Author Topic: Got a Laptop  (Read 4473 times)

vladgd

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 635
    • View Profile
Got a Laptop
« on: July 06, 2021, 08:39:33 PM »
Kinda wanted to post this in the happy thread, but also in the rage thread...so I'll make a topic because I'm kinda new to laptops and whatnot.

I purchased one of these.

For the most part from what I've used setting it up and getting things on it, it's perfectly functional...but out of the box it looks like a hairline fracture horizontally across the center of the monitor. Not an issue using the hdmi and a second display, however, I got a laptop to be mobile, a 50 inch 4k display is NOT mobile, and spending over $1500usd on a new product for it to have it be defect...not pleased. I have god awful luck with displays I swear. My last tv I bought back in november had 25% of the screen as dead pixels, and that isn't the only new monitor I have purchased with that problem.

Apparently it's still under warranty with Lenovo...I mean I JUST got it new...so I registered the product through their thing and sent in a ticket, 1-3 business days and I'll have an email...hopefully. I mean it works, the 144hz display really shows in comparison to the big tv I am currently running it on, so it does look good, and the fracture is so small you can hardly notice it...but it's still defect, and I want it fixed.

Not opening a thread only to complain, when I get it out of my house to my gf's place, I may need some gear to get setup comfortable over there. Laptop stand, new keyboard/mouse whatever laptop stuff. Not impulse buying anything till I know what I'll need over there. I had just payed for a month of WoW to dick around with TBC Classic, but whenever this customer service email shows up I'll probably end up not seeing this machine till that month is expired...great.

Spectere

  • \m/ (-_-) \m/
  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5716
  • printf("%s\n", "Hi!");
    • View Profile
    • spectere.net
Re: Got a Laptop
« Reply #1 on: July 07, 2021, 07:05:57 AM »
Congrats! Looks like a pretty solid little gaming box. It looks like they actually bothered to put a decent cooler on it, which is nice to see in light of all the "gaming ultrabooks" (ugh) that have been coming out in the past few years.

And yeah, definitely keep pushing to get that sucker fixed. It's hard to say how big of an impact that'll have without seeing it in person, but at best it's an annoying cosmetic defect and at worst (like if the fracture is on the panel itself) it's a ticking timebomb.
"This is a machine for making cows."

Bobbias

  • #1 Poster
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 7210
  • 404 Avatar not found.
    • View Profile
    • Magnetic Architect
Re: Got a Laptop
« Reply #2 on: July 09, 2021, 07:16:14 PM »
I am both envious, and relieved I'm not the one dealing with that issue. On the one hand, you got more gaming PC than I have in my full tower for like half the price (well ok, not exactly, I'm not counting exchange rates in that). But yeah, that crack would have driven me mad.
This is going in my sig. :)

BANNED FOR BAD PUNS X_x

vladgd

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 635
    • View Profile
Re: Got a Laptop
« Reply #3 on: July 11, 2021, 11:06:34 PM »
Like the crack/tear/whatever it is IS very minor, can BARELY see it in games, but I want it gone.

Lenovo did contact me on Friday...not via email, but phone call...while I was at work. I asked them to email/text me or whatever, they said they'd email me immediately after the call...I have not received ANY emails thus far.

So tomorrow morning I will contact them and try and get this thing sent out to replace this screen. It's a nice machine but yknow, very annoyed that it came to me with this blemish. I haven't really been on it that much because if I'm sending it out within the week I don't want to be in the middle of anything...

This is more of a "to be continued" and a way to play around with the laptops keyboard, which for a laptop keyboard, is very acceptable. So yeah, tomorrow customer support and hopefully I can send this sucker out, but given my current experience with them, it'll probably be more complicated than what I expect it'll be. PLEASE CONTACT ME WHEN I AM AT HOME WITH THE MACHINE, AT WORK WHEN IT'S BUSY IS A BAD TIME!

Spectere

  • \m/ (-_-) \m/
  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5716
  • printf("%s\n", "Hi!");
    • View Profile
    • spectere.net
Re: Got a Laptop
« Reply #4 on: July 12, 2021, 09:25:39 AM »
Sheesh, that's giving me flashbacks of when I did computer repair. One of the services that people would legit pay us for is dealing with their PC's hardware support. :/

Have you tried just getting a replacement through Amazon? Their process is fairly streamlined in my experience, and it would probably be a lot faster and easier.
"This is a machine for making cows."

vladgd

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 635
    • View Profile
Re: Got a Laptop
« Reply #5 on: July 12, 2021, 10:26:54 PM »
I considered amazon, but after getting my stuff setup I'd rather just fix what I got. They directed me towards the manufacturer anyway. Plus this thing apparently has a warranty so why not.

Took a little over an hour...

-Open chat to customer support to ultimately have them direct me to the lenovo page where I entered that chat...not so helpful.

-Actually call them and explain my problem, since it's not dead pixels, it's a little more nuanced to explain which ends up taking more time. Give them serial number blablabla, they direct me to the "premium you got warranty help" people.

-Get to my third person, explained the issue again, they want to remote control the machine to see the issue...which I explained made no sense because it's the monitor and the issue does not show up on external displays. They do it anyway, don't see anything as I know, want me to snap a picture of my issue..which I do and they see "well I can't see the line". Go through some display troubleshooter test thing, which I fail, which is good so they got proof it's messed up. This leads to them trying to send a lenovo repair person to my residence...for whatever reason, for whatever reason that can't go through so FUCKING FINALLY THEY EMAIL ME A SHIPPING TAG TO SEND IT OVER TO GET REPAIRED WHICH IS WHAT I WAS TRYING TO DO THE WHOLE TIME.

So basically I just wanted to know how to ship this thing over there to get it fixed, but just asking for that would be too easy, so that's what I had to do to get this far. I kept my boxes, but was out doing normie fun stuff all day, so I'll box er up and send it off tomorrow. 10-15 days estimated repair time, but whatever.

SHOULDA just sent it back the day I got it via amazon, but im dumb, so that's what you should expect if you go through a company direct to get a fairly trivial repair started.

Now to see if getting it sent off has any unforeseen challenges. I've done it multiple times from amazon without a hitch, but this isn't amazon I'm dealing with so we'll see. Wanted to play tbc classic, but I might just reup my ps+ on the ps4 and play more gg strive till this thing comes back.

Spectere

  • \m/ (-_-) \m/
  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5716
  • printf("%s\n", "Hi!");
    • View Profile
    • spectere.net
Re: Got a Laptop
« Reply #6 on: July 13, 2021, 08:26:53 PM »
Yeah, unfortunately a lot of those tech support drones have to do things by the book, otherwise they could get into trouble. It's frustrating as hell, but it's faster to just not ask questions and do what they request (within reason, of course).

I hope the rest of the process goes smoothly for you.
"This is a machine for making cows."

Bobbias

  • #1 Poster
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 7210
  • 404 Avatar not found.
    • View Profile
    • Magnetic Architect
Re: Got a Laptop
« Reply #7 on: July 13, 2021, 11:16:03 PM »
I once had a similarly dumb tech support experience. 45 minutes of doing the exact same troubleshooting steps we already did later and level 1 finally sent me to a level 2 tech. Within minutes they confirmed the problem and we're trying to solve it... Sucks to go through the 45 minutes of bullshit every time, but there's no way to avoid bullshit when you've gotta call in anywhere.
This is going in my sig. :)

BANNED FOR BAD PUNS X_x

vladgd

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 635
    • View Profile
Re: Got a Laptop
« Reply #8 on: July 24, 2021, 09:32:08 PM »
So...I got it back yesterday.

Screen looks fine, still going at the 144hz as advertised. No real complaints...save for them essentially deleting all my shit. They did warn about it, but still, annoying. Almost wonder if they just gave me a new unit? Because I swear the keyboard feels...less good than what I remember. I could be buggin though.

But Iunno it works so...cool? I guess. Now I have a computer I can use while I spend most of my time at the lady friends place, and It can run pretty much anything I want it to, including "cough" guilty gear strive that I totally double dipped on "cough" pretty much perfectly. Played a few hours yesterday and was warm, but far from hot, so I am pleased with it.

Fairly quick turnover from Lenovo, so while the phone stuff wasn't fun, they got the job done in a reasonable amount of time.

Bobbias

  • #1 Poster
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 7210
  • 404 Avatar not found.
    • View Profile
    • Magnetic Architect
Re: Got a Laptop
« Reply #9 on: July 25, 2021, 04:21:42 AM »
Well at least you got a laptop again. Honestly, it wouldn't surprise me one bit of it's a completely different one. Hell, Nintendo doesn't fix your joycons, they just replace them. And they won't even make sure you get the same color, and special edition ones are out of the question. It's far easier to just send new ones out rather than have people actually repair shit.
This is going in my sig. :)

BANNED FOR BAD PUNS X_x

Spectere

  • \m/ (-_-) \m/
  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5716
  • printf("%s\n", "Hi!");
    • View Profile
    • spectere.net
Re: Got a Laptop
« Reply #10 on: July 25, 2021, 01:44:53 PM »
Nah, the stuff gets repaired. They just send a new product (to reduce turnaround times), repair the old one, and sell it as a refurb.
"This is a machine for making cows."

NewF

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 801
  • My mom sais i'm cool.
    • View Profile
Re: Got a Laptop
« Reply #11 on: July 25, 2021, 07:02:55 PM »
Not trying to sound like a biased douchebag or anything...But...Never really seen anything too good from Lenovo personally. Then again, I've stayed away from them a long long time ago. You ever consider MSI, Acer or Asus? I've seen and experienced personally, amazing laptops made by them, that I've never seen with Lenovo before in my life.

At the same time, has Lenovo stepped up their game over the past 10-15 years? (I'm used to very low end "bleh" stuff from Lenovo, from hat I've experienced from the past.)
Educate me if I'm wrong please!

vladgd

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 635
    • View Profile
Re: Got a Laptop
« Reply #12 on: July 26, 2021, 02:20:35 AM »
Honestly not too educated on laptops, but doing my research, Lenovo Legion checked a lot of boxes that I wanted.

I pretty much wanted a casual fuck around machine that had some "umph" to play a few games, then spend $600 more than what I actually needed and I ended up with this specific Legion 5 machine.

Can't really say whether it's good or not compared to other laptops since...this is probably the only laptop I've used for any extended period of time, and I have spent probably under 10 hours total on this thing to this point.  It's really odd being totally fine with a videogame console for youtube and my phone for internet browsing kind of removes the "need" to be on a computer most of the time, but it does. Still doe, I got a backlog of games(mostly on consoles, shhhh), and I wanna play some pc stuff, and I don't wanna drag my desktop to the gf's place...and I am in a small bubble with some temporary expendable income...

An expensive amusement? Probably mostly what it is to me right now.

As for brand and whatnot I did look at a few, namly the asus helios, but heard you could fry eggs on that thing and NOPED even though the specs/price was good. I don't tend to follow brand loyalty, mostly look at what fits my budget for what specs I want..unless it's mice, then it's logitech...

Really can't justify getting a laptop over a desktop unless you travel a lot or (like me) just wanted one since childhood and only now has the A money, and B a (albeit not strong) reason to justify getting one.

Plus trying to get into coding...one of those things I want to learn like the other 50 things I want to learn that I'll get to when I...uhh....some...time....eventually...maybe?

Spectere

  • \m/ (-_-) \m/
  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5716
  • printf("%s\n", "Hi!");
    • View Profile
    • spectere.net
Re: Got a Laptop
« Reply #13 on: July 26, 2021, 10:21:08 AM »
Not trying to sound like a biased douchebag or anything...But...Never really seen anything too good from Lenovo personally. Then again, I've stayed away from them a long long time ago. You ever consider MSI, Acer or Asus? I've seen and experienced personally, amazing laptops made by them, that I've never seen with Lenovo before in my life.

Laptops are pretty tricky. A lot of the major players in the market (Lenovo included) don't even design their own laptop models, they subcontract an ODM (original design manufacturer) to design and build them, and slap their logo on them (sometimes with customizations here and there, depending on how large the company is). That's one of the many reasons that the quality, feature set, and build can vary so much even between different models within the same series.

Just as an example, you might feel that Dell and HP have nothing in common, but both the Dell XPS and HP Spectre were designed and manufactured by Compal, an ODM based in Taiwan. Similarly, several of the products MSI and System76 sell are little more than rebadged Clevo laptops. It's possible for one company to use multiple ODMs as well, so you can't say that all Dell laptops were designed by Compal. It might be a Quanta, Inventec, Wistron, Pegatron, or Foxconn design, depending on its age and model.

So, yeah, it's pretty likely that the Legion wasn't designed or manufactured by the same company that designed the lower-end Lenovos. The only fair metrics you can really use to judge laptops is by how good that specific model is and how good the company's support is (should you need to use it). Beyond that, it's anyone's guess.

It's complicated, it's annoying, and it explains so much of the inconsistent hardware-related crap I saw when I was still doing IT field work.

Really can't justify getting a laptop over a desktop unless you travel a lot or (like me) just wanted one since childhood and only now has the A money, and B a (albeit not strong) reason to justify getting one.

I'd say the pendulum is kinda shifting with the rise of Thunderbolt. If I didn't do much PC gaming, I'd use a laptop along with a TB dock for everything. Plug it in and it's effectively a desktop: charging, displaying to my monitors, using my keyboard/mouse, on a wired network, and connected to my hi-fi. Unplug it and I'm fully portable again. It definitely helps that there aren't as many compromises with laptops as there were 10 years ago.

Laptop gaming is still kind of a niche thing, of course. I'm not sure how many of them support docking, but it wouldn't surprise me if they also started pushing into that direction soon. Kinda seems like it would be a marketing boon to me.
"This is a machine for making cows."

vladgd

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 635
    • View Profile
Re: Got a Laptop
« Reply #14 on: July 29, 2021, 09:26:32 PM »
Having a dock would be pretty damn convenient, but for what I do, this machine is more than enough. Half the pc games I play are 10+ years old anyway.

Not exactly "cyberpunk 2077" graphical fidelity here, but the only game I've sunk meaningful time into recently is Guilty Gear Strive, and this machine runs it like a champ. Having a now "portable" machine that can run modern fighting games...and I have two sticks and a usb hub...just need a player 2, lol. Girlfriend is semi interested in this guilty gear release, but when it comes to play a match...You got a guy with thousands of hours fighting games played vs...someone who just picked up a stick, not a great matchup. Even an easy to pick up and play fighting game such as this one (easier to get into than street fighter 5) still has a learning curve higher than most other genres.

Got a decent variety of stuff installed on this machine so far, so when I can peel myself off Guilty Gear I aughta give some of these a spin.