Difference between the W541 and the W550s

[StevenD]

Hi. Now that the trackpoint buttons have returned, I'm thinking again of upgrading my T60p, despite the too-high resolution of the current IPS displays. As far as I can tell, the main difference between the 541 and the 550s is that the 541 has a bay for a CD/DVD drive, and the 550s does not. Can anyone provide some enlightenment?
Thanks.

[ajkula66]

W541 is a W540 with trackpoint buttons and an updated CPU.

W550s is a full-size ultrabook with 2 RAM slot instead of 4 and different choice of CPUs from what I'm to understand.

[lead_org]

W550s uses ultra low voltage CPU from the ultrabook range and uses 65 watts power adapter, also the gpu is slightly weaker. While the W541 is the exterior updated version of the W540. It is designed with portability in mind. The build quality is similar to the T450s, which I like more than the W540 chassis material choice.

PS. I was told the W550s quadro sits between K1100m and K2100m in terms of processing power.

[jdrou]

PS. I was told the W550s quadro sits between K1100m and K2100m in terms of processing power.

According to notebookcheck it should be roughly equivalent to GeForce 840M. Based on that the DX11 performance is in that range but DX9 and DX10 are lower than K1100m (this is common for new GPUs). They don't have any actual Quadro K620m benchmarks yet.

Hopefully we'll see T450p/T550p in a few months with GeForce 940M as was suggested in another thread. I'd expect that to outperform the K620m.

[Ibthink]

I already have my W550s, so if you want to see any benchmarks, I can do them^^

[jdrou]

I already have my W550s, so if you want to see any benchmarks, I can do them^^

The OP might like to see them but personally the low-power CPU removed any interest I might have had in W550s. Pretty sure I won't be buying anything until the full-power Broadwells appear (or Skylake).

[StevenD]

Thanks for the benchmarking offer, but I was really more interested in accessories, ports, and of course the return of the trackpoint buttons. I'm also hoping the next iteration of Windows will handle high-resolution displays better.

[Saucey]

I already have my W550s, so if you want to see any benchmarks, I can do them^^

Please, do tell your first impressions.

[Ibthink]

Ok

- Build Quality: Very solid, nearly as good as the T440s. No flex, no creaking etc. - feels even more durable. T440s had nicer material though (W550s is mainly made out of Glass Fiber with a Magnesium structure frame, and palmrest feels more like ordinary plastic, T440s is made out of Magnesium (base unit) with a Magnesium roll cage, and Carbon fiber, and more "rubberized")

- Keyboard: Same as the T440s, very good. I have the Chicony backlit keyboard though, which gets dirty very fast. I think I will buy a LiteOn one in the future to replace it....

- Display: The FHD++ Display is brilliant - never had such a sharp display in a ThinkPad. Much better than both of the FHD IPS screens in the T440s. Black is black, color saturation is good, as is the brightness. Makes fun

- Battery life: No real test, yet, but it seems possible to get roughly 7-8 hrs (with the 3 + 3 cell battery) while doing casual work/web surfing - should double with the 6 cell battery

- Performance: Feels just as fast as the T440s (which had an Haswell i5), but the GPU is much better of course. Slightly older games play very nice with it

- Noise/Temperature: Its really cool and quiet - only if you use the GPU, the fan kicks in faster

- Really wish Lenovo had not gone back to the dedicated buttons, but instead improved on the ClickPad design^^ But I guess I am alone on this one.

These are some of my early impressions...