W520 is a fine choice

[ColonelONeill]

Fair enough. I just don't think it's wise to get in a research war with everyone else; the government backed research facilities will probably work out a better solution before everyone else, which in turn means all the R&D spent would have essentially gone to waste.

[Chatbox]

Agree.

And it comes down to how badly does a company want to be ahead of their competitors...and how much funding/resources the company has.  In Lenovo case (not limited to battery tech), it's no (not wanting it bad enough)...and no (not that loaded).

Some will just put their hands up and say, nah, their solution will be better than mine, I'm not going to put/waste resources on this.  Others will not go down without a fight.  Plus, with many things...there are multiple R&D teams around the world trying to re-improve the wheel.  It's not always a case of, oh they're doing R&D on this already, I'll back off.

 ...which goes back to, Lenovo, in its current state, is nothing much more than OEM parts assembler.

[ZipZap]

Hi, Chat,

    You seem to be highly negative about everything Lenovo. Why don't you jump over to the Dell forum?

    Just a thought...

                                                      ZZ

[Chatbox]

Because I don't have any Dell products to speak of.  Whereas I have 4 Thinkpads from IBM and Lenovo.

And negativity is a matter of perspective.   Or is my percieved negativity affecting your Sunday mood?  Would it sound better if I also add, given that Lenovo hasn't been focusing much on the R&D side of things, I am amazed that it's been one of the best selling laptop brand over the past decade or so?

Just a question, or two.

[ZipZap]

Hi, Chat,

    I would say Lenovo is a much better value than Dell. Apparently you agree, based on your inventory.

    It is Intel, NVidia etc that is the real driving force behind innovation, with the OEMs bumping along behind. I would say the W520 is a quantum leap beyond the W510, but this is only possible because of Sandy Bridge.

                                                                Best, ZZ

[Chatbox]

...if only I can get a W520 to try out...  :-\

It somewhat sucks having the first gen i7.  All my other ThinkPads have been working very well...most have been able to function extremely well beyond 4 years (except, or course, worn out keyboard, battery, harddrive and LCD/LED backlite...these wear and tear I can accept).  I even had the T41p for 5.5 years.

Sadly though, this W510 is just not there compare to the others I have / have had when it comes to stability.  

[ThorsHammer]

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ZipZap wrote:

    It is Intel, NVidia etc that is the real driving force behind innovation, with the OEMs bumping along behind. I would say the W520 is a quantum leap beyond the W510, but this is only possible because of Sandy Bridge.

---

If the W520 didn't have the sudden death syndrome on a percentage of the machines I would agree.  Until that's fixed it isn't a quantum leap.

[ZipZap]

Hi, Thor and Chat,

    Every product has its adherents and detractors. Naturally, these are based on personal experience and not on the bigger picture. Just take a look at the Jekyl and Hyde reviews on NewEgg. I tend to put the most stock in the middle of the road reviewers, i.e. not the ones denouncing the company for a DOA, nor the ones who have star-struck brand myopia after unboxing. Rather, those who can see the plusses and minuses and discuss them in a fair, meaningful and knowledgable way.

    So the question I pose: Is quality control at Lenovo better or worse than that of the other major manufacturers? How do we go about finding out?

    That aside, I would say Sandy Bridge is a quantum leap up from 1st generation Core i3, i5 and i7s (and their chipsets)  in both speed and power consumption. I would also venture to say that so are the machines on which they are based.

                                                                    Best, ZZ

[salzrat]

Well, I've had a few Dells, FSCs, and Lenovos, and consistently the Lenovos, although in principle nice machines, all had some principal design issue or fatal bug. I still decided to go with the W520, but I'm somewhat disappointed by the throttling in battery (in the sense that it's sometimes really awkwardly slow in thunderbird!!), the unability to clone displays using Windows-P (which is essential for a business machine), the fact that having an external screen attached kills Optimus (and I practically always have that), and the poorer than announced battery life (although that one I can live with most). And these issues are not apparent to the buyer, so they come at an unpleasant surprise. My old Thinkpad T61p had keyboard issues in WinXP that were never resolved (keyboard didn't work after standby), and after 4 years it just died (would only boot or wake up from power save when removing cables and battery).

Obviously other machines have their issues as well, but for me the Lenovo bugs stand out somehow.

[huberth]

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salzrat wrote:
 ...  I still decided to go with the W520, but I'm somewhat disappointed by the throttling in battery ...

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Have you tried ThrottleStop? It fixes that!