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Interesting laptop manufacturing info

Ran across this link while browsing Slashdot.

http://www.powernotebooks.com/Name_Brand.php3

It goes over what manufacturers build laptops for certain companies.

Quote:

"Let's talk about the concept of 'Name Brand' as it applies to laptop computers."
Virtually none of the "Name" brands manufacture their own laptops, with the only exceptions being IBM, Asus, Twinhead and Apple, and even IBM, Twinhead and Apple do not make all of their own.

All of the rest buy their laptops from what is called an Original Design Manufacturer (ODM). These ODMs sell their computers to several different OEMs who then install the Hard Drive (usually an IBM or Toshiba), Processor and System Memory. They then put their label on it and market it.

For example:

An ODM named Clevo makes the Sager NP5670 and the Alienware Area 51-M, the Voodoo MClass M550, the Hypersonic Sonic Aviator, and they are all the same computer. Clevo also makes the Sager NP8882 and NP8887 and the Voodoo MClass M600 and they are also the same computer.

Of course the Sager models have a much sweeter price tag!

An ODM named Compal makes some of the DELL, Hewlett Packard and Compaq line of laptops, as well as the PowerPro IV:28 and PowerPro M 5:16.

The Dell Latitude and the Sony Vaio are made by Quanta, who also makes many of the IBM laptops, and the PowerPro C 3:16. Quanta is well known as the best and highest quality laptop ODM in the world.

The Micron Transport Treck and Treck 2 are made by GVC. Compaq is actually manufactured by companies called Inventec (Armada and Prosignia lines) and Arima (Presario line).

Other ODM names are Mitac, FIC, and Uniwill, among others. Not exactly what you would call "Name" brands, and yet it is their laptops that end up with the "Name" brands on them.

Sager and Pro-Star Computers are made by Clevo. Clevo is one of the largest, and best, in the world.

Well, you get the idea.

Some call this the "Dirty little secret of the Laptop Industry".

Quanta makes a bunch of the apple laptops as well, which is fitting considering Apple laptops have the highest build quality of the many laptops I have used / tried out. Dell is a close second in many cases as well.

so, can a consumer buy directly from these odm's?

I don't believe so. Perhaps some of them have their own little thing on the side, but I would imagine that most aren't allowed to sell directly to the consumer as per an agreement with their big customers.

Hrmmm - so that means that while this is an informative post, it won't really let me buy laptops any cheaper huh?

Thanks for the effort. I was hoping I could go buy a "Dell" laptop and save $500 bucks or so.

Quote:

Originally posted by Mondak
Hrmmm - so that means that while this is an informative post, it won't really let me buy laptops any cheaper huh?

Thanks for the effort. I was hoping I could go buy a "Dell" laptop and save $500 bucks or so.

They're not new, but Dell has a refurb section where they sell reconditioned machines for a decent amount off.

http://www.dell.com/us/en/dfh/default.htm

Where this info comes in handy is in cases where the ODM designs and manufactures a laptop and offers it to several "named" brands. For example, Sager carries a notebook that is pretty much the same as a Alienware Area-51m without the snazzy colors, for quite a bit less.

yep thats why i bought a Sager instead of an Alienware, saved around $1000 and got a better machine out of it.

From what i understand Cleveo sells Sager the bits, and they put them together, same as Alienware. When i visited sager they had an assembly line and thats what they said they did as well.
Hence the different specs.

Also Sager does sell the snazzy colours that alienware does, you just have to ask, My 88 has the chameleon changing colour ( and last time i checked alienware didn't actually sell that anymore , which is why i decided to go with sager in the first place, then i found out that they did have the colours, i got the very first one )

Laptops aren't marked up much to begin with....only around 5% i think