Lenovo ThinkPad W700

Lenovo ThinkPad W700 Review

Overview
I want to start by telling you I was always a fan of the smaller and lighter laptop. So, while anticipating the tremendous power that would come with the 17" Lenovo ThinkPad W700 I was not awaiting the strenuous task of lugging it around. But what comes with great size and weight must also come great power, right? In this case, jammed with a 2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme Q9300 and 4GB of DDR3 SDRAM, the Lenovo W700 has the power. This thinkpad, made for heavy processing and graphics, uses the NVIDIA Quadro FX 3700M GPU. It includes an integrated fingerprint reader, 1.3 megapixel camera, 802.11n wireless capabilities, Bluetooth 2.0 and gives all graphical users great pleasure with a 3x5 built in tablet and pen.

Design
Case Look and Feel
The simple and smooth black look of the thinkpads are generally pleasant to look at with nothing perticularly special. The w700 comes with a nice smooth black matte finish and a sturdy case and screen. The features are for the most part positioned in convenient places such as the camera at the top of the screen, the tablet on the lower right wear your right wrist generally rests, the fingerprint scanner to the right of that and the ThinkVantage and volume buttons at the top left of the keyboard. All there for easy access including a num pad to the right of the keyboard. At only 1.5"thick its not quite as big and bulky as one would think.

Size and Weight
Known around as the "World's largest ThinkPad," the Lenovo W700 comes at you with a 'desktop' sized screen at 17" and dimensions of 16.1" x 12.3" x 1.5". Traveling with this puppy will not be easy. I found myself even questioning whether I really wanted to move one room over to the comfortable living room couch verses just staying at my desk in order to not have to move the massive beast. But, it deserves credit, for as big as it looks it is just under 9lbs (8 lbs, 10 oz) with a 9-cell lithium-ion battery and it isn't quite as heavy as one expects it to be. I found a simple close of the lid followed by a pileing of accesories and the power cord made for movement of this laptop relatively easy from room to room. I would not however, recomend this for heavy travel or long distance walks by any means.

Keyboard
Aside from having a tremendous amount of space and some extra features the keyboard was very similar to the Lenovo SL400. The W700 packs a full sized ergonomic keyboard with palm rest, and a thick base which is comfortable for typing. Lenovo gives us both the bright red TrackPoint “nub” as well as a touchpad. At the top left of the keyboard just to the right of the Escape button are the volume controls and easy press ThinkVantage button. At the top center of the keyboard is the power button and to right of the keyboard there is even enough room for a Numpad. For the amount of available space at the base the Track Pad could definitely be bigger and has that same "too thin" scroll bar problem that the SL400 has. To the direct right of the Track Pad is the 3x5" tablet which is in a convenient position if you are right handed. And further right lies the fingerprint scanner convenient for any of your right hand fingers.

Display Quality
Furnished with a high-end display for a ThinkPad the W700 comes with a 1920x1200 resolution WUXGA TFT LCD. With brightness on high everything is visible from even an extreme wide angle. Graphics, movie playback and all visuals look fantastic on this Laptop. The screen is not glossy and does not attract glare. A nice feature comes with the W700 called the Huey Pro. It is a color calibrator that comes pre-installed and is a fast and convenient calibrator, profiler and spectrocolorimeter and very quick and simple to use.

Connectivity
With such a massive case, it's no wonder the W700 comes with so many ports and connectivity.


The right side of the unit features 3 USB ports, a modem port, tablet pen holder, and optical Drive: DVD recordable. HDMI port, the exhaust, an SD Memory slot and mini-firewire.

The left side features a firewire port, 2 more USB ports and an SD Memory slot closest to the front.

The optical drive extends nicely from beneath the tapered edges.

The front is pretty basic. The base tapers inward and holds the internet card switch at its left and the headphone and microphone jacks on its right.

In the back of the W700 rests the display ports, an ethernet port and the charge cable port. The display ports, located in between the charge port and the ethernet ports consist of a DVI port, RGB port and HDMI port.

Features
The w700 definitely has some nice features such as high quality HDMI, Bluetooth, the integrated fingerprint scanner, the integrated 3X5 tablet, and the 1.3MP integrated webcam. What should have been a nice feature but turned out troublesome instead was the pre-installed Windows Vista on a 64bit Operating system max RAM usability. There are 2 partitioned drives. One for all 32 bit programs and one for all 64 bit programs which are put in the folder labeled (X86). When trying to install basic old fashioned pc games and programs such as You Don't Know Jack. I couldnt install it on either in any way! Of course the 64-bit operating system has its benefits - it runs quickly and efficiently for the most part. Another nice features on the W700 are the ThinkVantage button, located at the top left of the keyboard, which brings up all functionality options you can get for all the features. The menu houses a lot of convenient features, such as wireless radio, bluetooth radio, access to backup software, and network and multimedia management. And the last of my favorite features is the 2 spotlights which you can turn on from the Fn key on the keyboard and are located at the top of screen. These nifty little lights do very little as a means to provide light unless you are in complete darkness, but aside from draining the battery when on, they are fun to play around with and provide some light for dark workplaces.

Performance and Conclusion

Windows Vista Experience 5.8
With the lowest score being 5.8 It scores impressively high as it should on Windows Experience Index.

PCMark Vantage: 5246
The W700 runs with a solid score of 5246 at possibly slightly lower than expected.

3DMark 06: 12038
With a decent score of 12038 The W700 stacks well against its counterparts

WorldBench 6: 76 (64 bit errors)
After Multiple Tests Run of Worldbench 6 it was concluded that Worldbench 6 was not running properly on the quad core 64 bit system with a score of only 76.

Battery Life: 134 MIN
While using the lenovo for daily average use: webbrowsing, media playing, and using multiple programs it lasted a solid 2 hours and 14 minutes for a decent score of 134 for this "Lenovo's largest laptop"

DVD Battery Life: 94 MIN
Clearly the W700 is not a laptop made for travel and clocks in at a mere 1 hour and 34 minutes of DVD play; thats a score of 94. But remember even though you may not be able to finish that movie... it looks pretty darn good!

Conclusion

While nicknamed around the office as "world's largest laptop" the W700 really packs some power. This laptop can easily substitute your desktop and its much easier to move around. You can't really travel with this thing but for a price around $3000 it might be a good idea to keep this puppy locked away safe at home anyway.

Bottom Line:
The W700 is one heck of a powerhouse with a great selection of features. While it is heavy and large in size and will take a nice chunk out of your pockets, if you are looking for a top of the line computer for visual and graphic aid, this is the laptop for you. The 17 inch Lenovo w700 is a great machine and worth the money.