Is it too much to expect good build on consumer notebooks?

I wasn't sure which forum to post this in so, cosmetic seemed right.

Is it just me or do makers of entry to mid level consumer notebooks just not seem to care about the build quality of their products? I work in a store that sells them, and have gone through a couple that had to be returned because of build issues. Crooked screens, uneven hinges, flexy or uneven keyboards, crooked dvd/cd drives. loose latches, uneven latches, cheap flexy plastic.... do they just not care? I went through 3 HPs and am now on a Toshiba... the Toshiba is built better than the HP, but even it has a little lump on the back of the screen where the plastic is slighty warped, and the hinges are not even on both sides. I'm just keeping this one because at least they are not problems that affect the use of it, like the crooked screens on the HP. HP, Compaq, Dell, Toshiba, Gateway, Acer... all the brands that are at the big electronics stores or cheap online vendors seem to have just given up on quality control. The display models I see at work are normally flawed in some way...

Do I just have horrible luck or am I expecting to much to get a "perfect" laptop under 2000? Maybe I should just sacrifice some media features and get a business laptop next time?

 

There is always Asus. They seem to put out some really nice notebooks And what about IBM (Lenovo?) they make some of the most solid notebooks out there. No notebook is perfect, but some are really close. The notebook companys you mentioned are usually not the ones with the best build quality out there. Try something else!

 

Also there is MSI. I recommend the MS-1039 for gaming, which I am looking foward to buying soon!

 

To answer your question, No, the big brand resellers i.e. Dell, HPQ, Gateway and even Levono now don't care about build quality. they care about bottom line, make it as cheap as possible and who cares what it does just sell sell sell. Yes the custom notebooks are better quality, Asus, MSI, Compal and smaller specialized companies, like Sager build much better units cause they are not competing with themselves to make the contract and don't have to cut as many corners to get there.

 

As well, not sure if its true to most ODMs such as Compal, Clevo, etc. But ASUS makes laptops not for profit, but for customers, as their contracts with larger companies like Dell and HP is where their profit comes in, not when they sell their laptops for a marginal profit(a la A8jm, 14" with 7600 Go for under $1500, just one example)

 

Yes there is always ASUS, Compal, Winstron, MSI, etc. who builds HP, Dell, Toshiba, etc. the customers are returning.

 

Stale thread, I know, but I'd hate for people reading it to not get a counterpoint.

Remember, the machines that ODMs make for OEMs use designed either made by or specified by said OEM. In addition, testing and QA procedures are also specified by the OEM.

In other words, it's not Compal's falt that the Dells they make suck, they were designed to.

When they build their own machines, they have the option of designing, building and testing such that the outcome doesn't suck. In fact, they often excercise that option.

 

This is true, but what makes them any different than the end companies?

They themselves are a company who's bottom line is to make money.

 

Apple!!!!!! Even the macbook pro base model costs $1999, a hair under $2k.