KRSW, that was my point, not really anymore, The keyboards may now be the same, hinges might actually be better on consumer models, and regarding the other materials you state, maybe you are talking literally another $3-4 in actual cost to the build quality. The days that you are talking about are over, in any case. I have had both. and other than one brand that was always consistently trash (Toshiba) have found that almost every machine that I have had has outlived its usefulness before having a major breakdown. Lastly, unless someone is only basically surfing and maybe using Office, I do not know what real utility one would get out of any 8 year old Thinkpad! I had to pull something recently off of a 10 year old notebook that I had not used in at least 4 years. Everything worked...............but it was soooooooooo slow (and when it was bought, it was the best/fastest around)