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Lenovo's New ThinkPad Has 2 LCD Screens, Weighs 11 Pounds
ericatcw writes "With many users now used to having multiple monitors at home or work, you had to figure someone would try to offer a 'desktop replacement' laptop that offered the same. Lenovo is the first. Its new W700ds laptop will offer a 10.6 inch LCD screen in addition to the 17-inch primary display. The W700ds also sports a quad-core Intel Core 2 CPU, up to almost 1 TB of storage, and an Nvidia Quadro mobile chip with up to 128 cores. A Lenovo exec called this souped-up version of the normally buttoned-down-for-business ThinkPads the 'nitro-burning drag racer of ThinkPads.' There is even a Wacom digitizer pad and pen for graphic artists, who are expected to be the target market, along with photographers and other creative types who are willing to trade shoulder-aching bulk (11 pounds) and price (minimum of $3,600) for productivity enhancements."
At the other end of the laptop size spectrum, Dell recently announced plans to launch a rival to the MacBook Air. Called "Adamo," it is supposedly "thinner than the MacBook Air," though further details will have to wait for the Computer Electronics Show in early January.
On a more serious note, I don't think I want to carry around an 11 pound laptop just to have an extra monitor.
I guess I'm missing the point of this. At work I plug my laptop into my docking stataion, with a 26" monitor attached (with the same setup at home - the two monitors cost far less than this silly laptop!). I *don't* want to lug the monitor around with me! If I have a desk where I work frequently, I can provide it a much bigger monitor. If I'm just walking around, I want my laptop to be as light as possible.
Really, the more I think about it, the more I'm really just carrying my disk drive around. Maybe in a year or two I can just switch to carrying a poket-sized SSD around, and have desktops at home and work that boot off that.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
Sorry, that laptop in the article just looks lop-sided and ugly with the sidecar-screen pulled out. Once somebody does a triptych version, let me know.
"I bless every day that I continue to live, for every day is pure profit."
I'm a huge fan of dead laptop batteries, burning hot pants, and scoliosis.
This has to be the perfect laptop for me!
Well, back to rejecting software patent applications.
The secondary display pulled out at the side just looks so fragile to me. Especially when considering the cost of such a computer.
On the other story, does the Dell "Adamo" has anything to do with Battlestar Galactica?
Colorless green Cthulhu waits dreaming furiously.
"Lenovo's New ThinkPad Has 2 LCD Screens, Weighs 11 Pounds "
Maybe a car battery wasn't the best choice?
1920x1200 main screen, and 720x1280 side screen... did it not occur to them to have 1200 vertically on both? Also, I'm kinda thinking that for this kind of money, I should be able to buy 2 laptops providing a total resolution in excess of 2640x1280, and whatever software I need to share the screen of one as a second display on the other... and have 'em weigh less, together, than this monstrosity. ;)
Village idiot in some extremely smart villages.
Why? I see this word a lot in laptop threads. It's in the luggable monster threads like this one and its often in the netbook one too. I would have thought the answer was obvious, really. What I have trouble understanding is how people can fail to understand that not everyone has the same computing needs.
If you still don't understand, use the following guide:
Need as much power as you can get in a portable bos? Get one of these.
Need great portability but not much CPU? Get an eee or whatever.
Need something in between? Get a laptop.
Need a laptop which can be run over bay a tank while under water? Get a toughbook, etc...
And so on. If you're on /. and still can't see how other people still have different computing needs, then hand in your geek card on your way out.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
I think we should make a system of rating computing power that's applicable to a CPU or GPU and is measured in Internet Penis Inches. Then you can settle graphics card debates by saying "This one is rated at 6.3Epeens and this one is 7.2Epeens" and be done with it.
A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
It's perfectly valid to ask what the point of a product is. Not only does it invite answers that may describe a perspective not imagined by the inquirer, but it also raises the point that the product might not be worth the trouble to make if there is no interest in it.
Sure, the OP doesn't have to buy it if he or she doesn't like it. But that doesn't mean the product has any value to anyone else either. If you decide to make ice cream that tastes like shit, and you can't answer the question of "what's the point?", then what will you have after you've spent $400,000 in research, design, production, packaging, and marketing just so you could sell your product to one *somebody*? Nothing but a big pile of (cold) shit. So the question remains, who needs a 4 grand laptop that weighs 11 pounds, and are there enough of these people for the product to turn a profit?
I've got a T60 that I bought about two years ago from Lenovo. Haven't had a single problem out of it. The only two bluescreens I've ever seen on it were related to the fact that I accidentally covered the vents and it crashed due to being too hot. Other than that, it's been a perfectly stable machine. I get around 4:30 with the 9-cell battery with the screen at full brightness and the wireless going (although constant streaming from, say, youtube, takes it to around 2:15. Who wants to watch youtube for that long, however?).
Wait, I take that back. The optical drive doesn't seem to be worth a crap anymore, but since I so rarely use discs it's not much of an issue. I have an external that I bought so I could burn lightscribe discs anyway. Thinking of swapping the optical drive for another HDD soon (320gb in there now, with the stock 100gb going in the PS3, probably going to add another 320).
"So after all this, you make my case for me. To end this stalemate, you must die..."
Lenovo has always made Thinkpads, or at least has for a decade or more. IBM just decided to sell the rest of the business to them but let them use the IBM name for a few years.
dom
Lenovo always did the manufacturing, it's just that IBM did the designs before.
It's funny and amazingly bone-headed Dell should mention the MacBook Air. *All it does is shift the focus to Apple's offerings!* It's not hard to build a thinner laptop than the MBA, several manufacturers have already done that (Sharp, Sony, LG). The challenge is to build something *better* than the MBA, with an operating system and application software package that equals it. Dell can probably build a super-thin Alamo, but if it ships with Windows Vista, it's still useless.
Beauty is in the beholder of the eye.
I thought they were normally called 3dmarks, but I guess Epeens would work.
I am the proud owner of a 570e, T41p, T61p and X61s. And indeed, the T61p is the most Lenovo of the four, and it sucks (huge and hot). The X61s is wonderful (netbook sized and amazing keyboard, CPU, HD, screen and linux compatibility) but it seems that it was IBM designed.
One of my relatives just bought a T400 and his comment was "pretty cool, but the keyboard sucks a bit" ... Knowing that one of the main reason to buy a Thinkpad was the quality of the keyboard, this is bad.
Now, maybe the expensive ones are better ? People do not seem to complain about the X[23]00, do they ?
Have you ever tried to carry an extra monitor around with you? It's a massive pain the ass. Power supplies, stands... it adds up, quickly.
Dude, I think I can see my house from here.
As other commenters have mentioned, it's about the trade off.
I guess I'd fit into the target market, as I'm a graphic designer and video editor, so more screen and more power are always nice. But I can't see me ever going larger than the 15.4" screen laptop I have now.
Why? Because, as nice as a bigger screen/more screens would be, it would guarantee that I couldn't do anything until I reached my destination unless I carried a smaller laptop as well. The laptop I have (Dell D820) is awkward on planes unless travelling business class or above, as it's slightly too big to fit on a tray table comfortably. Ditto for train travel (in the UK) -- even at a "table" seat (2 pairs of seats facing, separated by a small table) it's necessary to have the laptop uncomfortably close to the edge of the table so as not to use all of the table space belonging to the person opposite.
It seems to me that the extending display tech would be more suited to a smaller laptop -- if it can be made to work -- so you can have portability but still have a sizable working desktop when you have the space.
=== Ask yourself if it's really necessary...
I just bought an SL300 and it's great, if not for the screen and the touch-pad (which is a bit of a drag, because they are very important parts of a laptop I suppose). It also has some problems with the WiFi software and Vista (maybe I'll install the XP software that came with it, or Linux).
The keyboard however is fine by me. The only complaint I have about it is that it is slightly too loud, and the Fn key is completely to the left, where I expect to find the key. Otherwise it is a brilliant thing, with easy to reach enter, backspace and cursor keys and two large shift keys. It seems that this 700 thing has got the same keyboard, and a numpad as well, which my 13.3" wide screen laptop obviously misses.
I haven't got too much experience with stinkeypads, but it surely feels and stinks like one :). This message was typed on the wonderful keyboard.
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Desktops-and-Notebooks/First-Look-Lenovo-ThinkPad-W700ds-Mobile-Workstation-Laptop/ I want one. I admit it. That thing is sick, as the kids say.
I'll save everyone else having to look it up.
On the other story, does the Dell "Adamo" has anything to do with Battlestar Galactica?
Noooo!
Its named after the first man Our Lord God created. Not some imaginary character on some space-robots TV show.
You insensitive heathen clod.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Yes, the proper analogy is that shit flavored ice cream tastes like shit.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
I have a really sweet desktop machine with 2x24" monitors, and my desk has wheels, making it roughly as portable as an 11lb laptop.