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Hi, I just got my W500 about 30 minutes ago.
My background: very picky about the display, keyboard, just anal in general (from what others tell me).
Conclusion: I love this laptop and will absolutely be keeping it.
I approached things from a "oh no, let's find what's wrong with it approach."
First thoughts upon opening:
Wow, not a complete brick. It is 1.4 inches at the thickest point, measured with my own ruler. It is definitely thicker than I had hoped, but I just had a macbook pro, so I know what thin is. While it's thicker than the MBP by quite a bit, it's not that much heavier. It's not the behemoth that I thought it was going to be. I actually ordered an EEE PC for travel purposes (essentially a portable movie player for my purposes), but I actually will bring this thing out with me.
Checklist:
1. Screen: In a word: wonderful. I thought, wow, IBM screens (err, Lenovo) aren't dim anymore. Wow, I always thought that they used the worst screens in the business. I know what a good screen is, which is the LG 1440x900 screen that I have in my macbook pro. While this screen is not quite as good, it's close. If the MBP is a 10, this screen is a 9. It's even and bright enough. I just downloaded the PUSH trailer to check out how movies would play. No backlight bleed, and the colors are fine. It is a matte finish, which I very much prefer. The granularity of the brightness levels is good, too. It doesn't go from brightest all the way to medium bright in just 1 step, for instance. It's a 1680x1050, downloaded Everest, and it's an LG. I am really liking LG right now for computer screens. Even in the Dell forums, as a general rule, get an LG screen, and you'll be happy. No dead pixels, no dust under the screen, both problems with MBP. Whites are not as pure white as the MBP screen, but this could probably be changed and it is certainly not an issue for me. Horizontal viewing angles are fine; two people could watch a movie simultaneously, and there is no struggling for a sweet spot on the viewing angles. So in all ways, this is a perfect screen for me. At the bottom right, it might be a tiny bit darker than the other areas, as if the factory tightened the screen a bit too tightly, but since the task bar goes there, it is completely 100% unnoticeable and it honestly is a faint, faint difference.
2. Keyboard: I was prepared for flex. In fact, I had already ordered an NMB keyboard, and it made it here before I even got the W500. I'm not sure that I will need to replace the keyboard. Yes, if you press HARD on the keyboard, it will flex a little bit at the upper right mostly. When you're typing, esp if you're a touch typist, you simply can't notice it. Really. I'm in no hurry to replace the keyboard, but I'm sure that I will given that I already bought the spare NMB keyboard, just to see if there is a difference. This keyboard is still the best one around, and I am very picky about keyboards. I would say that for my specific machine, there would be no grounds for raising complaints to Lenovo. If anyone were to use my specific machine and say it flexes too much, I would liken the situation to taking a pretty girl and looking for flaws in her. It can be done, but really, what's the point in that?
3. Build quality: rock rock solid. I had a T42 before and I noticed that the palmrest wasn't aligned completely correctly so there was creakiness, and pressing the touchpad buttons gave a slight wobbly click; this is not present anymore on the W500, and it's so firm. Lid is solid, everything is rock solid. I can not imagine any sane person who evaluates the W500 that I got saying that the build quality is anything short of completely solid.
4. Thinklight: several people say that it's blinding. I have no idea what they are talking about.
5. Fan noise: I am very sensitive about this, and this is just plain quiet. If you want any quieter, you'd have to get a fanless computer. Granted, I haven't played games yet, nor do I normally, but I'm pretty picky about fan noise, and this was a primary reason why I got the Thinkpad line. The MBP was also quiet most of the time as well.
6. Audio: I'm a convergence guy, so I want a screen big enough to do work on and to play on. Watching movies will be a great experience on the W500 given my LG screen. The audio of my T42 was horrible. My cell phone went louder than that thing. The audio is VASTLY improved now. During the PUSH trailer, things were plenty loud, in fact, the fullness was as good as, it not better than, my macbook pro. I was happy with the speaker quality of my macbook pro, and I was prepared for something worse. It is not. I played an mp3 via itunes and it's fine for casual listening. It certainly is better than the old plastic macbook and the Dell xps m1330 that I have had access to before.
7. Battery life: 6 cell is flush, no surprise. I don't care that much about battery life in a computer this size, but given the integrated graphics, it should actually be fine (although i have the 2.53 ghz 6 mb cache, 35 watt processor). My reasoning is that the battery life dwindles after the first year anyway, so I shouldn't sweat it that much.
8. Camera: Definitely not at the level of the built-in isight camera of the macbook pro, but on par with non-apple computers' webcams if you ask me. It gets the job done.
Bad:
1. I *might* have some electronic beeping noises coming from the top left of the system, and I don't know if this is CPU whine or not. I know this drives some people crazy. I am not sure what the fix is for this.
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Thank you for your impressions.
I might be ordering a W500 over a T500. Does anyone know if the W500 screen is 200 nit like the T500 one?
EDIT: I just checked the tabook, and it does have a 200 nit screen. The MBP screens have nice brightness, so I if you said that the W500 screen is a 9 compared to the MBP 10, that's fantastic! -
My immediate W500 impressions
Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by pufftissue, Oct 21, 2008.
