January 9th, 2009

CES 2009: Hands-on with Lenovo's dual-screen W700ds

Posted by Andrew Nusca @ 3:47 pm

Categories: CES, Lenovo

Tags: Card Reader, Lenovo Group Ltd., Intel Core 2 Duo, Intel Corp., Keyboards, Processors, Hardware, Peripherals, Semiconductors, Components

I mentioned seeing Lenovo’s dual-screen W700ds, or “the beast,” as Lenovo informally calls it, at CES Unveiled on the unofficial first day of CES. Well, now I got to play with it, and though it may not exactly be portable, it’s a power user’s dream machine.

The hands-on tour, after the jump…

Up top, the “slave” screen, if you will, manages to match the physical size and resolution/dpi of the master screen. The slide-out extra screen can be tilted for ergonomic (or visual) bliss.

Down below, there’s a seperate numerical pad in addition to the full-size keyboard, as well as a large stylus pad for pinpoint manipulation in addition to the standard touchpad (and Lenovo’s signature red nub in the keyboard).

The stylus is conveniently and somewhat unbelievably stored in the side of the unit.

In addition to a traditional 7-in-1 SD etc. card reader, it’s got a separate reader for Compact Flash cards. (SLR lovers, rejoice!)

How is it to use? Dual monitor fans will probably go wild for this laptop, which pretty much replicates that environment faithfully and, under the hood, carries the necessary goods to make it happen seamlessly, most notably its Intel Core 2 Quad Core Extreme QX930, running at 2.53GHz with a 1066 FSB and 12MB of L2 cache:

 Processor

• Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T9400 (2.53Ghz, 6MBL2, 1066MHzFSB)
• Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor T9600 (2.8Ghz, 6MBL2, 1066MHzFSB)
• Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Core Q9100 (2.26 GHz, 1066 FSB, 12MB Cache)
• Intel® Core™ 2 Extreme X9100 (3.06GHz, 1066 FSB, 6MB L2 Cache)
• Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Core Extreme QX9300 (2.53GHz, 1066 FSB, 12MB L2 Cache)

Preloaded operating system

• Genuine Windows Vista® Business 32 bit
• Genuine Windows Vista® Business 64 bit
• Genuine Windows Vista® Ultimate 64 bit
• Genuine Windows® XP Professional 32 bit

Memory

• Up to 8GB DDR3

Security
• Standard: ThinkVantage® Client Security with Password Manager, TPM 1.2 chip, Bios enable/disable of all ports, Integrated Fingerprint reader
• Optional: Smart Card Reader, Full Disk Encryption HDD, Softex OminPass and Utimaco SGE

Other features

• Optional integrated camera, two white ThinkLights ThinkPad® Shock-Mounted Hard Drive
• Standard Integrated Fingerprint Reader

Standard Dimensions

• 16.1 x 12.2 x 2.1 - inches
• 410 x 310 x 52.2 - millimeters

Weight

• 4.96 kg (10.9 lbs)

Main Display

• WUXGA (400nit) - 1920 X 1200—17.0h
• WXGA+ 1440 X 900—17.0h (Note: Dual Screen supported only with WUXGA LCD on main display)

Integrated Second Display

• WXGA (230 nit) - 768 x 1280 - 10.6″ Graphics
• Discrete OpenGL Graphics
• NVIDIA® Quadro®
• FX 3700M PCI Express 1GB
• FX 2700M PCI Express 512MB

Optical Drive

• CD-RW/DVD-ROM, DVD Burner, Blu-Ray

Keyboard

• Ergonomic keyboard with palm rest, ThinkPad® UltraNav™ multipointing system, including TrackPoint® pointing device with Press-to-Select”, Internet Scroll Bar, intuitive volume, ThinkVantage® button and
Windows® key

Available integrated communications

• Gigabit Ethernet

• Bluetooth® 2.0

• WiMax

Limited Warranty

• 1 yr, 3 year system / 1 yr battery

Li-Ion Battery Life

• 2.0 Hr (9 Cell) 85WHr

Ports and Slots

• 5 USB, IEEE1394 (confirm),VGA, Display Port, Dual Link DVI, Microphone/Line In, Headphone/line-out
Slots
• Multi-media Card Reader (7in1)
• 34mm Express Card

Optional

• 54mm Express Card
• Smart Card Reader
• Compact Flash Reader

ISV Certified Software

• Autodesk (AutoCAD, Maya),
• Dassault Systems (Catia, Solid Works), ETC (Pro/E), Avid (SoftImage)