Lenovo ThinkPad W700ds First Look Review

As announced earlier this week, the new ThinkPad W700ds is the first notebook to offer a true dual-screen mobile solution. This massive powerhouse packs more technology inside its all-black chassis than most workstation desktops. From two bright displays, a built-in Wacom digitizer, and built-in color calibrator to dual hard drives and a dedicated Compact Flash card reader, this notebook has it all. Is this the greatest ThinkPad yet? Keep reading to see our take.

Although many large notebook computers have been billed as "desktop replacements" there is one area where notebook computers couldn't compete with true desktop computers ... dual screens. Yes, you can always connect a second screen to a laptop, but then your laptop isn't a "mobile" solution anymore because you have a wired external monitor tethered to your notebook. Lenovo is the first manufacturer to solve this issue by offering a high-performance mobile workstation notebook with two screens.

Our pre-production sample of the Lenovo ThinkPad W700ds Mobile Workstation features the following specifications:

• Processor: Intel Core 2 Extreme Q9300 (2.53 GHz, 1066 MHz FSB, 12 MB L2 cache)
• Memory: 4 GB DDR3 SDRAM
• Screens: 17" 1920x1200 WUXGA TFT LCD and 10.6" 1280x768 TFT LCD
• Storage: 160 GB HDD (7200 RPM) x 2, RAID 0 configuration
• Optical Drive: DVD recordable
• Wireless: Intel Wi-Fi Link 5300 (802.11a/g/n), Bluetooth 2.0
• Graphics: NVIDIA Quadro FX 3700M with 1 GB
• Battery: 9-cell lithium-ion (84 Wh)

The starting price of the W700ds is $3,663, but we don't currently have a price for the pre-production sample we are using for this first look review.

Build and Design

In our original review of the single-screen W700 we jokingly called the W700 "the laptop designed to make normal people feel small." Well, someone at Lenovo obviously subscribes to the idea that "bigger is better" because the W700ds makes the W700 look downright slim. In order to accomodate the second display in the W700ds Lenovo roughly doubled the thinkness of the display lid used in the W700.

What does this mean in practical terms? It means you're carrying a notebook that is almost the same thinkness as two 14-inch laptops combined. Take a look at the images below to see for yourself (we even included a shot of the W700 with a Dell Latitude D630 on top for scale).

Of course, if you're wondering why Lenovo didn't make the W700ds thinner, the answer is durability. Every ThinkPad owner knows that the ThinkPad brand is synonymous with durable notebooks designed for serious work. The reality is that a second display sliding out from behind the main display creates obvious areas where the notebook could be damaged. That's why Lenovo made it thicker. First, by having a display that sticks out from the side it's easy to accidentally bump or knock the display, and Lenovo made the second spring-loaded, slide-out display quite rugged and sturdy to prevent breakage. Additionally, when a second display slides out from behind the primary display this creates a gap behind the primary display that is prone to flex and could potentially make it easier to damage the primary display when excess pressure is applied to the lid. Lenovo solved this problem by making the lid thicker and sturdier to prevent flex.

The end result is a thicker notebook ... but one that can survive day-to-day use and abuse by working professionals around the globe regardless of the environment. It's easy to imagine a press photographer using this system to edit photos in the middle of a warzone. The lid might even stop a bullet ... but we'll refrain from testing that.

The Second Screen

Let's face it, the ThinkPad W700ds is essentially just the ThinkPad W700 with a second screen. That being said, let's take a moment to focus on that second display that makes the W700ds so interesting. The primary screen on the W700 and W700ds is a 17-inch 1920 x 1200 display with wide color gamut and 400-nit brightness. The second display on the W700ds is a 10.6-inch 1280 x 768 display with 280-nit brightness. While it's obvious that the second display isn't as spectacular as the main screen, it is surprisingly nice and proved to exceed the expectations of most of our editors. Viewing angles on the second screen are adequate, and the screen can be tilted up to 30 degrees forward so that the viewing angle can be adjusted as needed.

We know what some of you are asking: "If the main screen has a vertical resolution of 1,200 pixels and the second display has a vertical resolution of 1,280 pixels doesn't that look weird?" The short answer is no. Lenovo has some very nice software running to scale the resolution on the second screen so that things look consistent and everything moves smoothly from one screen to the next. Font sizes on one screen are consistent when moved over to the second screen and the second display just looks and works like a natural extension of your primary desktop. Below is a screen shot showing some of the voodoo going on in the background that allows that two screens to work together as a single desktop (it looks strange when you take a screenshot, but looks perfectly normal in regular use).

Performance

Since our pre-production sample of the W700ds is configured almost identically to the configuration of the W700 that we reviewed last year it shouldn't come as a surprise that both notebooks have virtually identical performance. That said, it's clear that Lenovo has managed to improve a few things with this system, possibly thanks to new display drivers from NVIDIA, because the W700ds actually produced a considerably better 3DMark06 score than our review unit of the W700.

3DMark06 represents the overall graphics performance of a notebook (higher numbers indicate better performance):

Notebook	3DMark06 Score
Lenovo W700ds (2.53GHz Intel Q9300, NVIDIA Quadro FX 3700M 1GB)	11,874 3DMarks
Lenovo W700 (2.53GHz Intel Q9300, NVIDIA Quadro FX 3700M 1GB)	11,214 3DMarks
Lenovo T500 (2.80GHz Intel T9600, ATI Radeon 3650 256MB GDDR3)	4,371 3DMarks
Lenovo T500 (2.80GHz Intel T9600, Intel X4500)	809 3DMarks
Gateway P-7811 FX (2.26GHz Intel P8400, NVIDIA 9800M GTS 512MB)	9,355 3DMarks
HP Pavilion HDX18 (2.8GHz Intel T9600, Nvidia 9600M GT 512MB)	4,127 3DMarks
Apple MacBook Pro (2.2GHz Intel T7500, Nvidia 8600M GT 128MB)	3,321 3DMarks
Dell XPS M1330 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400M GS 128MB)	1,408 3DMarks
Samsung Q70 (2.0GHz Core 2 Duo T7300 and nVidia 8400M G GPU)	1,069 3DMarks
Asus F3sv-A1 (Core 2 Duo T7300 2.0GHz, Nvidia 8600M GS 256MB)	2,344 3DMarks
Alienware Area 51 m5550 (2.33GHz Core 2 Duo, nVidia GeForce Go 7600 256MB	2,183 3DMarks

At this point, until we receive a final review unit in our office we'll direct you to our previous review of the Lenovo ThinkPad W700 for more details on the build quality, performance, and available ports and features. The truth is the the W700 and W700ds are virually identical. The only major difference between the two systems is that one features two displays instead of only one ... and the W700ds is thicker and heavier as a result.

Bottom line, since many of our editors use dual displays on a daily basis for enhanced productivity, we're glad to see Lenovo take a major step forward with innovation by bringing a dual-display notebook to the market. Still, this massive workstation is likely going to be a little too thick and heavy for most consumers. We suspect only those people (such as working photographers or people working in CAD applications at a construction site) who currently pack a second display with thier notebooks are likely to jump at the opportunity to buy this machine. It is certainly easier to carry a W700ds than a W700 and a second external display.

Stay tuned to NotebookReview.com for our full review of this notebook.

 

Having a secondary display is certainly nice for work. Whats the weight of this monster?

 

Oh to have them bring a 3rd display and a high end gaming GPU to this and it would truely be a dream notebook.

Its offically a true desktop replacement... i like it

 

Can this thing get any uglier?!

 

I don't mind the looks.

It really is a power-HOUSE!

 

The W700ds weighs in at 10.9 lbs in this configuration ... versus 8.1 lbs (or slightly more, depending on configuration) for the W700.

 

How can that be? I can't imagine the extra screen alone adds almost 3 lbs., 35%, to the weight - does this this include extra drives, the docking station, and/or other things?

In any case, I think this is a thing of beauty - for anyone who's ever used dual screens for work (e.g. debugging with the app on one screen and the IDE on the other, or editing one document while viewing another at the same time), and then had to go back to a laptop and cringed at tabbing back and forth repeatedly, the ability to take that with you to a client site or a cafe rocks. If you're not carrying it around constantly, the weight is totally worth it - I'm inclined to buy this.

 

LOL That's great. I love how this thing ways 2lbs less than that Firefly monstrosity HP/Voodoo came up with.

 

Something tells me the $3,663 starting price is nowhere near as well equipped as the deliciously powered display model. It's probably more along the lines of "If you have to ask" types of pricing.

 

notebook COOL!!!! price... yikes!

 

I'd love to see a netbook inserted instead of the second screen : /

jk

Nice laptop, for specialized works tho.

 

Ah, I think I've figured it out, the 10.9 must include the power brick, the 8.1 is sans-brick.

 

Wow what a fking beast! It's horrible.

Who needs an extra 10" display on a 17" notebook with 1920x1200 pixels?? Its just ridiculous...

This is reverse inovation. Let's design a notebook thats even chunkier, heavier and fatter than ever by adding some useless features for nerds.

Reminds me of the old IBM with the butterfly keyboard. What a lame invention.


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So when does the W700ts come out with another display on the left side?

 

i do. 1920x1200 is great as it allows more documents to be full sized at a time and still fully viewable, but that extra screen (please eventually come out with a 3 screen laptop soon) gives me more real estate to work with and saved alot of min/maxing of documents to get all the date in need sometimes.

and gaming it would be amazing having more screen real estate

your opinion, luckily lenovo didnt listen

 

Ugly and impractical. Waste of research and deleveopment imo.

 

You obviously have never used 2 LCDs.

 

wow that's pretty hot!

 

It's only for people with knowledge of using the second display, not for the average joes with limited minds

You don't have to buy it if you don't want to. Go and get the thin Macbook Pro, that's "innovative".

 

2 lcd setup is ridiculously overrated. It is MUCH faster to work on a single screen. You just have to know your software very well.

This is exactly like the fascination with two or more buttons on the mouse. At ANY given time it WILL be faster to know your shortcuts, and use your left hand simultanuously on the keyboard, than to pop up contextual menus all the time. Contextual menus slow down work ALOT, and people keep on using them for years instead of learning the software the real way.

I can see for video production two screens make sense. But that is two screens of SIMILAR size like a traditional setup in a studio.

All people normally use two screens for is to open all their pallets and throw everything on the second screen, so they dont have to know and learn the software shortcuts.

If you want two text documents on screen, you can easily do it on the 17" 1920 x 1200 screen alone.

Its ridiculous. More is not always better....


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You've obviously never tried looking at *photos of a questionable subject that are easily found on the internet* while using keyboard shortcuts.

Similar sized monitors does mean anything. This rig would be perfect for video/post work as the editing program would be on the main monitor and the second, smaller one would hold the video reference.

Or spreading out high resolution images or audio waves on one screen and analysis tools on the other.

Which is why Lenovo didn't put the second monitor on EVERY machine. This is a specialized machine for specific people. You don't want it? Don't buy it. There are plenty of people out there who will buy this and will fully appreciate the second monitor.
And, for the love of god, spell and grammar check before you post stuff.

Nick.

 

^^ priceless first post

 

With a single screen entering data from multipule sources crawls to a halt. With 3 screens (1920x1200) i can have 6 documents open and see them all.
1 master document and 5 slave documents(though typically i use 8ea half window documents and the main screen for the master record, as i dont mind scrolling every half page)... do you know how much slower it would be to keep having to tab through 6 documents constantly minimizing and maximizing them to see the data i want to imput.

I would crawl... mouse or keyboard are both slower then just "looking up" so yeah a 3 screen system would be a dream laptop for me as i'm already crippled working on a single screen laptop (worse yet on the 1440x900 screen i have)

So dont assume everyone uses computers like you, there are alot of different end users and this laptop (while not perfect) is a HUGE step in the right direction for a good number of people. Its not like Lenovo is going to threaten you if you dont get one. Its a very specialized laptop for a very specialized group of users.

 

LOL at the p*o*r*n comment

You know what? The fact that some people like some products does not necessarily mean they are good products. I mean, just look at the amount of crap products being sold. I was merely criticizing this laptop for being an example of a bad and un-elegant idea and a bad piece of engineering. I have to say i honestly think it is a step backwards to create such a heavy and fat portable pc. Two screens or not.

IBM have with their thinkpads always shown some very good design directions: The minimalist black and very durable design, the solid build quality, and a series of very thin and light laptops with competitive specs.

But IMHO they have also shown some of the weirdest pieces of design i have ever seen. What about the ThinkPad 755CDV which had a transparent screen so you could lay it on top of an overhead projector LOL! Or the 500BJ thinkpad with built-in printer?! Or the Transnote that featured a real paper note-pad, with sensor for scanning your notes!!

Even a simple thing like the Thinklight, is kinda weird. Integrating a lamp in your pc? Why not backlight in the keyboard....

Also i think i remember they made a laptop with a screen so big, that it exceeded the edges of the laptop itself!!

All the ideas above are maybe funny and useful for a few nerds, and off course they will sell some, but they are hardly elegant solutions and none of the concepts ever took off for real...

And BTW not everyone here are native English speaking. So i guess you will have to live with less than perfect grammar and typing. Seems like people care less and less if you write it's or its or use punctuation or traditional spelling



.

 

I can't imagine how people would have screamed if this was some kind of Mac.

I'm just thinking, instead of 2 screens, can an extremely wide screen 17" or 19" laptop be used for the things that dual screens are used for? Like a special 17" or 19" screen so wide (wider than the current wider screens!!) you can have two documents or programs opened side by side.
For those of you that use two screens, i'm just curious, what would be this disadvantage of using such a screen as compared to having two screens?

 

There is no way you can make it any wider without changing the size. WUXGA is the max you can pack in an 17''.

 

Have you ever used 2x LCDs? If not you have no right to criticize it. End of story. Who are you to say it is a bad piece of engineering? Care to engineer something better? There are plenty of heavy notebooks out there. You can go rip all of them for all I care. No one cares what you honestly think. This serve its own market. If it is a market for "nerds" so be it. Though I LOL at your misconception that people are defined by what computer they use.

 

Yes. but assuming the size is changed and, like the new sony viao p-series, it is possible to have a very very wide ratio. Will be easier to use 1 wider laptop than 2 screen??

 

Sure, with LCD screens you can make any aspect ratio (or even non-rectangular shapes). The problem is that if you have a 24x9 screen, provided it was 1920 x 800 (which is the minimum vertical pixel count I'd be willing to use in this day and age), would be too wide for an acceptable computer width. Do you really want a laptop that's 2 feet wide? I suppose the use of another ratio, say one more common to movies, could be used.

Nick.

 

I wouldn't mind a 20 x 9 screen, actually. That would allow for a full sized desktop keyboard, except you probably can't find a laptop bag / case for it..

 

A very nice development that is. Looks quite nice

 

wow...think you took my comment way too serious

This is a discussion of the w700 laptop after all, so i guess everyone's opinions are relevant? Nerds are not a bad thing...we are all nerds my self inclusive, since i am posting on this board. I was just trying to give my opinion on this "invention", and i think its quite lame, maybe an extreme small niche thing at best. Of course i have worked with two lcds, i spend my entire day using professional graphics/ cad software. On a purely objective level i really believe everyone would be better off with a lighter, thinner, 17" without the second screen. This only serves the "i have bigger/more screens than you" market.

 

Go buy the new MacBook Pro

 

hahahaha. I wouldn't be able to decide!

 

OK. I've been thinking about this for a few days and I've finally realized what bugs me about the design. Not the dual-screen idea, mind you, but just the implementation. Because of the num-pad you're forced to sit off center to line up your hands with the keyboard which is farther the to the left (from center) than usual as far as laptops go. Then they slap the monitor on the same side. Why didn't they put the second screen on the left to even it out? At least then you'd be in the middle of the viewing area when you're typing.

Still want one though. I wonder how much people are paying for fresh kidneys these days...
Nick.

 

WOW ! What a BEAST ! I think it's a great idea that Lenovo's design team actually came up with this idea. Now, that Thinkpad is the "first ever" laptop to have duel screens. Now, if only I could AFFORD one lol.

 

Any Hope of a Gaming Laptop with Dual Screen like this

Or Lenov can Add better graphic Cards
like the 280s 12gb Ram Corei7
it would be a Blessing

 

I've never used two monitors, and I have a lowly 1280x800 laptop screen, so I'm used to toggling and shortcut keys, which is good. But I can definitely see how multiple screens could increase productivity; in fact, coupled with the knowledge of shortcut keys, it would be even more powerful.

 

Quadro 3700 option is basically a 280 sans die shrink and mildly slower clocks. So the GPU option is set.

 

configuring this thing to the max and I'd say the price is easily 6,000!! =O

 

Price not a problem
Need more Power

280 or 4870 cards