Just received new W500 - First Impressions

[diegot]

I received my ThinkPad W500 a few days ago. This is a great notebook! I thought I would give my 2 cents for anyone considering this model.

Performance:
The powerful T9900 handles most challenging jobs with ease. Extensive compilations, db jobs and other CPU bound operations run smoothly.
This machine coupled with an Intel x25m SSD (third-party) really shines. Boots up in under 20 seconds and most applications open almost instantaneously. Everything reacts extremely well.

Display:
I was a bit nervous about the screen brightness after reading so many negative comments regarding the WUXGA 175 nits screen. I was almost persuaded to choose the WSXGA+ but I am glad I didn't. The screen looks beautiful at full brightness and definitely appears brighter than what the specs suggest. Text is sharp and readable at 120DPI. I work with it several hours a day without straining my eyes. The brightness is more than adequate for any indoor situation, and color accuracy and contrast are exceptional. I have a much brighter Asus N80Vn with a WXGA LED screen but the contrast is terrible and the viewing angles are even worse. So far I am loving the ThinkPad screen. My main use for this notebook is software development so I am not too concerned about the gaming performance on the V5700 card. However, it is great to have for light CAD use and 3D development via OpenGL or Direct3D.

Keyboard:
The keyboard does have a slight flex on the left side as others have noted. This, however, is only noticeable if you are a very fast typist with a heavy touch. For normal typing the keyboard is solid with the traditional Thinkpad feel.

Wireless:
The WIFI range is good. The Intel 5300 connects quickly and picks up signals where other HP and Dell models would not even recognize.
Bluetooth works as expected. I connected a smartphone, mouse and GPS without problems.
I have not tried the Gobi 3G card yet. WAN reception seems good but I do not have a plan to test it yet.

Battery Life:
I have a 6cell and a 9cell battery. I get 3:30 hours with the 6cell using the embedded graphics card. Switching to discrete graphics reduces life by 30 minutes approximately. (WAN off and DVD-R off). The 9cell gets about 5 hours w/ discrete graphics enabled.

Noise and Heat:
Aside from a fan-less netbook, this is the quietest notebook I have ever used. Obviously, the SDD makes a difference but even with the regular 5400RPM hard drive it came with, the sound is almost imperceptible. After a couple of hours with the discrete graphics card, the GPU fan kicked in and it was barely audible.
The heat dissipation is also as impressive. Even while charging the notebook the bottom remained cool to the touch. Most sensor diodes remained below 55C after several (4-5) hours of use.

The manufacture date from the serial number indicates 11/2009. From my experience it looks like most issues other users have experienced have been ironed out. I am extremely happy with my purchase and highly recommend the W500 to anyone looking for an all around, powerful & high quality notebook.

Full Configuration:

44C6209 SBB I.CR2DUO PR T9900(3.06GHZ
45M3088 VBB GENWIN7ULTIMATE64
45M3684 SBB GEN WIN 7 ULT 64 US EN
44C1925 SBB 15.4 WUXGA TFT
44C1922 SBB ATIMBLITYFGLV5700W/512VR
42X6309 VBB 4GBPC3-8500 1067MHZ2DIMM
42X6355 SBB KYB US ENGLISH
44C1927 SBB ULTNV(TR.P.+TOUCHPAD)+FIN
44C1917 VBB INTEGRATED CAMERA
44C1931 SBB DVD REC8XMAXDUL.ULT.S.SATA
42X6311 VBB EXPR.CARDSLOT/SMARTCSLOT
62P6054 VBB INTEGR.BLUETOOTH PAN
42X6325 SBB INT.WIFI LINK5300
45M3150 SBB INTEGATNTGOBI1MOB.BROA.3G
39T6651 SBB 9 CELL LI-ION BATTERY
39T6442 SBB COUNTRY PACK NORTH AMERICA
45M3942 SBB LANGUAGE PACK US.ENGLISH
41C9169 2YR Depot


Obviously, If you can wait, the W510 model maybe released in Q1 2010 hopefully offering a WUXGA RGB-LED screen like the beautiful Dell Studio XPS16 coupled with a speed i7 Quad. Otherwise, if you need something now and need a more budget conscious model, the T400 or T500 might be a good choice without much sacrifice.

[Rochefort]

Congratulations for your new baby
Is your Intel SSD a 2,5' or a 1,8' ?
Can you post a bench of your SSD (CrystalDiskMark 2.2 for instance) ?
According to the Tabook, the T/W Series has a 2,5 SATA 150 or a 1,8' SATA 300
Thanks a lot

[diegot]

I'll post some benchmarks soon.
I have a 2.5" drive.
It is operating at SATA 300.

Thanks.

[diegot]

Last night I updated the firmware of my Intel X25-M G2 SSD to the latest with TRIM support (02HD). Fortunately Intel appeared to have solved the corruption issues that plagued the 02HA firmware under Win7 x64 and even bricked some drives.

Mode: SATA AHCI with Write Caching Enabled.
The drive is working in SATA II /300 mode. Lenovo locks their hard drives firmware in SATA I even though the board in the T500/W500 and others supports SATA II. If you get a third party drive you will overcome this limitation.
Here are some of the results:

img]http://lh6.ggpht.com/_ZpMbtK9NYmk/SxZ2m ... dbench.jpg[/img]

Thanks,

[Harendra Fernando]

I received my ThinkPad W500 a few days ago. This is a great notebook! I thought I would give my 2 cents for anyone considering this model.

Hi Diegot, Congratulations for your new Machine!

By the way I have a question about the screen settings as I too have W500. You replied to me a few weeks ago.

I set the resolution of my WUXGA (W500) screen to 1900x1200 and, 60Hz refresh rate and DIP to 120.

The fonts are sharp and nice but they are too small. Hence I increased the font size to large and extra large, still the fonts small. Could you please recommend me any other adjustment?
I also checked with 96DPI and it was even smaller.

Thanks,
Fernando

[diegot]

Can't edit the previous post anymore, the benchmark image is not showing.


Fernando,
You can also increase the font size of the menus.
Personalize -> Window Color -> Advanced Appearance Settings.
They default to 8pt, I changed most of them to 10 or 12 and they are very readable to me.

Hope that helps.
Diego.

[Rochefort]

Thanx for yours benches
For a T60 SATA 150 ICH7 AHCI Intel X25E 32 GB
--------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 2.2 (C) 2007-2008 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
--------------------------------------------------

Sequential Read : 133.385 MB/s
Sequential Write : 129.935 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 126.209 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 124.153 MB/s
Random Read 4KB : 15.942 MB/s
Random Write 4KB : 31.426 MB/s

Test Size : 100 MB
Date : 2009/12/14 19:27:18
*************************************
AS SSD Benchmark 1.2.3517.12763
------------------------------
Name: SSDSA2SH032G1GN INTEL
Firmware:
Interface: IDE
Size: 29,80 GB
Date: 14/12/2009 19:36:17
------------------------------
Sequential:
------------------------------
Read: 131,38 MB/s
Write: 86,78 MB/s
------------------------------
4K:
------------------------------
Read: 15,15 MB/s
Write: 24,22 MB/s
------------------------------
4K-64Threads:
------------------------------
Read: 96,03 MB/s
Write: 79,69 MB/s
------------------------------
Access Times:
------------------------------
Read: 0,232 ms
Write: 0,143 ms
------------------------------
Score:
------------------------------
Read: 124
Write: 113
Total: 304
------------------------------