Lenovo updates flagship ThinkPad W701ds workstation

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Notebooks - Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

Lenovo updates flagship ThinkPad W701ds workstation Lenovo ThinkPad W701ds a If you’re one of those graphic-artist types looking for a performance notebook made for, um, graphic artistry, you might want to check out the ThinkPad W701, Lenovo’s current flagship for their ThinkPad W series. It’s actually an update to the existing W700 (launched a year ago), a massive 17-inch workhorse of a notebook that comes with a Wacom digitizer and pen on the palmrest and an extra retractable 10.6-inch screen (for the W701ds).

Lenovo updates flagship ThinkPad W701ds workstation Lenovo ThinkPad W701ds b

The built-in 120 x 80mm digitizer can be set to map to the entire screen or a defined area.

The update to the W701 includes a faster USB 3.0 port, a higher 16GB DDR3 memory ceiling, and an upgrade to Intel’s Core i7 Extreme Edition processors. The notebook’s exterior has been kept pretty much the same, and is still as awesome as the original—if you don’t mind the workstation’s size or its 11-pound weight.

For the artistically-inclined user, graphic artists inclined to keep their jobs, and those of you who don’t have to lug this thing everyday, you’re in for a treat: aside from the obvious advantages of having both an extra 10.3-inch screen and a Wacom pen-and-digipad, the W701/ W701ds comes with a graphics option that tops out with an OpenGL-capable Nvidia Quadro FX 3800M for 3D rendering, plus an automatic color calibrator that adapts the display settings to different lighting conditions so what you see is always what you get.

The rest of the spec includes hard drives of up to 640GB (with options for SSD) and RAID configurations for reliability, a Blu-ray drive, Wi-fi, Gigabit Ethernet and Bluetooth connectivity, and a full keyboard with a separate numpad and trackpoint. There’s also a tiny LED “ThinkLight” above the screen that you can turn on so you can (unfortunately) keep on working with the lights out—a nice, simple touch that should really be more common on the average notebook.

The price for this high-end workhorse? Prices start at $2,199 for the W701. The W701ds (dual screen) pushes the price up to $3,799.

Lenovo updates flagship ThinkPad W701ds workstation Lenovo ThinkPad W701