Techie wants W vs. T Info

Just joined, and while some of this will duplicate what's in the very helpful T520 and W520 threads below, I'm rusty enough on Thinkpads and techie enough to need a bit more.

A good friend/client wants to buy a new Thinkpad for his son, who just got his MBA and a new job. Cost is not much of an object, and he's expecting to pay $2k plus $500, minus not much. A lot of what follows is from the A3x/T4x days. Slap my wrist if I'm totally out of date. I'll try not to drool; this machine is a bit rich for my blood.

Hard disk: Is there any problem installing a commodity HD on a Thinkpad, if BIOS and mb security haven't ever been enabled? Are there still firms out there who can re-chip a motherboard if a pw has been set by mistake (after you show you're the owner, of course)?

Will a W accept a retail Win7 install, just out of curiosity? Any conflict between the security features and a multiboot/virtualization setup? Can you still kill the fingerprint sensor, never visit the BIOS lockdown pages, and get a wide-open, non-corporate machine?

SSDs: Are Lenovos SSDs business-grade, with 25% overprovisioning? Have you heard any horror stories?

Mag/Al stub frame. Is it there in the W?

Is there still an Ultrabay? Can you slap a 500G HD in there, alternating with the optical?

What's the color sensor - ambient light color temp compensation, or a full probe/calibration setup?

16x9: No hope for a 16:10 screen, right?

1600-wide: I've seen a T510 with the HD+ 1440-wide screen. It was quite good - not Apple quality on photos, but better and brighter than I'd remembered on Thinkpads. Tell me about 1600x900 on a Win7 Notebook screen? The prime user will be young, but the girlfriend wears cokebottle glasses, and the consultant (me) is a geezer. Is there any place in Win 7 where enlarging the desktop/menu text fails, or overflows pulldowns (the way it used to)? Are apps now well-behaved?

I'm greatly heartened by Combs's review, but he's alone so far. The power management on the W seems almost magical. I ask because the owner might, just might, edit a video or two. Most use, though, will be business, and aside from the giant power adaptor, it seems a W quadcore w/ Nvidia 2000 will throttle down quite nicely and not set your desk on fire.

W's are being pushed by Lenovo's phone salesforce for upscale buyers, it seems. I'm guessing that's because the fully decked out Ts won't ship for a while. Good guess? They're virtually the same size and weight, and if you've got the moolah, why not?

That should do it for now, and thanks.

(Edit: Jane, what IS the secret to pasting in from Notepad without getting double-spacing all over the place. I hope I saved you the edit this time (g).)

-Frank

 

Formatting looks good to me, Frank. Did you have to edit out the double-spacing after previewing?

 

Yup, I edited in the preview window, with just a bunch of home, bksp, bksp keystrokes. It didnt break at every line, just 2/3 of them (g).

 

No. Just make sure the mechanical dimensions for bay and drive are observed.

Yes.

Off the shelf. (Any components used by Lenovo business-grade? RAM? CPU? VGA port? USB port? Display panel? OK, maybe the last one! )

Yes, with the Ultrabay Hard Drive Adapter III (purchased separately).

It's an X-Rite color calibration sensor (optional).

Please don't go there!

Which notebook screen? On 12.5" (X220), certain forum members can't live without, imaginatively. On 14" (T420), good enough. On 15.6" (T/W520), may want to consider the 1920x1080 panel. Windows 7 font scaling, with ClearType rendition enhancement, is good. Most apps that have been released recently behave properly with respect to fonts and icons.

That's it: if you've got the moolah, why not? (You may overspend on premium features you rarely use, but why not?)

 

Thanks, K. That'll make a good start.

So 1920-wide is quite usable on a 15"? Is that 1920 screen as bright as the HD+? I was impressed with the middle screen on a T510, except for the standard TN "goes black at even a shallow down angle." I'm really behind the curve on whether a 100%-gamut screen is brighter or dimmer than a cheapie, fuzzier or just as sharp. (Yes, we're going to fuzz it up with Cleartype, but I'm talking single-pixel lines in a vector program.)

There's really nothing un-kosher about the TP's partition handling? Does it come with the 100MB Win7 boot partition? Is the Lenovo recovery partition at the end? Do they still let you delete the latter after you make the recovery disks? Does recovery disk one still start a clean install/reimage, with as-shipped drivers and patching?

And is it bad form to ask about TP security features here?

 

Only if you're asking how to bypass them! ;-)

 

The FHD 1920x1080 panel is bright, shows good contrast, and renders vivid colors in 95% gamut. Overall, everything is smooth and sharp, and Windows rendition at 125% is pleasing to the eyes. In Microsoft Word and Google Chrome, for example, you can always magnify the contents as you prefer.

As shipped, there are two major partitions on the main drive: C for Windows and whatever else, and Q for Lenovo Recovery (at the end). Once the Recovery discs have been created (typically 1 boot CD + 2 data DVDs), you can delete the Q partition. In addition, you may decide to clean-install Windows onto the drive at any time, then use the ThinkVantage utility to get the latest drivers (and selected ThinkVantage applications) for the notebook. Actually, with your COA and Windows 7 ISO legally downloadable, plus Lenovo drivers always available, a technically-oriented user would not use the Recovery discs.

So, the drive is yours to manage. You may replace it with a faster, bigger and more energy-efficent one. You may clean-install Windows. You may dual-boot with a Linux distro, or even -- gasp -- some interesting OS from Cupertino. In brief, there is no Lenovo magic on the drive (EE? Magic? Nah.)

 

Thanks again. I found that Lenovo says the W has the T's stub frame, so that does it, and we'll give the snazzier screen a try.

 

What other differences between the two lines? I can see W series starts with the i7 cpu, doesn't appear to have integrated graphics, includes webcam....

 

The W520 has available quad-core CPUs, the graphics options are far more potent than the discrete GPU on the T420/520, I believe the W520 is the only one with the 1920x1080 option, and the color calibration sensor. Both models come with the 720p camera option, IIRC.

 

Also the W series have 4 ram slot, compare to 2 in the T series. The 1080p is available on the t520 last time I checked.

 

The i3/i5/i7 options for T520 are dual core. All options for W520 are i7 quad core. Other differences? Hmm, W520 comes with huge 170W brick.

Both T520 and W520 offer the FHD 1920x1080 panel option. (I hope Lenovo continues to source from AUO as the FHD panel for T/W510 shows beautifully.) The optional color calibration sensor is only applicable to W520.

True.

 

It is still to be verified that the FHD screen used for W520 is as good as those used for W510. The current batch of FHD screens offered for W520 may not have 95% color gamut. (Lenovo does not label these screens as such. I don't think this is an oversight on the part of Lenovo.)

 

They do label it. See Lenovo - Laptops - ThinkPad - W Series - W520

 

Lenovo does mention "95% color gamut FHD" in the general description for W520, indicating this screen is (or eventually will be) available for W520. However, Lenovo does not label the FDH screen on the configuration page as "95% color gamut". I don't think this is an oversight on the part of Lenovo. Take a look at the configuration page for W510, you will see the difference. I talked to a sale representative about this, and he had no answer for that.

 

I'm sure it's a mistake. I'm like 99.99% sure they aren't shipping two different 1920x1080 panels. I don't think they ever have.

The W520 and W510 sitting in front of me look identical.

 

The W-series is built around the powerful dedicated CAD-optimized gpu. The T-series have very mediocre dedicated gpu's, aimed at relatively mundane pixel-pushing needs - for processing beyond the ability of the integrated gpu; and to take the load of graphics tasks, where possible, from the cpu. If you don't care about the gpu, then the difference is mainly the ram-stuffing ability of the W-series (only relevant for the few -mostly CAD-types, again), and 7-series cpu's only in the W-series.

If you want a quiet, power-stingy, office workhorse you would usually choose the T-series. But for operating grunt, CAD, pixel-pushing, in a smaller than 17" form factor, then choose the W-series every time (serious gamers would look elsewhere, though).The W's big brick is one of the more obvious consequences of the very hungry gpu, higher ram ceiling and maximum cpu's - and that they can all run along at maximum without the need to be throttled back. Nothing comes for nothing.

I have a W500 only because I couldn't get a T500 with a WUXGA screen. Now the T520 also offers the best available screens, I can pass on the bigger power brick, the power-hungry gpu, the much higher ram ceiling, the inevitably extra noise of more fan use, and the (usually) extra price of the new W520. But then I don't game or CAD, or need maximum processing grunt.