W500 vs T500

Hey I was just looking into the W500's GPU and the FireGL V5700 is based on the HD 3650 chip (which the T500 uses). I compared the specs of the two laptops and couldn't really find any differences other than the T500 having the LED WXGA screen while the W500 has a LCD WUXGA screen as options, the T500 having switchable graphics, Bluetooth 2.1 (as opposed to the W500's 2.0), and having the option for the "bay battery". Will there be any future upgrades that the W500 will have to make it stand out from the T500, since at this moment (to me), the W500 isn't worth getting over the T500 (unless there are differences in build quality or screen quality). Am I missing something here??

 

W500 has everything that T500 have,also the switchable card
you can get T9400+WXSGA++V5700 just a little bit more than the price of T500
Before the T500's price goes down, I cannot imagine a reason for choosing T500 instead of W500

 

bluetooth 2.0 or 2.1
make sense?
You buy a laptop not a iphone
How many times you can use the bluetooth?
How big the files you will transmit with bluetooth?
Not the best is the thing that you need most, just choose what you really need

 

I didn't know the W500 had switchable graphics since it wasn't advertised. Still the V5700 is based on the same 3650, so why pay more when you can get the same T9400 and WXSGA+ screen (unless you're using a program that is certified for a workstation card). The BT 2.1 is a small feature but a bonus nonetheless. The BT isn't something that would make or break my decision, so I'm not sure what you mean in your 2nd message?

 

a bt mouse and keyboard is a beautiful thing when docked. + u can synch a smartphone, and get wireless bt stereo music to a headset w/o extra stuff to haul around or connect.

 

Spoke with Lenovo Sales Rep. The Bay battery works for the w500 as well. Makes sense since it's pretty much the same laptop. I bought the W because I am going to school for Architecture next summer.

 

Can't you still do those things with 2.0?

 

Can any other W500 users confirm that the W500 has switchable graphics as lanxsworld pointed out? I'm still curious about the V5700 vs 3650 as they seem to be the same card...

And you can still do all those things w/ BT 2.0, hence why it's not that big a thing compared to BT 2.1, but since the W500 is supposedly the higher end model, I just thought it was weird that it did not have BT 2.1.

 

The W500 does have switchable graphics. I think it also says that in the lenovo datasheet.
Also, there was a thinkpad update last night that upgraded the bluetooth on the W500 to the 2.1 standard.

 

Thanks Bossmonkey. Did you choose the W500 over the T500 for the WUXGA screen?

 

That was one of the factors. Also, the day I got it, I got a huge discount with EPP pricing that made it much cheaper than the T500. I also do some cad work so the cad oriented video card is a definite bonus.

Btw, the WUXGA screen is quite nice. From what I have seen on the forums, most people that went with the WUXGA screen got a Samsung. So far, there don't seem to be any complains and I think this is one resolution that Samsung didn't screw up on .

 

But, isn't the battery life better on the T500, since the W500 has a T9400 CPU (35w vs 25w)?

 

You can get the T processors in the T500 and the P processors in the W500, so you won't necessarily get better battery life from a T500 over a W500. There was probably a reason behind his choice. Besides the TDP doesn't necessarily mean better battery life as that is rarely achieved.