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Lenovo ThinkPad W550s: Heavy, But a Battery That Lasts Nearly All Day

Posted by timothy on from the doubles-as-an-exercise-device dept.

MojoKid writes: Mobile workstation notebooks typically offer a fair degree of performance but usually at the expense of battery life. It comes with the territory for machines that are configured with higher-end processors with discrete graphics chips, as well as high-end displays that take more power to light up. Lenovo, however, seems to have found a way to strike a better balance with their new ThinkPad W550s, which comes equipped with an Intel Core i7-5600U CPU, an NVIDIA Quadro K620M GPU, and a 15.5 inch IPS display that sports 2880X1620 native resolution. With that kind of horsepower and that many pixels to push, you would think untethered up-time wouldn't be its strong suit but Lenovo configured a snap-in extended battery for the W550s. The 6-cell extended battery, in combination with its 3-cell internal battery, was able to power the machine for over 18 hours of light-duty web browsing in real-world testing (Lenovo claims up to 20 hrs of battery life). The machine also lasted over five hours under heavy-load Battery Eater testing, and the extended battery is unobtrusive, tilting the keyboard up slightly toward the user but keeping well inside the machine's footprint.

46 of 79 comments (clear)

  1. 5.47 pounds by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Would have been nice if I didn't have to click the link to get that number.

    1. Re:5.47 pounds by ChunderDownunder · · Score: 5, Informative

      It would be nice if someone had converted that to metric.

      ~ 2.5kg.

  2. Rather than extra battery how about a power cord? by mykepredko · · Score: 2

    I use a laptop a lot for going out to customers and giving demonstrations and the ideal (for me) would be about 6 hours of so of battery life but I think I would be at the high end of the power curve (requiring active WiFi and Bluetooth as well as the processor/display fully up). For the average laptop, the life I get seems to be around 3.5hours. But, I can't see a larger/heavier laptop with more life would be an big advantage for me.

    What would be an advantage to me would be reasonable life (and 3.5hours seems to fit that need for a single meeting/session) with the ability to plug into an outlet (there's always an outlet around where I am) and car would be of more use to me than a big honking battery that takes a long time to fully charge. This would make travel simpler (don't have to bring along the brick) as well as search into the depth of the bags in a meeting when the seven minute warning comes up on Windows.

    --
    Mimetics Inc. Twitter
  3. Re:so? by damn_registrars · · Score: 3, Informative

    So..my Mac is light and the battery lasts all day.

    But does your Mac have NVIDIA Quadro graphics? This is a workstation replacement laptop, not designed for just average use.

    It also has a vastly superior pointing device (trackpoint rather than only a touchpad) and keyboard (lenovo rather than jello) when compared to your Mac.

    --
    Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
  4. I don't get the weight thing by fluffernutter · · Score: 2

    I really don't get why weight matters in a laptop. If 5.47 pounds is too heavy for you in any situation, you really need to stop worrying about it and maybe start lifting some weights.

    --
    Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    1. Re:I don't get the weight thing by johnnys · · Score: 1

      5.47 pounds is reasonable for a "business laptop". It is WAY overweight for an "ultrabook". The whole point of an ultrabook is that it's powerful *and* light. And way expensive, too. It's the supermodel of laptops.

      5.47 pounds just makes it the Rosanne Barr of ultrabooks.

      --
      Sometimes the "writing on the wall" is blood spatter...
    2. Re:I don't get the weight thing by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      Even still, who are these people looking for ultrabooks that can't lift and carry 5.47 pounds??

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    3. Re:I don't get the weight thing by ZipK · · Score: 1

      Even still, who are these people looking for ultrabooks that can't lift and carry 5.47 pounds??

      People who travel extensively and have enough other crap in their backpack or bag that an additional 2.5 pounds makes a difference as they trudge through airports, between meetings or around a large campus. Dropping from a 5+ pound ThinkPad to a 3-pound MBA made a noticeable difference, both in combination with other things in my bag, and on its own.

    4. Re:I don't get the weight thing by godrik · · Score: 2

      5.47 pounds is WAY to heavy for a laptop for me. My current laptop is 3.14 pounds and I still find it too heavy. Why? Because I primarily use it for traveling to conferences: I'll be transporting it from the hotel to the conference, from the keynote room to the session room, to the break rooms, to lunch, to diner, to visit the city while I am there. So essentially, I'll be transporting it all day long with everything else I need (cell phone, wallet, charger).
      5 pounds in a shoulder bag is too much (it offsets your center of gravity too much which causes back problems), which means I need a backpack. But shoulder bags/messenger bags/men-purses are much more convenient in a city setting. Last year, I was in Munich and I opted to leave my laptop in my hotel room the days when I could afford to only bring a tablet with me.

    5. Re:I don't get the weight thing by TeknoHog · · Score: 1

      A sibling post already explains one key issue. When you're carrying something, it usually puts an asymmetric load on you, causing all kinds of strain over time. It's very different from lifting weights, which is more controlled and dynamic, and usually done for a limited amount of time, not all day. I presume you don't have that much experience carrying laptops (along with all other crap you might need with you).

      Also, lifting weights is a very different setting overall from a business day. Small weights might not make you sweat all that much at the gym, where you're probably wearing something light, and you take a shower soon afterwards. But if you carry those weights all day wearing something businesslike and trying to look fresh, good luck.

      Lifting weights will probably help you endure that static, asymmetric strain of carrying a little better. But it won't take away the energy expenditure with its associated heat and perspiration.

      Of course, the whole premise is kind of wrong -- this is not the kind of business laptop you'd generally carry around for presentations.

      --
      Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
    6. Re:I don't get the weight thing by Shirley+Marquez · · Score: 1

      Sounds like you don't commute by public transit and walking.

      If you travel everywhere by car and just carry the laptop at the end points, weight isn't that big an issue. If you go everywhere by public transit and walking, it matters more because you're going to spend a lot more time actually carrying that laptop. It's not unusual to be looking at a mile walk at the end point.

      Weight also matters to frequent flyers. First, you may be carrying that laptop for a while; in larger airports the walk to your gate can be significant, and if you are doing transfers for international travel you can face a LOT of walking. (Philadelphia, I'm looking at you.) Second, airlines are cutting back on the permitted weight of carry-on bags, and a heavy laptop might leave you without much weight to spare for the other things you need to take with you.

    7. Re:I don't get the weight thing by ZipK · · Score: 1

      But continue thinking your MBAs are better. You keep believing delusions.

      The question wasn't whether an MBA is "better," it was "who are these people looking for ultrabooks that can't lift and carry 5.47 pounds?" And the answer is, those for whom 2-1/2 pounds makes a difference in business travel, around a campus or on public transportation, particularly when the weight of the laptop is added to the weight of other items in one's bag.

  5. Re:so? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Which mac? There isn't an apple laptop made that matches this for performance and battery life.

  6. Re:so? by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

    It's not jello, it's Chiclets. They're crisp until the first use but then, well, they're Chiclets.

    --
    Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
  7. Re:so? by Noah+Haders · · Score: 1, Informative

    My mbp has 9 hrs battery , retina 15" display, discrete graphics chip, pcie flash storage and multitouch trackpad which is way better than ur little nub.

  8. Almost perfect but the keyboard is off center by eviljav · · Score: 2

    I'm glad they fixed many of the issues with the previous keyboard.

    Would have been the perfect new laptop, if they had centered the keyboard.

    1. Re:Almost perfect but the keyboard is off center by TeknoHog · · Score: 1

      This. Laptop keyboards are already full of compromises, so the extra space should be used for better keys, not just more keys. To me, a good keyboard was one of the key reasons for getting a Thinkpad, but I wouldn't pay for this crap.

      --
      Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
    2. Re:Almost perfect but the keyboard is off center by fnj · · Score: 1

      Disregarding the imbecilic complaint that the "keyboard is off center" (which it ISN'T), exactly what is your specific objection to "this crap"?

    3. Re:Almost perfect but the keyboard is off center by TeknoHog · · Score: 1

      While the sibling post should explain the off-center issue, I should probably elaborate on the "better, not more keys" idea. I'm used to traditional navigation keys such as Home/End/PgUp/PgDn and the arrow keys. I also use the function keys a lot, and I appreciate the traditional grouping into 4s for quick access in near-dark conditions (such as DJing and theatre sound tech). My current Thinkpad does this pretty well for a laptop, they actually put some thought into grouping the keys nicely in a tight space.

      Conversely, in Macbook-style keyboards which are often found in non-Apple computers likewise, there's barely anything besides the main qwerty of letters and numbers. It's obviously not due to space constraints, as most such machines have plenty of empty real estate around the keyboard.

      Besides the Macbook style, the other major laptop keyboard style today fills the extra space with a numeric keypad. This doesn't exactly help the issues with the function keys etc., especially when many people don't have any use for the numeric keypad. It just looks like they needed to slap something on the side without thinking actual needs and ergonomics.

      The idea behind Macbook keyboards is probably those who do a lot of things with a mouse/touchpad, so the extra navigation keys aren't necessary any more, and that's a fine decision per se. However, if you put the keys back for those of us who like to use them, then please give it some thought, instead of this alphabet soup vomit.

      --
      Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
  9. Geez. by Type44Q · · Score: 1

    It comes with the territory...

    Tim, you're a writer (or, at least, attempting to play one on TV); as such, you might want to actually learn how. The saying is "goes with the territory."

    (If I don't tell you, who is?? Your editors?!) ;)

    1. Re:Geez. by Type44Q · · Score: 1

      Partial apologies are due; I misread the name of the submitter (in my defense, I'm used to you Dice guys scraping the bottom of the barrel; just saying...)

    2. Re:Geez. by rpstrong · · Score: 1

      Tim, you're a writer (or, at least, attempting to play one on TV); as such, you might want to actually learn how. The saying is "goes with the territory."

      Not according to a little known author named Arthur Miller who wrote: "A salesman is got to dream boy, it comes with the territory." (Death of a Salesman, Act 2)

  10. Yabut ... Lenovo by Rudisaurus · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Superfish

    Should be all that has to be said. There should be a price to pay.

    --
    licet differant, aequabitur
    1. Re:Yabut ... Lenovo by damn_registrars · · Score: 2

      No, there is nothing to be said about superfish, as Lenovo never installed superfish on a ThinkPad. As awful as superfish was for many reasons, it was never on any ThinkPad, ever. Period.

      --
      Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
    2. Re:Yabut ... Lenovo by thegarbz · · Score: 2

      Rather that telling us why we should avoid Lenovo, how about suggesting where we should go?

      Every company at some point has screwed over customers. If we shunned every product over every poor company practice then we may as well retreat into the forest and lock ourselves into a cabin away from the world.

      Also Superfish was NEVER installed on any business product and the Thinkpad is no exception. So if we were to vote with our wallets isn't this exactly the product we SHOULD be buying? A product that people have been wanting, a product which has remained untainted within the cesspool which is consumer laptops?

      Vote with your wallet people, send a message and BUY THIS.

    3. Re:Yabut ... Lenovo by jones_supa · · Score: 1

      Superfish

      Should be all that has to be said. There should be a price to pay.

      Lenovo is not shipping Superfish anymore. Hey, they listened to feedback and made appropriate changes. What else do you want? Please, let's not make this another decade-long nerd-grudge like IBM DeathStar or SonyBMG rootkit.

  11. Re:so? by Noah+Haders · · Score: 1, Informative

    Mbps get 9 hours battery life. You can get infinite hours of life using an external battery, so it's not a good measure. With flash storage it blows this away.

  12. Re:so? by NJRoadfan · · Score: 3, Informative

    Whats odd is this model is a downgrade over the refreshed W541. Unless you really need a Broadwell CPU, the W541 offers Thunderbolt, Expresscard, and double the memory capacity of the W550s. Heck, the optional battery for the W541 is higher capacity (99WHr) than the one for the W550s (72WHr).

  13. Re:Rather than extra battery how about a power cor by bemymonkey · · Score: 1

    You know they sell additional "power bricks", right? I carry a small one for my Thinkpad in my messenger bag and it adds something like 200g to my loadout. The ones for the Broadwell Thinkpads are even smaller...

    As for 6 hours of battery life: That's roughly where we're at for modern machines (say since Sandy Bridge) with ~100Wh of battery power at medium-high load with network connectivity and high display brightness. A W550s would fit the bill... and it's not really that heavy.

  14. Why is it always HotHardware? by guises · · Score: 1

    I like reviews for new hardware, I'm not against that at all, but why is it always HotHardware which gets posted? Do they have some kind of affiliation with Slashdot? Or Dice?

    There are a lot of other good review sites out there.

    1. Re:Why is it always HotHardware? by jones_supa · · Score: 1

      Maybe there are not that many competing hardware reviews in the submission pool. MojoKid submits pretty nice ones, so they get the front page.

  15. Re:so? by dgatwood · · Score: 1

    Mbps get 9 hours battery life.

    No, MacBook Pros claim 9 hours of typical battery life. And when I'm just doing word processing, I get about that. Unfortunately, when I run real power-user apps, like Photoshop, Finale (music notation), Xcode, etc., I'm lucky if I get three hours.

    Don't get me wrong, the effort that Apple has put into optimizing their apps and the OS itself is a very good thing, and it helps a lot for typical users. With that said, for what I do with my Mac, I'd trade this retina MBP for a thicker model in a heartbeat if Apple would stick the retina guts into a pre-retina MacBook Pro case and fill all the extra space with extra batteries (ideally with about four independent packs discharging approximately sequentially, but in random order, to maximize reliability in the event of a pack failure, but I digress).

    And no, I don't care that it would be thicker or that it would weigh more. I carried around a Pismo with dual batteries for half a decade. It really doesn't matter that much.

    --

    Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

  16. No thanks by alantus · · Score: 1

    - too expensive for what it is
    - too heavy
    - the touchpad is too big and not centered
    - numeric keyboard is useless most of the time
    - 3 usb ports? for this size I expected 4
    - mini-displayport? why not hdmi?

    I would rather buy a normal laptop (2 Kg or less) and a docking station connected to a nice big screen, keyboard and mouse to use at home/office.

    And this being a Lenovo, the BIOS is artificially crippled to limit upgrades to just Lenovo "approved" cards.

    No thanks.

    1. Re:No thanks by fnj · · Score: 1

      too expensive for what it is

      Purely subjective by definition. Agreed it is a lot of $, but I'd rather have high end options available than no high end options available. Lenovo has an INSANE profusion of models, most of them much cheaper.

      too heavy

      Not necessarily, for what you're getting (hey, we're both subjective here)

      the touchpad is too big

      Really? Well, I would never use it. I wish like hell it wasn't there, and the keyboard was moved downward, but I'll never win that argument in the marketplace.

      and not centered

      It's centered with respect to the space bar, not with respect to the body. Is there some reason you find that objectionable? I am fairly sure many objections would be heard if it was offset from the space bar.

      numeric keyboard is useless most of the time

      Pure taste. Opinion on this will be divided.

      3 usb ports? for this size I expected 4

      Completely agree. At least they are all USB3. My pet peeve is the inclusion of fucking useless USB2 in this day and age.

      mini-displayport? why not hdmi?

      HDMI is obsolete crap. I'd much rather have the much more capable mini-DP. You can always use a mini-DP to HDMI dongle. I do think the VGA port is borderline silly nowadays, but it can be convenient for use in presentations.

      Not mentioned, so I'll mention them: (1) I wouldn't even consider for an instant any laptop without a trackpoint plus hardware trackpoint buttons, this one passes; (2) I wouldn't even consider for an instant a laptop without an ethernet jack, this one passes; (3) note an SSD is available as an option, good; (4) I wish like hell there was an option for Intel graphics rather than the power hog discrete graphics crap.

    2. Re:No thanks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      > - mini-displayport? why not hdmi?

      You can trivially go from DisplayPort to HDMI (or anything else). The HDMI consortium makes it difficult-to-impossible to go from HDMI to anything other than DVI-D or VGA.

      DisplayPort truly is the universal display interface.

  17. How about a regular W550 instead? by sethstorm · · Score: 1

    No thank you, but that's no W series. It might be a bridge between the T series and the full-fledged W series, but it is not the typical workstation-type laptop. The W series was meant to be a larger, traditional, no-compromise laptop limited only by technological progress - not as some cut-down box.

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  18. Re:so? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    And this Thinkpad has 18 hours of battery life, a faster pro-level GPU, a better than "retina" 2880X1620 resolution display, 16GB 12800 DDR3L upgradeable/replaceable RAM and dual pointing devices.

  19. But does it run Linux? by Teun · · Score: 1

    The question 'but does it rune Linux?' needs these days of UEFI be expanded with the question 'is it easy to install?'
    My W520 is still working very well but has been around the world and shows some scars and I'm trying to decide on a replacement.

    Maybe it is a sign of the times these questions weren't addressed in the original article...

    --
    "The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
  20. Lenovo ain't so special (and way too spyware-y) by Mac+Degger · · Score: 1

    Recently got an Alienware 15 with the highest specs. At first I thought the battery life was a bit crap, but that was to be expected with the highest end i7 and a gtx980m.

    Put it in low battery mode and I get 9 hours of internet/office/video use.

    And I get a great keyboard.

    So, suck it, Lenovo, with your spyware.

    --
    -- Waht? Tehr's a preveiw buottn?
  21. Why so ugly? by felipou · · Score: 1

    I don't care much about looks, and this is certainly one of the best laptops available now, I'd like very much to have one. But I don't understand why do they make thinkpads so ugly. It seems almost intentional.

    1. Re:Why so ugly? by toddestan · · Score: 1

      It's very intentional, as Thinkpads have changed very little in appearance since the first ones came out in the mid 1990's years ago sporting 486 processors. That's over 20 years of laptops that are pretty much instantly recognizable as a Thinkpad by anyone familiar with them.

      I for one like their simple, clean, no nonsense styling, and functional design (though Lenovo has been mucking with that a bit more than I like). But each to their own.

  22. Re:so? by ceoyoyo · · Score: 1

    This thing's battery life is also specced as "light web browsing." Actually, when they did light web browsing they couldn't get it up to the rated battery life.

    If you used it to do actual workstation-y things that would justify that hardware, you get rather less.

    An ultra-long run notebook is an interesting idea, but I don't really understand why you'd want a notebook with a gigantic battery and a bunch of high end hardware for doing 3D graphics. Gaming in that coffee shop where you just can't get a plugin? 3D modelling on the beach?

  23. Re:so? by rpstrong · · Score: 1

    . . . a better than "retina" 2880X1620 resolution display,

    Care to explain how 2880x1620 is better than 2880x1800?

    I could be wrong, but I read that as a comparison of the ThinkPad's display to the "retina" standard, not to your particular MBP's display.

  24. Perhaps a form factor change. by John.Banister · · Score: 1

    How about build that thing using the XPS 18 form factor with a 1.5 hour internal battery and put all the extra battery in a big power cover. When it's on the docking pedestal, it can be used as an all-in-one, and when it's being carried, users can make their own weight versus battery life trade off by their choice of which battery size in the power cover. With a hot swappable power cover, users who really want extra battery life could carry two or more of them. When I imagine this sort of thing, I think of the cover holding a removable wireless keyboard, swinging around about 285 degrees and connecting to a brace that hinges off the top of the back of the tablet, making a nice stable triangle.

  25. Re:so? by LinuxIsGarbage · · Score: 1

    It also has a vastly superior pointing device (trackpoint rather than only a touchpad) and keyboard (lenovo rather than jello) when compared to your Mac.

    Trackpoint is junk when combined with the god forsaken clickpad for the buttons. Clickpad by itself as a touch pad is just torture to try and right click with.

  26. Re:so? by dgatwood · · Score: 1

    Using a beefier GPU isn't necessarily the wrong choice, assuming you can sink enough heat. From my perspective, the critical questions are how it compares in terms of power per watt and minimum idle power.

    For example, consider two GPUs. The faster chip uses 80% more power at full throttle, but gives you twice the computing power. So if you need to do 10 units of work, the slower ship will take 10 seconds to do it, and the second one will take five seconds, but will use the same amount of power as the first chip would use in 9 seconds. Assuming the idle power on the faster chip doesn't eat up all the gains, you'll end up with better battery life by using the faster chip.

    Unfortunately, I couldn't find full specs for the Nvidia Quadro K620M, so I can't say for sure whether that's the reason for that design decision.

    --

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