ThinkPad W701 & W701ds

[Rochefort]

A few details on forthcoming Lenovo ThinkPad W701 & W701ds...very,very few HERE

[arretium]

Thanks for the update. I appreciate you sharing your information.

[Crunch]

Here you go with a link to CNET's Crave.

No IPS. Figured. Lame. LED is good. The FX3800 is a big jump from the FX3700...on the desktop anyway. Don't know if that's true for the FXM's...uh, I don't know, I guess I understrand why it's only a W70x update, instead of a W7x0.

Retaining 16:10 is good, unlike the W510's 16:9. Better screen for other reasons, such as 100% of the color gamut vs. 72%..."RGB LED"? lol...only 280nit on the brightness? That must be because of the W700's dual-CCFL need 400nit to be as bright as an LED LCD? eSATA, one USB 3.0...I like that...Back to UPEK for the fingerprint reader...good, the AuthenTec suxxed until very recently with a new software upgrade...and it's heavier, albeit not by much, than the W700! HAHA...

As for the CPU's that are not mentioned, but what does it matter. Probably four choices online between one Core i5, two Core i7, one Core i7 Extreme...

Starting price is only $2,000??? The W700 was wayyy over $3,000 if you did anything like add the 17" WUXGA display, if I remember correctly. And with 16GB, you can run it as a server...whoop-dee-doo!

MacBook Pro 17" WUXGA coming up next. I wish I could stay with the [censored] ThinkPad, but yet another disappointment by Lenovo...Let's see those specs drop.

[Rochefort]

W 700 Thickness : 1,6" or 41 mm
W 701 " " : 2,06" or 52,2 mm !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[archer6]

MacBook Pro 17" WUXGA coming up next.

Are you going to buy the present model or wait for Apple to release the upcoming Core i7 model? I have it on pretty good authority that Apple's present deal with Intel to provide them with a slighly different i7 chip, has the MacBook Pro refresh delayed at least another 30 to 90 days. They are already way overdue as compared to their normal product cycle.
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Cheers...

[Crunch]

W 700 Thickness : 1,6" or 41 mm
W 701 " " : 2,06" or 52,2 mm !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LOL...yea, and W701 is half a pound heavier and probably less battery life! haha...

[Crunch]

Are you going to buy the present model or wait for Apple to release the upcoming Core i7 model? I have it on pretty good authority that Apple's present deal with Intel to provide them with a slighly different i7 chip, has the MacBook Pro refresh delayed at least another 30 to 90 days. They are already way overdue as compared to their normal product cycle.
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Cheers...

Oh, I'm definitely going to wait. I'm not in a hurry. What do your sources say about the MBP's upcoming screens? iMac got IPS, iPad is getting IPS, so why not MBP, right?

[archer6]

Oh, I'm definitely going to wait. I'm not in a hurry. What do your sources say about the MBP's upcoming screens? iMac got IPS, iPad is getting IPS, so why not MBP, right?

In the category of "not so reliable info" I'm hearing that there are two rather stunning possibilities, which, if come true will blow a wide hole in the Lenovo company line regarding displays. First is that the new 15 & 17" MacBook Pros will feature the 16:10 format, second, they _will_ be IPS. There will be a hi-res choice for the 15" and the 17 will be WUXGA. Lastly they are reducing the price of SSD & Memory upgrades. Should these rumors materialize that should send shockwaves through the competition, and garner Apple plenty of MacBook Pro Orders. That said, even if they end up being fasle, the fact is that they expect the Mac variant of the Core i processors to have a different graphics chip implementation than the mainstream Core i chips as supplied to all other PC makers. All of this conjures up some very interesting food for thought. Finally the last rumor I have presently is the 17" will be ramped up to a highly intoxicating speed. At just 1" thick, fabricated out of a billet of aluminum, an inch wider than a T5xx ThinkPad & only 6.3lbs, THIS will be the 17" laptop of choice for many. Only time will tell....heh!
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Cheers...

[Rochefort]

Oh, I'm definitely going to wait. I'm not in a hurry.

Me too
I'm really disapointed by Lenovo
The W510 so wide lacks a numeric pad !
The W 701 is as bulky as the old TP 770 (1998) !!!!
I'm going to wait the HP 8750 w 17' keeping my old so nice T60p 15' FlexView with an USB3 ExpressCard some time more

[archer6]

I'm really disappointed by Lenovo
The W510 so wide lacks a numeric pad !
The W 701 is as bulky as the old TP 770 (1998) !!!!
I'm going to wait the HP 8750 w 17' keeping my old so nice T60p 15' FlexView with an USB3 ExpressCard some time more

Fortunately I choose to stay extremely close to developing trends in the laptop sector. Thus I heard about the impending loss of IPS equipped ThinkPads early on. Thus I ordered two new 15" 4:3 IPS WSXGA+ T60's, and two 15" 4:30 IPS WUXGA T60p's... as I use a workstation class machine for my work. I've taken great care with these and intend to see just how long I can keep them running to my satisfaction as they are without a doubt my favorites of all the ThinkPads I have.
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That said I remain open minded about other brands and have found thru personal experience with the best HP's that unfortunately they are sadly lacking in the support department, and the online resources (drivers, info, etc) is woefully thin as compared to IBM/Lenovo. This is merely a reflection of the many years of experience that has gone into the ThinkPad brand. Whereas HP is young when it comes to this class of machine. Same thing applies to Dell and some others. I'm not suggesting that I do not like their products, however there is a significant difference. It leaves one wondering just where to go if Lenovo fails to get a grip on what their loyal long time ThinkPad customers expect.
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Cheers...

[Vempele]

You ordered them when the trend was to add a W to 4:3 resolutions without actually making the screen wide yet?

[archer6]

Oops, that was a typo (error) on my part..ha..ha.. How quickly I've already become used to using the prefix W when expressing resolutions. Thanks for noticing that!
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Cheers...

[AMATX]

In the category of "not so reliable info" I'm hearing that there are two rather stunning possibilities, which, if come true will blow a wide hole in the Lenovo company line regarding displays. First is that the new 15 & 17" MacBook Pros will feature the 16:10 format, second, they _will_ be IPS. There will be a hi-res choice for the 15" and the 17 will be WUXGA. Lastly they are reducing the price of SSD & Memory upgrades. Should these rumors materialize that should send shockwaves through the competition, and garner Apple plenty of MacBook Pro Orders. That said, even if they end up being fasle, the fact is that they expect the Mac variant of the Core i processors to have a different graphics chip implementation than the mainstream Core i chips as supplied to all other PC makers. All of this conjures up some very interesting food for thought. Finally the last rumor I have presently is the 17" will be ramped up to a highly intoxicating speed. At just 1" thick, fabricated out of a billet of aluminum, an inch wider than a T5xx ThinkPad & only 6.3lbs, THIS will be the 17" laptop of choice for many. Only time will tell....heh!
.
Cheers...

Well, fill me in a bit, please. Is it at all practical/feasible to load a MacBook with Windows 7 ?? Seems I vaguely recall a while back Apple opening up their platform.

I don't follow Apple products at all, but I'd be willing to take a look at one of their whiz bang laptops if I could -easily- get Windows on it.

Don't need details, but could someone chime in about the real life practicality of Windows on a Mac?

Thx...

[Marin85]

Well, fill me in a bit, please. Is it at all practical/feasible to load a MacBook with Windows 7 ??

Some folks say Windows runs even better on Macs than on PCs

[zekeblue]

Some folks say Windows runs even better on Macs than on PCs

I think it has been true that you could run windows natively on Macs since Apple started using Intel processors instead of Motorola.

I'm curious though if the trackpad will operate with multitouch with a windows driver instead of the mac driver. Similarly if there are any other driver/hardware issues running Win 7 only on a macbook.

[Crunch]

I think it has been true that you could run windows natively on Macs since Apple started using Intel processors instead of Motorola.

I'm curious though if the trackpad will operate with multitouch with a windows driver instead of the mac driver. Similarly if there are any other driver/hardware issues running Win 7 only on a macbook.

You mean AMD, yes. And Windows 7 is officially supported by Apple, and BootCamp, which makes it possible, was recently updated to include full Windows 7 32-bit and 64-bit support.

Some folks say Windows runs even better on Macs than on PCs

You're not kidding. That is correct. I've asked this question in Apple forums and got exactly that answer. Just like OS X works on a ThinkPad. The difference is that Apple doesn't want OS X to run on non-Apple hardware. I use it quite a bit since I installed it on my W700. iLife and iWork are great software suites, and they install and work just fine. I love OS's, so I simply had to have that haha...Plus, it will get me ready for when that IPS drops.

I do prefer Windows, though, and it must work just like it does on my ThinkPad's for me to go ahead with this.

(...)First is that the new 15 & 17" MacBook Pros will feature the 16:10 format, second, they _will_ be IPS. There will be a hi-res choice for the 15" and the 17 will be WUXGA.

Yyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeessssssssssssssssssssssssssssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It would only make sense. The iMac's got IPS at 21.5" and 27", respectively, and the iPad will get it at 9.7", so why not in between at 15" and/or 17". The current 17" WUXGA MBP's already have better displays than Lenovo because they're LED and not CCFL. Now that we'll have LED on most ThinkPads, Apple can be ahead again by adding IPS to the already present LED backlight. iMac's and iPad's all have/will have LED as well as IPS.

Thank you, archer6! You just made my day! I know it's not a 100% certain, but something tells me that's how it shall be. lol...The details are too specific, and the iPhone will also get an "A+ update" (Steve Jobs quote), i.e. high-res. screen, hopefully WVGA or better with AMOLED (or at least OLED) screen technology. If you watch their iMac and iPad promo videos, they focus on their amazing screens, in both products.

By the way, the W700, and the W701's specs says it will, too, have 2 hours worth of battery life! HHAHAHHA...Because it's so biiiig, and has so many features, it's just unavoidable...really? No, not really. The 17" WUXGA MacBook Pro has EIGHT (8) HOURS, so FOUR TIMES more battery life, and it is also over 2 pounds LIGHTER! Where's that "immaculate, superb build quality" that you inherited, Lenovo? I can barely take all the typo's, inaccuracies, falsehoods, and poor grammar on Lenovo's marketing material, its website, and online store.

In 11 years, I haven't had anything other than ThinkPads. No desktops. No other laptops. When I had a second laptop, it was a Thinkpad. Like is the case with my T60p now. And I would MUCH rather get the W701 than a MBPro, even with the underwhelming update, but if I'm really going to get my wish from Apple, I will make me switch. Hopefully, in 3-4 years down the road, I'll be able to come back.

[Rochefort]

>>> Archer6 & Crunch
"...It leaves one wondering just where to go if Lenovo fails to get a grip on what their loyal long time ThinkPad customers expect."
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As Crunch, since 1998 all my computing life is with Thinkpads which I love the black classic design along the "still" quality, my first one was a TP 380 and my best beloved was a 600E ,its quality IMHO was never matched even by my T42p screen apart (my 600 has 2,5 MB of graphic memory ! )
I can only use trackpoints which leaves me in front of Lenovo, HP,DELL.
The W701 is too high'n bulky,the W 510 has no numeric pad(but wide loudspeakers) ...I'll wait for some more time ... looking around

[Asphalt]

I made the switch to a unibody-generation 17-inch WUXGA MacBook Pro to replace my T43p (1600x1200 IPS) - now I'm switching back to a W510 (currently on order) and the MacBook Pro is going on Craigslist.

My reasons:

• TrackPoint is far more efficient and accurate than the MacBook Pro touchpad - I had to buy a mouse because doing any fine drawing or 3D work with the touchpad is like painting with a club. I tried using an external Thinkpad keyboard with the MacBook Pro, but couldn't get the Apple/Command key mapped properly. There are a couple nice features with the multi-touch pad like 4-finger swipe to switch apps and pinch to zoom, but I find that I lose too much time moving my hands away from the keyboard to move the mouse pointer.
• The MacBook Pro chiclet Keyboard is slower for typing. It looks nice, but the flat keys make it easy for fingers to slip when typing quickly. Also the edges of the keys feels exactly the same as the raised bumps on F and J, which makes finding the home typing position harder - exasperated by the fact that you have to constantly move your hands off of home position to use the touchpad. The keyboard combined with the TrackPoint on the T43p makes me at least 20% more efficient over a day of work.
• Color profiling on the MacBook Pro is a pain in the @$$. Draw a rectangle and fill it with a known color, use the eye dropper tool to sample the same rectangle and it's a different color! I wasted many hours on forums and try to fix this with various profile settings, but nothing worked. On my T43p color profiling has never been a problem.
• Adobe Flash Professional CS4 (not the Flash Player plugin) crashes often on the Mac. This is not Apple's fault, but it does affect my work-flow. Never had this problem on Windows/Thinkpad.
• Palm rest on the MacBook Pro gets very hot.

[AMATX]

Thanks for the update(s). I can get by fine w/Lenovo, but the chic factor of the Mac does warrant a look.
Minor incompatibilities do add up, so unlikely I'd do a Mac swap anytime soon. Kinda neat notebooks, though.

I took a quick look at the Apple website and on ebay and noticed that Apple sure prices their stuff at a premium. I'm not enamored enough w/Steve Jobs to wanna fork over $$ for the 'privilege'

[Crunch]

[*]TrackPoint is far more efficient and accurate than the MacBook Pro touchpad - I had to buy a mouse because doing any fine drawing or 3D work with the touchpad is like painting with a club. I tried using an external Thinkpad keyboard with the MacBook Pro, but couldn't get the Apple/Command key mapped properly. There are a couple nice features with the multi-touch pad like 4-finger swipe to switch apps and pinch to zoom, but I find that I lose too much time moving my hands away from the keyboard to move the mouse pointer.
[*]The MacBook Pro chiclet Keyboard is slower for typing. It looks nice, but the flat keys make it easy for fingers to slip when typing quickly. Also the edges of the keys feels exactly the same as the raised bumps on F and J, which makes finding the home typing position harder - exasperated by the fact that you have to constantly move your hands off of home position to use the touchpad. The keyboard combined with the TrackPoint on the T43p makes me at least 20% more efficient over a day of work.
[*]Color profiling on the MacBook Pro is a pain in the @$$. Draw a rectangle and fill it with a known color, use the eye dropper tool to sample the same rectangle and it's a different color! I wasted many hours on forums and try to fix this with various profile settings, but nothing worked. On my T43p color profiling has never been a problem.
[*]Adobe Flash Professional CS4 (not the Flash Player plugin) crashes often on the Mac. This is not Apple's fault, but it does affect my work-flow. Never had this problem on Windows/Thinkpad.
[*]Palm rest on the MacBook Pro gets very hot.[/list]

Yikes...I've been concerned about the TrackPoint as well. I know IBM started adding the touchpad for those who prefer it over the Trackpoint. I spent some time in an Apple store recently and tried to get acquainted with the Mac's version of the touchpad. I couldn't. lol...Granted, I need to give it a better shot than that, but I also have to keep in mind that I have not ever used anything other than my beloved trackpoint. And I have it set to move pretty fast, too. My girlfriend is one of those odd people who claim they "hate" that "little red dot". Hate? Really? I tried to finetune it for her, but no, she had to have her mouse. (I should have given her one of those cheap Compaq pieces of (yea, that) that what, glow in the dark and has flashy keys, or maybe suggested treatment for Oppositional Defiance Disorder)

The legendary keyboards on the Thinkpad are another reason as to why I've stayed loyal to the brand over the years. The pinch-to-zoom, while very useful on the iPhone, feels like more of a novelty feature on a Mac to show off to your friends all the great (but ultimately not that useful) features. There are times when I like to be braggadocios about my Thinkpad, too: "Feel that smooth titanium composite cover. You only get that on a high-end Thinkpad, you know." "...Uh, I'm sorry, but I didn't actually want you to touch my ThinkPad, ...mom. Just look at how it sparkles from afar"

Combined with the lack of the Trackpoint, this may cause my computing experience to be considerably less enjoyable. Then again, if Apple does come out with IPS...darn it, we shouldn't have to make decisions like this. We paid our dues, and them some.

[archer6]

Great posts everyone. I too find the TrackPoint of my much loved ThinkPad a true "must have", along with the stellar keyboards I have become so accustomed to over the years. That said, there are so many disappointments in the current "Lenovo climate" and the way things seem to be headed, that it does remind one that we are truly in a new era of uncertainty with the ThinkPad brand. While it's compelling to discuss other brands when one is watching the changes in Lenovo, it's also hard to imagine migrating away. Why is it that Apple continues to offer 16:10 when Lenovo is now forcing 16:9 on us? While it could be argued that the MacBook Pro has not changed in over 246 days (who's counting..ha..ha..) The real test will come with it's impending refresh to include the Intel Core i series processors. Stay tuned boys & girls, this promises to be interesting to say the least.
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Cheers...

[Rochefort]

>>> Archer 6
"... it's also hard to imagine migrating away..."
******************
Right
but it's also very hard to understand the Lenovo selling politic almost if you're living in Europe. Very few models avaliable that we pay 40% more than in the US(same price in € than in $ ) .
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>>> Crunch
"...My girlfriend is one of those odd people who claim they "hate" that "little red dot"..."
*******************************
How strange !!?!
Generally girls love trackpoints users

[Asphalt]

Yikes...I've been concerned about the TrackPoint as well. I know IBM started adding the touchpad for those who prefer it over the Trackpoint. I spent some time in an Apple store recently and tried to get acquainted with the Mac's version of the touchpad. I couldn't. lol...Granted, I need to give it a better shot than that, but I also have to keep in mind that I have not ever used anything other than my beloved trackpoint.

I tried my best to get accustomed to the MacBook Pro multi-touchpad too, forcing myself to use it for a month in order to get better at it. My conclusion was that either fingers are not as precise as pointers or the multi-touchpad is not sensitive enough. You can modify the resolution, but then it takes multiple strokes to get the pointer across the entire screen (I prefer my TrackPoint at the fastest movement setting). This is an issue when you're trying to do things like rotate 3D objects because you have to pick up your finger, reposition your finger and click & drag again (which can mean losing your selection in certain 3D apps).

An additional consideration with the multi-touchpad on the MacBook Pro is that you need to physically press the whole pad down in order to register a click. It is not like the capacitive "virtual" touch click on the iPhone. The whole pad is hinged on it's top edge making clicks very difficult near the top and much easier towards the bottom. This negatively affects vertical scrolling, again an issue with rotating 3D objects. As you click and drag upwards eventually you can't hold the click down as you approach the hinge. Apple's workaround to this vertical scrolling issue is 2-finger scrolling, but not many 3rd-party applications support this yet - particularly troublesome with 3D apps.

I've ordered a W510 with multitouch screen, so I figure I'm getting the best of both worlds - TrackPoint for accuracy and multitouch when I need to develop touchscreen apps.

[archer6]

I tried my best to get accustomed to the MacBook Pro multi-touchpad too, forcing myself to use it for a month in order to get better at it. My conclusion was that either fingers are not as precise as pointers or the multi-touchpad is not sensitive enough. You can modify the resolution, but then it takes multiple strokes to get the pointer across the entire screen (I prefer my TrackPoint at the fastest movement setting). This is an issue when you're trying to do things like rotate 3D objects because you have to pick up your finger, reposition your finger and click & drag again (which can mean losing your selection in certain 3D apps).

An additional consideration with the multi-touchpad on the MacBook Pro is that you need to physically press the whole pad down in order to register a click. It is not like the capacitive "virtual" touch click on the iPhone. The whole pad is hinged on it's top edge making clicks very difficult near the top and much easier towards the bottom. This negatively affects vertical scrolling, again an issue with rotating 3D objects. As you click and drag upwards eventually you can't hold the click down as you approach the hinge. Apple's workaround to this vertical scrolling issue is 2-finger scrolling, but not many 3rd-party applications support this yet - particularly troublesome with 3D apps.

Very well described, I could not agree more!
While I've had several PowerBooks & now a few MacBook Pros, including the new 17"MBP I just bought, I've never used them for work, or even as my sole laptop. I like them for a fun alternative used for personal stuff.
There is nothing that comes remotely close to a ThinkPad TrackPoint. Not even the other brands that offer trackpoints. I've tried them all and there is nothing other than a ThinkPad WorkStation Class Machine that will satisfy me.
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Cheers...

[Rochefort]

There is nothing that comes remotely close to a ThinkPad TrackPoint. Not even the other brands that offer trackpoints. I've tried them all and there is nothing other than a ThinkPad WorkStation Class Machine that will satisfy me.
.
Cheers...

Even the HP trackpoints ?

[arretium]

I tried my best to get accustomed to the MacBook Pro multi-touchpad too, forcing myself to use it for a month in order to get better at it. My conclusion was that either fingers are not as precise as pointers or the multi-touchpad is not sensitive enough. You can modify the resolution, but then it takes multiple strokes to get the pointer across the entire screen (I prefer my TrackPoint at the fastest movement setting). This is an issue when you're trying to do things like rotate 3D objects because you have to pick up your finger, reposition your finger and click & drag again (which can mean losing your selection in certain 3D apps).

An additional consideration with the multi-touchpad on the MacBook Pro is that you need to physically press the whole pad down in order to register a click. It is not like the capacitive "virtual" touch click on the iPhone. The whole pad is hinged on it's top edge making clicks very difficult near the top and much easier towards the bottom. This negatively affects vertical scrolling, again an issue with rotating 3D objects. As you click and drag upwards eventually you can't hold the click down as you approach the hinge. Apple's workaround to this vertical scrolling issue is 2-finger scrolling, but not many 3rd-party applications support this yet - particularly troublesome with 3D apps.

I've ordered a W510 with multitouch screen, so I figure I'm getting the best of both worlds - TrackPoint for accuracy and multitouch when I need to develop touchscreen apps.

Chalk up another used to the trackpoint. I can't stand the touchpad. I don't get why it's the norm on most laptops. It takes more space and it's not as efficient as a trackpoint. Getting a trackpoint is a key reason we are looking at the Lenovos. If they didn't have those, I'm not sure we'd be seriously thinking of purchasing them.

Are we still on target for a Feb 25th release for the W710/W701??

[Rochefort]

W 700 Thickness : 1,6" or 41 mm
W 701 " " : 2,06" or 52,2 mm !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Erratum
W 700 & W 701= same size
2,06" is for W700/701 ds.....it's high enough

[Crunch]

Anybody who is worried about the 16:10 format disappearing on the to-be-imminently-released W701 can relax. It will definitively remain 16:10. I would imagine that the reason for the numbering on the W series models is that the W510 is considerably more of a departure from its W500 cousin, while the W701 is basically the W700 with fewer radical differences, such as the 16:9 format, which so many of us here seem to detest.

As for the MBP's touchpad, yes, comparing it to the touch screen of the iPhone is a good analogy. The MBP reminds me more of the BlackBerry Storm, both 1 and 2, which also requires the user to press down harder in order to register a click.

The MacBook's refresh about every 200 days on average, and they are currently "overdue" at 250+ days past their last update. Well, Apple has been busy with the iPad and the iPhone, which now generate more cash for the company than all Mac's combined! Besides promising an "A+ update for the iPhone" this year" which "Google won't be able to beat", he also promised "an exceptional upgrade" on the MacBook front. We all know that both the W701 and the 17" WUXGA MBP will have several Core i7 options, but I guess we may find out as early as tomorrow what will be in the W701 besides the leaked info regarding the option for as much as 16GB DDR3 RAM, one USB 3.0 port, one eSATA, Quadro FX 2800/FX 3800, respectively, both with 1GB of GDDR3 RAM this time around, and, perhaps most important, the retention of the 16:10 ratio on the screen.

Speaking of the screen...lol...here I go again with IPS, which we now know that we will not get on the W701, but at least it will have LED back-lighting, 100% (vs 72%) of the color gamut on the WUXGA option, and whatever we are to make of the "RGB LED" what, super duper screen?

Either way, I, for one, will wait for the MBP 17" WUXGA to refresh before making a decision, but I will be selling my W700 tomorrow morning, also, either way.

[Rochefort]

You can download HERE the last Tabook which includes W 701'n ds

[arretium]

Still no 701 on Lenovo's website that we can custom and configure. I'm still waiting.