Lenovo ThinkPad Sports Dual Built-In LCD Screens

    The ThinkPad W700ds laptop, with a 17-inch main screen and a 10.6-inch second screen, is called a “mobile workstation” by Lenovo and is meant to appeal to power users who are accustomed to two screens when they sit at a desk.

    Tilting Up to 30 Degrees

    The mobile workstation offers either an Intel Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad, or Core 2 Extreme processor, as well as Nvidia Quadro graphics technology, a palm rest digitizer and pen, Intel Turbo memory 4GB module support , and a 4GB memory DIMM.

    The 17-inch main display is a backlit WUXGA with 1,920×1,200 resolution, while the second screen is WXGA, also with backlighting, and provides 768×1,280 resolution. The smaller screen can be tilted up to 30 degrees.

    But that second screen and other features come at a cost — an expected $3,600, as well as nearly 11 pounds — more than twice the weight of, say, an average ThinkPad laptop.

    The double-screened unit will be shown at the Consumer Electronics Show next month in Las Vegas, with an expected release at about the same time. There have been reports that Lenovo was intending to wait until CES to announce the W700ds, but a page announcing the new model went live early on IBM’s site, and the computer-oriented blogs noticed.

    Brighter Than Any Notebook

    The double-screen model is targeted at photographers and graphic designers, as well as developers, and Lenovo is emphasizing the attention to visual quality. The company pointed out that the main screen has been rated brighter than any notebook available, with integrated color calibration and an X-Rite Pantone color sensor and software for color consistency.

    To emphasize that users have the highest-quality display on external monitors — assuming they need even more display space — Lenovo noted that this model is the first ThinkPad with a full dual-link DVI-D digital output, supporting the highest-resolution displays available. Additionally, there is a single digital connector interface for high-definition video.

    Visually demanding users will also need plenty of storage for their visual work, and the W700ds offers options: Two bays for either hard-disk drives or solid-state drives provide nearly a terabyte of storage. The SSD option, though, is for a relatively small 64GB unit.

    The earlier model in the W700 line, with one screen, was released this past summer, priced at about $2,500. The W700 series is the first mobile workstation to provide high-capacity RAID hard-disk drives (assuming two identical hard-disk drives are used), color calibration, and digitizer. Recordable 8x DVD and Blu-ray drives are also standard.

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