Lenovo ThinkPad W700 for photographers

[Ruff Draft]

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Lenovo has released the ThinkPad W700 laptop aimed at photographers and designers, offering a built-in graphics tablet and color calibrator. What’s more, the display displays 72% of the possible color gamut of the Adobe RGB color space whereas most normal laptop displays can only show 45% (though new panel technologies becoming available allow up to 100% coverage).

This 17-inch widescreen mobile workstation is bundled with the new Nvidia Quadro FX 2700M and 3700M Open GL graphics processors with up to 1GB of video memory. It also features up to 8GB of high speed DDR3 memory, optional dual hard drives with RAID configurations, a 7-in-1 built-in card reader, a range of wireless connectivity options and multimedia capabilities including an optional Blu-ray DVD burner/player.

Why is it all the cool stuff releases after I buy my equipment?

 

[whyhan]

Wow, i want one!
Time to trade in my old T43p :biggrin:

 

[Pete]

I will take your T43p when you trade...

 

[spalding12]

hmmmmmmmmmmm
how much?


The Lenovo W700 will be available in September, starting at around $3000. But with RAM and HDD configurations, that price could be much higher.

 

[spalding12]

http://gizmodo.com/5035828/lenovo-t...in-wacom-tablet-and-professional-grade-screen

 

[Ruff Draft]

I can't stop drooling over this!

 

[AndyE]

hmmmmmmmmmmm
how much?


The Lenovo W700 will be available in September, starting at around $3000. But with RAM and HDD configurations, that price could be much higher.

I have to get one :smile:

Why?

• Because it's the first mainstream notebook generation which is capable of 8 GB memory. Lenovo has usually excellent 64-bit Vista drivers.
• Because it has the brand new NVidia FX 3700M card with 1 GB graphics RAM. I don't play games, but for the un-initiated: This card has 128 floating point CPU's which are capable of more than 500 billion floating point operations per second (=6-8 times the max performance of a single 3 GHz quad core). Can read and write to graphics memory with 51 GB/s (= very fast). People can program the grahics GPU for computationally intensive calculations with via NVidia's CUDA development environment (which i do). BTW, Photoshop CS4 will use this to accelerate compute intensive parts.
• HW calibrated HiRes display.
• up to 3 hard disks (2 normal and one instead of the BluRay drive). Computer these days are speed limited by the number of HDs in a system - thats a massive increase. I would take the 200 GB/7.2k system drive from Lenovo, and 2 x 500GB 2.5 inch Samsung aftermarket drives.
• CF and SDHC card reader built in - no hassles with readers and cable anymore
• The motherboard is build on Intel 4th generation Chipset - finally there is no performance degradation in virtual machines anymore.

I need to call Lenovo tommorrow ..... :smile:

Andy

 

[JohnC]

I wish I had $3k to buy it.

 

[spalding12]

I have to get one :smile:

Why?

• Because it's the first mainstream notebook generation which is capable of 8 GB memory. Lenovo has usually excellent 64-bit Vista drivers.
• Because it has the brand new NVidia FX 3700M card with 1 GB graphics RAM. I don't play games, but for the un-initiated: This card has 128 floating point CPU's which are capable of more than 500 billion floating point operations per second (=6-8 times the max performance of a single 3 GHz quad core). Can read and write to graphics memory with 51 GB/s (= very fast). People can program the grahics GPU for computationally intensive calculations with via NVidia's CUDA development environment (which i do). BTW, Photoshop CS4 will use this to accelerate compute intensive parts.
• HW calibrated HiRes display.
• up to 3 hard disks (2 normal and one instead of the BluRay drive). Computer these days are speed limited by the number of HDs in a system - thats a massive increase. I would take the 200 GB/7.2k system drive from Lenovo, and 2 x 500GB 2.5 inch Samsung aftermarket drives.
• CF and SDHC card reader built in - no hassles with readers and cable anymore
• The motherboard is build on Intel 4th generation Chipset - finally there is no performance degradation in virtual machines anymore.

I need to call Lenovo tommorrow ..... :smile:

Andy

it really makes me wonder how they'll fit all that promised stuff in that case...
it DOES sound enticing
but....
for the config. i'd likely want.... it'll be much more money than the 300/2.8...

 

[AndyE]

for the config. i'd likely want.... it'll be much more money than the 300/2.8...

Oh, I am glad to read that.

As you are on an AFS 400mm/2.8 VR trajectory, your wife wouldn't allow you to get the 300VR as well, which would leave this reserved budget untapped. Would she pay attention to a simple notebook ..... ?

:biggrin:

 

[keith5523]

Well, to steal one of Greg's lines from a previous post, it will be a lot easier to disguise a Thinkpad than it is to disguise the 400 2.8 lens!!! However, a 17" laptop would likely stick out like a 400 2.8. BUT, you can only take pictures with the 400, and you CAN do a couple other things with a Thinkpad so at least you have a better position in the argument.

I think I'm a prospect for that laptop as well.

 

[andreasb]

Finally a machine for us! Looks amazing. The only thing is that it is big and heavy and I'm concerend about being limited by weight on flights going forward..

And why do they announce this when I just bought a new Dell 630, d-n it????

 

[fks]

i like the idea, but i'll wait for a 14" version. a 17" screen is not my idea of a portable PC :smile:

ricky

 

[JeffKohn]

That thing looks huge, I've never seen a laptop with room for a numpad before. Add the extra HD's and this thing has got to use a lot of battery juice, too.

I guess I don't really see the need, for me anyway. Sure, it has some pretty neat features, but I prefer something smaller and lighter for traveling. Laptops this big are impossible to use on a plane unless you're flying first-class, and even in other locations they can be unwieldy in your lap. I guess this might be a good candidate for somebody looking for a desktop replacement. But for me, no laptop could ever replace my desktop.

I just don't do serious photo editing when traveling. I download the pics, do some key-wording, maybe the first pass of culling, etc. The real editing I save for when I get home.

 

[beaucamera]

That thing looks huge, I've never seen a laptop with room for a numpad before. Add the extra HD's and this thing has got to use a lot of battery juice, too.

I guess I don't really see the need, for me anyway. Sure, it has some pretty neat features, but I prefer something smaller and lighter for traveling. Laptops this big are impossible to use on a plane unless you're flying first-class, and even in other locations they can be unwieldy in your lap. I guess this might be a good candidate for somebody looking for a desktop replacement. But for me, no laptop could ever replace my desktop.

I just don't do serious photo editing when traveling. I download the pics, do some key-wording, maybe the first pass of culling, etc. The real editing I save for when I get home.

I'm with Jeff on this.
I've don't enjoy processing images on a laptop and avoid doing so whenever I can.

I can't image carrying 8 lbs around.

Virginia
aka beaucamera

 

[AndyE]

And why do they announce this when I just bought a new Dell 630, d-n it????

Because the big 4 vendors (Lenovo, HP, Fujitsu, Dell) announced yesterday machines in this class, coincidentally with NVidia'S FX 3700M chip announcement - enabling workstation performance in (somewhat) portable cases.

rgds, Andy

 

[spalding12]

Oh, I am glad to read that.

As you are on an AFS 400mm/2.8 VR trajectory, your wife wouldn't allow you to get the 300VR as well, which would leave this reserved budget untapped. Would she pay attention to a simple notebook ..... ?

:biggrin:

well...
you have a great point
the notebook would be MUCH easier to "HIDE"
of course..... a macbook pro isn't much cheaper, i suppose

oh... i really do NOT need to start lusting after THIS notebook..... :smile:
especially since i do all of my post-processing on mac-based computers

 

[AndyE]

That thing looks huge, I've never seen a laptop with room for a numpad before. Add the extra HD's and this thing has got to use a lot of battery juice, too.

I guess I don't really see the need, for me anyway. Sure, it has some pretty neat features, but I prefer something smaller and lighter for traveling. Laptops this big are impossible to use on a plane unless you're flying first-class, and even in other locations they can be unwieldy in your lap. I guess this might be a good candidate for somebody looking for a desktop replacement. But for me, no laptop could ever replace my desktop.

I just don't do serious photo editing when traveling. I download the pics, do some key-wording, maybe the first pass of culling, etc. The real editing I save for when I get home.

jeff,
that's the reason, why there are different form factors.

I average about 120-120 flights a year and no notebook comes ever close to the convenience of my TabletPC (Lenovo X60T), especially seating in economy. I wouldn't use a 17" notebook on an airplane, as I wouldn't use a small notebook anymore as well.

Isn't it great that we have choice ? :smile:
Andy

 

[spalding12]

i like the idea, but i'll wait for a 14" version. a 17" screen is not my idea of a portable PC :smile:

ricky

of course.... if you really want to do post-processing on it... which is the unit's intention... then 14" really isn't big enough for most folks to get the details they want... no?

 

[AndyE]

deleted - double posting. sorry