Today I saw someone once again trash System76 for rebranding Clevo machines and writing that off as some kind of deceptive business model. Ultimately, they’re not “just rebranded Clevo…”, but even if they were, the ignorant douchebag posting this misguided rant fails to acknowledge that EVERY SINGLE LAPTOP OEM does the same. Yes, HP, Dell, Lenovo - fucking all of them!
This would be more appropriate over on https://lemmy.world/c/system76
We do manufacture our Thelio desktops at our factory in Denver. We also offer tour guides for anyone that wants to schedule to see how everything is manufactured and assembled.
Our laptops are not entirely Clevo though. Some of them are manufactured by Emdoor. These companies do not sell systems directly to retail consumers, so they are not technically rebranded. They do work with us to give us the necessary schematics and documentation so that we can port our Coreboot firmware to them.
Either way, their quality is no better or worse than any other ODM out there. In fact, I’ve had Dell, ASUS, and Lenovo laptops with lesser quality than a Clevo. It will largely depend on the model that you buy as to what materials are used. I distinctively remember some YouTube reviewers mistakenly assuming some models were using plastic, when they were actually using magnesium alloy.
All good points, and thanks for the company info and clarifications. Apologies, I didn’t know about system76 community on lemmy.world instance.