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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
In Ukraine nowadays it means “anything that can survive up to one assault”. I hear they take donated cars that no-one sane would drive or even pronounce street-legal.
“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”
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.
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
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
I have a 16 year old T420 that’s survived numerous falls drops spills and still ticking to this day and I love it. It’s the best damn keyboard to type on. Only Thinkpads for me.
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
Military grade is bullshit marketing. Basically anything is military grade
Military grade is code for “cheapest bidder”
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.
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.
Fair enough, I was thinking more in the direction of electronics, mechanics, etc
I also have a 1960s wire field phone that they would use in Vietnam. I am still trying to figure out how to get it working with an Aux jack.
Is it possible to show the hat? I kinda wanna see that hat and how it looks after such a long period of use.
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.
That looks like a good hat! I’d be happy with that.
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
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.
In my defense it may as well all be in the Runic alphabet, can I technically read it sure but can I understand it properly fuck no.
It depends, sometimes milspec is very demanding. For example, crayons need to be non-toxic even if you eat the entire box.
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
automobileautomotive 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.In Ukraine nowadays it means “anything that can survive up to one assault”. I hear they take donated cars that no-one sane would drive or even pronounce street-legal.
I guess aircraft-grade aluminum isn’t good enough anymore.
“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”
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.
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
I was in the Marines and I had to buy some of my shit on my own, so yeah, agree 100%.
Sounds military grade to me.
Which Thinkpad do you have? The “Thinkpad” line has been expanded to basically all professional grade laptops now.
the x131e is definitely not professional grade
No, none of the X line are. I really like the L line of Thinkpads. Those are still pretty solid and reparable.
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
nah the old x series (e.g. x61, x201) were good, they’re basically just a t series with a smaller display and no disk drive
Yeah the older ones are. But the new ones compete more with the XPS imo and they suffer for it.
I have a 16 year old T420 that’s survived numerous falls drops spills and still ticking to this day and I love it. It’s the best damn keyboard to type on. Only Thinkpads for me.
IBM would’ve never
Sell their product to lenovo?
No? They did that.
Sorry, if you were making a joke it flew right over my head, lol
I think it was a joke.
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.”