Attached link outlines the basics on cabinet construction. If you think plywood equals durable quality construction you have been mislead. If quality of the final cabinets is a primary concern then you need to invest an equal amount of concern in how the cabinet is constructed (types of joints and fasteners) and how good quality control is through the manufacturing process. Plywood is terrific but it won't make any difference to the durability of your cabinet if it is constructed poorly. Most manufacturers offer plywood upgrades. Like a lot of MasterBrand face frame product Diamond uses 3\8 plywood (if you upgrade) and appears to offer only 3\8 furniture board backs even with plywood sides. Like most manufactures the guarantee is the same whether you upgrade to plywood or not. Here is a link that might be useful: Cabinetry 101

Update: I ended up choosing the Prelude line, upgraded to all plywood boxes, and with hardware upgrades (soft close, etc.). While the shaker style wasn't as great as the Reflections (the drawers are slab rather than 5 piece), since it's for a summer cottage I decided I could live with that. We have a small kitchen and with all the Lowes instant discounts, and sale, the cabinets came to approx. $5000(with tax and freight). This also includes the "premium finish" of white painted. The Diamond reflections line, with all plywood box, came to about $7500. So, it was an easy decision. The sale at Lowes included instant discounts of $400, $800, $1200, etc. depending on how much the total was, a Diamond promotion that included a free sink base and premium finish for buying 10 or more cabinets, and also a mail-in rebate of 10% for a visa gift card (good for anywhere, not just Lowes). So I will be getting a $470 gift card as well, bringing my total down to about $4500! While this was still quite a bit more than the Ikea cabinets we were considering, we decided it was worth it since the only Ikea is about 4 hours away (we wanted to avoid multiple trips) and our contractor had never installed Ikea. Seemed like headaches were in the offing and it just wouldn't be worth it. The only bummer with the Prelude line was that the base lazy susan cabinet was not great - low sides on the lazy susan and no options for upgrade, and built in a "barrel" style. Really didn't like it, but again, seemed like a worthwhile trade-off, since it's not our full-time kitchen, but a shared summer cottage. The KD at Lowes was really great. He priced it out several ways, and even worked the system a bit for the Reflections line (even though I ended up not going with it.) He added "furniture ends" to my end cabinets which brought the price up, but also bumped us up to the next level of instant discount (another $400 off), actually saving money over not having the premium ends! I'll update again when they get installed!

Hi, I have Schuler all plywood cabinets from Lowe's in my kitchen. They are very well made and the stains and painted finishes are very high quality, more like a custom cabinet. Definitely a step above Diamond and Kraftmaid. They will customize any cabinet for you, which I took advantage of for a few of my cabinets. I had a couple of minor issues with my cabinets after they arrived and the Schuler rep responded quickly and sent out whatever replacements I needed. Even my contractor was impressed by the quality and how they were packaged for shipment. Schuler is also the same as the Medallion brand. I am very happy with my cabinets. But, that being said, Kraftmaid and Diamond are still very good semi-custom cabinets, so I guess it could come down to price. If they are pricing out the same, I would go with Schuler.

Diamond is a much more flexible product line and therefor should be more expensive. Aristokraft has built its name as the affordable american cabinet but like everything having a accepted brand name just means you can charge more for them. I have several american made brands in my store that lower in price then Aristokraft and much more flexible in choice of cabinets. I have access to Aristokraft but do not promote them as they are generally not the best deal. Most of the thermofoil finishes tend to peal off over time. I personally would get a painted finish before a thermofoil. The quality of the finish between the cabinets lines is not easy to judge.