Can I get an opinion on this W701? (25003AU)

I'm not real familiar with this line and would be very grateful for input into this item. It's probably overkill for my needs, but the price I am being offered (legitimately) is under $1k so I'm inclined to consider it: So here are the specs; I'm concerned about the following: Screen quality (should at least be a '6' on scale of 1-10); processing speed for Office/Acrobat/Photo and Audio editing; build quality. I'd want to upgrade HD to SSD, and RAM to 4 or 6. I'm told this beast weighs close to 10 pounds. Is that true?

SPECS: i7-720QM(1.6GHz), 2GB RAM, 320GB HD, 17in 1440x900, 1GB nVIDIA Quadro FX 2800M, CDRW/DVDRW, Intel 802.11agn, Bluetooth, Modem, 1Gb Ethernet, UltraNav, Secure chip, Fingerprint rdr, Camera, 9c, Win7 Pro 64.

 

The 17 inch WXGA+ screen is not that great, the WUXGA LCD is much better.

The processing speed of the CPU and GPU is more than enough for what you need. You can upgrade the ram to 16 gigs since there are 4 ram slots.

This beast weights over 10 pounds if you count in the brick sized power adapter.

However at below 1000 dollars i am not sure what more you can ask for, i would jump at the chance if someone offered this sort of deal to me.

 

Are you being offered by a third party or is it from Lenovo/Outlet or authorized reseller? As stated above, that is a steal for ~1000.

 

can you run crysis on it?

 

It's an authorized reseller!

 

In as big as 17", 1440x900 will look like crap, especially in a notebook as nice as the W701.

Try to find one with WUXGA/1920x1200 if you want it to be worth the money.

 

Crap in what respect? Every respect? Colors, resolution, brightness? I'm currently using a WXGA on my T400 and I think it's fantastic. So how much worse would it be on a 17"? (I have no idea since I'm not a purist when it comes to screens.)

 

Looks like a good deal to me ... especially if you are okay with the screen being the lesser of the two choices quality wise.

 

The pixel density is going to be lower in the 17in screen since it has the same resolution as your t400. This means everything will look blown up and more coarse on the larger screen.

If you've seen an iphone4 and an ipad side by side you can get a sense of what that does. If your sight really isn't that great in the first place though, it's not a big deal

Since you've got a T400 already, perhaps you would be better served with getting a desktop system if you dont intend on moving the w710 around? As good as a deal it might be, you can get a much faster/cheaper desktop with a decent lcd monitor for that price.

 

@Vilmosz,
Pixel density, having a higher resolution, is one of those things where once you have it, you find it hard to go back.

For Office/Acrobat/Photo and Audio editing; having a higher resolution screen has a few key benefits:
- There are more pixels on the screen, so you can fit more information, menus and tool bars won't take up as much room.
- Fonts will be sharper looking if you expand them to the same size as on a lower res screen, because there will be more pixels smoothing out the curves in the letters.
- If you work with more than one application at a time the higher resolutions may allow you to have both (or more) applications running side by side on the screen.
- The only downside is that the higher resolutions screens make menus appear smaller, which is only really a concern for people with poor vision.

 

Besides the screen that is a steal! The only reason I wouldnt get it is after working on a wxga+ 17in for a while I really found it painful to use, but then again take what I say with a grain of salt as Im a resolution junky.

 

With the authorized reseller is it possible to upgrade the screen or is it "as is"? Alot of times buying the screen afterwards is.... $$$$

The HP DreamColor 2 panel I think is over 1000, but if you upgrade from HP I think it's around ~500-600

 

Even doing a CCFL panel upgrade can be expensive. I honestly could not live with that low resolution on a 17in.

 

The dpi of a 17" @ 1440X900 is superior to a 24" @ 1920X1200. So it a relative thing. Some would actually prefer it, I am sure.

 

That is a very interesting point. That said, I think you are going to feel the effect of the lower density much more on a laptop screen than external LCD monitor considering the ergonomics. You are probably twice as close to the display when using the laptop.

 

Well, the deal was listed on Amazon Marketplace; it was obviously a listing error but it affected multiple Amazon sellers. A buddy of mine had pointed it out to me after he emailed to confirm the low price which a lackey at the seller DID confirm via email; the lackey at the seller DID confirm the price listed was correct. (Hah!) My buddy and I were both about to pull the trigger, but he got a conscience and emailed the company a second time to let them know they had a serious listing error on Amazon Marketplace. They thanked him. (They should have given him a free Thinkpad, hah!) So. I'm not gonna get it after all. Neither is he... he says. The honest .

 

Well ... at least you found all that out NOW, before you bought it.