Daniel Davis wrote:Thank you so much for taking the time to answer in such depth. Per your description, I think I'll opt for the 701. Extra size and weight are not an issue for me, as 99% of the time, it will be sitting on my desktop at work...hooked to a large external flat panel screen...Samsung.
Questions:
1. Is the 1080 vs. 1200 horizontal resolution much of a difference? I'm used to the x41, so either should be a step up. I don't do CAD. I do some photo editing, but I'm satisfied with my x41's performance with that...so the 701 should be a step up.
2. The slot for the 2nd hard drive: can that be an after market drive, or does it have to come from Lenovo?
2a. Could I use the 2nd drive as the boot drive to load faster from an SSD?
3. What advantage would the 2nd screen on the 701 be?
4. You mentioned the "uni-model W701". What's that? Are you referring to the single-screen model by that reference?
5. If there are options regarding ram....how little is enough? I don't know what it comes with natively...but is the least configuration enough ram? I know "you can never have enough ram", but I don't do anything much that requires a lot of horsepower. I'm buying the faster machine so I can grow into it. My x41 is going on 4 or 5 years old. I've been running it 10 to 12 hours per professional day..and it hasn't missed a beat.
6. Is there a swivel-screen (tablet) version of the 701? If so, is it much more expensive?
7. Does the 701 come with the finger-touch screen?
8. You mentioned Lenovo specials. Can you direct me to the url that presents these? I've been to the Lenovo site and have seen their general marketing hype, but don't recall seeing a site where I can peruse offerings that are regularly updated.
Thanks again for your advice. I'm down now to a matter of hours before I make the call and order the thing.
Dan
1. Yes, it's that big of a diff. Bothers some more than others. Personally, I can't stand 1080(16:9), after having used 1200(16:10) for many years.
2. Any of the drives in these laptops can be from various manufacturers. Just be sure they're SATA, etc. I usually use 2.5" generic SATA laptop drives. Egghead/ebay, etc. browsing should get you up to speed. In the W700/W701, there are two internal slots for hard drives, each of which works just fine for whatever you want. Ultrabay is usually a bit slower(others can add comments here), so I'd recommend not using that slot for booting. Note, however, that F12 during boot will allow you to select any of these three slots for booting and will work if you have an opsys on that drive.
2a. SSD work great in any/all of the slots(up to 3 w/W70x + ultrabay caddy). Get an SSD w/laptop or migrate hard drive stuff to an SSD and boot from the SSD in one of the primary slots would be the fastest way to go.
3. Can't comment much on 2nd screen, as I don't have a W700ds. Supposedly for graphics/photo use; use small/2nd screen for app that tweaks pics/video on primary screen.
4.uni-monitor = W700/W701 with one screen only. 'ds' = models with 2nd screen.
5. Memory's cheap; buy more than you need. Start out with whatever you're using now and round up. W700 = 2 memory slots; W701 = 4 slots. 4G memory sticks available now, so W700=8G max, W701 = 16G max. Some combo of 1G, 2G, 4G sticks outa get you where you need to be.
6. no swivel; fixed screens only.
7. no touch screens, either.
8. There's a section on this board that deals with discounts & coupons, poke around there a bit. You just missed a big 20% off special last week on the outlet site. Usually some activity during the holidays and after 1st of year, so keep tabs on what's happening. If you logon here to this board, select 'newest posts', you'll usually see a heads up on super duper stuff.