The Thinkpad is hardly a poor laptop, it's the only laptop certified by NASA for use in space.
http://blog.lenovo.com/products/thinkpad-laptop-nasa-youtube...
http://blog.lenovo.com/products/thinkpad-laptop-nasa-youtube...
And you can't really make any broad statements about the Thinkpad family either since lenovo introduced Thinkpad Edge and Thinkpad L. Which is just your typical cheap laptop with a quality label on it...
The "real" thinkpads however are great and I'm a huge fan of the Thinkpad X-series. But that doesn't make all of Lenovos laptops or even Thinkpads great.
still puts me off the brand though, the should use a different brand for their cheap stuff, not a different series. customers (like me) will lose their brand loyalty.. .