Is the w701ds physically an ugly machine?

I am considering buying a w701ds and was wondering if the owners of these notebooks considered them ugly compared to other laptops in the market with similar specs.

Thanks.

 

Considering its weight and size, you will be probably be the only one ever taking a peak at it, so why do you care? I don't own it, but it looks quite a nice workstation.

 

Well, the W701 is quite a thick machine, and the W701ds' lid is extra thick to accommodate for the additional screen. But aside from that, its general aesthetics are similar to the Tx00 generation Thinkpads.

 

yes, I consider my w701ds is an bloody ugly machine compared to other laptops. I also think Megan Fox is an ugly girl.

 

Sorry, didn't mean to insult your laptop.

This video should be entertaining: YouTube - Funny Lenovo Ad - W700ds


The w701ds is pretty thick though.

 

Lenovo uses aesthetics of function.
Do you consider fighter jets ugly? Personally I would gladly take laptop that has least of niggles but looks industrial over pretty-shiny-glossy-kewl looking crap what has niggles here and there when you actually use it every day.

As W701ds goes, it's quite thick and quite a bit heavier. Personally I think second screen (of very bad quality btw) is pretty much a gimmick, unless you absolutely sure you need it, go for W700, it's very slick and quite light for machine of such specs (only about 4kg).

 

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder."

That said, while they're not the most exciting in terms of design they certainly make up in functionality, durability and end usability which I tend to value most. I have a Sony VAIO issued by my workplace and while it’s pretty I’m considering getting rid of it as I can’t stand the (Alps) touchpad and chiclet keyboard for doing correspondences and invoices. I find myself always using my 3 year old Thinkpad T61 instead to save my sanity!



I’m trying to coax my boss to see if he’s willing to exchange for a newer ThinkPad for that matter! So don't worry about the looks - the purpose of ThinkPads is to get the job done quickly and smoothly which is what most people want!

 

2F>3P

F ugly but F unctional beats P retty, P olished and P ointless any day

who cares if its a little thicker, think of all the downtime you wont have !!!!

but just to be irritating, I do like my Elitebook 8740w's looks a little better

 

The original question here of "beauty" or whatever is concerning a machine when not in use, not "alive" - a dead object. What should matter in the beauty stakes is computer in operation, alive, doing its stuff - the array of objects on the screen, and peripherally the keyboard (the two main interfaces). In those areas I would think the W701 would be rather beautiful....

 

efficiency is sexy, thinkpad is efficient and low profile. Therefore it is sexy

 

It's a really thick and heavy machine. And to me, the W70x machines all seem way too large a footprint, just check out the nearly 2 inches of bezel on the bottom of the screen. It's not ugly to me though, it's just unappealing. I think a real desktop is probably a better deal if you want a desktop machine and space isn't a priority. I wish they would make maybe a Macbook Pro 17 inch-esque Thinkpad. Have as little bezel as possible with a 17 inch screen, and have it weigh 6 and a half pounds. Give it a dual core processor and a powerful GPU w/ switchable graphics, and as much battery life as possible. Maybe even have an S-IPS display. I looked at the MBP 17 inch and while it seemed underpowered (especially with the 330M GPU), amazingly it has a similar footprint to my 15 inch T61p w/ 9 cell. Not to mention up to 3 times the battery life, and weighs maybe the slightest bit more (6.3 pounds versus 6.6 pounds in the MBP). So I was pretty amazed at the fact that they have a 17 inch laptop that I could easily carry around because I'm already used to similar dimensions and weight with my laptop (and better battery life on the MBP). It's too bad Lenovo probably won't come up with a similar style laptop.

 

have you tried to run Macbook Pro 17 inch with anything CPU or GPU intensive... have a try and you would probably change your mind when the MBP overheats..

In order to keep the thickness down, Apple MBP had to make lot of compromises in terms of thermal management systems (i.e. heatsink design, air intake, heat vent placements,etc).

Beauty is more than skin deep... if you knew how much structural and thermal engineering design that goes into Thinkpads, you would appreciate them more.

Apple design from outside in, while Thinkpads are designed them from inside out.

 

In my case, looked at it = looked at it in store and online, I don't own one.

Yeah that and other reasons is why I decided against it as a replacement machine.

I would just like to see more variety with some form factors. Basically, I'd like a real desktop replacement machine without having to buy an unnecessarily large footprint machine (and around 1.33" thickness). And good battery life too. I'm bummed that Lenovo doesn't make a Thinkpad with dual core i7, switchable graphics, Nvidia FX1800M or ATI 5830, and good battery life. (Good for me is 5 hours with a 6 cell).

I decided against Apple basically for that reason and for some others. But Lenovo has lost its appeal for me, and for the same reason almost: not enough options (Apple is a much bigger offender that aspect though). I hate how mine has little battery life even with a new battery (about 3 hours with a 9 cell). The T410 has great battery life, (and now Nvidia Optimus) but crappy NVS3100M graphics, same with T510, and the W510 has good (but not good enough) graphics but somewhat low battery life of 4 hours with a 9 cell (?).

I know that they're better than Apple about thermal engineering. The MBP is after all a giant aluminum heatsink. But I still admire Apple for essentially delivering a (somewhat) powerful machine with good battery life in a compact form factor.

 

the problem with the giant heatsink is that they get stinking hot when you stress the GPU and CPU. Not so with the Thinkpads W70x. They approached the heat management system from different angles, since they had different user in mind. W70x is designed for CAD and other CPU/GPU intensive application, while MBP 17 inch is not.

 

Try comparing W70x with MacBook Pro again when(if) Apple will use a performance graphics cards and not a budget middle-segment they do now.
Now its comparing apples to oranges (even then Apple somehow manage to make it overheat itself). While W70x with Quadros hardly pushes above 75 degrees on full load (not even with fans on full).
You should compare W70x with graphics-performance laptops, not just with any 17-incher. In graphics-performance segment W70x (at least W700/W701) is among the best on size/weight. Aesthetics are personal (ie some people like me could not stand sensory buttons, etc).

 

Which graphics card is the industry standard to a laptop of this size.

 

there is no industry standard in laptop graphics card as such, because each laptop brand company makes trade off as to what they want to include in their system, in terms of parts price, availability, battery use, heat dissipation rate, etc ....

Having said that, the T500 had the ATI 3650 option, which is faster than the nvidia NVS3100m included in some model of the T510. Usual expectation is that the graphics card processing power of each laptop generation increases (for those with discrete graphics card) or at least remain the same, but not decrease as in the case of ATI 3650 (T500)-> NVS3100m (T510).

I guess Lenovo decided to scrap the numerous sub different model option that they had since the T60, R60 days, and to band them into few distinct models based on screen size. This is probably done to save on inventory costs and decreases manufacturing costs of having to produce parts with minor variations.

 

I fully recognize they are different segments. I wish they would maybe make a more MBPish 17 inch laptop in addition to keeping the W70x as it is. Or at least put in a 18.4 inch screen without increasing the size of the laptop, I hate the 2 inch bezel that you get on the W70x. Also I was kind of comparing the 15 inch Lenovo laptops to the 17 inch MBP, in terms of footprint at least. I think I have reasonable demands, make a low powered 17 inch laptop in addition to the high powered W70x, give me a dual core i7 with a 435M or 445M and Nvidia Optimus, and ~5 hours of battery life on a 6 cell, in a 15 inch laptop. I'd be pretty happy if Lenovo could do that next year (so any Lenovo engineers reading this should take the hints given )

 

the 330M maybe? But what do you mean industry standard? There is no industry standard. I do recall that HP and Dell both have FX1800Ms in their 15 inch workstation models but Lenovo only has a FX880M in the W510.

Also I believe Dell and HP's more mainstream (non-workstation) 15 inch models have the NVS5100M. The NVS3100M is something like a Geforce 310M while the 5100 is something like the 320M or 325M, I'm not really sure.

 

screen bezels have always been quite large on Thinkpads, but the wireless signal transmission efficiency is also better with this design. I can pick up extremely weak wifi signals that my friend's HP and Dell could not pick up (MBP is even worse in that regard).

 

so Thinkpad has crappy graphics card compared to other laptops of the same size? I think Lenovo don't want us to play games because Thinkpad is a business laptop, is that their intention or are they just being cheap.

 

hmm haven't thought about that. It does have its advantages then. Personally I find the wifi reception to be better than some other laptop brands (Sony, Gateway, Dell, those are the ones I've used in the same scenario), but it's not spectacular by any means (still gets weak reception in some places where I would like to see better reception).

Games are definitely not their target market, but GPU horsepower is important in a lot of areas where business laptops are used. The Adobe software suite for instance can now take advantage of GPU acceleration, although it is Quadro GPUs only I believe. I'll be doing molecular modeling soon so I hope that my GPU is good enough.

They might be cheap in order to save money but I think it is costing them customers. Also the battery life angle is important to me so I really want switchable graphics and preferably Nvidia Optimus.

 

i don't think you would do serious photoshop work on T410 or T510 thinkpads, the screen is not that great. You would need a non-TN LCD for these sort of stuffs.

I am not talking about W70x in particular in regards to wifi reception (also it is probably better that you compare the W70x to other 17 inch workstation laptops from Dell, HP). Lenovo and IBM put lot of efforts into their antenna design and placements.

 

I doubt they will ever put a graphics-intensive GPU in MBP unless they want to create a frying pan!

And, comparing MBP with anything will always be "apples" with something else, whether oranges or other fruit!

 

It also makes any screen-related maintenance extremely easy - and widens compat screen options (instead of MBP which has panel made specifically for itself)

Yep, pun intended

 

is there a website where I can learn more about laptop graphics and performance comparison.

 

Try this site:

Comparison of Laptop Graphics Cards - Notebookcheck.net Tech

However, I have noticed there is a little bit of variance and some cards may be more or less powerful in reality than they have been tested on the site. However, it provides a pretty good, quick reference as to what ranks where.

 

Only benchmark numbers there need to be trusted carefully, these are user-submitted.
Actual chips description and rough ranking made by staff and are accurate.