Lenovo's ThinkPad W700ds shows its second screen on video

Mmm, dual screens. Lenovo's almost too-good-to-be-true W700ds got pretty darn official last night, and now we're being treated to the unit's first widely available video. The unit in the vid -- which is hosted up just beyond the break -- looks like it's straight out of pre-production, and the slight wobble in the pull-out panel doesn't instill the greatest amount of confidence in us. Still, we're hoping Lenovo tightens a few screws before it hits the market for real, and given the history of the rock solid ThinkPad line, we fully anticipate that happening.

[AMiSH PiRATE @ Dec 22nd 2008 3:55PM]

@ iKurt Mark II

C'mon, man, you're making us apple fanboys look bad. Play nice.

[Clark H. @ Dec 22nd 2008 2:43PM]

That's cool.


I want.

[joe23521 @ Dec 22nd 2008 2:59PM]

The tougher thing would be to get your boss to WANT it FOR you.

[BigDaddyM @ Dec 22nd 2008 3:44PM]

What would really be cool is if a screen came out the back form at both sides making a triple screen.

I mean once you are at that level, why not go all the way?

I am getting a new laptop but I decided to go Sony AW because as a photographer, teh RGB screen was more important than these features (even if the Lenovo is faster...)
M

[Andir3.0 @ Dec 22nd 2008 4:15PM]

Yeah, I was trying to figure out if it were possible to have a double hinged 3 screen laptop. The extra screens would open like a book. ;) Maybe when the tech gets good enough to make the screens nice and thin.

[CAHLITO @ Dec 22nd 2008 2:43PM]

More like shows the back of its second screen

[Spazzo @ Dec 22nd 2008 2:44PM]

Oooooooh!!!!

thts cool....

[216 @ Dec 22nd 2008 2:45PM]

Ooo

[BlurMagic @ Dec 22nd 2008 2:46PM]

Genius Idea.
Now put one of those extensions on both sides... So I can Facebook... In PANORAMA!!!

[crusader97b @ Dec 22nd 2008 2:48PM]

Funny

[BlurMagic @ Dec 22nd 2008 2:50PM]

Yeah. I had to be somewhat sarcastic about this. It's a good idea... For some people I suppose. Alot of people at the place I work use dual screens. So. Mobile dual screens has to be cool right?

[Hackettman @ Dec 22nd 2008 3:02PM]

Maybe thatll be ver.2 of this unit.

I love the idea of dual screen with such great products that lenovo puts out Im sure this will have its share of kickassery.....

[Patriks7 @ Dec 22nd 2008 4:13PM]

Or make a display extend from each one, ending up having an encirclement of displays! That would be so awesome for games!

Uh, replace "games" with porn xD

[BlurMagic @ Dec 22nd 2008 4:54PM]

@Patriks7

Genius! Minus the little fact that everytime we extend the screen, it gets smaller... but... If we had some of those OLED roll screens on each side of the screen, we could just roll them out, and then we wouldnt have to worry about a loss of size. YEAH!

-PS. I feel a low rank coming for the deep thought I just put into that post.

[Ballsack @ Dec 22nd 2008 4:55PM]

Needs to be motorized...

[Nomi @ Dec 22nd 2008 2:47PM]

Is there a market for these? I'm just curious who would buy this behemoth...

[Charlie Taylor @ Dec 22nd 2008 2:59PM]

I would. Given that the model has a built in Wacom tablet it makes it even more appealing to me as a photographer. Media professionals are who Lenovo is aiming for with this laptop and many of their other models.

[Dave @ Dec 22nd 2008 3:17PM]

I could definitely use this machine. 16"x12"x2.1" and 11 lbs is much smaller and lighter than my current "portable" workstation. (Shuttle XPC and monitor both with carrying cases). I would much rather take a laptop to client meetings instead of my Shuttle, but up until recently, no laptop was powerful enough for my needs. Now with the release of the Dell m6400 and the Lenovo w700, I finally have some options.

[Patriks7 @ Dec 22nd 2008 4:18PM]

I would. Porn on the big screen, school work on the small one..

[taciturnforsale @ Dec 22nd 2008 4:23PM]

I believe it's mostly intended for those in the design field. Considering that field continues to grow, I figure now is a good time for companies to pay attention to how much market share they have in it.

[TavisJohn @ Dec 22nd 2008 4:26PM]

@Charlie Taylor
Yea the built in tablet sounds nice.... But than when you see it, it is too small to be useful. If the working surface of a tablet is smaller than your average mouse pad, than it is too small to actually use it accurately (Which is the WHOLE POINT of having a tablet)

[AMiSH PiRATE @ Dec 22nd 2008 2:48PM]

Am I the only one who thinks that doesn't seem too wobbly? Do I just have really lax standards of wobblyness?

[qwert @ Dec 22nd 2008 3:41PM]

Thats what she said ...

[Joe @ Dec 22nd 2008 2:50PM]

Looks like some tacky invention from the 1980s. People actually want this? I'm surprised.

[Joe @ Dec 22nd 2008 2:53PM]

In fact, that looks like a hand of a woman from the eighties... Are you sure that's not Judith Hann??

[grabbydad @ Dec 22nd 2008 2:51PM]

Given the advancements in display technologies that are planning on making their way to the market, I could see this adding a ton of screen real estate at a cost of a pound or two in overall weight. I bet we'll see this on big gaming laptops first and then smaller portables when screen technology gets thinner, lighter, and less power hungry.
Add this idea with those super thin OLED screens, and we got something to cook with.

[bob vansteel @ Dec 22nd 2008 3:10PM]

You don't have anything left to cook when you spend $2000 per 7 inches of OLED display...ahem

[Max @ Dec 22nd 2008 5:24PM]

Ooooo cooking with organic leds. Yummy.

[Idlemind @ Dec 22nd 2008 3:04PM]

impress me and put a projector in a laptop...

[dcoaster @ Dec 22nd 2008 3:12PM]

Um.. why?

[Idlemind @ Dec 22nd 2008 3:14PM]

sit and think about it for a minute... or in your case 6 minutes...

:0

[Jomolungma @ Dec 22nd 2008 3:20PM]

I thought about it and the only thing I can think of is life-sized porn on the go...

[Idlemind @ Dec 22nd 2008 3:22PM]

yeah thats about what I came up with too..... well besides mobile presentations with out all the hassle.

[crawdad689 @ Dec 22nd 2008 3:13PM]

pretty badass if you're an on-the-go creative professional.

[Clyde Smith @ Dec 22nd 2008 3:22PM]

Actually that's one of those things that you clip hand written documents to so you can type them in.

[joe23521 @ Dec 22nd 2008 4:25PM]

Yes, and the cup holder pops out on the left side.

[falkphotodesign @ Dec 22nd 2008 3:30PM]

That looks janky.

[qwert @ Dec 22nd 2008 3:43PM]

just go back to your mommas basement!

I hereby propose that everyone who starts his (or her) name with the characteristic i gets banned from the interets forever.

[joseph @ Dec 22nd 2008 3:47PM]

For the love of god clean the back of that thing!

[bigcow05 @ Dec 22nd 2008 6:09PM]

They didn't paint that one yet. What you see is raw magnesium alloy :D Sexy.

[FILA @ Dec 22nd 2008 4:12PM]

hope that isnt the final product, that looks really cheap. looks like cheap metal for the top of the laptop. i dont know

[Andir3.0 @ Dec 22nd 2008 4:20PM]

I don't think that's metal. Lenovo laptop screens have a "rubber like" coating to them that seems to trap oil from too much touching. With a white reflection, it could look like metal. I have a bitch of a time keeping mine fingerprint free for some reason.

[Jacob @ Dec 22nd 2008 4:54PM]

actually you know what I hate about Lenovo's designs? The bezels are just too big. I think they could fit an 18 or even 19 inch screen in their W700. Either that or reduce their footprint and get rid of the bezels.

On another note, it's funny that if you use the Thinklight (the light that's supposed to light up your keyboard) in a dark room and there's a fly or some other bug, it actually tries to go into the Thinklight. I have a T61p and that happened a few times. It makes a good argument for a backlit keyboard.

[LondonConsultant @ Dec 23rd 2008 8:05AM]

If bugs are being attracted to your ThinkLight, the solution may be to employ the services of a cleaner, rather than purchase a backlit keyboard.

[Roy @ Dec 22nd 2008 4:56PM]

I'm gunna wait for the next version, were a 7 inch screen pops out of the 10 inch side screen, so that the complete right side of my periphery is covered.

[technician @ Dec 22nd 2008 5:05PM]

I am really looking forward to seeing the real stuff at the CES in January.

[Lundmark @ Dec 22nd 2008 7:00PM]

This is just so gay.

[Martin @ Dec 22nd 2008 7:26PM]

Not a bad idea. I actually just hauled my 15lbs. 20" LCD over to my parent's as I'm staying over and needed to do some work on my single screen laptop. I personally think that having a screen pull out to each side (effectively 3 screens) would be an amazing use of this idea. Gaming applications aside this would be ideal for work.

[Eric @ Dec 22nd 2008 11:52PM]

does she come with it too?

[Portaman @ Dec 23rd 2008 2:37AM]

When a component breaks you will have to send the entire behemoth back to Lenovo's crappy maintenance department. I still want one though, if only to eliminate the myriad of tangled cables of my current desktop system. The only thing is that I love my black Filco mechanical keyboard (of which I have two, a USB version and a Bluetooth version). Given the size of that Thinkpad, using a separate keyboard would put me too far from the screen.