Just received new W500 - First Impressions

I received my ThinkPad W500 a few days ago. This is a great notebook! I thought I would share my 2 cents for anyone considering this model.

Performance:
The powerful T9900 handles most challenging jobs with ease. Extensive compilations, db jobs and other CPU bound operations run smoothly.
This machine coupled with an Intel x25m SSD (third-party) really shines. Boots up in under 20 seconds and most applications open almost instantaneously. Everything reacts extremely well.

Display:
I was a bit nervous about the screen brightness after reading so many negative comments regarding the WUXGA 175 nits screen. I was almost persuaded to choose the WSXGA+ but I am glad I didn't. The screen looks beautiful at full brightness and definitely appears brighter than what the specs suggest. Text is sharp and readable at 120DPI. I work with it several hours a day without straining my eyes. The brightness is more than adequate for any indoor situation, and color accuracy and contrast are exceptional. I have a much brighter Asus N80Vn with a WXGA LED screen but the contrast is terrible and the viewing angles are even worse. So far I am loving the ThinkPad screen. My main use for this notebook is software development, the real state provided by the 1920x1200 resolution is major plus. As a result, I am not too concerned about the gaming performance on the V5700 card. However, it is great to have for light CAD use and 3D development via OpenGL and/or Direct3D.

Keyboard:
The keyboard does have a slight flex on the left side as others have noted. This, however, is only noticeable if you are a very fast typist with a heavy touch. For normal typing the keyboard is solid with the traditional Thinkpad feel.

Wireless:
The WIFI range is good. The Intel 5300 connects quickly and picks up signals where other HP and Dell models would not even recognize.
Bluetooth works as expected. I connected a smartphone, mouse and GPS without problems.
I have not tried the Gobi 3G card yet. WAN reception seems good but I do not have a plan to test it yet.

Battery Life:
I have a 6cell and a 9cell battery. I get 3:30 hours with the 6cell using the embedded graphics card. Switching to discrete graphics reduces life by 30 minutes approximately. (WAN off and DVD-R off). The 9cell gets about 5 hours w/ discrete graphics enabled.

Noise and Heat:
Aside from a fan-less netbook, this is the quietest notebook I have ever used. Obviously, the SDD makes a difference but even with the regular 5400RPM hard drive it came with, the sound is almost imperceptible. After a couple of hours with the discrete graphics card, the GPU fan kicked in and it was barely audible.
The heat dissipation is also as impressive. Even while charging the notebook the bottom remained cool to the touch. Most sensor diodes remained below 55C after several (4-5) hours of use.

The manufacture date from the serial number indicates 11/2009. From my experience it looks like most issues other users have experienced have been ironed out. I am extremely happy with my purchase and highly recommend the W500 to anyone looking for an all around, powerful & high quality notebook.

Full Configuration:

44C6209 SBB I.CR2DUO PR T9900(3.06GHZ
45M3088 VBB GENWIN7ULTIMATE64
45M3684 SBB GEN WIN 7 ULT 64 US EN
44C1925 SBB 15.4 WUXGA TFT
44C1922 SBB ATIMBLITYFGLV5700W/512VR
42X6309 VBB 4GBPC3-8500 1067MHZ2DIMM
42X6355 SBB KYB US ENGLISH
44C1927 SBB ULTNV(TR.P.+TOUCHPAD)+FIN
44C1917 VBB INTEGRATED CAMERA
44C1931 SBB DVD REC8XMAXDUL.ULT.S.SATA
42X6311 VBB EXPR.CARDSLOT/SMARTCSLOT
62P6054 VBB INTEGR.BLUETOOTH PAN
42X6325 SBB INT.WIFI LINK5300
45M3150 SBB INTEGATNTGOBI1MOB.BROA.3G
39T6651 SBB 9 CELL LI-ION BATTERY
39T6442 SBB COUNTRY PACK NORTH AMERICA
45M3942 SBB LANGUAGE PACK US.ENGLISH
41C9169 2YR Depot


Obviously, If you can wait, the W510 model maybe released in Q1 2010 hopefully offering a WUXGA RGB-LED screen like the beautiful Dell Studio XPS16 coupled with a speed i7 Quad. Otherwise, if you need something now and need a more budget conscious model, the T400 or T500 might be a good choice without much sacrifice.

 

Congrats. Thanks for posting. I've not seen the W500, but have the T500, which is pretty similar. It's a fine machine. The switchable graphics is a real plus. I wouldn't count on the RGB, but hey, you never know.

 

Congatulations on your beautiful machine! It's nice to have a positive post of a WUXGA-W500! I concur entirely with what you say. It is a wonderful machine. I have one very similar. I too worried about negative reports about the WUXGA screen, but have loved it every minute. Main differences are an earlier model T-series cpu, and an OCZ Summit SSD (third-party). Complete silence, with no fan running, with either gpu, and almost instantaneous operations with the SSD. Screen beautiful and clear, with PPI set at 120. I did change some menu etc settings.

I notice you have 64-bit Win7 installed. When i did a clean upgrade to Win7 64bit (third-party), I had problems with the Lenovo gpu-drivers, so returned to Win7 32bit for now. No problems?

 

Thanks Antskip. I am definitely enjoying it.
Regarding the 64 bit issue. The laptop came with Win 7 64 pre-installed. I used the recovery partition to create the DVD's (3 in total) and restored them in the new Intel SSD. I have not experienced any problems with the switchable graphics. I installed the latest download from the Lenovo site dated 10/13/2009 and every works well. Others reported issues with different brightness between embedded and discrete but they are the same on mine.

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=MIGR-73641

 

Thanks for the great review. You address some interesting things in your review that I have not read in others. One fact is I like hearing things about the WUXGA screen, since not too many people have it and report on it. Also I like the fact that you tried your bluetooth module with various devices. That is definitely nice to hear since I have only tried my Bluetooth with my mouse and that works great. I am also a software developer and the high res widescreen definitely comes in handy with things like Visual Studio. I wish the T500 had the WUXGA option, as I have no need for a discrete GPU.

 

GPUs are switchable on the W500 ie you can turn the discrete on off. So if you REALLY want that screen you could just buy the W500 and use it only as integrated.

 

Thats true, but I am thinking of staying away from machines with discrete GPUs all together.

 

If you want a 15.4" WUXGA screened Thinkpad I think the W500 is the only option. If you turn off the switchable graphics option and choose the integrated gpu, it is as if you don't have a dedicated gpu. Then you will have what you want.