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[–] 172 points 2 years ago (6 children)

I have a pretty recent thinkpad that supposedly has "military grade durability". The plastic is literally falling apart at the corners after 2 years, and my fan grille is gone.

Fucking lenovo

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  • [–] 183 points 2 years ago (6 children)

    Military grade is bullshit marketing. Basically anything is military grade

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  • [–] 145 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Military grade is code for "cheapest bidder"

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  • [–] 57 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Military grade means literally nothing. Actual military equipment is "mil spec", and not something the average consumer needs, or can afford, in most cases.

    Even when military spec equipment is made by the lowest bidder, this stuff still has to be blast proof, bullet proof, work from -60°C to +85°C, be water/dust resistant, and many other requirements depending on what is being made.

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  • [–] 14 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

    You can definitely get plenty of Mil spec shit, just not what you really expect. My hat is a Swedish army cap worn by some dude named Albert Kempf in Tunisia circa 1991.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Is it possible to show the hat? I kinda wanna see that hat and how it looks after such a long period of use.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Note it probably hasn't had constant use cause I only got it a couple months ago, before that it was at a surplus store in Idaho falls. Now it is in SoCal, before Idaho though it could've been in a crate for all I know.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    That looks like a good hat! I'd be happy with that.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    It's solid and has been my main hat since I got it, helps cover my ears a bit too so they don't get burned. The sun is a deadly laser

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    So I googled the name and first thing that came up was Albert Kempf Mützenfabrik, which means hat factory in German. I don't think herr Albert personally wore this.

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  • [–] 68 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    It depends, sometimes milspec is very demanding. For example, crayons need to be non-toxic even if you eat the entire box.

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  • [–] 9 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

    Specifically in electronics there are actually milspec versions of some microchips, different from the consumer grade ones (they have a wider range of operating temperatures plus I also believe higher resistence to electromagnetic radiation and mechanical vibration, similar to microchips "for automobile automotive use"), but I suspect that when it comes to actual consumer electronics devices the words "military grade" are not a protected tag (as in, electronic devices said to be "military grade" are not forced by regulation to have certain characteristics) so those words are generally marketing bullshit.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    "Military grade" means that it went through one extra round of inspection before it was sent out as far as I'm aware. This round of inspection is basically just putting it through certain weather conditions to simulate "will this survive a deployment"

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  • [–] 20 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    literally Military Grade is just marketing fluff with no standard. Mil-Spec is the real term for meeting military specifications. think ceramic and gold instead of plastic and tin for computer chips.

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  • [–] 10 points 2 years ago

    Okay I just double checked and you're totally right. When I was in the military someone had told me there was actually regulations around "military grade" and they were just different from milspec. Technically military grade is supposed to refer to milspec but in the private world they don't check if it's actually true or not

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  • [–] 9 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Which Thinkpad do you have? The "Thinkpad" line has been expanded to basically all professional grade laptops now.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    the x131e is definitely not professional grade

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    No, none of the X line are. I really like the L line of Thinkpads. Those are still pretty solid and reparable.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    The L series is the economical line.

    Not to say they aren’t solid and repairable, but the t and p series are the designed to be the most robust, while the L series is designed to be robust with lower end components

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago (1 child)
  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    As others have eluded to, military-grade means "meets our minimum spec at the lowest price."

    So it means they said "Our casing was made of this material last year, and this is the lowest bidder for the same quality this year."

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