Should I get the W540 ?

Ok, I have finally decided after almost 7 years with using my T61 as an everyday machine, that it's time to upgrade.


I'd REALLY like a W540. I'd order it with 16gigs of ram, and the 3K IPS display. Only issue ( besides laying down $1900+ on a new machine ) is the negative comments I'm hearing about the W540. My friend JUST got his brand new W540 in and I had a chance to play with it last night. Besides the lack of status indicators, completely different keyboard, the lack of dedicated trackpoint buttons, etc. this machine FLEW. He didn't order his with the IPS screen, but he did plank in an aftermarket 500GB SSD in ( which he bought for like $350 ) and installed Windows 7 ( which, come on Lenovo . . . $50 to DOWNGRADE to 7 ?!?! REALLY ?!?!? ) and it runs much better than before.

Question is, should I really spend that amount of money now on a W540, or should I wait and maybe Lenovo will get it right this time with the W550 ?

I'll be keeping this laptop for another 6-7 years like the T61 I ordered back in 2008 and will be my everyday laptop for just about everything ( internet, light gaming, etc. ).

 

I highly doubt Lenovo will reverse the trend, so don't bank on that. My general rule of thumb, buy what you need with what you have. Playing the waiting game sometimes may not be the best (unknown specs, changing rumors about XX, YY).

 

i got brand-new, sealed in a box W530 w/ k2000m few weeks ago.

u can still find W530 new if u look hard.

 

Just curious, why did you specifically decide on the W540? If you're not sure if you will like the changes, which are many, then maybe you should consider some alternatives. Also, the off-center keyboard is something to get used to as well.

Here is a review on Youtube of a W540. This is just one man's opinion but it can give a rough idea of what to expect, even though it is from his point of view. He goes on to review other laptops, such as the Dell Precision M4800 and the HP ZBook 14.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkGa7wa0sNk

 

The longer you wait, the less they'll get right.

The W530 is a great machine, I would seriously consider it as well. If you want the x40 series then consider the T540P as well. Whatever you might do, waiting for the x50 series won't help any...

 

I was in a similar boat -- T61p user, switched to W540. I'm not a heavy keyboard or trackpad user, and I don't program or do any IT work, so the lack of indicator lights doesn't bother me. I'm running Win7 on a clean install. I found a K2100m model with the 3K screen on Amazon for hundreds less than I could get through Lenovo directly that included all the goodies I wanted, including an SSD, plus a few I didn't think I cared about like the color sensor. It's a great machine. I run SolidWorks on it and it handles everything I do great. And the screen is really fantastic. I just set it to 1080p resolution instead of dealing with scaling and whatnot and it looks great. It's huge improvement over the 1680x1050 screen in my T61p both in color rendition and especially brightness. My T61p was fairly spec'd out with a T9300, 570m graphics card and 8GB ram, but the W540 is so much nicer to work on. The keyboard takes a little getting used to, and I still prefer the T61p, but where I'm not a heavy keyboard user essentially everything else (minus the size of the power brick) is a win for the W540. Oh, and I added 16GB ram to the 8 already installed, for a total of 24GB.

 

Well...if you were to throw in a SSD and 8GB of RAM you'd be surprised how fast your old T61 would feel.

With that said, *any* new(er) machine will feel even faster.

Bearing in mind all the changes that Lenovo has made to ThinkPad range in the last couple of generations, I would look into alternatives from Dell and HP as well.

I seriously doubt that Lenovo will "get it right" ever again presuming that your understanding of the aforementioned phrase is even remotely similar to my own.

My $0.02 only...

 

I was recently in the market for a W540 or a T540P having been a long time Thinkpad user. I ended up doing something I swore I would never do, I got a Macbook Pro.

 

Unlike the big 3 of business, where I can buy refurb model and save major $$$, Apple doesn't do that. I couldn't imagine myself using a Mac for normal work, and I don't think the government would allow it for the normal user.

Lenovo won't, you won't see me buying any new ThinkPads soon unless it meets some very; ahem stringent requirements.

 

they do sell refurbs, but the amount discounted isn't that much due to the fact that apple computers tend to hold their value pretty well.

 

That's a big advantage of Apple IMO... and one I was painfully aware of when I recently sold my loaded T420 for less than anticipated It's confusing, however, because it's so hard and/or financially unfeasible to upgrade older Apple machines, so I guess it's more like fanboyism that keeps MacBook values so buoyant.

It's depressing to think Lenovo will probably never be able to get back to the old bomb-proof Thinkpad designs of yore. Meanwhile, HP and Dell seem to have decided that simply upping the price of their higher-end machines is gonna convince people they're better built than before. As usual, the WinPC business is a mess and I can see why people opt to buy MacBooks. Heck, I even considered one for a minute before I reluctantly bought a T440p and Lenovo only won my business this time because of price (I managed to get one with a 22% discount).

So, to the OP, if you actually like using the W540 and all the new "features" don't annoy the cr@p out of you then go for it. Otherwise look at alternatives. Any new machine with a nice processor, lots of RAM and an SSD will fly these days.

 

I can't help but worry about reliability in consumer grade machines though - far too many of them seem to crap out after only a few years. I ran into a dv9000t recently (I think that was high-end at the time), and it had suffered multiple hardware failures, not to mention that if it's anything like the other consumer HP's I've seen, the battery barely works anymore. Meanwhile, far too many business machines have lower res screens than I'd like. Is this really that hard for them to do? (from a technical perspective) Meanwhile, I just can't grasp the lack of repairability of Macs, even if they're supposed to be more reliable - they aren't immune to failures either.

 

Just wanted to update this thread.

After giving this a LOT of thought, I simply do NOT want to lay down the coin to buy a new W540. Not worth it to me, so instead I'm currently running my X301 as my daily computer temporarily. My T61 I'm sending to my IT friend who is going to upgrade it to 4 gigs, and put Windows 7 Professional as the new OS, and get rid of Vista. Should improve it dramatically. Don't know if I wanna drop down the $$$ for an SSD drive yet though. Here's a question for everyone now, it's currently running 32bit version of Vista, if I put a 32bit version of Windows 7, will it recognize the full 4 gigs, or am I wasting my time and just do 3 ?

 

Windows 7 32-bit is the same as Vista 32-bit in regards to recognizing memory - ~3GB RAM usable (4GB in theory, but that includes all memory, not just system RAM). I suggest putting in 4GB and installing 64-bit win7.

 

SSD will be the single biggest improvement - presuming that the machine is running Middleton's BIOS - that your T61 could ever see.

Many older drives - which will work fabulously well on a *61-generation ThinkPad - can still be found as NOS, and inexpensive at that...Intel 320, Crucial M4 and Samsung 830 would be my preferred choices.

Happy upgrading.

 

Hmmmm, I just might look into this option as well. I'm just afraid that after I replaced the drive, the RAM, the OS, etc. I'd have already laid down enough money to partially buy a new system lol Either way, I do NOT want to sell it, since I'm the original owner, and . . . . I don't know, it's my first Thinkpad, and I feel sort of attached to it in an odd way. Even though it's just sitting in a case right now doing nothing haha

 

Yer a tech-type packrat then

I hear you! I have a T61 which is just sitting around being a bum and living off of me lol. I like the T61 series of ThinkPads. There definitely is a sentimental attachment to something that has gotten you through a lot of work and play reliably. I feel the same way about my T500 at this point. I vote that you should definitely keep that T61 around in case you feel a need to dabble in modding it etc. It is akin to a type of 'swiss-army knife' of laptops

 

I just got a W540 for work and my current W530 will remain as my mobile device as I can't stand the changes to the keyboard and the removal of the quick status buttons.

So the W540 will remain docked and run multiple VM's like a good quad core dev box is supposed to.

My peer dev teams are going for the HP ZBook 17 even though the only SKU available is the dual-core model...amateurs...they think the bigger the device the better.

 

Just figured I'd update this thread !

Got my T61 back from my IT friend. He cleaned the registery, he said I had corrupted files all over the place, and he also updated the drivers on everything. It runs great now ! I run this system called "Advanced Systems Care" once a week and he said I should be fine.

Glad to have my T61 back. For the past few weeks I was going on my X301, and while that is a GREAT machine, it's 13.3 inch screen was way too small for everyday use. So, looks like I'll be hanging onto this for another few years at least. I might throw another Gig in it in the very near future.

 

Similar story here.

A friend was looking for a new laptop to replace an old Dell WinXP machine, and I recommended a W530 which as you point out are still available. I did a search on my own 243852U just to see if they were available (FHD screen, K1000M, i7-3740QM, 8GB, 500GB spinner) and sure enough PC Connection was selling them brand new for $1179! This was PERFECT for her needs (and mine too, actually, although I paid about $1700 for it last year).

I had actually replaced my 500GB spinner with a 512GB Samsung 840 Pro SSD in my own W530, but for her this $1179 price for this great machine was too good a deal to pass up. SOLD (i.e. BOUGHT, from PC Connection)!

I didn't investigate any other models besides my own 243852U, but there are plenty still out there to be had.