Lenovo Intros the Monstrous ThinkPad W700 275
Engadget recently got their hands on an early delivery of Lenovo's new powerhouse of a laptop, the W700. Aimed at graphic artists and photographers, this beast is designed to really pack a punch. No word on how much for the extra fusion generator to power it for longer than 20 minutes. "Containing enough computational artillery to level a small village, this for-creatives-only behemoth is designed for sheer pixel pushing ... and little else. The system packs in two features aimed at graphic artists and photographers which are fairly unique to a laptop: a built in Wacom digitizer just to the right of the trackpad, and an on-board color calibrator. But what's happening under the hood you ask? Well, for starters the 17-incher sports the first-ever Intel Quad Core Extreme CPU in a laptop (no word on speeds at this point) as well as the first showing of NVIDIA's Quadro FX 3700 graphics chipset (with a hefty 1GB of memory on-board). The workstation also serves up dual hard drive bays configurable as RAID 0 or 1 (SSD or traditional disk, naturally), up to 8GB of DDR3 RAM, and an optional Blu-ray burner. Of course, that's fully kitted out -- the W700 starts at $2,978 and moves skyward from there."
Yes but.... (Score:4, Funny)
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Apple needs to step up and try to match this. (Score:5, Funny)
Apple needs to step up and try to match this.
Re:Apple needs to step up and try to match this. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Apple needs to step up and try to match this. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Apple needs to step up and try to match this. (Score:5, Funny)
Yes, with something shiny costing at least $10,000, preferably with a cup holder for the Starbucks Latte.
... but you need Apple's permission to put the Latte there.
Re:Apple needs to step up and try to match this. (Score:5, Funny)
Apple has to do this for your own good (Score:5, Funny)
They are disabling your latte due to a bug in Java. Ewwwww
Re:Apple needs to step up and try to match this. (Score:4, Interesting)
Perhaps the cup holder can be positioned over the CPU heat sink? That way it can double as a warmer or to brew tea.
Re:Apple needs to step up and try to match this. (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Apple needs to step up and try to match this. (Score:5, Funny)
My current MacBook Pro doesn't have a cup holder. They haven't for YEARS.
It does have a potato chip slot, but it only holds one at a time and it seems to make the guys at the local genius bar mad when I use it.
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I think the built-in Wacom tablet is the differentiator, plus the extra processing power.
I used to have a 17" PowerBook; I "needed" the screen real estate because I was traveling a lot and doing Final Cut work. But it was huge. We used to joke that you could grill paninis or steam your dress pants on the keyboard (just press down on the lid). And don't let your 12" iBook get too close, or every time the 17-incher turned on Expose, it would suck in windows from the iBook... it was just LARGE.
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I just downsized from a MacBook Pro 17" to a MacBook Pro 15.4". The 17" was too big for taking it on the road in my opinion. But I go to some local Linux User Group meetings occasionally and my 17" was completely dwarfed by all the Dell 17" XPS laptops. Those things were monsters. They looked about 3 times thicker than my MacBook Pro.
Re:Apple needs to step up and try to match this. (Score:4, Funny)
Well, you know what they say about men with big hands ...
"You must acquit"?
Re:Apple needs to step up and try to match this. (Score:5, Funny)
With quad-core, a 1gig video card and Wacom tablet built-in?
Are you serious? This thing will be have bits of MacBook Pro in its stool.
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I'll tell you what, when I do live performances of sound and video art, where I need a powerful laptop connected via firewire to digital audio interfaces and HDMI and where every new input method (Wacom tablet!) is precious, I would be thrilled to have this "monster" sitting next to me.
Admittedly, this thing ain't for carrying around to the Starbucks and showing off, it's for special applications where you need a powerful workstation you can fold up and carry home when you're done.
If you wan
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I've been through three PowerBook/MBP 15" now. I know people with 17s and they look great... on a desk. I'd go for a MB or even an Air except, as a photographer and a medical imaging researcher I occasionally find a use for Firewire ports and decent graphics.
The desktop replacements just don't offer enough features to me to overcome the difficulty of carrying them around (often with twenty or thirty pounds of camera gear, for the suck-it-up-you-wimp types).
This seems even worse than the desktop replacemen
Discrimination (Score:5, Funny)
The Wacom tablet is on the right of the trackpad, a very inconvenient place for us left-handers. Just another example example of the man trying to keeps us down.
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Indeed. So where would you put the Wacom on this laptop, assuming you still have to be able to sell a lot of them to make it worth making them in the first place?
(This is a serious question. Is there a solution?)
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In the middle. Delete the trackpad. It has the traditional ThinkPad Trackpoint "nipple" in the keyboard: that, plus trackpad + Wacom = 3 pointing devices. I have an old ThinkPad X24 with only a Trackpoint, it's fine for running most software as-is.
I don't see a slot for the Wacom pen, surely there should be a slot it clips into?
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I agree - why is there a trackpad? Surely that's redundant given the wacom tablet? But that's the least of this beasts problems.
It weighs in at a minimum 8.3 pounds. Battery life is not stated, but, given the alienware "desktop replacement laptop" I'd bet a 2 hour battery life will cause this to weigh in at over 10#s easy.
So, for comparison, a MBP 17" with same screen resolution and a 7200 rpm drive starts at about 2900. And you get 2-5 hours battery life (depending on what you're doing) at 1.5#s less weigh
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Indeed. So where would you put the Wacom on this laptop, assuming you still have to be able to sell a lot of them to make it worth making them in the first place? (This is a serious question. Is there a solution?)
How about leaving the track pad out completely, and using the nipple for mouse duties, or combining the track pad with the digitizer surface?
Re:Discrimination (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh I don't know, on the screen [lenovo.com], maybe? You know, like a normal Tablet PC, which is exactly what this is except that Tablet PCs have bigger digitizers and work better because the strokes appear where the user actually drew them.
I mean really, what kind of idiot would want this?! It's like getting a really tiny Intuos [wacom.com] when you could have had a nice big Cintiq [wacom.com] for less!
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I kinda think touch-sensitive displays are not an option for serious drawing... They'd start to wear out really really fast. And even a little visible wear on the display would be a show-stopper annoying for anybody doing serious graphics stuff... Not to mention all the fingerprints etc.
Now if anybody here does serious visual work on a touch-sensitive display and knows fingerprints and wear are not a problem, feel free to correct me...
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In any case, serious artists use whatever tool
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Obviously this [wacom.com] is a figment of my imagination, then.
But seriously, the answer is that it depends on the technology used. The pressure-sensitive screens (as on most PDAs) obviously wouldn't be all that durable, but some technologies (such as the Wacom one) allow the screen to be protected by a glass sheet. Scratching is not a problem because the tip of the stylus is made out of a softer material, so you replace the stylus tip when it wears out instead of replacing the screen.
Incidentally, I own a Thinkpad X6
yes there's a solution (Score:2)
It's called a USB cord, that connects your Wacom tablet so you can use it with your left hand, right hand, or your foot if you want to. Seriously, why the f*ck is there a Wacom next to the trackpad? Who needs that? It's too small for any serious work and it will just get in the way. The last thing I need is to accidentally leave the wacom enabled and push every button on the screen when I rest my wrist on it while typing.
lefties (Score:2, Interesting)
It might be an urban legend, but I thought lefties were disproportionally represented in the heavily artistic fields. If that is true, it indicates they should offer left handed models if they are targeting that market niche.
The original Mac Portable had that (Score:2)
The original Mac Portable had that, the keyboard could slide left and right a few inches, and in that space you could fit either a trackball or a numeric keypad.
Of course, dimensions were somewhat larger back then...
[spot the pun] (Score:2)
The Man ain't trying to keep you down. It's nothing sinister.
Re:[spot the pun] (Score:4, Funny)
It's nothing sinister.
sinister [wiktionary.org]
Etymology : From Latin sinister ("left hand") via Old French Sinistra ("left"), Middle English Sinistre ("unlucky").
As a Lefty, I'd like to say: get some new material. ;)
Re:Discrimination (Score:5, Funny)
Just turn the machine through 180 degrees, and viola! the tablet is on the left hand side instead. Some further modifications may be needed, of course.
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I'm skeptical that turning this laptop by 180 degrees will turn it into a viola [wikipedia.org].
Discrimination (Score:5, Insightful)
a built in Wacom digitizer just to the right of the trackpad
Ideal unless you're left handed and therefore cursed to spend all your time catching the trackpad while trying to write/draw anything.
Re:Discrimination (Score:4, Insightful)
Nope not even ideal. I dont know of a single artist that would be caught dead using that tiny digi.
a 8X10 Wacom is easier to pack in the laptop bag than a mouse... so adding a digi onto the laptop is like having spinner rims on the car.... useless and for show only.
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Also, i don't see when i would require a portable workstation (for that is what this monster is trying to be). Better to keep the field- and office-work seperate.
I'd rather have my 24'' monitor too (even though the laptop's panel has quite nice resolution)
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i would like to see them drop the pad they put.. make this more like a tablet PC and use wacom's digital display as the screen.. so you can spin it around and just use the whole laptop as the tablet
i wish i could afford a wacome screen..
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Here's a tip: Tablet PCs are no more expensive than an equivalent laptop and separate Intuos, and a heck of a lot cheaper than a desktop and a Cintiq.
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for a quality tablet with good preformace they are more expensive than an equivalent laptop - most tablets don't have a high res screen and they are no comparison to the Cintiq when drawing on.
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Ideal unless you're left handed and therefore cursed to spend all your time catching the trackpad while trying to write/draw anything.
The secret, jealously guarded by a sect of IBM laptop fanatics, is of course to disable the cursed trackpad/touchpad frustrator device, and use the laptop the way laptops were meant to be used (in absense of a real mouse anyway), ie. using the red button of happiness.
Please don't tell me this thing only has touchpad...?
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I guess you refer to "the clitoris".
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The digitizer requires a stylus. It doesn't respond to pressure or capacitance, and thus can't be used with just a finger. Therefore, just a digitizer would be inconvenient, but a digitizer and a clit mouse (the pointing device traditionally found on Thinkpads) would work fine.
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The problem with that is that the type of digitizers that respond to fingers use an entirely different technology. So if you do that, you're trying to pack two different technologies into the same pad, which would obviously increase the price. And then you'd end up with two different sensors in the same place, which would conflict: you'd be getting input from the pen, and you'd also be getting input from the side of
Bundled extras? (Score:2)
Re:Bundled extras? (Score:4, Funny)
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What it is, is a retarded, mutated Tablet PC. I mean seriously, who the fuck would be stupid enough to buy one of these instead of a Tablet PC, which have much bigger digitizers and don't have a weird separation between the surface you draw on and where the graphics actually appear?!
Slashdot would like to thank (Score:4, Funny)
Laptop market trends (Score:5, Funny)
I predict that by the end of this year Thinkpads will be twice as powerful, 10,000 times larger, and so expensive that only the five richest kings of Europe will own them.
No SLI!!! (Score:2)
Dammit! They could've made the first and the only laptop with SLI video card.
Seriously, why not just attach a carrying handle to a desktop and strap LCD monitor on the side?
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Creatives Use Macs (Score:2, Insightful)
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"Chinese crap" by another name... (Score:3, Interesting)
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Re:Creatives Use Macs (Score:4, Informative)
*Looks around huge creative design agency office with around a 3:1 XP-PC:OSX-Mac split, all running CS3 collaboratively and scratches head.*
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"Which computer is more powerful... the one with the best specs, or the one you want to use?"
Apple has rarely been competitive on a performance-for-dollar basis. That's not their business model. They make computers that people want to use.
My wife's reaction... (Score:5, Interesting)
... (she's a graphic designer):
"Ooooooh!" (based on in-built Wacom thingie). - Interest level: High
Seconds later, "But it's not a Mac!" - Interest level: None
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Funny when all of the software that a designer uses daily is available on both platforms...
I actually prefer Photoshop on Windows to the OS X version but YMMV. Blazing fast gaming-GFX card makes a huge difference in performance.
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Or just the typical reaction when learning it doesn't run your OS of choice and the applications you use daily?
Re:My wife's reaction... (Score:5, Insightful)
If she was rejecting any non-Mac product without having experience with Windows, possibly.
But I doubt that any computer user in the world has too little experience with Windows. If you've used Windows and you still don't like it, that's a rational choice (obviously one you disagree with, but de gustibus non erat disputandum), not prejudice.
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She is wife of slashdotter/geek. I am fairly sure that she is constantly spending all her openmindeness on her husband.
In other news... (Score:2, Funny)
In other news, TSA agents are salivating of anticipation.
The first laptop for left-handers! (Score:4, Funny)
Left-handed users everywhere are cheering the W700, with its digitizer thoughtfully placed on the right so they won't inadvertently jog it when using the trackpad. "It might make more sense to turn the entire area in front of the keyboard into a trackpad/digitizer with software control," said Sandy Sinister of the Southpaw Liberation Army, "but instead they struck a blow for the cause! We're buying ten for our new HQ at Undisclosed Location."
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Well, you know, it might make more sense to not stick two digitizing pads (because that's what the tablet and touchpad are, basically) right next to each other, and either have one pad with software control, or put some bloody space between them. But I guess ACs don't read between the lines. Even in an obviously sarcastic post.
I don't see the point. (Score:4, Insightful)
Anyone interested in a digitiser probably already has one, and a separate one is more flexible and probably better than a fixed one.
Analyzer schmanalyzer.
Take those out and you have an OK power laptop.
My laptop has a 4-core Xeon (Score:2)
Not sure what the Quad-core Extreme Edition is, maybe it's the latest and greatest, but the X3350 processor in my laptop is good enough for me. It only has 960GB of hard disk, which is a bit gutting, I was hoping for >1TB but they couldn't get the 500GB hard disks.
Color Calibration (Score:5, Interesting)
I deal with pictures occasionally in my job, and I've had to manually/ocularly calibrate my monitors more than once. Big pain, especially when you don't have adequate lighting in the room.
The automatic calibration video really struck me as innovative, though nowhere close to game-changing, at least for a portable monitor. However, I don't understand where the system gets color information from.
The laptop has a camera on top of the LCD, so if there were, say, a tiny mirror near the trackpad it could see the monitor when the lid's down; but I see no reflective surface in the keyboard area--how does it see the monitor ouput?
Anyone care to share their take (or knowledge) on this? Just curious...
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Or maybe it comes with a stack of mirrors to hold.
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Oops, I forgot to mention the video [blip.tv] which shows (from the outside) how the calibration is done. I'm not sure if this link will work as the URL is a mess, but you can also find it in Notebook.com's original post [notebooks.com].
No paper: Pantone's huey calibration software is run, the lid is closed and reopened a minute later.
This is a marketing attempt doomed to failure (Score:2)
High performance notebooks are going the way of the SUV - people are realizing being able to play Call of Duty 4 is largely useless when their laptop lasts an hour before dying. While there always will be people that "plug in", if you have the time to sit down and have a physical power socket nearby, a lot of the time you have the time to truck at the LEAST a monitor and a matx system there too (for only about twice the weight and half the price).
This is why the EEE and mininotebook segment is succeeding, j
This is just about worthless. (Score:2, Interesting)
Well I was mildly intrigued about this when I read the headline and assumed they had integrated a WACOM screen into the display but that would have been just another tablet laptop with a CINTIQUE built in! Instead they give you the crappiest of WACOM tablets hammered into the right of the trackpad. I don't know anyone that uses a WACOM for anything professional that can stand anything less than the 6x8 size. Having thrown together a 12" WACOM display from an old 14x9 USB Tablet and a 12" HD LCD Display I
Talk about a trainwreck? (Score:2)
why is the drawing tablet situated for right-handers?
most artists are left-handed. What a total fuckup.
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Don't think of it in terms of 5 minutes of battery life, think 5 minutes of UPS backup. That's plenty of time to safely shut-down.
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Bullshit. I have a T43 and a relatively new T61... The T61 easily matches the T43 in terms of build quality, and both of them are rock solid compared to my wife's MacBook.
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agreed - we moved to using T60 and T61's here - the quality is unmatched.
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Re:Very small niche - maybe? (Score:4, Interesting)
The Lenovo monster is just barely transporable, but so is a desktop.
It blows my mind how WHINEY techy people are today. Just barely transportable? what are you incredibly weak and cant carry that much weight?
Cripes I carry around over 45 pounds in my backpack daily. on my back on the bike, in my hand up the stairs. and this laptop would make no difference in my day. Take out all my test gear that makes up the most of my weight problems. Plus the Toughbook I carry weighs twice what this could soaking wet.
It's VERY transportable. If I can lift it and carry it without hurting my back or getting winded walking up 3 flights of stairs, it's incredibly transportable.
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Be more sensitive! Keep in mind that for many on Slashdot the most excercise they ever get is tearing open bags of Doritos while clicking repetetively as they grind their WoW character.
I agree, it's not too heavy and some people like being able to take their work home without having to have 2 machines.
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I'm glad I gave you opportunity to boast a bit. I believe I do more sport than you, with an average of 12.000 km/year on my bicycle, but I admit I would hate to carry 25Kg on my back to work and back - especially since it's a 2x15Km commute (on bicycle) and I walk 7 flights of stairs.
Conclusion: I must be weak and you are so strong, please do buy a 6 Kg laptop. Since you believe you won't notice it with 20 Kg on your back already. And by the way, I am sure those millions of people who got an ultraportable a
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I am trying to imagine this smart-dressed designer sitting in a cafe in spring, and placing his/her 6 Kg powerguzzler machine on the fine cafe table in front - that image just doesn't work.
He is already talking about pussies ^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^HMac users.
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you must not be familiar with the Thinkpad line. They all look somewhat like that and have for a long time. Some people prefer that simple business only look. I personally try not to be concerned with outward appreance, even though Thinkpads do look dated.
We're from China, we don't care... (Score:2)
...what it looks like.
Seriously, though, this is a flop waiting to happen. It might have some application in the hard-core CAD world once you turn off the wacom pad, though.