Friendly Complaints and Suggestions :) [ Edited ]

[Novec]

Nice post.

My reactions on it:

1. Smell. Not on my W520 (4282-26G)
2. Battery size and place. Agree. It also give the feeling of a ‘cheap product’ and ‘My battery can drop of the Laptop’ (it just feels that way…)
3. I’m very satisfied about my keyboard.
4. No problem here for me. But I agree it’s noisy.
5. I’m very satisfied about the Keylight.
6. Absolute thru! Just a stupid design mistake!
7. You are correct. They are slow but working well.
8. I stop searching to find  better settings on my track-pad. Annoying and irritating tool.
9. Another design mistake. Mine makes also a very high and annoying sound. Therefor I bought a longer AC/DC cable and the adapter is not near my desk.
   But all of this makes my Laptop less portable than I would like to have.
   When you fly every week like I do, I can image a client wants a smaller and lighter Laptop and accessories.

But:

Overall a very good Laptop. I think every product has weaker points.

What me surprises every time again is that the points mentioned in this Topic are well known and clear.

A user who bought a Lenovo expects IBM quality and things like rabbling batteries, noisy and idiot sized chargers or eject buttons on the wrong place makes it very hard for the marketing guys to prove consumers that this is a highend Laptop.

And is the Mac Book not the best example how marketing must be done?? I think it’s the most beautiful laptop in the world. It’s only a pity it’s an Apple. J

But despite all this I will buy a Think Tablet as soon as it is available here in Holland.

Regards

Steven

[ColonelONeill]

The objective criticisms are welcome! It's rare to find forum posts that don't end up being a rant. XD

I ran Crysis on my W520 the first couple of days (trial by fire on the GPU) and there was a smidge of new-plastic smell. It was worse on my T400.

No rattling battery here.

ThinkPad keyboards are probably intentionally clackier for the purpose of auditory feedback. The newer (enlarged Esc/Del) ones are a bit different from the older ones. Key placement is also different, but closer to standard than most other manufacturers (especially consumer laptops).

I pop the optical drive easily too, but it's never there because I never use it.

It's not too as easy to make a back-lit keyboard, but IMO the back-lit way is the more roundabout method. (Imagine instead of printing your documents in black ink/toner, your printer burns letter-shaped holes into the paper, and then glues the whole stencil-y thing onto a sheet of black paper.)

There's some very specific settings for the UltraNav touchpad that isn't set out of box, and two-finger scrolling sucks with the default method (I'm betting Synaptics can't use the MacBook technology, even though it supplies touchpads to both sides.) Definitely consider switching to TwoFingerScroll found on Google Code.

Power Manager launches slowly, but it's faster than on a T400 just due to the CPU power of the i7.

[PanEuropean]

I'd like to add one more "friendly suggestion" to the list:

I've recently stopped using my W500 and am now using a new W520.  More often than not, my W520 is installed in the Mini-Dock.  It is very difficult to eject the UltraBay device when the W520 is in the MiniDock.  This is because there are two levers that need to be actuated - and both are spring-loaded.  This means that two hands are needed (one for each lever), and because I don't have a third arm, it is difficult to hold the whole right side of the computer/MiniDock combination up in the air while actuating the two levers to release the UltraBay device.

The W500 was (in my opinion) much better designed - it also had two levers that needed to be actuated to release the UltraBay device, but these levers could be operated in sequence with one hand.  Furthermore, both levers were located on the right side of the computer (not on the bottom), which meant that it was not necessary to lift up the computer in order to release the UltraBay.

Hopefully the Lenovo engineers can take a second look at the ergonomics of the UltraBay release when they design the "W530", or whatever is planned to replace the W520.  In particular, they need to consider how easily the UltraBay device can be released when the notebook is installed in the MiniDock.

Michael

[Mark_Lenovo Administrator]

avguser,

This is one of the best pieces of constructive and balanced feedback that I've read in a long time.  Many thanks!

I'm interested in the battery looseness...   can you or others who notice this provide any additional details?  Is it loose on all 3 axis, or any one in particular?

The size of the power brick kinda goes with the territory on the W series since they are a workstation - the T420s may be a more balanced laptop in that regard.

PanEuropean,

Glad to see you back in the forum!

Best regards,

Mark  

[xhu12]

@Mark:

Check out my laptop I just sent you, that one has a loose battery it almost looks like that the battery is slightly too small for the slot. One of my co-worker got a thinkpad edge recently, his 6-cell battery is loose as well.

[aadiodavid]

My W520's 9 cells are much looser than the 6 cell I have, and the battery fit is much looser than the W510.

The battery slides back and forth along the horizontal axis... and the vertical. I think my W520, which demonstrates the same behaviour with both batteries I got, has a bit more play in the vertical (top to bottom) direction, but neither are tight fits. If the latch is not perfectly engaged, the battery will fall off with great ease.

The W500 was a better fit than the 510, and the W520 is definitely loose. The battery jiggles and makes a rattling noise if I use it on the train, for example.

[rc87]

---

Mark_Lenovo wrote:

I'm interested in the battery looseness...   can you or others who notice this provide any additional details?  Is it loose on all 3 axis, or any one in particular?

Mark  

---

you see this video about the S10 battery loose: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BftSIbXmcHs

on my W520 is similar (9 cells), if I pick the battery with two fingers like that the battery moves about 2mm in VERTICAL axis (up and down). NO play in horizontal(inwards-outwards) as older thinkpads, at least not in mine.

I made this fast overlay to show you where it has play:

there is a small area close to the battery locking switch where is firmer. The more you move away from the locking switch, the more it wobbles up-down. The maximum play is near the part that sticks out of the notebook and on the side near the docking connector. There is 2mm total up-down play.

Every time I put the W520 on my legs (or on my lap, how you say in english?!?) I can feel the battery movement and I can hear it too because when the battery is pushed up and touches the chassis it makes a click noise like clicking hard a w520 touchpad button (and that's noisy lol)

I'll try to make a video soon.

[oredigger]

1.  My laptop was very stinky when I got it, but after 2 weeks the smell has gone away.

2.  9cell Battery is a little loose, but it doesn't bother me.

3. The keys are very slippery, and they are harder to push than on my old HP Pavilion dv6.  The keyboard is the same size as my old laptop, but the contact area on the keys is smaller (the top part of the key is smaller making your fingers need to be more precise for every keystroke).  I type much slower on this laptop than my old one, and with many more typos.

4. Yeah, the keys sounds weird.

5.  The thinklight is useless.  Backlit keys would have been nicer.

6.  I open the optical drive every time I pick up the laptop, and then I have to fight with it to close it.

7.  I hate bloatware.  I wish there was an option to have a clean install from the factory.

8.  I've played around with the touchpad settings, and I've gotten it to work close to what I would like.  I've disabled most of the features of the touchpad, and have it at max sensitivity.

9. The power cord is way too short.  I can deal with the fact that this lappy needs a huge power adapter, but give me some more cord!

10.  The screen dims on dark images while on battery power. (I would really like a fix for this!) Power Manager 3.62 fixes this.

11.  -snipped-

12.  The page forward/back keys make the arrow keys hard to find. (I've thought about removing them).

13.  -snipped-

14.  The volume buttons do not work very well.

15.  The touchpad buttons have a lot of play in them.  They should be snappier.

16.  The onscreen notification for using numlock, or capslock is annoying.

Overall, I would describe the Lenovo W520 as "Clunky", but it's probably the best PC out there for the money.

17.  I've had momentary OS lockups while I'm listening to streaming music.  I'll hear "brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr", and my mouse will freeze. I don't know what that's all about... I have 4 cores... **bleep**?

The FHD screen has taken me a few weeks to get used to, but it's very nice.  The Nosquint addon to firefox is an eye saver.

[avgUser]

Hi, topmahof! The smell does not seem as strong as the first day. However, it's still present. When I don't notice it, I think it's because I've grown accustomed to it. When I leave the room and come back I definitely notice it again.

When one is healthy and robust, tolerance is much higher. I was sick a few weeks ago and the toxic smell definitely made me feel a LOT worse, to the point where I had to limit usage.

[avgUser]

Hello, Mark! Most of the movement is just up and down. Left and right seems mostly fixed. Finally, there's not much wiggle-room in and out. So, it's mostly just the vertical axis.

As for the power brick, could you, or someone else, explain why the size needs to be so big? Or does workstation mean that one can carry the laptop around, but ideally it should stay in one place? I'm not an electrical engineer or anything.

Actually, I'm majoring software engineering.

Now that I'm back in school, definitely the size of the brick matters because it doesn't always land in a nice spot. For example, if I connect to an outlet near the ground, but I'm working at a desk, the brick doesn't always sit nicely on the desk, sometimes it's half on the desk or almost tipping over. Plus, the weight matters because carrying a laptop, books, binders, and a heavy power brick is definitely a workout.

Also, perhaps oredigger is right when he says the cord is too short. With a longer cord, one could place the brick in a much better spot, in order to work more comfortably, or in a better spot or position.