Lenovo W540 Announced today

Hey, thanks for your input, indeed I was thinking at least FHD... the super high res may be too much, but I yet have to see one with my own eyes

As for development tasks I want multiple vm machines running (different database versions, build tools, other new stuff I want to try... etc) all the time, so for me CPU with virt support and lots of RAM is a must... I guess I was wondering if W540 is bringing something really cool, that comparing to W530 makes the decision byt itself, I know for sure that I don't like the numpad... and offcentered keyboards, maybe that kind of detail should concern me

Thanks

 

New info on the site:

ThinkPad W540 | Mobile Workstation | | Lenovo (US)

 

It's the 5th. They lied.

 

No worries, seems to be par for the course with Lenovo. It will give me some time to make up my mind and save some extra money too.

 

I want one of these before Christmas.

 

I want one before Thanksgiving!

 

Any idea of a base price or what it will probably start out at? Will it be a lot more then the w530?

 

It's through distribution (corporate accounts and resellers), not the lenovo website.

 

It doesn't look like they will announce this anytime soon. Marketing fail 101. I was deciding between a Dell and this, but I can't decide which company I hate more right now, Dell, who doesn't offer custom configurations anymore, or Lenovo, who just refuses to release products.

 

This is why I bought my y510p. I can't wait until January to buy a laptop, without a laptop as a college student.

 

Where did you hear that Dell no longer offer custom builds?

I did notice on their webpage that the custom build options are very limited at the moment but if I do a comparison of the Dell Precision laptops there is still a list of different GPU and display options.

I think you can still get a custom builds, just may need to order over the phone with a sales rep, seeing the options are still listed, example QHD display. I think it would be stupid to remove the custom built option.

 

I was quite set on a W540, but today I had the horrible misfortune of trying out an e531. The new trackpad is a travesty. The button locations don't even make sense and are completely uncorrelated with the markings on the trackpad. Which idiot decided to put the right mouse button on the left side of the trackpad?



It is also very heavy, the trackpoint is essentially unusable when you need to both stretch your thumb below the RMB location, and press the entire pad down for every click. It is a very heavy motion and is very tiring for an action as frequent as clicking.

 

What? Thats totally wrong. These buttons zones are wrong in the picture, in the actual driver they look like this:

 

Well that's how it is on this e531 and I cannot find any way to change it.
EDIT: Looks like the mouse buttons were switched in settings. Its not as bad with the RMB in a sensible location, but I still dislike the new layout.

 

Could there possibly be a worse launch than the w540. This is ridiculous and any questions you ask on the lenovo website are answered with we can't answer that at the moment please speak to a local representative. But anyways I know it is available in Germany so should we expect to be able to purchase it by Christmas? Because I have heard both late November, January and February.

 

T540p was launched today in the USA, so I guess W540 can´t be too far away. December seems possible.

 

Where? How?

 

Read here:
Re: W540 Future Owners Thread - Page 2 - Lenovo Community

Its already available to order in Germany!

 

It has been available to order in Sweden for a while too, I ordered a non-3k w540 on the 15th November but delivery has been pushed to 17th of December (was 29th of november then 4th december and now 17th december) so i am not very hopeful it will get here before January.

 

Pretty normal for it to be delayed to be honest.

It's good that they at least keep you in the loop, some companies don't bother even doing that. Thats another story though.

 

Maybe sb has information whether it would be possible to change the FHD W540 screen to the IPS 3K version on your own? The connector as I know is the same. Is it usually possible to buy all the remaining parts yourself?

 

Australian Thinkpad W540: ThinkPad W540 | Mobile Workstation || Lenovo Australia

pretty expensive but that's with sales tax included i think

 

Those are listed as having FHD IPS screens. Maybe they are not the same FHD TN screens as in the T540p everyone is complaining about.

 

See the last post on page 2 of the Lenovo thread called "Re: T540p / 3K Panel Pros and Cons" to answer the above concern!

 

Yeah, Lenovo shipping estimates can be somewhat aspirational rather than indicative of actual delivery dates when it comes to certain ThihnkPad models.

 

Yeah, well perhaps Lenovo is trying to get as many potential customers as possible before it starts sending out the machines


Sent from my baked potato

 

Possible good news. It seem that the W540 Australia website is now showing the FHD panel as an IPS panel on all pages and even on the checkout page. I do not believe the checkout page showed IPS when it was 1st released. Lenovo will have sometimes have inacurrate info on some pages but it's the checkout page that counts. However, until the PSREF is updated to show the exact specs of the W540 (it does not currently) we can not be certain that the FHD panel is IPS.

http://shopap.lenovo.com/au/en/laptops/thinkpad/w-series/w540/#tab-customize

Add it to your cart and it still shows the FHD panel as IPS!!

Also, if you go to the US site and browse the T540p specs on the sales page it says FHD IPS but it doesn't once you go to configure it and certainly not on the checkout page, so this is a good sign for the W540.

 

It will be really nice if the FHD is indeed IPS. I am not dying to use the 3K buzzword (Retina-much?). I have heard that the FHD display on T540p is crap compared to the 3K on T540p. Maybe the W540 FHD will be different and actually an IPS? More infor on this will be nice.

P.S. IBM had the 15" 2048x1536 IPS display in the early 2000s but nobody was talking about this back then... I have that display and the only downside is that it's not as bright as some people may need it.

 

The matte FHD on my W530 actually looks quite nice, so unless they've ruined it in some way on the W540...

 

Yes, many users are happy with the FHD 95% color gamut advaced TN panel used in the W530. However, the FHD TN panel currently being used in the T540p is not the same panel and the specs are poor as has been discussed in other threads and now there is a recent thread from new buyer complaining about it's quality. I am looking to buy a 15.x FHD IPS panel and was hoping to find it in the T540p but it looks like I will have to get the W540 or the HP ZBook 15 with Dreamcolor Display depending on which one has the best price. Also, the choice of only having a GT730m GPU to drive the 3K panel in the T540p is a mismatch(too puny) however the Quadro choices with the W540 make sense for a 3K IPS or a FHD IPS.

Some users were worried that Lenovo was going to use the same crappy FHD TN panel now being used in the T540p

 

Hmm... I see well the GPU choice is definitely a bad one. I've got my W530 configured with an nVidia Quadro K2000M and it does pull really well.

I doubt Lenovo is going to give an option which isnt specified for workstations, Quadro should be there for sure and maybe some kind of AMD card as well since they are really good with CAD and OpenGL apps.

 

The W540 is now also available in Japan: ThinkPad W540 - 15

 

Well, the W540 may seem to be available in some countries, but in reality it isn't. In Sweden it has been able to order (pre configs) since November, but the release has been pushed back by a week every week. I have no real hope that it will be released until January or February.

The official word from Lenovo international seems to be to contact local sales representative, but the local reps (in Sweden) have no idea what is happening. At least in Sweden the statement is always that it will be released next week. Some re-sellers didn't even know if it would be a part of the bulk deliveries from Lenovo international even when the deliveries where in transit. That means that it was a happening for them to open the crates...

Having seen how Lenovo works I'm guessing all this is on purpose. They don't want to loose customers to HP and Dell and even Fujitsu who has their new workstations available. Therefore they pretend that it will soon be available and then push it forward in small increments. The same way airlines usually tell you the plane is just a little bit late and then push it back further not to upset the passengers by exposing the big delay up front. At least Lenovo in the US are open with the delivery dates and state January or February as probable release dates.

Enough of the ranting, I'm still keeping my order since it's the best workstation offering for me but i know some corporations in Sweden who have switched from Lenovo to HP (or Dell) since their workstations needed a refresh and that is a part of a maintenance plan that's fits in with the corporations fiscal year.

 

Assuming I am fed up with waiting, what would be the available equivalents? I have used Thinkpads from way back in the IBM days, but that doesn't mean I couldn't change.

 

Dell m4800, HP Zbook.

 

Dell M4800 review link:

Review Dell Precision M4800 Notebook - NotebookCheck.net Reviews

Drawbacks:

"However, the loud operating noise that can be very distracting after a longer time has to be accepted..."

"The disabled Intel HD Graphics 4600 also has several adverse consequences."

"Those are the drawbacks that have to be accepted in favor of the excellent QHD+ screen."


HP ZBook 17 Review

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-HP-ZBook-17-E9X11AA-ABA-Workstation.106222.0.html

 

It now seems like the main importer in Sweden just got 5 pieces of the 3K W540 pre-config that are defined for Sweden. So it seems like the production have at least started, even if the supply is extremely low right now. No news heard about the other 3 pre-configs (with the Full HD screen).

 

My order is now pushed back to Jan 8 (originally Nov 29) which makes this an incredible delay and compared to the competitiors laptops a couple of months late. I guess Lenovos new production lines are of questionable quality and organized in a pretty bad way. It shouldn't be any shortage of components as they are pretty much the same as HPs and Dells offerings. The only main difference is the screen, and it seems like the only laptops delivered right now are the ones with the 3K screen.

 

Guess it will be worth the wait.

 

Will this workstation be able to accept 4 X 16GB RAM = 64GB RAM?

 

We have yet to see a 16GB DDR3 notebook DIMM...

 

a 16GB DDR3 notebook DIMM, that would be nice to see soon .. !!!

 

I changed my order to a 3k model and have now received it. First impressions are good, let me know if you have any questions.

 

How does the quality/sturdiness compare to the previous W line?

 

My previous workstation was a w510, build-quality feels good but there is more flex in palmrest and screen than the w510. The whole laptop feels much lighter and thinner (not a bad thing as the w510 is quite clunky).

So far i am happy with it!

 

That is good news, thanks!

 

After a couple of days:
+ Much lighter and portable than my previous w510
+ screen is great.
- Offcenter keyboard with buttonless trackpoint = Bad trackpoint experience and typing takes som getting used to.
- Wierd sharp edge where palmrest meets lower chassi.
* Currently hangs on every shutdown for unknown reason (java and chrome is the only programs installed, updated via windows update/system update)

Not super excited but i am guess software issues will be resolved and it will serve me well over the next few years as i will use it docked with external keyboard 80% of the time.

 

I'm torn between the W540 and Dell M4800. The issue with the M4800 is lack of Optimus support leading to middling battery life (~3.5 hrs typical use) and also still waiting for greater custom options. The issues with the W540 are the click buttons and screen.

What are your impressions battery- and screen-wise? Is there software support for running the screen in a Retina-style mode? And just how annoying is clicking with the nub? I hate tap-to-click.

Thanks!

 

I wish i could say the trackpoint just takes some getting used to but imo its really terrible software updates to the button zones could help a bit (left click zone is tiny and not as pictured in settings).
I have a a few thinkpads (w510, Helix, x200, R31) and this is by far the worst when it comes to the trackpoint. The Helix is pretty bad but the w540 is worse.
Screen is great but no other scaling software other than what windows 7 offers afaik.
I haven't run any battery tests but from regular use battery life seems very good.

 

Hello I tried to search on youtube some reviews on W540. I could not find any! Please make some video reviews on this beast!