Mechanical Design takes a look at the Lenovo ThinkPad W700ds and sees if two screens really are better than one

As before, don't expect something that you would happily carry around in a bag on your daily commute. This is a portable workstation rather than a large laptop. To get workstation performance, something has to be sacrificed; in this case it is every-day portability. Having said that, this would certainly turn a few heads on the train, especially when you smugly slide out the second screen.

Outside

There is no mistaking that this is a business machine. The totally jet black colour scheme is only interrupted with three blue keyboard buttons and a nice red centrally mounted TrackPoint button. The lack of colour does not detract from the aesthetics of the unit – it looks really sleek and would certainly not look out of place in a design office. The other thing that immediately catches your eye is the digitizer – a 128x80mm Wacom unit to the left of touch pad, which comes with a pop-out, two-button stylus

Screen(s): The 17in 1920x1200 screen is very pleasant on the eye and is conscious of the user experience – prompting a calibration cycle the first time you open it. Upon hitting OK, the computer fires up the huey PRO Colorimeter by X-Rite which, when you close the cover, uses a sensor on the palm rest to calibrate the screen, entertaining you with lots of nice beeps as it does it. Just to show that it is not a gimmick, it does offer you the chance of reviewing before and after, and after was certainly a lot better, with the screen looking visibly better in terms of contrast and colour.

The 's' in brackets in the bold heading up above is for a good reason, one push on the right hand side of the screen case and a separate 10.6in portrait-oriented display pops out. There are two schools of thought here, it is either a very useful USP, or a little bit of a gimmick. I am inclined to head down the useful route, as it is can be used to house all of your CAD menu bars etc. Or, if you are a serious multi-tasker, any open programs can be resized and placed into the extra real estate. It would take a few week's worth of use to offer a really objective opinion, but I like it.

Keyboard/mouse/UI: The W700ds offers a full keyboard, including a separate number pad. The keys have a little more travel than I am used to on a laptop, but this does make for a more tactile experience when typing.

Users are spoilt for choice when it comes to input devices. As well as the ubiquitous track pad, with buttons above and below there is also TrackPoint device in the middle of the keyboard and the aforementioned digitizer for those that like to do their work with a pen. All are customisable, so there are plenty of options.

To the top left of the keyboard, Lenovo has incorporated volume up, down and mute buttons and dedicated blue ThinkVantage button, which takes the user into a productivity suite offering many commonly used tasks such as wireless set up and control, backups, updates, maintenance and configuration. More seasoned users would know how to do most of this via the control panel but it does remove a lot of the hassle having it all "on tap" in one place.

Connectivity: There are plenty of options for adding peripherals to the W700ds. The left hand side offers a Fire Wire socket, two USB sockets and two ExpressCard slots (34 and 34/54). The front panel houses a 7-in-1 memory card reader and the microphone and headphone sockets. The right hand side presents three further USB sockets, an RJ-11 socket and a DVD burner. Finally, the back gives three external display options (VGA, DVI-D and the new DisplayPort format) and an RJ-45 Ethernet port.

Inside

Processor: Intel Core2 Q9000 quad-core processor, with 6MB of Level 2 cache and a 1,066MHz bus

RAM: 4GB DDR3

HDD: 320GB 7,2000rpm

Graphics: NVIDIA Quadro FX3700M with 1GB of video memory

Battery: 9-cell Lithium-Ion

Independent software vendor (ISV) certification:

CAD: AutoDesk (AutoCAD, Inventor, Studio Tools), CoCreate (OneSpace Desginer), Dassault Systems (CATIA V5, SolidWorks), PTC (Pro/ENGINEER) Siemens PLMS (NX, NX I-deas, Solid Edge)

Digital Content Creation (DCC): Adobe (Premiere, After effects), AutoDesk (3DS MAX, Maya), Avid (Xpress Pro, Media Composer) and SoftImage XSI

GIS: ESRI ArcGIS

Oil & Gas Landmark (Geoprobe), Paradigm GEO (Focus, Geodepth, GeoLog), Schlumberger (Petrel, GeoFrame GeoVis)

Thoughts and conclusion: With such an impressive spec, this machine really does exactly what it says on the tin. It is hard to find fault with any of the components and the computer in general is a very impressive piece of kit. I have to say that I am yet to be convinced of the merit of the second screen, but I am sure that after a few week's worth of use I would probably find it indispensable.

By offering a little bit of everything, Lenovo certainly has its bases covered. It is pricey, but then again all portable workstations are, but the flexibility it offers is hard to put a value on. By offering that little bit extra, I think Lenovo has developed a very good machine here. With a Quad Core processor, 4GB of RAM and a Quadro graphics card, I am sure it will stay a lot more current than many of its peers.

Related links and articles:

Review: HP EliteBook 8730w Mobile Workstation

Lenovo launches ThinkStation Workstations

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