Regarding the W540 vs other Thinkpad models

Hey there all,
I'm in serious need of some advice. After 8 trips to the depot/IBM support team, Lenovo has finally agreed to replace my W510 (was still under warranty). I'm limited to configuring a Thinkpad model. However, after some serious research, I can't find many positives about any of the models. Apparently in the last few years, the build quality has suffered.
First, I use my computer for basic tasks and run a lot of programs simultaneously. That being said, the furthest I usually push my machine is with Creative Suite. I never do any CAD/Maya rendering.
My questions:
Has anyone had any positive experiences with the W540?
Are any of the T models still worth looking into?
I never really used the red trackpoint, but I heavily rely on the trackpad. Will the lack of dedicated buttons prove problematic? Ditto with the keyboard being so far to the side due to the addition of the num pad.
Any advantageous alternatives (somehwere around a 2k$ budget).
Thanks in advance for any help!
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Welcome imarsh
1. There are mixed reviews about the W540. They have the best screen among ThinkPads, however there are people who does not like the new keyboard and keypads (subjective).
2. As only ThinkPad W-series comes with NVIDIA Quadro GPU and they provide graphics acceleration for Adobe Creative Suite, I do not recommend other ThinkPad series if you are heavy on Creative Suite.
3. Like I mentioned in 1., it would be great if you could go to a computer shop to physically try out the keyboard and trackpad. You could try out any 40 series for keyboard / trackpad, the keyboard / trackpad will be similar or same as W540.
4. If performance is not too much of an issue, you could also consider W530, which is trackpad with physical button, and have better battery upgrades option.
Peter
ThinkPad W520 | ThinkCentre E73 SFF | IdeaPad K1 | IdeaPad Yoga 11s | Miix 2 10" | 3000 Y300
Give kudos to reward people for their assistance | Mark thread solved if the solution works | Please do not send me an e-mail regarding technical questions | I am not an Lenovo employee
=====================================
Dolby ; IdeaPad Slate Tablet

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What's keeping me from buying the W540

I have $$ to spend and no Lenovo to spend it on.
Here's what's keeping me from buying the W540:
1) Physical buttons have been removed above the trackpad.
Many, many people complain about this in the W540 reviews:
"Touchpad: I've commented elsewhere that this is the worse I've even seen. Absolutely useless. I've disabled both the touchpad and touchstick (again, useless) and just use a mouse."
"I'd try the touchpad on the W540 for a while before you decide you can live with it, it is truly as bad as all the reviews say. I've disabled mine and use a mouse."
"...two issues with the touch-pad. The first has to do with having to clunk the whole pad as opposed to tapping on a much smaller (and quieter) button. The second has to do with the touch pad activating when you are typing."
Member "Bauden" provided an excellent rationale for why this feature change is wrong for Thinkpads:
"For a MAC, a "click-pad" may work because the ENTIRE OS is designed to be used by a single mouse button. You CANNOT force this on PC users. On PC, right-click is used frequently for many essential functions, dragging and dropping and context menus . . . . the habit of using it has been ingrained into PC users by years of Microsoft tradition and applications (NOT APPS!)."
I've used 10 Thinkpad laptops, I can't imagine being OK with that either. Needing to use an external mouse is unacceptable.
In fact, I'd bet the extra pressure needed to "tilt" or "clunk" the entire trackpad down to do the equivalent of pressing a gentle button from before will cause a greater frequency in RSI (Repetitive Stress Injury) in Thinkpad users.
I do not see a single person who feel this feature removal/change is an improvement.
Therefore, Lenovo, can you please change back?
2) Bizzarre Resolution (2880 x 1620)
I need / want UHD. I am thrilled that you are finally selling higher quality screens on your laptops.
(Thank you Apple for putting that competitive pressure on laptop vendors.)
Lenovo, please provide the resolution on the W540 that you have provided on the new Y50. (3840x2160)
Why did you choose (2880 x 1620) resolution?
1920 x 1080 isn't an even divisor of the native dimensions at full resolution, so resolving scaling issues by going to 1920x1080 would never look exactly right.
But **please** Lenovo, keep the screen anti-glare.
If you make above changes, please keep the following features:
1) Anti-Glare screens
2) Trackpoint
3) 2 physical drive capability, 1 SSD + 1 other
although it doesn't sound as easy as I'd prefer:
"Thus, no matter what anyone tells you, you CANNOT buy a W-540 and think you will easily swap a DVD drive with, say, a second hard drive. It’s minor surgery, best done with a jeweler’s screwdriver and some fine needle nose pliers.
Be sure to read the User Guide to keep from breaking the hatch cover. When I ordered mine, they shipped the Ultrabay carrier and the hard drive from the US, so they arrived early. I had to install them myself and found manipulating the tiny screws and pulling the hatch cover to be a bit scary.
……Not exactly what you would call “convenient.”
from
http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/W-Series-ThinkPad-Laptops/LIVING-WITH-A-W-540/td-p/1528698
4) Thunderbolt port
And add back in the following features:
I especially agree with these minuses in the "+/-" very detailed review by "Bauden"
http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/W-Series-ThinkPad-Laptops/LIVING-WITH-A-W-540/td-p/1528698/page/2
= Missing drive indicator light
Why in the world remove that. Please add that back in.
= Missing bluetooth indicator light
= USB 2.0 vs USB 3.0 ports can be easily identified with industry standard 'Blue' for USB 3.0.
Why did you decide to not do that?
After a couple hours of reading, I'd agree with the conclusion of Bauden when s/he said:
"Overall a nice speedy machine, but that is not by Lenovo R&D.
Intel, nVidia, and m.2 SATA are all wrapped in a container that is very poor when expecting a product labelled "Workstation". This is NOT a workstation among the items mentioned above and the wrong screen aspect ratio for photography / graphic applications."
http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/W-Series-ThinkPad-Laptops/LIVING-WITH-A-W-540/td-p/1528698/page/2
Idea
It seems like the team who designed the Lenovo Y50 did a great job for that machine's intended purpose.
http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/lenovo/y-series/y50-uhd/
(but is it really shipping in any quantity? Not a single user review posted to the community.)
Maybe take the team who implemented the Y50 and have them design the new Thinkpad W550.

Update:
I'm glad those reasons above kept me from spending my own $ on this model since work ended out upgrading my old laptop. Options were a W540 or a T440. I had about 15 seconds to decide. I went with the W540 tp get a larger screen.
Thoughts after several months: T
Best thing on a day to day basis:
Overall, it's a screamer. I can throw any workload at it and it doesn't flinch.
( I7, 32gb memory, drive upgraded to a 1TB Samsung EVO SSD)
Life is too short to wait on slow systems or slow hard drives. This "best thing" overshadows everything else and makes me very happy with this system.
Worst thing on a day to day basis:
The keyboard layout. PageUp should be above PageDown. Home should be above End.
Useless number key area. Why? The NumLock key is right next to the Backspace key. I'll accidentally toggle that Numlock key once a day or so when hitting backspace. Then, the PageUp, Home, etc., keys on that keypad are useless and unpredictable.
Mildly annoying:
1) The mousepad, for reasons described above. Its tolerable but not great.
2) The new DVD button location. I accidentally open it twice a week when picking up / putting down the W540, and I've *never* used that silly DVD player.
3) The "B" key, the key that's directly down from the red Thinkpoint tip, isn't right. It doesn't press down cleanly. bbbbbbbbbbbb It's like it gets hung up on the red nibbet.

Is the W540 really that bad?

I am looking to replace my aging W500, as the TrackPoint buttons are wearing out and the GPU performance is not quite up to par. After reviewing other mobile workstations, I keep coming back to the W540 and find that it still seems to be the best in terms of quality and build. I have read all of the nasty reviews, and I would probably agree with their viewpoints, but I have also read some positive reviews that claim that the redesign just takes some time to get used to. I can deal with the off-center keyboard (actually, the numblock is the feature that I missed the most when I purchased my W500), new keyboard keys, and repositioning of the insert block, but the new trackpad still worries me. So now I am asking owners of the W540 (and any current-gen ThinkPad, really):
1. From a TrackPoint user’s point of view, how is the usability of the new TrackPoint? Is it possible to simply tap on the top corners of the trackpad (where the lines are) in order to left or right click, or does the entire pad necessarily have to be clicked down?
2. How is the clicking mechanism on the new trackpad? I have used an awfully stiff HP trackpad before, and I never want to do so again. However, watching videos of xx40 ThinkPads makes it look like the pad uses a keyboard mechanism to click, which would be much easier to click. To me, this would make the trackpad suitable.
3. How is the FHD screen? I have heard nothing but positives about the 3K IPS, but the resolution is too high for me (scaling still sucks in Windows), and it is not worth the increased cost and power consumption to me. How does the FHD compare to the 1680×1050 one on the W500, or the 1600×900 one on the T510 (I have used one for a brief period and was satisfied with its display).
I understand that the physical TrackPoint buttons will most likely return in the next ThinkPad refresh, but I would rather not wait until February-March to get a new computer. I am also open-ended to new design concepts as long as they work and are usable. As I said, the physical TrackPoint buttons on my W500 are wearing out (the left click in particular does not register unless I press very hard, and I expect even this to fail rather soon), and I cannot stand my current trackpad (the pointing capabilities on the new one look promising, however).

Thanks for the feedback guys. It looks like I will be going for the W540 after all. After browsing reviews of the new ThinkPads, I think I have come down to this:
1. Earlier review models and early production batches had hardware issues with the new touchpad, as many reviewers had straight up defective click detection, while others had a working touchpad. This led them to hate the touchpad because it seemed unusable from the beginning.
2. Some early adopters had a functional touchpad, and they either found it inconvenient or better than the previous one. Either way, it wasn't a big deal for them unless they had some major ergonomics issue.
3. Once the new ThinkPads had been out for a while, the complaints of touchpads that failed to register clicks kind of died out, and some reviewers who looked at multiple models found that to be the case with their second and third ratings on the trackpad above their originals.
I'm not really a ThinkPad "purist," and I can probably learn to like the new trackpad.

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A W520 can't be that slow. 10% performance difference at most on the CPU side, and they use exactly the same GPUs as far as I know.
Don't they sell decent SSDs in local stores in Germany? In Belgium I know they have Samsung 840 Evo's in MediaMarkt for example. In your case time is money, I would quickly grab one and give it to your IT administrator with your W530.
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Yoga Tablet 2 10 || ThinkPad X1 Carbon (20A7007MPH) || ThinkPad Helix (3698-6EU) || IdeaCentre B540
Twitter: @jonashendrickx

Regarding the W540 vs other Thinkpad models

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