Lenovo ThinkPad W500 Overview

Lenovo has announced recently the ThinkPad W500 mobile workstation, a 15.4-inch laptop for engineers and digital content creators.

The Lenovo ThinkPad W500 is based on Intel’s Centrino 2 mobile platform and includes the latest Core 2 Duo 45-nanometer processors, the ATI Fire GL M86-GL 512MB dedicated video card, up to 8GB of DDR3 memory, up to 320GB of hard drive space or a 64GB solid state drive, and various optical drive options, including Blu-Ray. Another option is the Intel Turbo Memory 2GB module, for faster boot-up and better responsiveness.

Its display has a resolution of 1680-by-1050 or 1920-by-1200 pixels, depending on customer’s choice.

Regarding communications, the W500 sports an 802.11b/g or 802.11a/g/n wireless connection, Gigabit Ethernet LAN, Bluetooth, and optional mobile broadband with GPS. WiMAX and Ultra WideBand (UWB) modules will be offered later this year.

The mobile workstation also incorporates an optional web camera, three USB ports, FireWire, and DisplayPort and VGA outputs. Available expansion slot combinations are ExpressCard with PC Card reader or ExpressCard with Smart Card reader.

The W500 has advanced security features, such as the TPM v1.2 chip and BIOS disable of all ports, as well as optional fingerprint reader and full hard drive encryption.

According to a product specifications sheet, the Lenovo ThinkPad W500 provides up to 3.8 hours of battery life when configured with a 6-cell battery. An 9-cell unit can extend the battery life to maximal 5.9 hours.

The laptop has a starting weight of 5.8 pounds and runs Windows Vista 32-bit or 64-bit operating system.

The W500 is available now at Lenovo’s website for a basic price of $1,629.