Received my W500 today!

So my W500 arrived today. This is a replacement for the HP DV5000 I'm currently typing on, which no longer has wireless. I expect to be doing some contract work in the next 6-12 months and needed a rock-solid laptop.

First, thanks to all here who responded to my initial questions. I've had Dells and the HP mentioned. I considered an XPS16 but it was much more costly that the plain vanilla W500. But I only paid a couple hundred dollars more for the W500 than yer average Costco consumer HP. With my HP and Lenovo side-by-side here, I suppose one could argue that the HP is somewhat more stylish. Yeah, a stylish computer with a wireless card that burned up after two years.

The packaging as shipped is remarkably simple. Open it up and I found the computer, a few pamphlets, battery, and power supply.

I must say the W500 is just a beautiful machine. No glossy surfaces, no fashionable art built into the cover. Just plain ol' black, serious, looks like it's intent on doing what it's designed to do. Feels solid as a rock, though sorry I've no intention just now of picking it up by the display. Maybe in a week. Fit and finish looks good.

Setup remarkably smooth, though it does try to get you to buy in to Norton, MS Office, etc. Gonna get rid of all that.

I'd read keyboards could be an issue. Not on this one. Apparently Lenovo has listened.

I'd read screen brightness could be an issue. Not on this one. I need to dial it down a notch or two. Won't use it much in full sunlight, in any case.

Buying experience: ordered 2/7, received 2/26. No problems at all with the order process, even though ordered during Chinese New Year. Granted, this is not the latest and greatest model, and I did not add on any bells and whistles (no need for camera, bluetooth, etc.).

I'm sure I'll be back here on this forum, wondering about this or that, or offering advice.. For now, I must say there's no buyer's remorse on this one.

 

Nice! Post up some pictures?

 

Open your laptop screen and put the laptop upside down on the screen so you can see how strong the hinges are.

 

I'll try to get some pictures this weekend. Meanwhile, here's the configuration:

45M3166 SBB IN.CORE2DUOPROCESSORP8800
45M3090 VBB GENUWIN7PROFES.64
45M3686 SBB GEN WIN 7 PRFS 64 US EN
44C1924 SBB 15.4 WSXGA+ TFT
44C9178 SBB AMD M86GLSWGR512MB-NON-AMT
42X6309 VBB 4GBPC3-8500 1067MHZ2DIMM
42X6355 SBB KYB US ENGLISH
44C1926 SBBULTRA NAV(TR.POINT+TOUCHPAD
43Y3620 SBB 320 GB HDDRIVE, 5400RPM
44C1931 SBB DVD REC8XMAXDUL.ULT.S.SATA
42X6310 VBB EXPR.CARD SLOT/PCCARDSLOT
44C8733 SBB THINKPAD B/G/N
44C1928 SBB INTWIRELESSWIDEAR.NETW.UPG
41W1508 SBB 6 CELL LI-ION BATTERY
39T6442 SBB COUNTRY PACK NORTH AMERICA
45M3942 SBB LANGUAGE PACK US.ENGLISH

As mentioned, very generic. I did not want bells and whistles...that's just asking for trouble and/or extended ship dates. I have an old Toshiba tablet with Bluetooth that never was able to connect to any other Bluetooth device. My HP, yes has a built in camera that was incapable of functioning, from day one. I know, these are driver issues, but if I do not need that functionality why go through the hassle.

 

Congrats. I just got my T500 recently and love the machine. It was what I wanted my T61p to be. The screen in nice and big and I ordered exactly what I wanted on it and love it. BTW - I definitely wanted Bluetooth with mine as I use the Thinkpad Bluetooth mouse. I love it. No dongle or nothing and there are no connection problems or drops. Works great. I have my X200 and I really hated not having Bluetooth. I got my T5oo specifically with the Intel GPU as I didn't want any heat or GPU issues. I don't play any games on it anyways.

 

i am using my W500 right now too.... just beautiful... especially the hybrid graphics card.........

 

hybrid?

 

I too have a W500, very reliable machine, powerful and good customer service, what more can i ask? And yes, the hybrid graphics is really handy!

 

Yeap, you can switch between hybrid and dedicated graphics by just one click in the desktop. No restarts needed whatsoever.

 

oh...switchable graphics

by hybrid i was thinking of something like hybrid sli or CrossFireX