W530: 90 watt brick OK? 4G OK? Color Sensor?

Three questions about the W530:

1. So it comes with a huge power brick. Will it run with the old-style 90 watt bricks (even if at reduced power)? I have a brick and a mouse set up on three different desks, plus a set for my briefcase. Not eager to buy three new bricks to replace them.

2. Some Lenovo models give options for Verizon LTE and the Gobi 4000. Is the W530 also set up for the current best service (without need of a USB stick), or only for 3G?

3. Has anyone made sense of the option to purchase "no color sensor" or "no color sensor with bezel" and if so, please describe how the color sensor works to achieve color matching.

Thanks.

 

From what I've read on the Lenovo forums, the notebook will charge with the 90W adapter if it's not doing anything strenuous, but if you do anything intensive, then the notebook can easily use more than 90W at a time, which would prevent it from charging.

I don't know about the Gobi 4000.

The process for getting the color sensor is rather convoluted at the moment. As I understand it, you have to first select the bezel option and then go back to the UltraNav section and you can select either no fingerprint scanner, just the fingerprint scanner, or the scanner and the color sensor.

 

Thanks for the reply.

On the brick issue: I use the laptop for mainstream document creation, photo editing, and page layout. MS Word, Adobe Photoshop and InDesign. I watch a lot of flash and similar video. Lots of web browsing. But almost never watch Hollywood-type movies. I never use it for action games.

So let me ask: is the big new brick still 20 volts, and does it have the same connector as the previous yellow connector on the 90-watt bricks?

 

spoke to sales rep yesterday - the color sensor is not yet available. It is "expected" sometime in July. The bezel option will give you a slot to purchase the and insert the color sensor as an upgrade.

Choosing the bezel option also allows you to configure a cheaper system (you can select the SmartCard-less reader and also forgo the fingerprint reader, a mere USD 30 in savings but useful to some = ) )

 

No. The 170W AC adapter has a keyed barrel. There is a close-up comparative picture at http://msinetpub.vo.llnwd.net/d1/keithcombs/blog/images/Lenovo-ThinkPad-W520--_F3DA/connect.jpg.

You can only use the 90W charger when the machine is turned off.

 

I wouldn't really count on using that thing regularly with a 90W brick. Even my W510 which comes with a standard brick of only a 130W feels weird and jerky on 90W (but not on battery alone). And it must be something hardwired in the BIOS because I'm not using any lenovo power manager or anything.

 

Ignoring the keyed connector for the moment and just looking at battery life...

Can the W530 be set to intel HD4000 graphics only? If so, is there any reason the W530, when set to HD4000 integrated graphics, would inherently use more power than a T530?

Do you suspect the motherboards are nearly the same except for the discrete graphics that they accept?

Is it simple to switch to integrated graphics when on the go, for those occasions when battery life is more important? If not set to integrated only, does it not try to automatically switch between integrated and discrete as needed?

By the way, does the W530 come with a Thunderbolt port?

 

No Thunderbolt port. Integrated graphics is automatically switched on by default. Only when a program requires the extra GPU power is the nVidia card turned on, so don't worry about that.