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Thread: Laptop Manufacturer's - Which ones best?

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    Over 75 Custom PC's in 20 years TheGreatSatan's Avatar
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    Default Re: Laptop Manufacturer's - Which ones best?

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    Anodized. Again. Konrad's Avatar
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    Default Re: Laptop Manufacturer's - Which ones best?

    Quote Originally Posted by deadevil13
    • Acer
    • Advent
    • Asus
    • Dell
    • Emachine/system
    • Fujitsu Siemens
    • Gateway
    • HP (Compaq)
    • IBM
    • Medion
    • Packard Bell
    • Sony Vaio
    • Toshiba
    Those are the laptop OEMs, vendors and brands.
    The overwhelming majority of laptops are not built by the OEMs, but by only a dozen or so ODMs.

    A lot of confusion is caused because most ODMs typically do not sell laptops under their own brand, and when they do they typically do so under a subsidiary brand. At the same time, almost every OEM advertises that they design and manufacture their own laptops; many attempt to rebrand the ODM parts with their own OEM designations to some extent. Everyone knows when Intel or AMD or nVidia brands are involved, but the OEMs will attempt to obscure (and claim credit for) the real origins of almost every other component used within.

    A lot of wheeling and dealing goes on in the multi-billion dollar laptop industry (which is itself a subset of the computing industry in general). OEMs and ODMs constantly merge, split, partner, takeover, form, dissolve, and trade corporate subcomponents of each other ... they constantly spinoff new little specialized companies (often jointly with other ODMs, OEMs, and spinoffs) ... they own (and buy and sell and trade) shares and subsidiaries of each other, it's hard to track who owns what and who works for who. An entire corporate ecosystem exists where the big players attempt to capitalize on interrelated specialties in constantly changing technologies. Each of the major ODMs specializes in and dominates the market for least one particular laptop component; all of the major ODMs use some components built by competing ODMs to build their complete laptops.

    Larger OEMs will often deal with a number of different ODMs simultaneously. Sometimes they have different ODMs produce an identical laptop model to streamline (ie, maximize profits from) their international logistics. Contrary to popular perception (and product labels), easily 98% of all laptop parts are made in Taiwan. (It's not surprising that the laptop market is complicated by the usual genius pwnage of Taiwan vertical disintegration; unregulated technological innovation and capitalism at it's finest!)

    Most consumers (in North America at least) tend to think that laptops are built like cars. (This is just an illustrative example, no flames!) Ford might build - or buy from an owned subsidiary - virtually every component that goes into every vehicle that rolls off their assembly line, down to the tires and mirrors and lubricant and bolts. On the other hand, a typical Alienware laptop might use a chassis built by Compal, Foxconn fasteners and connectors, plastics by Dell, a Sony LCD, Acer BT and WiFi radio parts, Wistron battery/PSU, Quanta touchpad, Chicony keyboard and camera (plus the usual recognized brands like ASUS mobo with VIA chipset and AMD processor, Seagate HDD, etc), etc.

    A very brief (and incomplete) outline for Top-tier laptop ODMs in 2009
    • Quanta - Acer, Apple, Dell/Alienware, Fujitsu, Gateway, HP/Compaq, IBM/Lenovo, NEC, Sharp, Sony, Toshiba ... Cisco, Gericom, Maxdata, MPC, Sun, many others
    • Compal (Wistron spinoff) - Acer, Dell, Fujitsu, HP/Compaq, Toshiba, many others
    • Wistron (formerly owned by Gateway and Acer) - Acer, Dell, HP, many others
    • Inventec - Dell, Fujitsu, HP/Compaq, Toshiba, others
    • Pegatron (now owned by ASUS) - Apple, ASUS, Dell, HP/Compaq, Sony, others
    • ECS/Elitegroup - Acer, IBM/Lenovo, Hasee, others
    • Foxconn (part of Hon Hai Precision) - ASUS, Apple, Sony, many others
    • CLEVO - Hasee
    • Chicony, ATC, Mitac
    Don't see a company you expect to see (like Dell, IBM, Acer, or ASUS) on the list above? Well, that's because they don't really belong there. Yes, indeed, they do have manufacturing plants (in Taiwan, North America, and elsewhere) which churn out laptops. But all they're really doing is manufacturing/modifying the laptop plastics with a few "corporate" touches, assembling all their ODM-made-in-Taiwan parts together (with a few extra P/N and S/N labels), and stuffing it all into a box with their logo on it. They are not actually manufacturing anything, they're just OEMs who are large enough that they can select bulk ODM parts to use.

    Laptops are all semi-proprietary; that is, they do not comply to the same rigourous form factors and standard specifications present in desktop and server machines. The companies listed towards the bottom of the above list may not actually produce many complete laptops (just a few million per year), but they are still dominant players and major innovators in the laptop world and their products typically set what become de-facto standards that the other ODMs adopt. For example, a detailed look at all the models offered by CLEVO will reveal the basic design platform and model variations used in over 90% of all branded laptops sold in the world. So the aforementioned Alienware laptop could just be a typical CLEVO 17" model with a particular mobo/processor configuration and HDD parts that anyone could buy and install. True, some OEMs might offer a few ODM parts that are model-specific (chassis-integrated card readers, cameras, etc), but anyone can buy those parts online anyhow (and anyone from TBCS can mod alternative parts in). The only thing an OEM like Dell can offer that an ODM like CLEVO cannot is an astonishing variety of pretty cosmetic plastics - simply because that's the only product their "laptop" factory already builds.
    [EDIT] Not entirely accurate - big OEMs also often offer best prices. The consumer cannot usually obtain all the components for an entire laptop directly from the ODMs at a better price, just as with desktop PCs.

    Learn much here, here, here, here, or even here.

    Because of aggressive OEM brand recognition and infinite variations in personal preference, determining the "best" laptop is very subjective.

    CLEVO laptops (available under their Sager brand) and Quanta laptops (available as many different brands) are generally considered the best available. Even so, different OEMs (and retailers and vendors, ranging right down to small computer shops) all offer any number of CLEVO- and Quanta-based machines which can vary considerably in build quality and general engineering. XoticPC is probably equivalent today to what Alienware was yesterday.

    Another sad realization for most North American and European consumers is that the cutting edge products of this type (laptops, cellphones, PDAs, etc) are always available first in Taiwan, China, Korea, and Japan. Many products never make it to North American markets for any number of reasons (sometimes regulatory or legal/trademark/patent problems, sometimes products just don't survive in competitive markets).
    My mind says Technic, but my body says Duplo.

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