Holiday Gear Guide 2010 - Part II of II (B&H)

B&H Gear Guide

The following are products found on B&H’s web site in special collections created exclusively for ronmartblog.com readers. You’ll notice some items are offered at their lowest price of the year thanks to instant rebates and price drops only offered during the holiday season. Stock up and enjoy from the following categories:

Cameras, Lenses & Flashes ($5200 – $370)*

70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM – Lowest Price of 2010!!!

If I won the lottery I’d own everything on this list! Items that I do own from it which have been reviewed on this blog are:

• Canon 1D Mark IV – In my opinion this is the best camera Canon has ever made and its really the only camera gear purchase I’ve made where I’ve never had buyers remorse – not even more a minute!
• Canon 5D Mark II – This camera has redefined videography and Hollywood, but I don’t have time for video. I love it for the great camera it is and find myself using it every time I can use a tripod and for select photo shoots. See my Photographer’s Notebook and notice how many times it shows up as the camera of choice. I use the 1D Mark IV more, but I seem to capture the shots I care about the most with this one.
• Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM – From the moment I first used it at the Olympics (as discussed in the link) I was blown away, and even now I am amazed that a lens this good is this inexpensive. I know that sounds nuts given how much it cost – especially compared to its predecessor, but it’s hard to find a piece of glass from Canon that can outperform it on sharpness, image stabilization (IS) and AF performance – at any price level (including primes).
• Canon G12 and S95 – Honestly both are great cameras. I chose the G12 because it meets my needs well but if my wife had the final say so she’d take the S95 for its wonderful form factor. You can’t go wrong with either.

Printers & Paper ($2145 – $15)*

My printing series has been a huge hit so my guide wouldn’t be complete without some recommendations. There’s tons of great products out there and I wish I could feature more, but this is great start for printer and paper choices. Here’s a list of what I own and/or reviewed up to this point on the blog (and many more articles are still to come):

• Canon iPF6300 – It’s probably due to the wide format, but as it stands right now this is my favorite printer – period. I love the image quality and the user-friendliness of it is second to none. Its companion the 6350 is identical in performance but offers a hard drive for caching, so you can’t go wrong with either. The iPF8300 isn’t listed simple because I haven’t used one enough to recommend it, but it’s hard to store such a beast so for most this is as big as you’ll ever want to get.
• Epson Stylus® Pro 3880 – This thing rocks and I’ve included the 4900 in my list as the only things lacks on this printer (by design) are all available on the 4900. Sure, I’d probably love a Stylus® Pro 7900 just as much, but I’m living with the Canon iPF6300 so it is hard for me to imagine something better than it at this point. This is a great desktop printer and if you can afford it then do like all of the print masters I’ve interviewed and keep a 17” on your desk for those times when the big beasts are just too much for the job.
• Epson Exhibition Fiber – This paper just rocks plain and simple, so if you own an Epson you owe it to yourself to put your best work on this paper (but feel free to do your test prints on Luster!). It’s also a fantastic paper for Epson’s Advanced Black & White Mode. It works with Canon papers too if you are willing to waste a bunch building a media configuration file for it. That’s expensive, but worth it since Canon’s Polished Rag has been in limited supply lately. My other favorite Epson Signature Worthy papers are featured as well – I love them all!
• Canon Papers – All of the Canon papers listed are my favorites but I just haven’t had time to do formal reviews yet. They are coming so if you want a sneak peek into the future reviews, this is it!

Computer Products ($4239 – $50)*

Lenovo W701ds

People are always asking me for computer advice and they are surprised when I tell them that much of my work is done on my Lenovo or Apple laptops. I only use laptops with desktop caliber performance so you can rest assured that my recommendations are suitable for those 500MB Photoshop files I seem to find myself creating every time I image files these days. They are expensive, but they are machines that offer no compromises over the desktop so you can have a great experience no matter where you are in the world. Here’s my computer recommendations as well as my monitor, digital tablet, and a couple DVD & book recommendations:

• Lenovo W701ds – This is the best photographers machine on the market – period. I love it and have managed to keep my loaner for another few months as I can’t bear the thought of parting with it. Sure my Mac (featured in the list as well) is smaller and sexier, but it’s a toy by comparison to this phenomenal machine.
• NEC PA Series Displays – I first started mentioning this display in my Douglas Dubler interview and have been raving about them ever since I got mine. I’ll be doing a review in the future of both the 24 & 27” models as well as their accessories (included on the list).
• Wacom Intuos 4 – I love my Intuos 3, but I lust for the 4 (this is on my wishlist too). I’ve used it and my guest blog article about it has been a popular one all year long.
• The Adobe Photoshop CS5 Book for Digital Photographers – I have reviewed and loved The Adobe Photoshop CS4 Book for Digital Photographers as well as the CS3 version and it’s a staple on my What Photoshop Books Should I Read? article. I have the CS5 version and am reading it but haven’t had time to finish & review it yet, so I wanted to let people know this is a must own book.

Color Management Products ($1850 – $99)*

GTI PDV-2020EX

With the exception of the i1IO table for which I long for, these are products that are on my desk as I write this and that I use to improve my work. Here’s the ones featured in reviews on this blog:

• i1XTreme – For those who are passionate about color management.
• GTI PDV-2020EX – I love this device and have yet to meet someone who hasn’t been blown away by how great it is to view your work in this box (and that includes well over 200 people who have seen my box in real life)
• X-Rite ColorMunki – This is the best value in town and works great. I know it is a little more expensive than non-spectro versions, but this is something that anyone who cares about their print quality should own at a minimum (with the i1XTreme being the step up). I’ll also be covering the ColorChecker Passport soon too!

Memory Cards & Readers ($90 – $33)*

Lexar Professional ExpressCard
CompactFlash Reader

When I did my “Is a faster Compact Flash card worth the extra money?” article at the Olympics I burned my bridges with SanDisk and don’t expect to hear from them ever again. Why? Because they didn’t like me telling you the truth – despite the hoopla on Rob Galbraith’s web site, the reality is that many people only care about the performance of their memory cards in their camera as that is when performance can mean the difference between getting the shot or not. Using the fastest camera’s in the business – the D3s and 1D Mark IV (both in my guide) I proved that you really don’t get any benefit from the fastest cards. It’s also common for people to not have a reader on their computer that can keep up with the latest cards, so there’s a much better value to be found in the middle of the road cards which I’ve featured on my list – they will perform faster than your camera can buffer its data and they aren’t insanely expensive. I also tossed in my favorite ExpressCard reader which is the fastest CF reader I’ve ever used and can transfer data at speeds near its claimed 133MB/sec when writing to a fast SSD drive.

Accessories ($200 – $18)*

Sennheiser MKE 400 Compact
Video Camera Shotgun Microphone

This is just a collection of things that don’t fit in any of the other categories, yet I own and can’t live without. I demonstrate the Digital Target in my ExpoDisc review (which I also recommend) and I have a very old review of the Hoodman Loupe that still basically applies.  The shotgun microphone shown is at the top of my wish list as my audio sucks in my videos and this is the perfect solution!

* = Prices as of 11/23/2010 and may include mail-in rebates. Prices subject to change without notice and are provided simply as an approximate range.

Don't forget it is Instant Rebate Season!

and B&H has it’s own special offers too:

Conclusion

I appreciate B&H for helping me out here to bring you all of this info in these customized web pages and check back often as I may be tweaking them as we go for some last minute additions! I do not recommend products I do not love, so if you see it in this series then you can rest assured that I’d feel confident giving the product as a gift to a close family member or recommending that they spend their hard earned money on these products.

Happy Holidays to everyone of all faiths!

Be sure to visit Part I of Ron Martinsen’s Holiday Gift Guide 2010 on ronmartblog.com for huge savings from great companies like Nik Software, onOne Software, Photomatix, Topaz Software, and more! 

Disclosure

I may get a commission if you make purchase using the links provide in this article. Thanks for supporting this blog by using the links!

Long-Term Report: Lenovo W701ds Portable Graphics Workstation

Lenovo W701ds – some items shown are optional

After doing a fairly comprehensive test of the Lenovo W700ds in April, Lenovo accepted my offer to do a long-term test on the new W701ds. Now externally the two laptops look the same, so I won’t repeat a lot of what I did in the W700ds report (and I encourage you to read it first). However I will talk about what it has been like living with the W701ds over the last 6 months as well as how it compares to my Apple MacBook Pro as a portable photo editing solution.

This ain’t no wimpy netbook!

Technical Information

You can view the impressive technical specs here, but I also strongly encourage you to view my Lenovo W700ds review as this laptop has everything that one had – only better.

Living with the Lenovo W701ds

You don’t really know how much you like or dislike something until you’ve lived with it for a while, which is why I tried to spend weeks or more (when possible) with products that I review before making a judgment call on them. In the case of the Lenovo W701ds, I got to do one of my longest-term tests to date and in this case it was a joy to do it!

I had to limit myself on the likes, but there are many! I’ve just named a few to balance out the list of disappointments but know that there is much to love about this laptop!

Proper Display Calibration – Built-in!

Likes

• Performance-wise, this is the most powerful system I’ve used in 2010 (and remember my day job is at Microsoft’s Server Division so that’s saying A LOT).
• The SSD drive performance rocks so if you can swing it, then definitely recommend that option. If you can’t then definitely do the RAID 0 configuration for the best performance of your mechanical drives. I did the later with the W700ds and the performance was excellent. However dual RAID 0 SSD would just scream!
• 100% Wide Color Gamut display is very good but beware all wide color gamut displays exhibit more rendering of other colors (especially red) than you are used to so it is easy to image a photo perfectly for the display that looks washed out on non-wide color gamut displays (or in some cases sunburned).
• Built-in 2nd display – I love that I was able to use my Lightroom grid in the right display and see the image large in the main display (see my Lenovo W700ds review for video and photo examples)
• Built-in CD/SD readers are super fast especially when going to the SSD drive
• Wacom Digitizer just works better than I’ve seen on my Mac & PC systems, so I’ve really fallen in love with this when doing photo editing on this system. Of all the features, if I had to give them all up and only choose one this one be the one I’d want the most!
• This thing is super reliable – more so than most computers I’ve seen in my whole career. This thing is like my Honda’s of the 1990’s that just seemed to be near flawless from day 1 until I parted with them.
• Durable – Sadly this big boy took a tumble off my desk once and it shook it off with no problem. I had to reboot because the DVD drive ejected and Windows wasn’t happy about it, but all has been well in the last two months since it happened.
• Built-in Huey Pro so I didn’t need to have extra cables or gadgets yet I could calibrate whenever I wanted
• eSata & USB 3 ports for screaming fast disk i/o performance to larger external drives at the home base
• Display Port & Dual Link DVI ports for use with big 30” external displays
• Thumbprint reader – okay, it’s just cool to use this while onlookers drool at this sweet machine

Disappointments

• It’s tough to find a laptop bag for this beast, but I eventually found a Targus TXL617 XL Notebook Backpack which turned out to be awesome and even held my MacBook Pro and a bunch of other stuff too!
• The power brick Lenovo sent was smaller than the one for the W700ds, but it also would issue a warning during boot that it wasn’t powerful enough for a boot. Fortunately I could just hit ESC and continue for a normal boot up under battery power.
• I had the misfortune of getting a defective battery so in only 6 months it can only carry a 30 minute charge, but Lenovo assures me it would be replaced under warranty. Given my loaner status, I can’t confirm that claim.
• My first SSD drive started acting flaky so replacement was sent out and all has worked brilliantly ever since. It is my understanding that the first drive was discovered early on to have problems and most units never shipped with that version.
• The secondary display in the W701ds is worse than the W700ds (at least in the systems I’ve tested) so I was very disappointed in the quality of the 10”+ secondary display. I’m convinced it is a cheap netbook display turned in portrait mode, so it has the feel of a 1994 color laptop display. it works and I’d rather have this display than no second display, but I’d also rather see an option for a higher quality secondary display.
• I’m bummed there’s no easy way to calibrate the 2nd display. I managed to figure out how to do it using a USB Huey Pro I had for my system, but if I didn’t already have that I would have been out of luck.
• The primary display needs to have an easy way to switch into sRGB mode so you can more easily proof photos of images targeted for the web like I can do with my NEC PA241W-BK wide gamut display. 
• It has to go back to Lenovo – I LOVE this thing – it’s the best laptop ever!
• Despite what the web site and specs say, I haven’t seen Blu-ray™ on one of these.

Overall I can live with the disappointments as the problems I faced can be attributed to getting one of the first units off the assembly line, and those issues have been corrected for the rest of the world. Beyond those my disappointments are really just my wish list for the next W70xds series laptop.

A proper keyboard, number pad and Wacom digitizer!

What’s better MacBook Pro 17” or Lenovo W701ds?

If given a choice between the Apple MacBook Pro 17” (i7 version) and the Lenovo W701ds, I’d take the W701ds despite the super sexy and lightweight size of the MacBook. Here’s why:

• Windows 7 rocks, and despite the fact that I can run Windows 7 in Parallels or Fusion on the Mac, the performance sucks compared to running it natively.
• Once you have a built-in Wacom digitizer and use it with Photoshop you’ll find that it’s torture not having the digitizer on other systems. I just edit so much faster and having it built-in (and the fact it always just works) helps make it useful even on airplanes or buses where a externally connected version would be impractical).
• The Apple display looks sexy in the store, but when you get it home and start editing images you realize that it is crap compared to the W701ds primary display. In fact, I’ve become so disgusted with the MacBook Pro display that when I do photo editing I usually try to connect it to my NEC PA241W-BK. Even calibrating both systems with the ColorMunki didn’t help the MacBook Pro very much, but it gave roughly the same results as the Huey Pro on the W701ds.
• The MacBook Pro has 3 USB 2 ports and a FireWire 800 port, but the Lenovo has more ports and higher performance USB 3 and eSata ports plus built-in super fast CF/SD card readers
• Networking is just more flexible when going from business to home and back on the PC that it is on a Mac. Your mileage may vary here depending on your configurations, but for me the PC just worked with Windows 7 without any hassle. The Mac required me to change proxy settings every time I changed locations.
• Performance – My MacBook Pro is very well equipped so it cost just 20% less than my well equipped W701ds, yet it has wimpy performance in comparison to what I get on this Lenovo. It’s processor, graphics, hard drive, DVD drive, RAM and ports are all slower than the W701ds which begs the question, why is the MacBook Pro so expensive?

The MacBook Pro is a great system and offers a brilliant design, very slick video performance at the operating system level plus I love its super fast resume functionality. However, compared to this system it is just a toy and its size advantage disappears when you consider what you’d have to carry to get the extra monitor, Wacom digitizer, 2nd hard drive, CF/SD card readers, etc…

Conclusion

The Lenovo W701ds is the best computer I’ve used in my 20+ year career, and that isn’t limited to laptops – that include desktops too! Excluding the battery and drive issue, both of which were artifacts of this being an early release model, this thing has been rock solid – it just works. I also commend Lenovo for having the balls to make this machine at a time when crappy and underpowered sub $900 laptops seem to dominate the PC industry. Laptops of that nature have never appealed to me because I don’t want something that is inferior right off the bat – I want something that is powerful as my desktop in a portable solution.

I wish it were lighter and had a better 2nd display along with the battery life of my i7-based 17” MacBook Pro, but despite these issues every time I had to choose between the Lenovo and the MacBook to do real work, I always chose the Lenovo. I’d probably give up the 2nd display if I could get a nice thin display like my MacBook Pro, but I never want to see the digitizer and other performance features go as they are really what make this machine what it is – a powerful workstation with desktop tower performance – what a dream!

I can also live with the size and weight penalty to sacrifice nothing when I’m on the road and I want to work on imaging raw files from my Canon 5D Mark II in Photoshop where in no time flat files grow to be 500MB. This machine is up to the job and the only accessory I ever needed to carry was a power cord – that’s a first for me!

In the end this machine is a dream come true for people who need the power of their desktop anywhere and always. It is for this reason I give this laptop my highest recommendation!

If you can’t deal with the size and don’t need the second display then I’d suggest the W510 which offers great value for about $2000 less yet is much lighter and still a solid performer.

Where To Buy

Lenovo Direct

Lenovo has the best deals on this laptop as they are including a free 4GB Total RAM upgrade (until 11/22/10) and some killer discounts. You must click here (or here if that doesn’t work) and use the eCouponCode USPTHINK999 to save an additional 15% off for a limited time.

The advantage to ordering from Lenovo directly is that you can build your own machine and choose a lot of great options many of which aren’t that expensive. If I were building one today, here’s how I’d configure it (items with no options and software options skipped):

• Intel Core i7-820QM Processor (8M Cache, 1.73 GHz) [adds $200]
• 17" WUXGA RGB-LED-BL + 10.6" WXGA LED-BL
• NVIDIA Quadro FX 2800M 96-core CUDA parallel computing processor 1GB (dedicated) [but get the 3800M if you can afford it – it rocks!]
• 8 GB PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM 1067MHz SODIMM Memory (4 DIMM) [adds $255 – get 16GB if you can afford it]
• Ultranav + Number Pad + Fingerprint Reader + Pantone Color Sensor + WACOM Digitizer w/ Stylus [adds $150 – must get otherwise get the lighter W510 series]
• Camera, 2.0 MP [adds $30 – had this on the W700ds, but not the W701ds and missed it for video conferencing]
• Internal RAID Primary SATA RAID 0 - Configured by Lenovo [Optional, but I preferred the performance of RAID 0 on my W701ds, but some may prefer the flexibility of no RAID – it also allows you to get the 1 SSD & 1 Regular HD like I had in my W701ds]
• If space is your primary concern do the Dual 500GB, 7200rpm RAID Enabled Hard Disk Drives option, but if performance is your primary concern do the Dual 128GB RAID Enabled Solid State Hard Drives, Serial ATA. Given the eSata & USB 3.0 support, I’d do the dual SSD personally which adds a whopping $640 (save $480 by doing the dual 500GB drives)
• Compact Flash (PCIe) + Express Card(34mm) – [adds $10 – smoking fast CF for photographers so this is must add in my book]
• Bluetooth w/ antenna [adds $20 – I use a Bluetooth mouse sometimes, but this is optional]
• Intel Centrino Advanced-N + WiMAX 6250 [adds $55 – why spend all this money and go cheap on the networking?]
• ThinkPad 17W Business Topload Case [consider this as this is a tough laptop to find a case for]

The total price for this beast as configured above (without the case, and with the dual SSD, 8GB & 2800M) comes out to be $4809 (which includes a $420 savings, but not the eCouponCode) as of November 15th, 2010. I know that is crazy expensive, BUT this isn’t a wimpy laptop – this is a portal desktop with dual monitors, Wacom tablet, RAID and much more. Configure any system to be comparable to these specs and you’ll be up to this price point – and odds are it won’t be portable!

B&H

Lenovo ThinkPad W701ds 17" + 10.6" Dual-Screen Notebook Computer

• 1.73GHz Intel Core i7-820QM Quad-Core
• 4GB (2x2GB) RAM
• 500GB 7200rpm Hard Drive
• DVD Burner
• nVIDIA Quadro FX 3800M 1GB Graphics
• 17" LED Backlit Widescreen Display
• 10.6" LED Backlit Secondary Display
• Wacom Digitizer & Huey PRO Colorimeter
• Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi
• Windows 7 Professional (64-bit), 11.4 lb
• Rebates & 6 Months Same as cash available until 12/31/10

Lenovo ThinkPad W701ds 17" + 10.6" Dual-Screen Notebook Computer (my configuration)

• 1.73GHz Intel Core i7-820QM Quad-Core
• 8GB (2x4GB) RAM ***
• 128GB SSD + 320GB 5400rpm Hard Drive ***
• DVD Burner
• nVIDIA Quadro FX 3800M 1GB Graphics
• 17" LED Backlit Widescreen Display
• 10.6" LED Backlit Secondary Display
• Wacom Digitizer & Huey PRO Colorimeter
• Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi
• Windows 7 Professional (64-bit), 11.4 lb
• Rebates & 6 Months Same as cash available until 12/31/10

Buy.com also has this laptop in stock sometimes too.

Disclosure

Lenovo has provided me with a loaner W701ds to use during my long-term testing. I also may get a commission if you purchase using links to merchants featured in this article. Thank you for supporting the blog by using these links!

Printing Series Delay

Speed Shop Design’s The Beezerker – Photo by Ron Martinsen – All Rights Reserved

My apologies but I’ve been under the weather and haven’t been able to get the scheduled printing series articles done this week, but they are coming soon.

Behind the scenes I’ve been printing on the Canon iPF6300  the photos I took last weekend of Christopher Flechtner’s handmade motorcycle (over 1000 hours of hand crafting) called The Beezerker. It was a fun bike to shoot for an upcoming magazine article, and it has made absolutely gorgeous prints  - especially on a very special paper by Lexjet which I will be reviewing later this month.

 
Artist Arms – Photo by Ron Martinsen – All Rights Reserved

Thanks for your patience and please come back for more articles – I have have some really great stuff coming up like:

• Chromix ColorThink Review
• ColorByte ImagePrint Review (and special offer)
• Canon imagePrint 6300/6350 Review
• Killer Lexjet Paper Review (and possibly a special offer)
• Interviews with Eddie Tapp, Randy Hufford, and two of my Top Photographers - Tyler Stableford and Michel Tcherevkoff
• Lenovo WS701ds Review
• Canon Paper Reviews
• Ergosoft product reviews
• XRite i1XTreme Review and Tutorial
• Nik Software’s HDR Efex Review (discount)
• Trey Ratcliff’s HDR Workshop DVD Review
• Epson Signature Worthy Paper Reviews
• ThinkTankPhoto Sling-O-Matic Review
• and much, much more!

I’m also working hard behind the scenes to get you some great special offers to go with these articles, so hang in there!

HANDS-ON: Lenovo W700ds Photographers Dual Screen Laptop

During the Olympics in Vancouver I had the good fortune of working at the Media Press Centre (MPC). My job was to make sure that the Photographers covering the Olympics had the support they needed to get their photos to their publishers as soon as possible. To assist in this goal, Microsoft teamed up with Lenovo to provide over a dozen Lenovo Photo Laptops running 64-bit Windows 7 as well as some common software products Camera Bits Photo Mechanic,  Adobe Photoshop CS4 & Lightroom 2, as well as Expression Media & Capture One.

I had a great time on this assignment and got to take lots of great pictures, use some cool gear, experiment with some great camera products and more importantly learn more about Windows 7 and some really cool Lenovo Photo Laptops. One of the coolest, that I had lusted after ever since I first heard about it, was the Lenovo W700ds – a DUAL SCREEN laptop! I love using dual screen, and I’ve always carried huge laptops because performance and big displays are super important to me, so when I first heard of this laptop I REALLY wanted one. Sadly, at the time, it was way out of my price league, so when I found out that I’d be able to play with some at the Olympics I was thrilled.

Display Quality

This product bills itself as a photo laptop, but what does that really mean? Well, fundamentally for me it means having a high quality 1920x1200 display with a fast video card so that I can use Photoshop CS4 or Lightroom without pulling my hair out. However, this laptop is WAAAAAYYY more than that, because unlike even my desktop system, this display has a wide color gamut which means you can see way more colors when working with those ProPhoto and Adobe RGB images in Lightroom or Photoshop. This extra color support would be nothing if it wasn’t calibrated properly, so unlike any laptop I’ve ever seen or heard of it – it has a built-in XRite Pantone color calibrator that takes about 90 seconds to get your monitor fully calibrated – with no user intervention - I LOVE IT!!!

Sadly the W700ds is no more, but the good news is that a new W701ds is coming out later this month (visit again for a special offer)! I’d LOVE to own one of these laptops, but i fear after using this one that I’d probably create a configuration that was once again way out of my league!

Open and Closed Views

This laptop is loaded with features. Inside you’ll find both a touchpad and eraser head style pointer which gives you the flexibility to choose your mobile pointing styles. However, there’s also another option, of great interest to Photographers and Artists – a built-in Wacom digitizer! This tablet – shown below between the track pad and the ThinkPad logo isn’t as sensitive or as nice a full-blown Wacom tablet, but it works a hell of a lot better than a trackpad or eraser style pointer for doing photo imaging. In fact, after I got used to it – I was liking it much better than my mouse! It actually encouraged me to dust off my Wacom for my desktop and fall in love with it all over again.

Other features here are the cool built-in Pantone Huey color calibrator (that little thing above the Wacom next to the arrow keys) and a very slick thumb print reader!

Last but not least, is the blue ThinkVantage button which is the magic button that gets you the things you need to configure this laptop and more importantly – save your bacon at boot-time if you want to do a full, bare-metal restore. 

The features of this laptop were great, but what I liked about it the most was the quality of the construction. This is a VERY well made laptop that made me hate my Dell after using this one. The keyboard is more solid than your typical desktop computer keyboard and the tactile feel is excellent. I did get frustrated with the FN button being where the CTRL key belongs, but beyond that I was pretty comfortable using this keyboard on a daily basis. I also got used to the track pad so that I avoided using the eraser head pointer, which is usually my preference on laptops.

Left and Right Views

When facing the front of the laptop, on its left side you’ll find a fire wire and two USB ports, an ExpressCard slot and a very fast Compact Flash (CF) reader. This is the first laptop I’ve ever used or seen that has had a Compact Flash reader, and the first built-in one that I’ve used on a computer that was actually fast (most are dog slow and useless). Sadly I don’t have all of the specs for this machine, so i can’t confirm if it is a UDMA drive and if so, what version, but I can say that I was getting some very fast transfer times compared to what I’m used to on my desktop system (a Dell XPS 420). In fact, 2GB (as you can see on the video) took less than a minute to transfer, which i thought was fantastic.

Left View

On the Right hand side, there’s a ton of goodies. It starts with the basics of 3 USB ports, and a telephone modem jack. However, after that things start getting good because then you have your built-in WACOM pen slot, an optional BluRay  DVD burner and the really cool 2nd display slot. This side is a true geek’s paradise as shown below:

The sides of this laptop are packed with lots of goodies, but surprisingly it isn’t cluttered or filled with a bunch of useless features. Some might question the modem port in this day and age, but for the business traveler who has to send a fax this can be a lifesaver. This laptop is thick, no doubt, but I’m pleased to see that Lenovo has made good use of the space and fit it with plenty of useful ports on the sides.

Front and Rear Views

This  laptop has a nice clean design so it spreads its multitude of I/O ports around its entire chassis. The SD reader, headphones, and microphone ports are conveniently located in the front, whereas the traditional power, network and display ports (including both DVI and HDMI!!!!) are in the rear next to its massive cooling vents. Despite its large size, this thing runs very cool and never once was blowing hot air – unlike my Dell XPS M1710 which can both cook food and barbeque legs at the same time.

Another thing worth noting here is that the hinges for the the display seem industrial strength, which for me is great because that was a MAJOR problem I’ve had with my laptop with a 17” display. The hinges have loosened up twice nearly coming apart, but I don’t think that is likely to happen here.

Webcam

NOTE: If the video/sound are out of sync, that's a network issue with this recording, not something I saw in real testing

If you are anything like me, you’ve probably found webcams to be frustrating to say the least. They never work when you need them to, yet they can be an invaluable tool when dealing with business partners overseas where the virtual face-to-face time can really help establish a much more personal business relationship. I’m pleased to say that this web cam is the first, and only one I’ve ever used that “just works”. I didn’t have to fight to configure it or do any special gyrations to get it to work – it just worked – flawlessly. It’s still poor quality by today’s standards, but usable (see the above video). I love having this built in and not having to carry yet another accessory in my bag (which usually gets broken anyway).

Performance

All the coolness of this laptop would mean nothing if it wasn’t something a photographer could really use to edit the massive photos we get off our cameras these days. I’m pleased to say that this system, despite my review unit NOT having the latest Intel Quad Core processors, was screaming fast. Perhaps it was the RAID 0 configuration of two fast 7200rpm 250 GB hard drives (solid state available), or perhaps it was the DDR3 memory, but I know for sure that the 1GB of video RAM on a dedicated discrete video card helped this thing to absolutely fly when using Photoshop. Even though it only had 4GB of memory, when combined with the fast performance of the 64-bit version of Windows 7 this thing screamed like no laptop I have ever used. I fell in love with it the first time I started Photoshop, and I wish I could keep this one for my own.

Videos

WARNING: The audio on the following videos SUCKS. You MUST turn your volume up and listen carefully (but don’t hurt your ears with your speakers) to have any chance to hear what I am saying. My deepest apologies for the poor audio quality, but one thing I haven’t reviewed yet is DSLR microphones. It’s clear to me now that it needs to be higher on my priority list!

If you can hang in there you will see a few examples of how some features of this laptop work (which in some cases is easier to show than discuss). I’ll also put this laptop to the test by doing a real-world photo edit from start to finish using a RAW image from a 5D Mark II in Bridge & Adobe Photoshop CS4 (complete with Nik Software) and finishing up in Lightroom. Bridge is not normally part of my workflow (Lightroom is instead), but I did it this way to just show off the horsepower of this beast. In the end I left more impressed with this laptop than I am with both my existing photo laptop and desktop, so now I want a new computer!

Without further adieu, here are a few videos for your viewing pleasure:

Dual Display Demo

Here I just show how seamless it is to extend the 2nd display which automatically configures itself. Eat your heart out Macbook fanboys! :)

Dual Display in Action with Lightroom 3

Lightroom is fantastic when you use the grid view in the right display. Here I show that cool feature in action with this laptop

Photoshop CS4 & Bridge in Action with Wacom Tablet Demo

Here I show how smoking fast Bridge and Photoshop CS4 load and then I use the Wacom tablet to draw on my son’s face.

Compact Flash Reader Demo

Here I show how fast you can transfer 2GB of data from a CF card onto the hard disk and then load that content into Lightroom 3.

Display Calibration Demo

This is a bit boring to watch, but i demonstrate how the built-in display calibration works.

Thumbprint Logon Demo

Here I demonstrate how easy it is to log on using the thumb print reader.

The Coolest Laptop Commercial - EVER!

GEEKS REJOICE!!!! Once you own one of these bad ass laptops you can stand proud like this guy - the happiest W700ds owner on the planet:

Okay, maybe that won’t really happen to you, but I’ve gotta say that was good for one hellva laugh! :-) You can at least link to this and say “hey, I have one of those and yes it is huge!”. :-)

Conclusion

Overall, I’ve gotta say I love this laptop and hate to have to give it back. I really want one for my personal use, and hopefully I’ll get a chance to buy one at some point. However, there were a few things I didn’t like about it. The first, and probably the worst for me, was that it won’t fit into my 17” ThinkTankPhoto Artificial Intelligence laptop bag. Given the fact that this laptop is heavy as lead (mostly due to all of the cool features it sports), not being able to carry it in a small comfortable bag is a big downside to me. Beyond that my other gripes were that it has has a massive power brick (more like a cinder block! :), the fn key is in the wrong place (where left CTRL goes), the 2nd display quality sucks compared to the main display, and the wireless network card was slow by today’s standards.

I’m hoping that several of the issues I had will be addressed on the W701ds, but even if they weren’t I’d still want one. It is a very powerful laptop to use that truly is a portable graphics workstation, and that’s something I’d want with me when I’m on the road or on a plane. I hope to have a chance to review a W701ds soon, so I’ll let you know about the improvements.

Special Offer

Unfortunately the W700ds shown here is no longer on sale, but it’s replacement – the W701ds is coming soon. In the meantime, you can get 25% off the ThinkPad W700 (single display version of the computer shown) using the coupon code USPW700JULY until July 31

Disclosure

I get a tiny 3% commission if you use the link above to purchase a W700, but you save 25% so the real winner is you! Please support this blog by using the link!