Lenovo's New ThinkPad Has 2 LCD Screens, Weighs 11 Pounds 194
ericatcw writes "With many users now used to having multiple monitors at home or work, you had to figure someone would try to offer a 'desktop replacement' laptop that offered the same. Lenovo is the first. Its new W700ds laptop will offer a 10.6 inch LCD screen in addition to the 17-inch primary display. The W700ds also sports a quad-core Intel Core 2 CPU, up to almost 1 TB of storage, and an Nvidia Quadro mobile chip with up to 128 cores. A Lenovo exec called this souped-up version of the normally buttoned-down-for-business ThinkPads the 'nitro-burning drag racer of ThinkPads.' There is even a Wacom digitizer pad and pen for graphic artists, who are expected to be the target market, along with photographers and other creative types who are willing to trade shoulder-aching bulk (11 pounds) and price (minimum of $3,600) for productivity enhancements."
At the other end of the laptop size spectrum, Dell recently announced plans to launch a rival to the MacBook Air. Called "Adamo," it is supposedly "thinner than the MacBook Air," though further details will have to wait for the Computer Electronics Show in early January.
Not worth it... (Score:2, Insightful)
On a more serious note, I don't think I want to carry around an 11 pound laptop just to have an extra monitor.
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Definitely not worth it. 17" and 10"? Why not buy a 17" and another 17" or larger LCD? All laptops today support secondary displays. For the price of this laptop, you can buy 3 17" laptops, that weights a lot less, 3 separate LCDs, and a 16 gig usb drive to transfer files, One lappy for home, one for the office, and one for the car when you go to see customers, friends, or whatever.
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a 16 gig usb drive to transfer files, One lappy for home, one for the office
Carrying around a few files on a thumb drive works great for hosers like you and me maybe, but my wife tried for months to keep Thunderbird and a huge customer database synced between home and work, and it was just a nightmare. Granted, part of the problem was the Maxtor backup software, but still, it's a major pain. She eventually gave up and just carries a giant Dell laptop around.
Of course now I get to hear about the crappy Alps touchpad driver and the general suckitude of Dell products, so it doesn't
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An alternative scenario that would work for her is one laptop, an external LCD for the home, one at the office, and one in the car, and pocket the other $2k.
Now, if she's that dependent on her Thunderbird data, she should be backing it up on a regular basis anyway. The loss of the data (drive failure, theft, etc) is more of a hassle than backing it up, right?
" Of course now I get to hear about the crappy Alps touchpad driver and the general suckitude of Dell products, so it doesn't help ME any. "
So
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Actually the notebook only weighs 2 pounds. The extension cord weighs 9 pounds.
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What's the point? (Score:5, Insightful)
I guess I'm missing the point of this. At work I plug my laptop into my docking stataion, with a 26" monitor attached (with the same setup at home - the two monitors cost far less than this silly laptop!). I *don't* want to lug the monitor around with me! If I have a desk where I work frequently, I can provide it a much bigger monitor. If I'm just walking around, I want my laptop to be as light as possible.
Really, the more I think about it, the more I'm really just carrying my disk drive around. Maybe in a year or two I can just switch to carrying a poket-sized SSD around, and have desktops at home and work that boot off that.
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Maybe in a year or two I can just switch to carrying a poket-sized SSD around, and have desktops at home and work that boot off that.
I do almost exactly that. I carry around a 32GB flash drive and I run Portable Apps off of it. Since my work, school, and home computer all use Windows, I basically have the Desktop wherever I go. The only difference is that my home computer actually has Firefox, Open Office, etc. installed, as opposed to using the portable version.
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The point is that if you are like my boss, you are literally never at your desk. He's always traveling somewhere and he carries a laptop with a 17(?) inch screen. It's huge. He'd probably love to replace it with a dual screen that increased his workspace 1.5 times its present size.
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Is it 11 pounds already? This one adds too much weight for a 10.6" screen.
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Seeing as you (admittedly) use your laptop primarily as a way to move your hard drive between fixed locations, this obviously wouldn't be very practical for you. I'd guess this is for people who tend to actually use their laptop regularly in remote locations, and would like more screen real-estate as many of us enjoy at the desktop. I think the point is, you get some of the benefits of extra screen space while still remaining fairly portable.
Still, seems pretty gimmicky. Should be interesting to see how
They would be lots better off (Score:2)
I know of NO good reason that it should actually be built-in. That adds unnecessary weight and complication, and reduces flexibility.
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Negatory!
Slashdotters can't read!
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I've always wondered why someone hasn't built a portable LCD screen yet. The way I figure it, take a laptop screen, and have a protective cover that unfolds into a stand. Even better would be to figure out some clever way to manage the cables (retractable?) so you can pretty much grab it and go. Maybe put a battery in it. If done right, you'd have something smaller than the MacBook Air that you could fold up and throw in your laptop bag, then you could have dual screens while on the road. I'd buy one.
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I guess I'm missing the point of this.
Me too, unless it's "selling replacement batteries".
Re:What's the point? (Score:4, Informative)
I also have a good number of co-workers who choose 17" laptops. They are relatively big, but when it gets right down to it, it doesn't take them any longer to put those in a laptop bag and go somewhere than it does anybody with a smaller computer.
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Why not carry a mp3 player with a separate work partition?
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Eventually I'm sure the space on an MP3 player will be adequate. Although I have to ask a related question - why should I carry an MP3 player with me and plug it into my home/car/portable stereo? Shouldn't I instead just carry a flash drive on my keychain, and plug it into an MP3 player build into my home/car/portable stereo?
I don't know why car manufacturers, especially, can't seem to get this. It's got to be more expensive to add an iPod doc than build in the software for an MP3 player and add a USB sl
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I guess I'm missing the point of this. At work I plug my laptop into my docking stataion, with a 26" monitor attached (with the same setup at home - the two monitors cost far less than this silly laptop!). I *don't* want to lug the monitor around with me! If I have a desk where I work frequently, I can provide it a much bigger monitor. If I'm just walking around, I want my laptop to be as light as possible.
Seconded. Particularly with the new Dell Latitudes having docking stations with dual-DVI connection
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The new Macbook range has all the ports on one side, so it shouldn't be hard for a third party to design a docking station for it.
I remember there being docking stations for the 12" Powerbook G4s, since they had all the ports on one side too.
What would be really neat would be a docking station you can drop the laptop into vertically, but that will all depend on whether the machine is rated to operate in that position with the lid closed.
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I remember there being docking stations for the 12" Powerbook G4s, since they had all the ports on one side too.
I've seen those things before. They're a fragile, kludgy, joke - and they sure as hell aren't going to let me hook up a pair of big screens to a MB. :(
I will never understand why a company that prides itself so much on design, has such a passive-aggressive approach to cable management, spawning such inelegant and kludgy "solutions".
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Bookendz sells docks for Apple laptops. They may have released models for the new aluminum ones. I use one for my mid-2007 Macbook and it's not bad. It basically plugs into all your pre-existing ports and extends them out to ports on the dock. There's also a few extra powered USB ports.
Actually, it's pretty good considering the limitations it has to work with -- Apple doesn't design their laptops with docking stations in mind (unlike Dell Latitudes), so Bookendz says you have to power off your Macbook b
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I have a laptop and am a full-time student. I was carrying my laptop to class regularly for a while and then it hit me: duh, flash drive.I dont need to take my computer, if I know Im going somewhere with a computer, I jus tneed my flash drive with portable apps on it and Im good to go.
I understand with some apps you cant possibly do this, but its nice that *I* can. I have a T60 that isnt bad to carry, but a flash drive is easier.
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Really, the more I think about it, the more I'm really just carrying my disk drive around. Maybe in a year or two I can just switch to carrying a poket-sized SSD around, and have desktops at home and work that boot off that.
Oh! Oh! Even better: Think about a Nokia N810 like device with an SSD in it. You can use it as UMPC on the go, accessing the SSD as well, and plug it in to you laptop or desktop machine and use it as a mobile drive!!!
An ARM CPU and Linux would make that happen...
Re:The Point is... (Score:5, Insightful)
Sure, the OP doesn't have to buy it if he or she doesn't like it. But that doesn't mean the product has any value to anyone else either. If you decide to make ice cream that tastes like shit, and you can't answer the question of "what's the point?", then what will you have after you've spent $400,000 in research, design, production, packaging, and marketing just so you could sell your product to one *somebody*? Nothing but a big pile of (cold) shit. So the question remains, who needs a 4 grand laptop that weighs 11 pounds, and are there enough of these people for the product to turn a profit?
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Yes, the proper analogy is that shit flavored ice cream tastes like shit.
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This is the laptop equivalent of driving a Ferrari.
No, *this* laptop is more like driving a dump druck. Sure, it's expensive and heavy and folds in odd ways, but the design sure seems odd for commuting!
Needs More Symmetry (Score:4, Insightful)
Sorry, that laptop in the article just looks lop-sided and ugly with the sidecar-screen pulled out. Once somebody does a triptych version, let me know.
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You may be right, but I think the design is functional. There are lots of ways this kind of setup would be very convenient.
You could keep the document you are working on in the main screen, and your agenda or objectives on the small one. You could have a shared whiteboard in the main screen, and a webcam feed on the small screen. Or, if you were a PHB, you could keep the powerpoint slide you are working on in the main screen and the slide sorter on the side screen.
That said, I don't think this is the
The perfect laptop (Score:5, Funny)
This has to be the perfect laptop for me!
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Burning hot pants sounds kinda sexy. Sign me up!
Too many moving parts (Score:3, Interesting)
The secondary display pulled out at the side just looks so fragile to me. Especially when considering the cost of such a computer.
On the other story, does the Dell "Adamo" has anything to do with Battlestar Galactica?
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Slight difference.
NO! (Score:3, Interesting)
On the other story, does the Dell "Adamo" has anything to do with Battlestar Galactica?
Noooo!
Its named after the first man Our Lord God created. Not some imaginary character on some space-robots TV show.
You insensitive heathen clod.
well I hope that works out better for them (Score:2)
than the Compaq Evo [wikipedia.org]
A bit on the heavy side (Score:5, Funny)
"Lenovo's New ThinkPad Has 2 LCD Screens, Weighs 11 Pounds "
Maybe a car battery wasn't the best choice?
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Granted, it's one of the heavier notebooks on the market but if you would really see the benefit of dual screens when working in the field it doesn't sound all that bad -- just get a backpack case.
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You're talking about a bunch of guys who still remember lugging their Osbournes around. Of course their shoulders are sensitive.
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Wow that was an obscure reference. I remember hearing the word "Osbourne" but didn't recall what it was (24 pounds): http://oldcomputers.net/osborne.html [oldcomputers.net] - Now if you had said "Commodore 64 portable" then I could relate (23 pounds): http://oldcomputers.net/sx64.html [oldcomputers.net] ----- The heaviest portable ever made was the IBM PC at over 30 pounds!!! Ouch.
And finally the first laptop PC (12 pounds). It ran over 10 hours! Why don't today's laptops run ten hours? http://oldcomputers.net/ibm5140.html [oldcomputers.net] -----
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It ran over 10 hours! Why don't today's laptops run ten hours?
My guess would be, judging from your links, is that the laptops of the olden days didn't have a disk driving constantly spinning, a processor that ran at about 4 mumble Mhz, and with a 640x200 display, it probably didn't require as much juice as the laptops nowadays.
I miss my last laptop which could adjust the clock speed. I had it set up that the less juice there was, the lower the clock speed. I could regularly get 3 hours out of it--of course, that was running linux and not the disk thrashing Windows.
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If you're using Vista then it's caching files from the hard drive to memory in the theory that moving files to RAM saves access time. It doesn't really seem to work though.
I have a Pentium 4 on both my laptop and my PC. I wish I could slow it down from the current 3000 megahertz, since I'm just downloading files (very non-CPU intensive), but alas Intel never thought to include that option. I would have to physically open alter the motherboard, and I have no desire to do that.
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That's pretty much what I thought. Since when is 5kg "shoulder-aching bulk"? Well, assuming you haven't got some hideous degenerative bone disease or something.
I used to hitchhike from where I went to university to my parents and back with an Osborne 1 (latterly a Compaq portable) and my rucksack. I wouldn't even class that as "shoulder-aching bulk".
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While I am quite comfortable toting an 85-pound rucksack, I can't imagine doing it just to carry a laptop to work. My 7-pound Macbook Pro is painful enough when you throw in a few project files and accessories-- it made me give up the messenger bag.
For an 11-pound laptop, I would hope the power brick is built in along with the roller blade wheels to move it around.
I saw some idiot in the airport with one of the 19" laptops... it just makes you wonder. The thing takes up the bulk of a rollerboard.
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That's 11lbs in addition to whatever you carry normally. I'm a strong guy and also in the target market (creative professional), but I don't think it makes me any less strong when I say this would be a major pain. I usually carry a sketchbook, pens and pencils, and a couple of small notebooks. I just don't have the capacity and if I'm on the road I don't need a second LCD. Soooooo I'm still wondering how well this thing will sell. Guess we'll see.
Interesting idea, poor implementation. (Score:5, Insightful)
1920x1200 main screen, and 720x1280 side screen... did it not occur to them to have 1200 vertically on both? Also, I'm kinda thinking that for this kind of money, I should be able to buy 2 laptops providing a total resolution in excess of 2640x1280, and whatever software I need to share the screen of one as a second display on the other... and have 'em weigh less, together, than this monstrosity. ;)
Re:Interesting idea, poor implementation. (Score:4, Informative)
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Synergy provides similar screen sharing functionality and it's opensource:
http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/
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Yeah! That's the one I was thinking of, but it's been so long since I read about it that I forgot the name.
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Synergy and Maxivista are aimed at two different solutions, though. Synergy shares the mouse and keyboard - it's a software KVM. The two computers run separately, with separate apps, etc etc.
Maxivista actually sets up a virtual display adapter on the "host" and the "client" is connected as an extended desktop. It integrated into the multihead capabilities of the host. This lets you treat them as if it was two monitors on the same computer, dragging windows back and forth, etc. I think Maxivista can do the s
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On the other hand, while I've got a desktop and a laptop running Ubuntu 8.10 here, I'm pretty sure it'd take me at least two hours to set them up this way. Probably a lot more than that, with no guarantee of sucess. Because I don't think it's mainstream enough to be set up effortless or work out of the box, like X itself now mostly does. If I still had two Windows devices, it'd probably take me 10 minutes, with a reasonable chance of sucess and less time wasted if it doesn't work.
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Well, sure, this is easy with, say, Distributed Multiheaded X. I think DMX has been integrated into the core Xorg build for some time now. It's one of the many things *nix has done for ages that Windows still takes addon software to do, and I'm not sure if Mac OS X has anything available to do it.
Sadly, there are still many people stuck with Windows for work (I'm one of them) so if we need a solution for something like this, we have to look to the ugly solutions.
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I can see where extending the desktop is useful on a single machine in the case of Windows, but when running a *nix it'd be just as useful to get two laptops (one powerhouse, one low end perhaps) and have X (Xdmx [wikipedia.org]) extend the desktop across both machines.
If the program can run as a cluster version as well on both laptops it would be completely cool.
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I have a similar configuration to this, only reversed -- I have a 17" rotated to 1024x1280 on the left, and a 20" at 1600x1200 on the right. The extra 80 pixels on the left side are useful for the taskbar, system tray, etc., allowing a full 1200 pixels vertically for a screen-spanning app if I so choose. Those extra 80 pixels are not wasted, though I think most people would find it more useful if the extra space was on the left rather than the right (since most people expect the START button to be at lower
Since Lenovo took over, Thinkpads suck (Score:2, Informative)
I had great experiences with my previous two (IBM manufactured) Thinkpads.
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Re:Since Lenovo took over, Thinkpads suck (Score:4, Informative)
Lenovo has always made Thinkpads, or at least has for a decade or more. IBM just decided to sell the rest of the business to them but let them use the IBM name for a few years.
dom
Re:Since Lenovo took over, Thinkpads suck (Score:5, Insightful)
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Wrong.
Winstron did manufacturing on the R and X Series, Great Wall (one of Lenovo's biggest competitors when they bought IBM) did manufacturing on the T series.
Re:Since Lenovo took over, Thinkpads suck (Score:4, Interesting)
I am the proud owner of a 570e, T41p, T61p and X61s. And indeed, the T61p is the most Lenovo of the four, and it sucks (huge and hot). The X61s is wonderful (netbook sized and amazing keyboard, CPU, HD, screen and linux compatibility) but it seems that it was IBM designed.
One of my relatives just bought a T400 and his comment was "pretty cool, but the keyboard sucks a bit" ... Knowing that one of the main reason to buy a Thinkpad was the quality of the keyboard, this is bad.
Now, maybe the expensive ones are better ? People do not seem to complain about the X[23]00, do they ?
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I just bought an SL300 and it's great, if not for the screen and the touch-pad (which is a bit of a drag, because they are very important parts of a laptop I suppose). It also has some problems with the WiFi software and Vista (maybe I'll install the XP software that came with it, or Linux).
The keyboard however is fine by me. The only complaint I have about it is that it is slightly too loud, and the Fn key is completely to the left, where I expect to find the key. Otherwise it is a brilliant thing, with e
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I've not had any problems with the hardware yet, either.
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(shrugs) I have a T61p that I love (it's about a year old now?). It replaced an old (c2002) Toshiba Tecra. My T61p is the 15" 1680x1050 display, 3GB of RAM, and a Centrino Duo CPU running WinXP Pro.
They're still very solid units.
I don't care much for some of the ThinkVantage software, but I've learned to put up with its quirks. (They really need to sink some funding into fix
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I have an R60 for about 2 years now. When I first got it, it had problems coming out of sleep, but after downloading some updated drivers they went away. The only other complaint I have is that apparently it's limited to 2GB of memory, so no upgrades for me (I bought it with 2GB). But I guess that's what you get when you buy the low-end of the Thinkpads.
Why? (Score:5, Insightful)
Why? I see this word a lot in laptop threads. It's in the luggable monster threads like this one and its often in the netbook one too. I would have thought the answer was obvious, really. What I have trouble understanding is how people can fail to understand that not everyone has the same computing needs.
If you still don't understand, use the following guide:
Need as much power as you can get in a portable bos? Get one of these.
Need great portability but not much CPU? Get an eee or whatever.
Need something in between? Get a laptop.
Need a laptop which can be run over bay a tank while under water? Get a toughbook, etc...
And so on. If you're on /. and still can't see how other people still have different computing needs, then hand in your geek card on your way out.
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Please can you come and explain that logic to my boss.. Ans can you also include the following.
Need large amount of computing power than you never need to move, BUY A DESKTOP.
All our work desktops are slowly being replaced with laptops. No one ever moves them. They stay setup, open, on people desks, over the weekend.. I'm surprised that the cleaners haven't stolen a few buy now.
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They stay setup, open, on people desks, over the weekend.. I'm surprised that the cleaners haven't stolen a few buy now.
If your boss is unresponsive - talk to your cleaners. I'm sure "something" can be done about it.
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It's hard to have a voice-activated Google-Earth-running warstumbling device that's *not* a reasonably powerful laptop. :)
I don't mind lugging my laptop in my oversized backpack.
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Partly because nobody cares enough to design/buy desktops which are more efficient. Granted it won't be as good as a notebook, unless you build a desktop out of notebook components (which is also possible) but a little care goes a long way. In fact, a well-built desktop itself won't use that much more power as its equivalent laptop parts,but the display will, and it'll be difficult to find a 20" desktop LCD which consumes as little power as a 14 or 15" laptop display does.
nutty (Score:2)
Okay, a dual-head laptop is just an insane idea. But then again, the Thinkpad has a long history of crazy features in the product line. Good to see Lenovo is keeping up the tradition.
Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go do some hacking on my T60.
From the PC Pro article: (Score:2)
The metallic-black "Adamo" laptop will reportedly be thinner than the MacBook Air, although it's unclear whether it will be as light.
Sure, it depends on whether or not they loaded Vista onto it.
(kidding)
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How funny and stupid of Dell (Score:2, Insightful)
Numeric Keypads (Score:2)
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Even without removing the touchpad, the keyboard could still be moved over and a keypad added, however I don't pack my laptop without my mouse, and empty space on this thing is more than enough room to use as a flat surface for my wireless mouse. I've had to do that a time or two because the touchpad just drives me nuts.
Not that this laptop would last long enough to watch a movie (if you have a power port that is a different story) most gaming laptops really don't get 2 hours battery life regardless of what
Why is this being posted? (Score:2)
I thought it was against slashdot's policy to make porn posts.
Would it work on a smaller chassis? (Score:2, Interesting)
As other commenters have mentioned, it's about the trade off.
I guess I'd fit into the target market, as I'm a graphic designer and video editor, so more screen and more power are always nice. But I can't see me ever going larger than the 15.4" screen laptop I have now.
Why? Because, as nice as a bigger screen/more screens would be, it would guarantee that I couldn't do anything until I reached my destination unless I carried a smaller laptop as well. The laptop I have (Dell D820) is awkward on planes unless
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Until you can fold a screen, you will probably never use a larger than 15 inch screen. Maybe if you have a tablet design you may opt for 17 inch (I think these separate tablets are nice, but having a good touch screen in the future is probably easier to use).
You'll probably better off asking the client or whoever you travel to to put a nice big screen ready. The current laptops can drive quite high res external screens.
This new laptop from Lenovo is what I call a "luggable". It's not a laptop at all since y
Other pics here (Score:2, Informative)
dell didn't announce anything (Score:2)
Missing one thing (Score:2)
Today people don't buy multi-screen setups because they are multi-screen. They buy them in order to get more pixels. There used to be times when you had a high resolution monochrome display and a low resolution colour one, but those times are over.
So if you want to make something usefull, make the rims as thin as possible. And _please_ make it symmetrical. At that price I would expect a little piece of mechanics which automatically extends the sidescreens when you open the laptop.
I have something very similar (Score:3, Funny)
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Wheels? Awesome! Strap an outboard motor to the back of it and then it's even more portable. The other solution requires a car. :)
Re:128 cores (Score:4, Funny)
I think we should make a system of rating computing power that's applicable to a CPU or GPU and is measured in Internet Penis Inches. Then you can settle graphics card debates by saying "This one is rated at 6.3Epeens and this one is 7.2Epeens" and be done with it.
Re:128 cores (Score:4, Informative)
I thought they were normally called 3dmarks, but I guess Epeens would work.
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A Thinkpad is a Thinkpad, so they are designed to look like Thinkpads. I've just bought one that has the same timeless design. Never mind, the laptop (an SL300) is great, save the 13.3 inch screen, which is rather worthless. I hope for Lenovo's sake the screens of this new thing fare better.
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Mind you, the SL300 has a "piano" finish. I could have done without *that*. Especially the combination with a fingerprint reader is rather stupid :)
11 pounds is 5kg (Score:5, Informative)
I'll save everyone else having to look it up.
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And that's not the only thing the two have in common!