Lenovo laptop woes
Discussion
Are Lenovo computers meant to be good? Or is it only when you spend a few grand that you get a decent product?
After much research into laptops and deliberating I finally bought an IdeaPad 5 Pro Gen 7 (16" AMD) about 7 months ago. Purchased from John Lewis as it came with 2 year warranty.
I had the occasional niggle like computer randomly restarting every few weeks, but the ownership experience was pretty good. Until about 6 months ago I noticed when viewing pages with a white background that there were diagonal lines starting from the top left corner up to the middle of the screen. It looked like brighter white lines with grey patches between them. On non-white backgrounds it wasn't noticeable but something I noticed when using PH and other sites.
My touchpad also seemed to develop a fault where it started clicking noisily and would sink down when running my finger across the pad. It wasn't a major annoyance, but combined with the display issue it was enough of a problem to pick up the phone and speak to tech support.
After 40 minutes on the phone to tech support and trying to show the issue on my phone camera (not very successfully) I was able to arrange collection of the computer. I did send a picture after to add on the case notes.
Lenovo collected my computer on a Monday and I tracked the repair and could see they had replaced the display panel and re-seated and tightened the touchpad. The computer was delivered back to me on Friday. I was impressed with the speed of repair and happy they replaced the panel. Although I found it somewhat disappointing / alarming that my display lasted me about 6 months before needing to be replaced. My screen is on for a large portion of the day so maybe i'm considered a "heavy" user - which is why I intentionally avoided OELD displays and went for an IPS.
After the repair, the display looks better. Touchpad isn't like new and I wouldn't consider the issue resolved. I'm working away and some sun shines on my computer and I notice the bezel around the display has been scratched up. It's cosmetic I know, but rather annoying to send the computer off for repair and receive it back with damage.
I call Lenovo up to complain. Send pictures and they open a case for investigation. A day or so later, they arrange for collection and laptop goes off for repair. I've been tracking the repair and it seems the repair is on hold as parts not available. I would hope they can get the parts but not sure what happens if not!
Either way, I told Lenovo this shouldn't happen after 7 months of ownership and the product is not of merchantable quality. I've also been without my computer for about 2 weeks. I should be happy that it's being repaired under warranty but feels a bit wrong to have these issues within the first 7 months.
Is there anything else I can do here? I could go back to John Lewis with the receipt but imagine will be directed back to Lenovo support / repair.
After much research into laptops and deliberating I finally bought an IdeaPad 5 Pro Gen 7 (16" AMD) about 7 months ago. Purchased from John Lewis as it came with 2 year warranty.
I had the occasional niggle like computer randomly restarting every few weeks, but the ownership experience was pretty good. Until about 6 months ago I noticed when viewing pages with a white background that there were diagonal lines starting from the top left corner up to the middle of the screen. It looked like brighter white lines with grey patches between them. On non-white backgrounds it wasn't noticeable but something I noticed when using PH and other sites.
My touchpad also seemed to develop a fault where it started clicking noisily and would sink down when running my finger across the pad. It wasn't a major annoyance, but combined with the display issue it was enough of a problem to pick up the phone and speak to tech support.
After 40 minutes on the phone to tech support and trying to show the issue on my phone camera (not very successfully) I was able to arrange collection of the computer. I did send a picture after to add on the case notes.
Lenovo collected my computer on a Monday and I tracked the repair and could see they had replaced the display panel and re-seated and tightened the touchpad. The computer was delivered back to me on Friday. I was impressed with the speed of repair and happy they replaced the panel. Although I found it somewhat disappointing / alarming that my display lasted me about 6 months before needing to be replaced. My screen is on for a large portion of the day so maybe i'm considered a "heavy" user - which is why I intentionally avoided OELD displays and went for an IPS.
After the repair, the display looks better. Touchpad isn't like new and I wouldn't consider the issue resolved. I'm working away and some sun shines on my computer and I notice the bezel around the display has been scratched up. It's cosmetic I know, but rather annoying to send the computer off for repair and receive it back with damage.
I call Lenovo up to complain. Send pictures and they open a case for investigation. A day or so later, they arrange for collection and laptop goes off for repair. I've been tracking the repair and it seems the repair is on hold as parts not available. I would hope they can get the parts but not sure what happens if not!
Either way, I told Lenovo this shouldn't happen after 7 months of ownership and the product is not of merchantable quality. I've also been without my computer for about 2 weeks. I should be happy that it's being repaired under warranty but feels a bit wrong to have these issues within the first 7 months.
Is there anything else I can do here? I could go back to John Lewis with the receipt but imagine will be directed back to Lenovo support / repair.
That made uncomfortable reading for me as I have just purchased a Yoga in the cyber Monday sale
I guess as it is under warranty you are going to have to give them the opportunity to repair/rectify to your satisfaction and exhaust that process before escalating it. Did you by any chance buy it with a credit card? Get on to them if you did as they will be able to give advice and give you another route to solving the problem as they are equally responsible for the quality of the goods bought.
I guess as it is under warranty you are going to have to give them the opportunity to repair/rectify to your satisfaction and exhaust that process before escalating it. Did you by any chance buy it with a credit card? Get on to them if you did as they will be able to give advice and give you another route to solving the problem as they are equally responsible for the quality of the goods bought.g4ry13 said:
Are Lenovo computers meant to be good? Or is it only when you spend a few grand that you get a decent product?
All computer sellers sell 2 types of computers. They sell consumer models which are sold via retailers (i.e. high cost of sales) and they sell business models which are sold with lower cost of sales direct to business or through large volume resellers.
So with Lenovo the IdeaPad line is consumer, and ThinkPad is business, The latter comes with 3 year next day on site warranty. A consumer grade should still not have the issues you have had, but in future buy the business model.
Businesses would not be happy if their employees could not work a few days or weeks due to a badly designed laptop and may cancel an annual contract to buy hundreds/thousands of laptops, and the manufacturer can't afford to send regular engineers out on site. So the business lines are more solidly built.
Edited by JimJobs81 on Monday 4th December 11:33
Mr-B said:
That made uncomfortable reading for me as I have just purchased a Yoga in the cyber Monday sale I guess as it is under warranty you are going to have to give them the opportunity to repair/rectify to your satisfaction and exhaust that process before escalating it. Did you by any chance buy it with a credit card? Get on to them if you did as they will be able to give advice and give you another route to solving the problem as they are equally responsible for the quality of the goods bought.
I paid with debit card. I did raise a complaint on the Resolver site which funnelled my query to customer support and the same person I spoke with on the phone replied. I guess as it is under warranty you are going to have to give them the opportunity to repair/rectify to your satisfaction and exhaust that process before escalating it. Did you by any chance buy it with a credit card? Get on to them if you did as they will be able to give advice and give you another route to solving the problem as they are equally responsible for the quality of the goods bought.The initial repair was good (except for the cosmetic damage) and there weren't any arguments from tech support about sending it off for repair. Hopefully you don't encounter any issues with your product in the first place.
JimJobs81 said:
All computer sellers sell 2 types of computers.
They sell consumer models which are sold via retailers (i.e. high cost of sales) and they sell business models which are sold with lower cost of sales direct to business or through large volume resellers.
So with Lenovo the IdeaPad line is consumer, and ThinkPad is business, The latter comes with 3 year next day on site warranty. A consumer grade should still not have the issues you have had, but in future buy the business model.
Businesses would not be happy if their employees could not work a few days or weeks due to a badly designed laptop and may cancel an annual contract to buy hundreds/thousands of laptops, and the manufacturer can't afford to send regular engineers out on site. So the business lines are more solidly built.
My workplace used to use Lenovo ThinkPad so I thought Lenovo (as a brand) was pretty solid. Spending >£2k on a laptop makes it a different purchasing proposition and not really something I had appetite for. The ThinkPad is also a more bulky / heavy design which is great for protecting against clumsy employees dropping their machines and less necessary for my purposes. They sell consumer models which are sold via retailers (i.e. high cost of sales) and they sell business models which are sold with lower cost of sales direct to business or through large volume resellers.
So with Lenovo the IdeaPad line is consumer, and ThinkPad is business, The latter comes with 3 year next day on site warranty. A consumer grade should still not have the issues you have had, but in future buy the business model.
Businesses would not be happy if their employees could not work a few days or weeks due to a badly designed laptop and may cancel an annual contract to buy hundreds/thousands of laptops, and the manufacturer can't afford to send regular engineers out on site. So the business lines are more solidly built.
You can pickup used business laptops with 1- or 2 years on site warranty still remaining for £500-1000. The Thinkpad line up is no longer all bulky/heavy, for example the Thinkpad X1 is slim and ultra light.
They make the consumer lineup look more aesthetically pleasing, but it means it is less durable.
They make the consumer lineup look more aesthetically pleasing, but it means it is less durable.
After calling Lenovo and complaining. Lenovo gave me the number for repair centre who told me parts had arrived and the repair would happen soon.
From the repair ticket, it looks like the repair centre has now replaced the upper case, LCD cover, bezel and hinge cover. Quite a lot of parts for some fairly minor cosmetic damage to the top corner of the bezel!
I'm happy that the repair is no longer on hold - not sure when it will return back to me but hopefully it comes back spotless as I don't think I have the energy and patience to argue any more.
From the repair ticket, it looks like the repair centre has now replaced the upper case, LCD cover, bezel and hinge cover. Quite a lot of parts for some fairly minor cosmetic damage to the top corner of the bezel!
I'm happy that the repair is no longer on hold - not sure when it will return back to me but hopefully it comes back spotless as I don't think I have the energy and patience to argue any more.
JimJobs81 said:
So with Lenovo the IdeaPad line is consumer, and ThinkPad is business, The latter comes with 3 year next day on site warranty. A consumer grade should still not have the issues you have had, but in future buy the business model.
ThinkPads haven't come with 3yrs on-site as standard for some years. Businesses who buy lots of them maybe still get it included, but they also get them for way less than the website pricing.
g4ry13 said:
My workplace used to use Lenovo ThinkPad so I thought Lenovo (as a brand) was pretty solid. Spending >£2k on a laptop makes it a different purchasing proposition and not really something I had appetite for. The ThinkPad is also a more bulky / heavy design which is great for protecting against clumsy employees dropping their machines and less necessary for my purposes.
GaryB, no, those more expensive business machines are built to higher standards. Better quality trackpads, better quality keyboard switches, less flexy displays with better hinges, because they are meant to have ‘hard use’ for 8 hours, 5 days a week.A consumer machine isn’t built to take that sort of use. We tried to tell you before GaryB, but you did some crazy ass detailed research into lord knows what, totally dropping the ball on the fundamentals. We took your use case and guided you to machines that were about £1.8k but you wouldn’t listen. I was just waiting for a post like this to surface from you!
Do the right thing GaryB, go back through your old posts here, order the sort of machine you were advised to. Sell your current Lenovo on eBay. This is no different than a builder or plasterer etc, that needs a cordless drill, buying B&Q’s cheap ass internal brand and finding it breaks after a few months, rather than paying out 2x, 3x for a Makita or whatever, that is built for that sort of use.
Edited by wyson on Saturday 9th December 10:59
Why are you calling me GaryB? 
I don't think my use case is anything that exceptional. I'm just a guy who wakes up in the morning and turns on the laptop. I put it to sleep when I go to bed and repeat the next day. The main use of my laptop is internet browsing and YouTube. Sometimes there are other things a little more CPU intensive but majority of the time it's spent browsing which I don't think requires amazing specs.
Is it really exceptional for a computer to be on for 15 hours / day? Does a person really need to spend £2k in order to perform this requirement?
I don't think my use case is anything that exceptional. I'm just a guy who wakes up in the morning and turns on the laptop. I put it to sleep when I go to bed and repeat the next day. The main use of my laptop is internet browsing and YouTube. Sometimes there are other things a little more CPU intensive but majority of the time it's spent browsing which I don't think requires amazing specs.
Is it really exceptional for a computer to be on for 15 hours / day? Does a person really need to spend £2k in order to perform this requirement?
Edited by g4ry13 on Friday 8th December 17:17
JimJobs81 said:
g4ry13 said:
Are Lenovo computers meant to be good? Or is it only when you spend a few grand that you get a decent product?
All computer sellers sell 2 types of computers. They sell consumer models which are sold via retailers (i.e. high cost of sales) and they sell business models which are sold with lower cost of sales direct to business or through large volume resellers.
So with Lenovo the IdeaPad line is consumer, and ThinkPad is business, The latter comes with 3 year next day on site warranty. A consumer grade should still not have the issues you have had, but in future buy the business model.
Businesses would not be happy if their employees could not work a few days or weeks due to a badly designed laptop and may cancel an annual contract to buy hundreds/thousands of laptops, and the manufacturer can't afford to send regular engineers out on site. So the business lines are more solidly built.
Edited by JimJobs81 on Monday 4th December 11:33
I was going to buy a Lenovo gaming laptop in their sales as big discounts. But then read the reviews on TrustPilot and decided against it.
Bought a Dell G15 instead and very happy with it, we use Dell and HP in work and rarely have issues.
Bought a Dell G15 instead and very happy with it, we use Dell and HP in work and rarely have issues.
I have a work issued Thinkpad and my own personal idea pad, both have been decent computers, I actually prefer my idea pad in the main. Had it about 6 years now, I did replace the hard disc drive with an SSD when it started slowing down and it’s been brilliant since especially for the money
Edited by Jamescrs on Saturday 9th December 10:45
We have both Lenovo and Apple laptops at work.
The Lenovos are actually more expensive, or were when I last looked.
The MacBooks have less issues.
Make of that what you will.
Personally at home I’ve had Apple (a Mac mini and a MacBook Pro) over the past 10 years.
I’ve never had one crash, or need reinstalling apart from one time, and that was my fault. They just work.
The Lenovos are actually more expensive, or were when I last looked.
The MacBooks have less issues.
Make of that what you will.
Personally at home I’ve had Apple (a Mac mini and a MacBook Pro) over the past 10 years.
I’ve never had one crash, or need reinstalling apart from one time, and that was my fault. They just work.
We have both Lenovo and Apple laptops at work.
The Lenovos are actually more expensive, or were when I last looked.
The MacBooks have less issues.
Make of that what you will.
Personally at home I’ve had Apple (a Mac mini and a MacBook Pro) over the past 10 years.
I’ve never had one crash, or need reinstalling apart from one time, and that was my fault. They just work.
The Lenovos are actually more expensive, or were when I last looked.
The MacBooks have less issues.
Make of that what you will.
Personally at home I’ve had Apple (a Mac mini and a MacBook Pro) over the past 10 years.
I’ve never had one crash, or need reinstalling apart from one time, and that was my fault. They just work.
g4ry13 said:
Why are you calling me GaryB?
I don't think my use case is anything that exceptional. I'm just a guy who wakes up in the morning and turns on the laptop. I put it to sleep when I go to bed and repeat the next day. The main use of my laptop is internet browsing and YouTube. Sometimes there are other things a little more CPU intensive but majority of the time it's spent browsing which I don't think requires amazing specs.
Is it really exceptional for a computer to be on for 15 hours / day? Does a person really need to spend £2k in order to perform this requirement?
My laptop wakes up around 6 am and is in use every week day for e-mails, web browsing, photo editing, writing reports and minutes, shopping and YouTube until 8pm. It's had a new keyboard (dropped something on it and mangled some keys) and a new lid (hinge broke).I don't think my use case is anything that exceptional. I'm just a guy who wakes up in the morning and turns on the laptop. I put it to sleep when I go to bed and repeat the next day. The main use of my laptop is internet browsing and YouTube. Sometimes there are other things a little more CPU intensive but majority of the time it's spent browsing which I don't think requires amazing specs.
Is it really exceptional for a computer to be on for 15 hours / day? Does a person really need to spend £2k in order to perform this requirement?
Edited by g4ry13 on Friday 8th December 17:17
Apart from that it's been rock solid since I bought it in 2015. It's a Lenovo Z50-70 and cost around £600.
I have both Lenovo Yoga (the OHs AMD based machine) and a Thinkpad from work (intel). Neither have had any issues and the Yoga is over 2 years old now. I think you may have had a bit of a lemon. John Lewis are normally very good when it comes to returns so it may be worth contacting them if it comes back again in a less than satisfactory state (though it may have helped that my sister in law works there) .
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