’re short on budget, otherwise choose Thinkpad.
Thinkpad got better build quality while Dell particular this one have cheap plastic. Plus if you factor in RAM price, Dell will cost you around 28-30K for 32GB RAM. Factor in one generation gap for cpu as well plus build quality.

From chatGPT:-
:white_check_mark: ThinkPad X1 Carbon feels like a much better deal because you’re paying ~₹41 k for far stronger performance and usability.
:cross_mark: Latitude at ₹22 k is cheap, but with only 8 GB RAM and older CPU, it will feel sluggish sooner, especially with Windows 11/modern workloads.

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In this day and age? There are no good brands, only good products, and some luck.

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Running 2 external monitors at 4K might be challenging if you run any graphic intensive applications.

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Yes, that is my biggest concern. The ThinkPad owner has confirmed that the laptop would support 2 monitors of 4K resolution at 60 hz, if I use the Lenovo Dock -

https://support.lenovo.com/in/en/accessories/acc500106-thinkpad-usb-c-dock-gen-2-overview-and-service-parts

Since this is going to be my main use for this laptop, so I want to make sure, before making the payment.

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My question was around your usage requirement? Are you using any graphic intensive applications in 2D/Video/3D ? Or is it only normal office applications and casual browsing?

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I doubt you need that specific dock just for the dual 4k monitor functionality. Unless he’s giving you the dock with the laptop, you can just use the 1 hdmi port for 1 monitor and get a type c to hdmi/dp cable for the second monitor. More economic that way.

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@Emrebel My usage is for normal office applications and casual browsing. Not any graphic intensive applications.

@Kosmas that would be awesome, if I can connect two external monitors to it, even without using the dock. But I am not sure, if that would be possible.

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It’ll be mostly fine for that, you might face some sluggishness if you’re watching 4K60 videos or something on Youtube, otherwise it should be fine.

Since it has two thunderbolt 4 ports, afaik thunderbolt ports support display-alt mode, so you can directly use a type c to hdmi/dp cable. As long as the cable is good.

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Then I think it should be fine.

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I don’t know why would anyone even go for the Yoga range at that price point (or even suggest for), when you have literally the Thinkpad range in-front of you.

Especially the T14/T16 range.

Also, its quite common knowledge that in 2025/2026, Intel processors for laptops just sucks ass. AMD should be the de-facto choice for most, if not all, customers. They run cool, draw less power, and provide miles better IGPU results.

Since the Windows-based market is vast, you do require a bit of patience and info crowd-sourcing to make your decision right, especially when you are spending that kinda money.

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Yoga is simply not their top-tier brand, that would be the thinkpad lineup. Also, 285H is not Lunar lake, it’s Arrow lake, not sure why you decided to purchase an arrow lake laptop after being impressed by lunar lake (part of the blame definitely lies with Intel and their confusing SKU names).

I own a thinkpad x9-15, which is a lunar lake laptop, and coupled with a 80Whr battery the backup is simply phenomenal, I’m talking 9hr 4k video streaming at full brightness on the 2.8k 120hz oled display and full brightless, full volume on speakers (stranger things s4 binge) and still left with ~25% on the battery. The entire CPU is pretty much coasting on e-cores unless you’re doing something really intensive, and even then the e-cores are plenty capable. Even during web browsing and mixed workload, I get > 10Hr backup regularly. The speakers are great, it’s a full metal build with a haptic trackpad. I simply enjoy using the laptop. Here’s my post on it The "Everyday" show-off thread ! (Part 2) - #69 by ze_cook