Will Lenovo ever make a portable 17" workstation laptop

Since HP has gone over to chicklet keyboard with their workstation EliteBook, while Lenovo still has the good old great keyboard I wonder if Lenovo is ever going to make a portable 17" laptop.

They did one with their W700 but with over 4kg weight it was behind both HP and Dell when it came to sleekness.

W700 is discontinued and only 15" workstations are left. Is Lenovo ever going back in the game of 17" workstation laptops?

 

With so much stress put on weight and size I really dont see a reason why they would.

 

X2. They discontinued the W700 for a reason, not enough demand. With the power of the W520 and the FHD screen I'd really be surprised that they would ever need to create a larger 17" version.

 

Yep, I think the niche for 17" workstations is too small. If the usage can be handled by a 15" machine, the W520 is an adequate replacement (resolution would be the same as a 17" workstation), and if even greater performance is required, most users would turn to a desktop.

I think the original distinctions between the W500 and the W700 were the latter's quad-core support, built-in screen calibration tools, and available second display. Now that the W520 has the former two, I think Lenovo doesn't see the need for a distinct 17" workstation anymore.

 

Lenovo tends to kill models that don't sell well, and the M6x00 and 87x0 laptops offer more IMO than the W70x series could offer. W700/W701 are still 2500+ used, while you can get a used M6500/8740W for like 1100 these days. The competition has a standard 3 year warranty + On site, which I'm not sure W70x series had standard. Just too much competition IMO. Plus Lenovo came in late for 17" mobile workstations, always placing more investment in 15" mobile workstations.

 

W70x machines were too expensive, the W701ds that i got cost around $7500 AUD when it was released 18 months ago, far too much to sell at volume.

 

You want a big screen for a Lenovo laptop you just have to go with an external monitor. Not portable, but very cheap compared with what it costs Lenovo to manufacture 17" screens for a very small market.

 

I for one want a 17" x10 tall IPS display, best keyboard with numeric, and configurable bells & whistles. I don't care about weight because I don't expect to haul it around much. I'm probably less price sensitive than most because I don't price shop at Walmart or Best Buy. If I want portability I sacrifice the numeric for a x220 IPS.

The 520 is not a substitute with it's tiny screen and no numeric. I'm not some 21 year old excited about reading mouse print. Nor am I willing to scroll constantly back and forth to see my spreadsheet.

The Dell 6600 may well have to be my next 17" and if I do that I might as well switch over all the business PC's as they come up for replacement.

I've been loyal to IBM/Lenovo since ?'81 but now they got nothing. They are busy screwing around with consumer TV integration.

 

Since Circuit City and CompUSA closed, price-sensitive individuals have less reason to shop at Best Buy. But we still shop at Walmart.

 

But there are very few consumers like you who would pay the huge price premium for a 17" Thinkpad. Congrats that you do not have to shop at Wal-Mart, but Lenovo would be bleeding money if they didn't obey the simple rules of supply and demand.

I for one am glad Lenovo continues to be innovative and is straying into other areas such as televisions. It is an extremely large corporation, to stay in business that is what they continually have to do...innovate.

 

I had a 17" Macbook Pro previously. 1900x1200 gorgeous display and powerful as hell. I know Lenovo isn't Apple, but they could easily engineer a match to the MPB. I carried the MBP everywhere without issue and it handled everything I threw at it. I sold because I honestly prefer Windows, but miss it at times.

A W800 built thin and with a huge IPS HD matte display would be expensive, but possible and I'd be willing to bet there would be a surprisingly large market for such a beast.

 

My sentiment exactly, if the next generation W series does not have numpad and IPS, I am going to jump ship.

 

I'd buy a 17" W series as well. I wouldn't even consider a 15" W without the a number pad.

I asked about a 17" W on the webchat yesterday and the rep directly told me there wouldn't be any more 17" notebooks offered in the future. Hardly reliable info though, every other time I have asked they've said that they cant discuss future products etc. Also, last spring one of them told me the new 17" W series was going to be available in the summer.

 

The problem was that Lenovo couldn't compete with Dell or HP when it came to price and weight/performance. The W700 was a good laptop but too expensive and too heavy. If they want to create a 17" laptop they should have tried harder.

Also, the new W series without a numeric keypad looks ridiculous. So much real estate which isn't used up. Not having a numeric keypad is a deal breaker for me and many others.

 

after using the W701ds for a month or two, i find that the provision of numpad is not that important to me. But i guess for people whom work with numpad then it is an important addition.

 

The graphic card in the W520 is very weak compared to what you can find in a 17" workstation. Also the bigger systems have more storage options (you can get 3 HDDs in the HP and Dell 17" workstations). And, for some people (me), working in Full HD on a 15" display is not pleasant, and going to a lower resolution is not an option.

For some reason Lenovo doesn't seem to be able to get into the correct mindset for designing a mobile workstation.

The W520 seems to be a T-series model with a pro graphic card (and no numpad).
The W7xx had everything thrown inside (Wacom, calibrator etc) even if a lot of potential customers had absolutely no use for a Wacom, so it was insanely huge and heavy. Yet for all that size and weight, it had a minuscule trackpad and lacked eSATA (if I remember correctly).

I'm pretty sure the W7xx didn't sell, but it wasn't the fault of the market, it was the design of the system.

I'd be interested in a 17" W ThinkPad (I'm currently on an EliteBook 8760w), but again, Lenovo seems to not actually understand the needs of professionals looking for 17" systems.

 

I agree they have lost who their top end customers are and what they want.

Lenovo is clueless if they think they are going to take the TV market by storm. These are the same marketers that released a tablet that takes 24 hours to recharge. (I waited for Lenovo then bought IPads for maintenance group.) They also have IPhones because they work.

Apple has made impressive gains from their early graphic arts market, but they are still pretty and dainty.
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I like the innovations of the new Lenovo desktop multi-finger touch screen but I expect it to be matte and bright enough to compete in a sunlit office.

I want a 17" workstation because at times I want to take the kitchen sink along for an extended stay. I also expect it to be abused - dropped, spilled on, froze, overheated, zapped with electrical abuse and it continues to work...

 

it is important for people who work in finance.

And Especially important for multi-lingual who type Dvorak, because I can not use the embedded number pad.

 

so how you are getting by on your Tenkeyless keyboards?

 

I had a numberpad to go with my Filco. Plus I just bought a Realforce 104U from PCCasegear this week.

 

I have to agree for any kind of accounting or financial data entry and editing a 10 key is a MUST. I use an external keyboard when docked, and if I'm on the go I take a 6 dollar generic usb 10 key with me. Obviously there's no room on the 14" and 15", but I think they could've easily fit one on the W70*. But I think they didn't just to keep parts prices low by using the same keyboard across all models.