MacBook Pro 2012 - a better Thinkpad?

True. Sandy Bridge & Optimus really changed battery life for the better.

 

What is the stronger GPU for gaming?

K2000m or 650m GT

 

W530 vs MBPr is on my mind. But the MBPr screen resolution of 1900x1200 weighs heavily in my opinion and probably go with that. So called lenovo work laptop adopted 1080p entertainment form factor.. For the rest I hope to see some kickass thunderbolt devices in the future to balance the "missing ports" issue.

Are there any W530 ips display reviews out there?

 

W530 IPS display? Non-existent.

 

Since the W530 is currently listed at just shy of £15000 on the Lenovo web site, with RAM upgrades costing £6000.... I'd say the MBPR is better value for money.

[aka, jesus h. christmichael get your web site in order Lenovo, it's an embarrassment!] IF I wanted to order, I'd certainly have a hard time.

 

W530 isn't IPS. It's a good TN panel. Arguably better than what we would have ended up with if Lenovo decided to go IPS (Orange-gate IPS screen of Sony SE, rather than the DreamColor IPS on HP mobile workstations). If the display really matters, HP has a quality IPS panel on the 15 inch Elitebooks if you are willing to pay for it.

 

What is the color gamut of the retina MacBooks? I may have read somewhere that the gamut is below that of the FHD screens of the W-series panels.

 

it seems its close to 70%, we dont know for sure yet. The gamut of the w530 is 95%, actually lower but still a great panel

 

I did a test today that I thought this thread deserved to have before it completely fades into the sunset.

I received the two Mini DP dongles I ordered from amazon.com.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003TSDG06/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00

Amazon.com: Startech MDP2VGA Mini DisplayPort to VGA Video Adapter Converter: Electronics

I plugged both into the Thunderbolt/Mini DP ports on the MBP Retina. I connected a Dell U2711 to the Accell adapter. I connected another Dell 24" Ultrasharp to the Startech adapter.

I had no issues driving the U2711 at 2560x1440. The other 24" Ultrasharp and Retina screen were running at 1920x1200.

So regardless of the notebook of your choice, these adapters should work for you as well.

 

Thanks for sharing. Good to know.

 

why the dongle instead of the direct cable?
http://www.amazon.com/Accell-B119B-007J-UltraAV-DisplayPort-Cable/dp/B004065DAC/ref=pd_bxgy_e_text_b

and i did not realize 27" monitors can now go that high res. my 3 year old 30" is 2560x1600 which is hardly an improvement for such a massive monitor

 

The main reason I bought the mini DP to full size DP female adapter is because I already have a full size DP cable running from the U2711 LCD panel to a ThinkPad Series III docking station.

If I want use the existing cable with the Mac, I just unplug from the dock and plug into the adapter. That and it is more portable.

The same is true for the mini DP to VGA adapter. Beats carrying around a special VGA cable.

 

I thought this might be interesting to note in this discussion.

Retina MacBook Pros run three external displays, refreshed Airs get dual external display support | 9to5Mac | Apple Intelligence

There you have it: TWO 2560x1440 27" displays, another 1920x1200 via HDMI, and the laptop screen itself

Impressive. I don't think even the W530 can drive 14 million pixels of displays.

 

Indeed, the W530 could do that easily. The Quadro K2000M supports up to 4 active Displays, and every Display could use up to 3840 x 2160. The only problem is, you have not enough ports on the W530 itself, so you´ll have to buy a Mini Dock Plus. But 14 million pixels are no problem.

 

Even older T410/T420 could do it, if they had nVidia card (except quadro). 2 to DisplayPort on nVidia, and laptop screen+ plus one more to VGA through Intel.

W530 should be able to drive more, via DisplayPort 1.2 daisy-chaining.

 

But are those independent displays running WQXGA/WQHD each? Or they just FHD (1080p).

I can drive 4-5 1080p monitors all day long on a mac mini but going WQHD and higher is a different league.

I thought the max according to lenovo is 2 WQHD displays.

 

I'm going by Lenovo's technotes and my calls with CSRs.

When you go above 1920x1200, everything gets dicey in anything more than a tri-head setup.

Officially, only one 2560x1600 is supported in multi monitor configs. The others will be of lower resolution. Unless this has changed with the W530


NVIDIA Optimus - ThinkPad Multiple Monitor Configurations

and.

ThinkPad Mini Dock Series 3 - Overview

 

Ah, I see the note about 1 DisplayPort supporting high resolution. The note seems not to be present in the new dock, ThinkPad Series 3 Docking Stations with USB 3.0 - Overview

That's most likely very different now because of DisplayPort 1.2. And even integrated graphics in T430s, according to this forum user, runs 2 external 2560x1440 screens no problem. All that, with Ethernet port connected too

It would be very surprising if W530 capabilities were dramatically different anyway, as the internals are pretty much the same as in RMBP, and nVidia card is of the same generation.

 

Lenovo has not published updated specs for Optimus based multimon configurations when using the new Ivy Bridge machines. At least not that I could find. I asked them for it just this morning at the Lenovo.com forum area.

It would appear Lenovo pulled another Lenovo on the T430S and took a step backward.

 

In the display settings where the screen shows the alignment. There is a thin white bar on the primary display. Drag that thin bar to any other monitor and that is how you set the primary display. If you want your larger monitor to be the main display and the laptop's LCD to be a palette window, drag the white bar onto the screen you want to be primary.

Your dock and menu will then move to whatever monitor you want.

 

Actually, if done exactly as per Optimus description, it should work if nVidia card is capable of driving 2 hi-res screens.

Apparenly USB 2.0 dock has enough bandwidth to route only a single DisplayPort above 1920x1200, so one hi-res monitor must be connected to DisplayPort on the dock, one to DisplayPort on the Thinkpad itself, and 2 more screens to the remaining connectors or laptop screen.

With W520 Quadro cards, the limit is then 2 x 2560x1600 + laptop screen.

With W530, even if Optimus isn't fixed, it should permit 4x2560x1600 (via daisy-chaining) + laptop screen. Should be enough for now, until reasonably priced 4K screens start to show up (right now it's annoying: there are relatively inexpensive, sub-$10k, cameras to shoot 4K video, yet screens that can show them cost more than a car ).

 

Yea, I figured it out right after I wrote that.

The submit button needs to be renamed the moment of clarity button.

My MBP is driving two 24" and one 27" right now.

 

An auditorium full of future "business" people:



but nary a ThinkPad in sight.

 

I suspect it looked about the same 5 years ago.

Then most of these "business" people go to enterprises doing business w/o quotes, and are told to leave their apples, and other fruits and toys at home. The best sweet available is blackberry, although it's a bit stale lately.

p.s. Actually there is one piece of something black w/o labels in there - http://losingcontext.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/look-at-them-apples.jpg . Could be a Thinkpad These are journalists in Missouri, apparently. In 5 years from now, there won't be many laptops in these rows anyway, replaced by phones and tablets.

p.p.s. The picture was made 5 years ago

 

----------oops--------

 

I have no idea when exactly when this one was taken, but just for the fun of it:



Most of them business people don't mind Apple phones, though. And they crave the screens (maybe to make up for the hours of suffering in front of lifeless screens).

 

Photoshopped.

FYI, don't run the MacBook Pro Retina with the lid down. Gets too warm.

 

This is more recent. University of South Florida athletes receive MacBook Pros | TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

( the best laptop offered is ThinkPad SL500 , according to Lenovo building special PC bundles for Canadian students | ThinkPads.com )

 

That's a class at the University of Missouri Journalism school. The J-school there requires Macbooks.
http://www.jschoolbuzz.com/mizzou-j-schools-brian-brooks-defends-laptop-requirement/

Also, journalists != Business people

 

I consider it the other way, I have a W520 triple booting Lion, Windows 7 and Ubuntu 12.04. Got more than 8 hours of battery life in the three OS, and although 1920x1080 < 2880x1800, 1920x1080 > 1400x900 and real state screen is important for me. I suppose that everybody getting mad with 2880x1800 never enjoyed a 1920x1200, that for me is as much real state as I need, and enough DPIs for usual tasks (taking into account current GPUs in notebooks). The problem with the MBP-R is that even if you could (or it seems so) use the 2880x1800 native resolution, it would be overkill unless you are eagle-eye, and intermediate resolutions are not expected to scale smoothly.

For me right now the only advantage of the MBP-R over the W520 is design, the touchpad and dimensions, maybe in the future two thunderbolt would be really great, right now I prefer Expresscard and Ethernet/Firewire (w/o dongle), media bay (HDD caddy/blueray) and of course thinkpad's really great keyboard (trackpoint is part of the keyboard :-D

Regards,

 

Are we debating now?

 

Go to any business class lounge at any airport, and the numbers will be skewed the other way. There are people with MBAs but for the most part you will see ThinkPads and some EliteBooks.

I don't even think MBPs really have the design element over the ThinkPads. The design is basically overdone now by pretty much every manufacturer. The dimensions sacrifice function over form. An ethernet port on a plus $2500 laptop (when you throw in a pretty much mandatory AppleCare) is inexcusable in my opinion. I would much rather have the few extra millimeters and include the port and an extra bay for a second hard drive/SSD and maybe a mSata. With a 15" laptop, it doesn't make it any less portable. Additionally, if my previous MBPs were any guide, you could probably fry an egg on the the retina MBP the minute you start streaming off YouTube.

I've owned plenty of MBPs, and I switched last year to Win 7/PCs because I found my MBPs to be severely overrated in terms of build and quality. It is kind of funny in that my brother is going all Mac now while I am going the other way. It was also funny that he was on business in Hong Kong and had to run to an Apple store to purchase a Ethernet dongle because his MBA didn't have one. Admittedly, though, the MBA is the one laptop where I can forgive the lack of ports.

 

Keeping this thread alive for a while yet.

 

While the build quality of Macs are good, durability is a different matter.

They've got to move away from aluminum. Yes, it protects internal components well, but it's hard to repair cosmetic damage arising from a dent...

 

I was considering making an exhaustive comparison of the W530 and the MacBook Pro Retina, then decided it was silly for me to. I didn't buy this machine for purely rational reasons.

After using all sorts of machines for decades, it really came down to just wanting something that was different.

Everyone here buys stuff for fun and entertainment. Cars, boats, jet skis, motorcycles, audio/visual equipment, etc.

I bought my Retina because I wanted to. The damn thing is a work of art. It's beautiful. The screen is fantastic. I fear dropping it, but I also fear dropping my Harley. Fear is a funny beast. I laughed at fear when I raced motocross in my youth. Those were multi thousand dollar bikes I routinely destroyed.

Sometimes you just say f it and buy something, well, because you can. No guts, no glory.

Trust me, I love my ThinkPads. They pay the bills. But I have room to enjoy a Mac once in a while, too.

 

I can totally agree with your rationale because sometimes you just want a gadget. I just went the other way. I always looked at ThinkPads with curiosity despite always being an Apple person in the past. In reality, my wife and I don't need one. We can just buy a bargain bin PC and be just fine since we mostly use the x220 for light work, Internet and photo editing at home. I have a work issued laptop for business trips. My bias against Apple now is purely because I have had a frustrating five to seven years of Mac related lemons and I just got tired of an all Apple ecosystem. My frustration was enough for me to basically sell/give away every Apple gadget (other than one iPod Touch which was a gift) that I owned.

Now, I just try to resist the gadget jones (which I have quite a bit of) as much as possible since I realize my obsession is unhealthy. The one thing that I absolutely don't need but want is a W530 with FHD screen. My wife wants Munich/Paris/Barcelona. I will give her the trip (which is really for the both of us -- Oktoberfest, baby!), but if she gets another $2,000 plus bag this year, I have no excuse but to get a W530 in retaliation.

 

LOL. I see a W530 in your future. The FHD screen rocks.

 

I'd like to invite you over for a few drinks sometime.

 

Hello Thors,

with high interest I have read your experiences. Since it turns out you are able to make a comparison I would like to ask if you are able to make a pro and contra for the display comparing to a matte display especially with influence of sun light (outdoor and so on). As far as I see this is an issue with the Retina right now. I do not expect an high objective expertise but would be glad to hear your personal impression?
I have not found much worthy reviews right now.

Thanks
Thomas

 

Given that the MBP is far more expensive for individuals and probably more so for businesses, it's a rather unfair comparison. It's like saying a BMW is a better Yaris. I am curious whether people do spend $2500 for a Thinkpad nowaday though.

 

More like whether right hand drive Mazda Miata is better than Ford F150. Both have 4 wheels, can go 100 mph, and move the driver from A to B. That concludes the similarities, I think

 

Removed comments because it is pointless to post here.

 

Let met get this straight....an MBP w/Retina display costs $2199 plus and what you get is a machine that is partially held together with glue and does this: MacBook Pro Retina Display Users Report Image Retention Problem | News & Opinion | PCMag.com.

 

IPS display ghosting is nothing new. Ask all of the X220 IPS users.

 

hum it is interesting that this post in continuing in the ThinkPad section.... LOL... imagine someone start talking about ThinkPad in the Apple section of the forum.

Retina Macbook Pro is very sexy, but nothing is upgradable, which goes against a ThinkPadder's instinct... a great laptop none the less.

Apple Macbook Pro/Air and Alienware laptops are the only laptops i would consider (unless i need a fully rugged machine like a Toughbook).

 

^^^ One must imagine very hard. Nobody cares to talk about TPs in the Apple forum. And that says something.

Take a look at the newly released XPS 14 and XPS 15 by Dell.

 

Why should they? ThinkPads are made for a completely different group of buyers. They are made for business, not for Pro-Consumers like the MBs. And so this says nothing, except that Apple buyers are very true to Apple.

So my question to you: If you hate ThinkPads and Lenovo like you write every day, why stay in the Lenovo/IBM subforum?

 

I do not "hate" Lenovo nor ThinkPad in the small way you look at things. I own and use many ThinkPad models, old and new (not one who cares to show off the so-called TP burgers). I also use and own computers by various manufacturers, mostly American.

 

That really doesn't say much. Very few people in a BMW forum talk about Yaris either. This is also not a forum exclusively for TP, this is a notebook review forum. People tends to browse and post on multiple sub forums.

People actually do complain about Apple products in Apple forums though and they use other laptops as references, which is pretty much what we are doing here.

What about the new XPS 14 and XPS 15? Don't see anything special about them.

 

Oh, they're only half black.