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Lenovo Unleashes Monster Notebook for Digital Photographers

etrigan63

etrigan63

Active member
Delivers Industry’s First Built-in Digitizer and Color Calibrator Along with Ultimate Power, Multimedia and Display Technologies

Lenovo today introduced a monster notebook aimed at photographers. This 17-inch beast includes an Intel Core2 Extreme processor, up to 8GB DDR3 RAM, a 400 nit WUXGA (1920x1200) monitor that displays 72% color gamut, has a built-in color calibrator by X-rite (embedded Huey Pro), Nvidia Quadro graphics (up to 1GB), RAID 0/1, Blu-Ray burner, and built-in Wacom tablet. A 7-in-1 card reader is included and you can add a CF card reader as well. The notebook supports 802.11 BANG, Bluetooth, ultra wideband, and will add Wi-Max support later this year.

Pricing starts at $2,978 USD. With everything mentioned above, the price is over $5,000 USD.

Read my analysis here.
 
Terry

Terry

New member
Think they make a version for lefties? :banghead: :ROTFL:


(the tablet is in a pretty useless position)
 
etrigan63

etrigan63

Active member
It was a valiant first effort. At least Lenovo considered photographers a large enough market to warrant a custom design. This will cause a response from competitors. I have my own ideas about such a unit and I am trying to get one of their competitors to listen to me. Think positive thoughts...

HP launched a mobile workstation called the Elitebook 8730w that can be equipped with a DreamColor display. HP targeted a broader market than Lenovo, aiming at all workstation users. However, kitting out the 8730w for digital darkroom duty will force the user to purchase a CF card reader, small calibration device (Huey Pro) and a Wacom tablet (more junk to lug around).

I'd rate the Elitebook as a .9 level device where the Thinkpad is a 1.0. As I mentioned before, I have designs for a 2.0 device if I can get the manufacturers to listen to me.
 
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Terry

Terry

New member
More me, just joking around here as I am a mac user and don't see heading back to Windows any time soon. I do think it is cool that it is targeted at (right handed) photographers.
 
Lars

Lars

Active member
Lenovo seems to finally take imaging and photography professionals seriously. The Thinkpad PM says in his blog that the W700 was designed from the ground up for photographers.

What's interesting about the W700 is not really performance, rather the wide(r) gamut display and built-in Huey profiling - close the lid to profile. 72% of aRGB is not bad, better than all desktop displays except a few ColorEdge and the like. Neither is 400 nits brightness and RGB LED backlighting. Wow.

http://lenovoblogs.com/insidethebox/?p=153

Quad-core and 8GB ain't bad, but in a few months that won't be as much of a differentiating factor as the color management.

The cool thing is that this puts more pressure on other manufacturers to catch up, including Apple.
 
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ChrisDauer

ChrisDauer

Workshop Member
I just wish I could get the x64 bit XP OS on there. I think they are only offering the 32 bit version for XP. If you want 64, you've got to go Vista. And I'd take WinNT over Vista :p
 
etrigan63

etrigan63

Active member
A lot of the 64-bit driver development is focussed on Vista now. Plus MS is touting Vista as being feature-rich for photographers (so much so, that they now host their own Pro Photo Summit that I have yet to get an invite to :S ). I myself have published articles on creating digital darkrooms using Vista x64. Certain new technologies (like WIC) will only be supported in Vista, so unless some intrepid third party doesn't come forth to backport the new stuff to XP x64, I don't see a lot of the majors going for it. Adobe Creative Suite 4 will have x64 versions only for Vista. CS4 on Mac 64-bit is delayed because Apple decided to kill Carbon64 in favor of Cocoa, so Adobe is going to have to completely rewrite the interface for the Cocoa (OS X) API and break OS9 compatibility.
 
B

Ben Rubinstein

Active member
Given that you get differing brightnesses with the differing tilt of the laptop screen, how would you work with even a properly calibrated laptop? I ask out of ignorance, have laptop screens caught up and am I just outdated?
 
Lars

Lars

Active member
Ben,
Obviously on a laptop power conservation is more important than on a desktop display. Manufacturers use light diffusers (microprisms) for the backlight that project light in a narrow pattern.

This is not a property of the LCD technology but rather a design choice by the computer maker - is uniform brightness at all angles more important than power efficiency? So the answer to your question that it varies between laptop models, and always will.
 
B

Ben Rubinstein

Active member
My question is how you work with a calibrated screen that is no longer calibrated the moment the screen is tilted slightly, how do you know at what angle of tilt the brighness is accurate?
 
S

Stuart Richardson

Active member
TEBnewyork said:
Think they make a version for lefties? :banghead: :ROTFL:


(the tablet is in a pretty useless position)
Click to expand...
Exactly my thought...I had the same problem with a 4x5 inch wacom tablet. Everytime I tried to use it, my hand would hit the mouse pad part and make the pointer go crazy.

Anyway, I think this is a great idea and I hope it meets with success. Some color management and a better monitor is better than nothing, even if it can't be as reliable as a desktop setup. I wish my macbook pro display were even half as good as my Eizo...

But for me, I'll have to pass -- the trackpad would be on the wrong side and no OSX. It will be a cold day in hell when I give up its stability and ease of use to go back to windows. I just wish they would open it up to third party hardware already...
 
Lars

Lars

Active member
Oh, that's a different question :) I guess the short answer is "don't". Get a better screen.

The long answer: There are (at least) two technical issues here
- Uniformness of backlight brightness at different angles (this is the issue I described above since you specifically commented on brightness variations).
- Uniformness of color representation in the LCD panel itself (this is what you usually see in cheaper TN panels, even to the point of solarization).

In a good display both these issues have to be resolved (plus numerous others). The first issue is unrelated to color calibration/profiling, it's just a matter of how directional the backlighting is. The second issue is determined by LCD panel type and quality. A good panel, such as the Flexview IPS panel, represents colors uniformly over wide viewing angles.

(My current laptop that I'm writing on now fails miserably on both accounts. Cheap TN panel, crappy backlighting.)

We'll have to wait for reviews to see if Lenovo delivers on its hype. Considering their track-record with the Flexview being the best laptop screen on the market, I'm looking forward to hearing more about this monster.
 
etrigan63

etrigan63

Active member
Heh, Lenovo just contacted me today. They are sending me one for review as soon as they get them. I will let you know how it goes.
 
O

Oxide Blu

Guest
etrigan63 said:
Heh, Lenovo just contacted me today. They are sending me one for review as soon as they get them. I will let you know how it goes.
Click to expand...

Cool. Looking forward to your review.

Something else about Lenovo that doesn't get mentioned often is that support for their machines in the US is provided through IBM. And IBM's support has consistently been nothing less than absolutely stellar! It is just impossible for it to be any better.

The fingerprint scanner I never thought much about but quickly learned its value. I travel a lot. I hadn't considered how often I look over my shoulder for cameras when logging onto email accts, websites, etc. The whole world is now under surveillance, cameras that can watch over your shoulder and record your login. I even noticed the PTZ video security cameras in some internet cafes!!! With a fingerprint scanner, no typing of login names or passwords is necessary. :thumbs: That said, there is still no patch yet for the Thinkpad Password Manager to work with Firefox v3. Still waiting on that.

I'm two years into my Lenovo T60p and it will take something phenomenal to get me to move to anything other than another Lenovo. The things are built like bricks! And they have the weight to prove it. When you get into dual and quad cores they take more voltage, thus bigger battery packs. The T60p is sucking on 20v, 90w. That translates into heat. And if you carry an extra battery, be sure to bring a Sherpa to haul your laptop bag for you. It's gonna be heavier than your camera bag.
 
ChrisDauer

ChrisDauer

Workshop Member
Oxide Blu said:
Cool. Looking forward to your review.

Something else about Lenovo that doesn't get mentioned often is that support for their machines in the US is provided through IBM. And IBM's support has consistently been nothing less than absolutely stellar! It is just impossible for it to be any better.

The fingerprint scanner I never thought much about but quickly learned its value. I travel a lot. I hadn't considered how often I look over my shoulder for cameras when logging onto email accts, websites, etc. The whole world is now under surveillance, cameras that can watch over your shoulder and record your login. I even noticed the PTZ video security cameras in some internet cafes!!! With a fingerprint scanner, no typing of login names or passwords is necessary. :thumbs: That said, there is still no patch yet for the Thinkpad Password Manager to work with Firefox v3. Still waiting on that.

I'm two years into my Lenovo T60p and it will take something phenomenal to get me to move to anything other than another Lenovo. The things are built like bricks! And they have the weight to prove it. When you get into dual and quad cores they take more voltage, thus bigger battery packs. The T60p is sucking on 20v, 90w. That translates into heat. And if you carry an extra battery, be sure to bring a Sherpa to haul your laptop bag for you. It's gonna be heavier than your camera bag.
Click to expand...

DITTO, DITTO, and DITTO. I'm hopeful on the W700. I was contemplating getting an X300 to go w/ it. LOL. (not likely).

My T60P is my 2nd Thinkpad and I love them to death. 1 issue once on my A20p and it was handled immediately and to my full satisfaction. Otherwise, they are built like tanks and are great workhorses.

That stated, I'm willing to wait for a bit to see if it will come down in price a little... Maybe it'll be an X-mas present to myself.
 
S

scatesmd

Workshop Member
Hi Carlos,

Did the W700 ever arrive for you to test?

Chris,

Did you buy a new laptop?

I'm finding my 3-4 yo Lenovo T43 no longer does what I need and the USB ports sometimes temporarily shut off power, so I need to buy something.

I've been torn, as the PCs seem to have more up-to-date hardware, (quad-core, etc), but I'm afraid of Vista, given how much trouble I have with XP on all 4 of my computers; they all have to be re-booted at least daily or, usually, more. My new Dell desktop came with XP pre-busted and they can't fix it without a full re-install.

I have used Macs and Linux, but much of my software won't run on Linux (like CS3), so a Mac becomes an option in the hope it is a more stable OS. But Apple has not upgraded their hardware to the new chips, so a device like the W700 appeals to me on the hardware front, but not the OS.

Life would be easier in the short-term if I stayed with PCs, but I hate the thought of constant rebooting which seems to be the norm for XP and I fear Vista, too. If I could run OSX on the Lenovo...

All advice is welcome!

steve
 
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