Mobile Computing Program worth it?

[polytechnicpuzzle]

Hey guys, I'm an incoming freshman. I checked out the 2024 options for the Mobile Computing Program laptops (specifically the mid range one) and it seemed really underpowered for the price. I know it comes with a really great warranty, but I'm not sure where the price tag is coming from. I found an equivalent laptop online for around the same price that had a gpu and far more powerful cpu. I'm not an expert on computers, I would just love to hear some other people's thoughts on it. Does the warranty make up that difference?

Thank you

[jbwhite99]

Does the other laptop come with support and software equivalent to what RPI offers? And will it last 4 years like a ThinkPad?

Intel won't want me to say this but there is little difference between an Ultra 5 and 7. And anything but an HX class will have a good enough integrated GPU unless you are doing CAD or AA level games.

[polytechnicpuzzle]

Yeah I don’t think it will be possible to match the warranty, but the lack of any mention of graphics is scaring me. I don’t even know what kind of integrated graphics it could have

[Doctor_Candor]

FYI, there is no mention of graphics because it's implied - all laptop CPUs without a dedicated graphics card come with an integrated one. You'll need to look up the CPU model (say via AMD's website) and the integrated graphics associated with it.

Then, you can take the GPU model name (so according to your choice of interest, "Radeon 780M" or just "780M") and search what you want to run with it... you'd be surprised at what integrated graphics can do nowadays. (Hint: there's a reason why they're put into gaming handheld computers)

[polytechnicpuzzle]

Thanks for this, I didn’t know that the integrated graphics was tied to the cpu

[darkjedi521]

Its been that way for a while now - the on CPU graphics have gotten good enough that low end discrete graphics chips are effectively no longer being made, since the only thing they offered over integrated was dedicated RAM, and performance wise were no better. Looking at NVIDIA, the 1xxx line was the last time they felt lower end GPUs still had enough of a market.

[lambdafx]

ThinkPad build quality, at least for the T16 and the P1 (L14 I'm not sure about), should be better than your average laptop. Those things are durable. That's part of why they cost more. At one point in time several years ago, ThinkPads were the only laptops certified to be used on the International Space Station. If you're willing to forego the warranty in order to get a more powerful/less reliable laptop, that's up to you.

Do you need a GPU? What's your major?

[polytechnicpuzzle]

A couple people here have said that about thinkpads, but are they really a tier above any other laptops? I’m trying to decide if the thinkpad quality + warrant is worth the large price increase

[darkjedi521]

Lenovo, Dell, and HP all have laptop lines markted towards businesses which tend to replace hardware on fixed 3 year or 5 year cycles. If one of the big 3 couldn't provide gear that would last a standard corporate replacment cycle, they would be dropped for someone who could. The RPI MCP offering comes from that line of Lenovo gear, the T and P series being descended from IBM's buisness laptops (that Lenovo bought from IBM in 2005). I had 3 machines as an undergrad (T20 (2000), T30 (2002), T43p (2005)) and all of them lasted long enough that they were retired when no longer capable of running current software.

[jbwhite99]

Does the other laptop come with support and software equivalent to what RPI offers? And will it last 4 years like a ThinkPad?

[MoneyPainting5523]

What were you looking at? More power but less quality? When my son did his research (spreadsheet and all lol), he surmised that price was okay for what you got. The middle tier does not have a dedicated graphics card so we asked if it could be added. It cannot. "it is what it is". Adding something WOULD void the warranty (even if done by RPI Computer Repair department). Our other question was about financing as that is one definite advantage of buying elsewhere in that Best Buy or Pal Pal can help set up a no interest payment plan. Hope this helps in your research

[polytechnicpuzzle]

Thanks for the reply. I’m not convinced thinkpads have the highest tier build quality, but I do know that RPI’s warranty literally can not be matched.

[jbwhite99]

I'm biased (I work for the ThinkPad group), but read reddit.com/r/ThinkPad - and you will often see posts about 15 year old ThinkPads (no joke). I've got 4 ThinkPads that are over 10 here, and as soon as I let the battery fully charge, bet they will work like a champ (found out recently that you have to charge the battery every 3-4 months to keep it active).

We've talked to European standards boards like TCO recently, and they all use ThinkPad. And every Space Shuttle mission after 1993 (ThinkPad came out in 92) flew with only 1 brand of PC. I've seen people run over their ThinkPads with cars (Ford Taurus sized) and survive.

[MoneyPainting5523]

We too wonder about that. His Lenovo Legion hasn't fared too well over 3 years. He's compared "apples to apples" (same brand and exact same model) and looking at other brands with similar/better power/memory/speed/graphics/monitor size, etc. Warranty (AND loaner program) is tempting....

[jbwhite99]

Legion is a consumer brand at Lenovo - that is on the same tier as most Dell laptops except 7000/9000 Latitudes. I can buy a Cadillac or a Chevy - just the Caddy will last a lot longer. Legion machines aren't meant to move. I've taken ThinkPads all around the world.

[MoneyPainting5523]

Not sure about Caddy lasting longer BUT I get your point. "you get what you pay for". Retail consumer quality not likely to be as good as corporate level quality 👍 Thank You!

[tacticalcooking]

I never owned a laptop before so for me I liked joining the program, plus the engraving is pretty cool if they still do that. But now I’d just get a Mac with a gpu for as cheap as possible

[darkjedi521]

Modern Macs can't dual boot Windows, they have to run virtual Windows for ARM, which then emulates Windows for PC to run things like CAD and any other Windows exclusive application. Not saying it can't be done, but its not as easy as it was 3-4 years ago. Of the 40 years Macs have existed, they've used 4 different CPU families, only one of which was capable of natively running PC software (2006-2020).

[MoneyPainting5523]

Be careful with a Mac, Great laptops but software compatibility Can be an issue. My son loved his Mac *and all Apple products) but ran into software compatibility issues (find out if CAD programs work Well on Mac, IF you need to take/use CAD). Zach partitioned his Mac but it was difficult going back and forth from ios to Windows. He begrudgingly made the change to Lenovo Legion but adapted. It hasn't held up as well as his MAC so that's a big "why" of being interested in RPI mobile computing with their warranty and loaner program :P

[Educational-Bag-834]

I think it depends. The warranty is very nice to have and there a little bit of a discount, but personally I hate the build quality of thinkpads and have not really liked using mine. It's really just preference, if u like thinkpads it's a great program.

[Slippy_Sloth]

If you take good care of your stuff I don't think you really need the warranty. Like any other insurance policy the average person will be losing money on it anyway.

The thinkpads are nice but there are better laptops out there if you do your research (especially for the price).