Just saw the new Lenovo ThinkPad W700 and it looks interesting. It's the first laptop to feature a built in Wacom Graphic tablet, And has a good screen with auto colour calibration. It also has a good processor, Up to 8gb of RAM, 2 200gb HD's, And a 7 in 1 card reader.
andrew81 wrote:
If their laptops are anything like the heaps of sh!t desktops they put in schools then I wouldnt touch them with a 10 foot pole!
I've used, bought and/or supported several thousand Dells over the years.
There is nothing worse about them than any other big box manufacturer. Virtually all computers that get put in schools end up being "heaps of sh!t" in some form or another, either because the school budget doesn't allow for reasonable computers, the students trash them, or the administrators don't know how to set them up and properly maintain them.
The local university is a Dell campus. There are thousands of Dell computers all over the campus and for the most part, they all run really well because the admins try to protect them from the damaging effects of a couple dozen different students using them every day.
Independent testing revealed the difference in failure rates between the best (Sony) and the worst (Gateway, I think) laptop brands was a whopping 3%. Just a little objective support for what I've always known: people bash computer brands based on vague "impressions" that mostly come from other poor sources.
Anyway. /rant.
I think the Lenovo looks really nice. I've always been super happy with the build quality on my IBM/Lenovo Thinkpads and they typically have a very intelligent hardware spec. I'm glad some of the bigger brands are recognizing that there's a market for quality, purpose-specific hardware instead of simply pumping out consumer laptop after consumer laptop.
IBM Thinkpads have always been nearly-indestructible, well-engineered, with intelligent features and great design ergonomics, and Lenovo has not disappointed me now that they own the brand... my Lenovo T60 Thinkpad is now almost two years old, and looks/acts new.
I get the impression that the W700 is not well-suited to lefties... I'd have trouble using the tablet with my left hand due to the placement of the trackpad. But hey, I can understand their having to make some sacrifices in ergonomics to put all of that in a notebook... very impressive piece of gear there.
FWIW, Coverage of the aRGB gamut is still quite lot less than in a medium-high end monitor, such as a NEC 2690. Looks like a real improvement on the previous laptop situation (which was pretty dismal), but not yet a replacement for a good desktop rig. And it's expensive!
It's nothing than some kind of experimental work of Lenovo.
I have some Lenovo laptops here at work and I can tell that those machines are pretty good for some business work but no way they can be used for photo editing, not this time. If Apple made something like this I would probably believe it and give it a shot, but not Lenovo.
This looks nice, but geesh, is that expensive. If my wife's desktop should decide to die I would give her my laptop and possibly consider the Lenovo. One could get a very nice laptop and max it out with memory, Hds and video and it would be less then the Lenovo. Built in Wacom pad? Bet it's not too big, 2"x3"? But it is a really nifty idea for a laptop
I've lucked out with my Dells. Been getting them since 1997 and have been very happy with them.
andrew81 wrote:
If their laptops are anything like the heaps of sh!t desktops they put in schools then I wouldnt touch them with a 10 foot pole!
I've got a 4 year old dell D600 laptop that I use at work. I keep abusing it in hopes that it will die and I can get a new one.
We also have about 1000 Dell desktops in our building... they are rock solid and reliable. Of course I would never buy one since I like to DIY and I think Dell's are overpriced... but they keep on working.
It remains to be seen how the LCD screen on this new laptop compares....one thing for sure, it's not IP-S technology. Another, is that although LED back-lit, the expected battery life is only around 2 hours.
As I don't get to fly business class very often, 17" probably wont work for me anyway....
Oh well, I'm back to spec-ing out a new desktop......
That new ThinkPad looks amazing! I want one! I have a Dell Precision M90 now, that was really tops a couple of years ago, but that ThinkPad looks great...and I owned a ThinkPad years ago, the construction is excellent on top of everything else. A sweet machine no doubt. Will look at it closely when this one finally become inadequate.
