Thinkpads Forum

I have found a Lenovo W520 4276-37U and am considering it to replace an older t61p. What specs do I need to look for in a W520? Such as video card, screen type etc. It the 4276-37U a desirable model for the 520?

That particular W520 came with the following specs from factory:
i7-2720QM(2.2GHz) 8GB RAM 500GB 7200rpm HD 15.6in 1920x1080 LCD 2GB Nvidia Quadro 1000M CDRW/DVDRW Intel 802.11agn WWAN option Bluetooth Modem 1Gb Ethernet UltraNav Secure Chip FPR Camera 9c Li-Ion Win7 Pro 64

Generally, I would look for one with a quad core (which your one does) and 1080p screen, and if you do any 3d modeling, the quadro 2000m. RAM and SSDs are pretty cheap and really easy to upgrade, so that shouldn't be a big factor. Also, no IPS displays were available at the time, but the 1080p screen is still very nice.


Note if you want to be able to display native 4K screens @60Hz, then you must get a W530. You can then perform a classic keyboard swap and custom BIOS update.

Just a head's up: the W520 came with a wide gamut screen, which looks a lot better if it is calibrated.
There are a lot of folks who buy these and then get upset because the screen looks too saturated
to them, but it's an issue which is easily dealt with.

Some W520s came with integral color calibrators, but if you're running Windows, you might
get acceptable results simply by making sure that you have the right profile installed for your display.

You can also find plenty of calibration profiles on this forum, the lenovo, and notebookreview forums to try out.

I wouldn't recommend using the built in calibrators on equipped W models. Although I don't have one myself, many have reported that they are junk.