I've been using Lenovo ThinkPads for 13 years now and while I've been pretty happy with the Notebooks I've owned during the first of those years, I'm feeling like there have been more hardware issues during recent years:<p>- Fans are becoming noisier<p>- Keyboards are becoming worse<p>- Docking Stations have more issues (not charging via USB-C/Thunderbolt, external displays not being detected, ...)<p>I've also heard about similar problems with MacBooks from colleagues.<p>Is this just my subjective experience or do you also see degrading quality with your hardware?
I've noticed they have gotten worse. After three bad MacBook Pros in a row, I bought a used 2015 MacBook Air, which has never given me a problem.<p>The pros all had battery/power issues, shutting down randomly several times a day. The keyboards were also horrible.<p>I've been a Thinkpad fan for years, and I use a Carbon X1 with Linux outside of work. No complaints about that, though I do wonder if it's as physically durable as the older, bulkier models.<p>I've noticed Lenovo is putting out more consumer grade laptops now. I don't know about their quality, but it doesn't seem as high as their professional line.<p>My son has a Dell XPS 15, and had to replace a loud, failing fan after a year.<p>I suppose manufacturers face a lot of pressure selling to consumers who don't know what to look for in terms of quality and don't understand why two visually similar machines with similar specs would be priced so differently. The low-end machines in Walmart look just like the high-end machines at Best Buy.<p>The business grade machines from Lenovo, Dell, and HP have incentive to be higher quality because businesses often buy them with high level service plans. Lenovo, Dell and HP really don't want to send techs into the field to service laptops if they can avoid it, and the best way to avoid that is to build a good product.
I think revisions of existing hardware have been getting better. However, completely new hardware has been a shit-show and yet has replaced existing, well-working options:<p>* USB-C is a horrible spec and protocol, hard/costly to implement right (which forces manufacturers to cut corners), has terrible UX, and yet is used to replace good, battle-tested predecessors such as dedicated video/Ethernet/etc ports<p>* modern PC notebooks don't support S3 sleep anymore, the machine instead stays in S0 (powered on) and relies on software to enter a low-power mode and disable all unnecessary peripherals. This is really tricky to get right on desktop OSes, and even Microsoft - the proponents of this system they call "Connected Standby" clearly can't get it right resulting in the machine failing to enter the low-power mode and overheating when placed in a bag and draining the battery<p>* cameras have moved from a dedicated device connected over USB to a raw image sensor connected to the CPU and subsequent image processing moved to a proprietary blob in the main OS, making it unusable in Linux
> Docking Stations have more issues (not charging via USB-C/Thunderbolt, external displays not being detected, ...)<p>I have noticed that good docking stations cost >$300. I only trust StarTech, Cal Digit or the manufacturer’s dock. Anything sold on Amazon or white label brands like Satechi/Anker/et al are no good.<p>As for laptop quality I’ve been seeing it improving in recent years. Manufacture are really doing a good job putting quality displays and good materials. Of course it all depends on price point. I’ve only been using >1.4k laptops.
I don't use a docking station but I agree on the keyboard issue. I'm a full-sized laptop person and it's always a struggle to find a laptop I like with a numeric keypad.