It's not unusual for someone to use multiple manufactures for the same part. For example the LCD monitor you buy could include a panel from one of 3 different manufactures all with some noteable feature quality differences.

But what ASUS is doing seems pretty bad to me. Their Zenbook ultra portables may come with one of two different SSD drives, a really fast ADATA Sandforce drive or a slow (compared to current gen SSDs) Sandisk SSD. And the customer has no way of knowing without seeing the box. So if you buy it in a store, you can check for a sticker that tells which SSD is inside, but if you buy it online, you won't know until you get it.

http://thessdreview.com/our-reviews/asus-zenbook-ssd-review-not-necessarily-sandforce-driven-shows-significant-speed-bump/

The review said the Sandisk SSD had some of the lowest scores they'd seen from an SSD, while the ADATA is one of the latest SF-2281 drives that is tops in performance. That Sandisk SSD has performance numbers about the same as my 3 year old Vertex 1. I would cry if I got the Sandisk SSD in my Zenbook and then I'd return it.

That is weird indeed. Don't they care about consistent customer experience?
Why can't any other company steal a page from Apple's book (yeah Apple... I know, but gotta give them that) and make a good looking product that works smoothly, is easy to use and has consistently good performance?

I don't get it.

Everyone sees who successful Apple are. Everyone knows why... and no one tries to imitate them. Beats me.

 

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Actually, Apple has done the same thing with their LCDs and, relevant to this - to the SSD included in the Macbook Air. One version is super speedy, one version is pitifully slow... and its all a luck of the draw.

 

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Wow, Apple customers pay through the nose as it is, and now they are not even guaranteed the good hardware?
There better be some way to check which one you're getting at the store... even that way though, this is retarded.

 

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I have several Apple products and have not seen the disparity mentioned above. As much as folks like to hate Apple, you would think this would be a story within the media. I suspect it isn't a very widespread issue and, like every other company, isolated to a few bad components.

 

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According to this article Apple uses Samsung and Toshiba SSDs. The Samsung 470 model roughly about 20% faster than the Toshiba model.

The article goes on to say that Samsung has stopped making the 470 model and has replaced it with an 830 model that is twice as fast as the 470 model. So this Samsung 830 model would obviously blow away the Toshiba model and make anyone that got the Toshiba SSD cry (I would). But as of the time of that story, they confirmed new Macbook Airs were still shipping with the 470 model.

By the time Macbook Airs start shipping with the faster Samsung drive, Apple could also start using a faster Toshiba or something else too.

But at the moment the SSD drive difference in the Macbook Airs is far less significant (about 20% difference) than the Zenbook (about 300% difference).

http://9to5mac.com/2012/01/11/the-macbook-air-samsung-ssd-is-about-to-get-twice-as-fast/