Pro’s: Extreme performance, beautiful display, great keyboard, tons of features

Con’s: Abysmal battery life, thick & heavy

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Design
Despite the stuffed-to-the-gills internals, new display form factor and shiny new name, the ThinkPad W510 is still very much a ThinkPad in looks: black and rectangular, although with just a bit more rounded look to it. The chamfered edges seen pioneered on the ThinkPad T400s have carried to the W510 as well, although they don’t have the same slimming effect as on the T410.

The hinges are giant and silver, the ThinkPad logo placed in its proper location and the reassuring LCD latch just as you would expect. The inside is just as expected, with the only oddities being the wider speakers sandwiching the keyboard and the extra dimple in the palm rest from the color calibrator. It is still the robust ThinkPad workstation we have come to love, just a bit wider than before.

Keyboard
The W510′s keyboard is the same as the T410, not only in arrangement and design, but also in feel and experience. Accordingly, I’ve reproduced the Keyboard section from the T410 review.

With the refreshed ThinkPad T410, T510 and W510, Lenovo saw fit to bring the redesigned keyboard of the T400s over. Accordingly all T and W Series models now have the larger keycaps, larger Esc and Del keys and rounded, premium system buttons. The CapsLock key also gets its own LED and the Ultranav is revised per the T400s as well. The feel of the T410’s keyboard is on par with the T400s and representative of what many come to expect from a ThinkPad keyboard. There is no flex that I can detect and the key travel feels just right.

Unfortunately there is something just a little bit off with the ThinkPad T410’s keyboard. I type on a ThinkPad keyboard all day, every day; whether it be a ThinkPad USB keyboard, ThinkPad T400, T400s or X61. On those keyboards, I can type quickly with my usual high level of accuracy. If I switch to the T410 and fire up my fingers, my accuracy suffers. Keystrokes are missed amidst a flurry of typing, almost as though I was going too quick for my own good and missed a key entirely.

With a little experimentation, it appears that when I get typing quickly, I may tap each key with a bit less force. This is not a problem on any other ThinkPad, but with the T410 I have to consciously type a bit harder when I speed up to avoid these keystroke misses. I was relieved to see it wasn’t just me, as both LaptopMag and Notebook Review noted typing inaccuracies as well. Lenovo stated that they weren’t aware of any issues, but that they would inquire with their engineering teams.

Update: Since this review was initially written, but before it was published, Lenovo released an updated BIOS for the 2010 ThinkPads. One of the stated changes was “Improve key input response.” Putting this new BIOS to the test, I have found my typing accuracy has returned to normal levels and my concerns about the keyboard responsiveness put to rest. You can find the updated BIOS for your T410/T410s/T510/W510 here.

Touchpad & UltraNav
As above, the touchpad & UltraNav performed identically to the T410 and this section is lifted from the T410 review as well.

As with the keyboard and exterior design, the ThinkPad T410’s touchpad is also a gift from its slimmer T400s cousin. It has the dimpled texture and flush mounting as the T400s’ touchpad and performs identically, which is a good thing. Scrolling is responsive and accurate, as are multitouch gestures for those who use them.

The TrackPoint, which when combined with a touchpad is officially called the UltraNav pointing device, also inherits the T400s redesign and is functionally perfect as well. The only thing noted here is that the UltraNav software doesn’t seem to allow for as much sensitivity with the TrackPoint, but it still responds to plenty light of a touch.

Display
The Lenovo ThinkPad W510′s Full HD display has one of the best non-IPS LCD panels you’ll find in a laptop. The brightness, color saturation and viewing angles are all a step above what you’ll find in most mobile workstations, and a far cry above the usual ThinkPad LCDs.

The first thing I did when I opened the W510 was use the integrated color calibrator. Once it has analyzed the LCD’s color output, a process requiring the lid to be closed while the sensor scans colors shown on the display, it allows you to quickly toggle between the current and recommended color settings. I saw a noticeable difference in the color hues and felt confident I knew that my photos were being represented more accurately than I’ve experienced before. It is a very simple and slick application, although it seems a bit odd that it is set to prompt for calibration every two weeks.

Brightness on the Full HD multitouch display is more than sufficient, with enough range to view comfortably in a dark room or outdoors on a cloudy day. Viewing angles are generally a sore point on ThinkPads and many laptop displays, but I’m happy to report that the W510 goes a step above here as well. While not up to par with an IPS panel, the W510′s Full HD display has surprisingly excellent horizontal viewing angles. There is very little loss of contrast and no color shifting. The vertical angles are another story, with a blue hue as it rotates away from you and a red hue as it gets closer. The usual loss of contrast and color shifting occurs, although you have a decent amount of wiggle room before the vertical angles fade.

On the multitouch front, touch input works as well as it did on the ThinkPad T400s multitouch. The good news with the W510, and likely the T410s, is that Lenovo has updated their preload with a touch-optimized Windows theme. It’s nothing drastic, but the crucial areas where one might need to tap are enlarged and easier to nab. This is a good move, because my fat finger just can’t seem to tap precisely, although that may be compounded by the high pixel density of the 1920×1080 display.

While I know many will curse the 16:9 display ratio, it’s not that bad with the Full HD (1920×1080) display. Yes, I liked the 1920×1200 WUXGA panel in my ThinkPad Z61p better, for resolution at least, but FHD still has plenty of vertical pixels for nearly any purpose. And I must say, the 16:9 ratio is nicely suited to having two web pages or documents open side by side. For those considering the HD+ (1600×900) display, I must say that while it would be a good resolution for a more basic user or someone with poor eyesight, high resolution on such a large screen is a must. HD+ is a great resolution on a smaller display, like the HP Envy 13′s HD+ screen, but 15.6-inches of LCD needs some pixel density behind it.

Multimedia
ThinkPads in general aren’t billed as multimedia machines and the W510 has no pretenses about it either. The gorgeous Full HD display works nicely for watching your favorite film, and the 16:9 ratio means more movie and less black bars. Digital video output is possible, but if you’re going to an HDTV you will likely need to adapt the DisplayPort to HDMI. The good news is that the DisplayPort now carries audio and forum users are reporting successful conversion to HDMI with video and audio playback.

The 5-in-1 media card reader and ExpressCard/34 slot are rather nice to see standard on all W510′s. There is no option for a Compact Flash slot as on the W700 Series, but that ExpressCard slot would do nicely for an add-in card. The large speakers located on either side of the keyboard have a surprising amount of volume, so much so that you can enjoy your music even with the display closed. The sound quality is about average for a laptop, with a lack of depth to the mid’s & high’s and no bass to speak of.

Features & Technology
The W510 is billed as a mobile workstation, and accordingly it needs to have all the capabilities you would find in a bulky desktop machine. With standard quad core processors, four slots for DDR3 RAM, high end NVIDIA graphics and a desktop-worthy LCD, it certainly is a match for anything on your desk.

There are also the little details, like having a 7200rpm hard drive, Windows 7 Professional, 5-in-1 card reader, ExpressCard/34 slot, Bluetooth and high end Intel 11nWiFi all standard. The four DIMM memory slots mean more than just reaching 16GB total, it also means you have 8GB total using the much less pricey 2GB sticks. The W510 is like the Corvette of the laptop world: it may not be the prettiest, or the cheapest, but it is chock full of technology for its price.

Connectivity & Ports

Left side (front to rear): WiFi switch, SmartCard reader, 4-pin Firewire, USB/eSATA combo, (2) USB 3.0 ports, VGA & DisplayPort output

Image forthcoming

Right side (front to rear): 5-in-1 card reader, ExpressCard/34 slot, optical drive, Ethernet, Kensington lock slot

Rear (left to right): USB 2.0 (powered), modem, battery, AC plug

Software Preload
Part of this text is lifted from the T410 review, as the W510 only adds to the T410 preload and is not fundamentally different.

The ThinkPad W510’s preload is relatively free of junk and trialware, with the main eyesores being the Office 2007 trial and Norton Internet Security 90-day trial. There is the usual conglomerate of Lenovo utilities, which are hit or miss for real usability. The Power Manager and Access Connections programs are always handy, although Windows 7’s network management is plenty sufficient for most people. The Power Manager in particular makes controlling your system’s performance vs battery life trade-off quite easy.

Lenovo is thoughtful enough to include some DVD software from Corel, for both burning discs and doing at least basic video production to burn to a DVD disc. DVD playback is handled by the usual Intervideo software, which gets the job done, although is not my favorite.

Where the W510 differs from other ThinkPads are the changes brought by its major options: the color calibrator and multitouch screen. Lenovo altered the default Windows theme to enlarge common touch points, like window buttons and desktop icons. The supplied hueyPRO color calibrator software runs in the background to remind you when you need to re-calibrate, but does not need to be left running to maintain the adjusted color profile.

Battery Life
Unfortunately, abysmal battery life is a consequence of the quad core processor, powerful NVIDIA graphics and large, bright screen. Our model is equipped with the standard 84Whr 9-cell battery, and yet runtime generally averaged in the two and a half hour range. If you reduced screen brightness, changed the power profile to maximize runtime and stuck to browsing websites or using office productivity software, you could see around three hours.

Unfortunately if you even moderately use the CPU and screen brightness, two and half hours will be on the high end of longevity. There were times when I was heavily editing in Photoshop with music playing in the background and a few dozen websites open, seeing less than two hours of runtime.

This is to be expected with such a high performance system, but I still can’t help but be disappointed. The W510′s screen is so gorgeous and high resolution that I want to sit in my living room to edit photos or work with large amounts of data, but it seems after so little time I am hunting for a power adapter. Not that ThinkPad power adapters are scarce in my house, but I only have the one 135W adapter Lenovo sent to me.

If you do try to run the W510 on a 90W or *gasp* 65W adapter, you’ll find the computer is silently put into a reduced performance mode. Surprisingly, this causes a noticeable decrease in every performance aspect – even loading web pages. I wasn’t able to test if it goes as far as cutting wireless performance, but loading the same page was night & day on a 90W adapter versus battery only.

I was able to test Photoshop performance. Before I began, I loaded Photoshop CS4 64-bit so everything was cached in RAM. Closing the program, I restarted it three times on battery and three times on the 90W adapter. The results were consistent: Photoshop loaded in 4 seconds on battery, and 15 seconds on the 90W adapter. This confirms my anecdotal experience of everything slowing down dramatically. The power profile was Lenovo’s default Energy Star, but I never noticed any performance difference on other profiles in prior experiences.

In a more comical test, the machine had drawn down on battery and I didn’t want to head into the office to plug-in. I grabbed a 65W adapter that sat nearby for my X61 and watched as it struggled to even maintain the current battery level, much less increase the charge! This is one power hungry machine.

Note: It hadn’t occurred to me to photograph the larger 135W adapter. I will get a shot of this next to 65W and 90W adapters.

Real World Usage
Using Lenovo’s ThinkPad W510 on a daily basis is much like using its smaller ThinkPad T410 brethren; just bigger, faster and a bit warmer. The build quality is top notch and every time you pick it up, you know you’re handling a high quality machine. The size was a little surprising when I first opened the W510, having used a 15.4-inch Z60m and Z61p extensively in a previous life. I think most of the surprise came from the Multitouch display, which adds around a tenth of an inch to the thickness.

The multitouch, Full HD LCD with a 95% color gamut is amazing, as elaborated earlier. The multitouch feature itself is about as much of a gimmick as it was on the ThinkPad T400s with multitouch, but at least now Lenovo optimizes the Windows 7 theme to be more touch friendly. I found that the touch screen got a bit more use when browsing photos. As a new DSLR camera owner, I really appreciated the integrated SD card reader, the color-calibrated, high quality display and the touch screen. Having a new camera, I am of course shooting a ton of pictures and the touch screen was a nice, if not requisite, feature to have.

Performance is amazing on the new ThinkPad W510, hands down. This has a lot to do with the configuration of our review model, with the literally top of the line processor and memory configurations. Not everyone needs a quad-core Core i7 processor with 16GB RAM, but the good news is the W510 can be fast and (more) budget friendly too. The “lower end” Core i7-720QM is still a quad core, although runs at a bit slower 1.6GHz, and since Lenovo was kind enough to fit the W510 with four memory slots, you can get 8GB RAM running without using the expensive 4GB sticks. Even though our model “only” had a 7200rpm hard drive and not a top of the line SSD, boot time and application load times were incredibly fast.

Most of the time, the W510 will be cool and quiet, just like its less powerful ThinkPad colleagues. When you start taxing the CPU or GPU, the bottom of the W510 will get a bit warm. Luckily the heat is reasonably tolerable in your lap and the fan noise shouldn’t drive most people nutty.

The biggest complaint I have about using the W510 comes when you are away from the desk, unplugged from the wall. Even if you were to eek out 3 hours of this nearly 7 lb beast, I am spoiled by a minimum of 3 hours on my ThinkPad T400 and 5+ on my trusty ThinkPad X61. You can add a slice battery to the W510 that should double runtime if you really need it, but that makes the machine even thicker and heavier.

If you are a ThinkPad fanatic like me, you will have an AC adapter in almost every room of the house, but alas you are foiled there too. The W510 requires a new, larger 135W power adapter to supports its juice-sucking habit and will run in a reduced performance mode on a lesser AC adapter, as detailed in the Battery Life section.

My final note on the real world usage comes with a caveat: most users will not experience this issue. My ThinkPad W510 review unit emits a subtle, but noticeable high pitched whine on a regular basis. If I am not mistaken, this is due to the aggressive power management inherent in modern hardware and results because certain low-level components vibrate in a reduced power state. This vibration is incredibly minute and will never be felt, but does result in an audible pitch.

This noise is not new to ThinkPads, with a limited number of users experiencing this in the last ThinkPad generation too. There is no resolution I am aware of except getting an entirely new machine, but there is no guarantee another machine won’t exhibit the same issues.

Conclusion
Who needs a desktop computer or dedicated photo editing rig when you have this beast? As much as I credit Lenovo’s ThinkPad T Series for being the near perfect combination of every feature or capability you could need in a laptop, the W510 takes that a step further. It aims to have the performance necessary to replace your high end desktop, the technology to keep everything you need in one box and the specialized features to serve a very picky subset of users: photographers, scientists/engineers and power users.

Naturally there are drawbacks, as everything is compromise in a laptop. Photographers will love the Full HD, 95% color gamut screen with available integrated color calibrator, but many will also want an integrated CompactFlash reader. Power users may like the nearly unparalleled combination of features and performance, but lament the introduction of the 16:9 display into a professional machine. Scientists and engineers will dig the extreme performance in the portable package, but might prefer ATI graphics over the W510′s NVIDIA solution. At least no one can complain about the Fn & Ctrl key locations anymore.

Lenovo beefed up the ThinkPad W510 from the W500 to help serve as a better stepping stone before the monstrous W700/W701 models, as “portable” is a very relative term with the only 17-inch ThinkPad. It does this job admirably, but suffers from Intel’s power-creep over the years and will leave some users wishing for just a bit more runtime. The even more rectangular form factor makes portability just a bit more challenging than with 16:10 models, as does the hardly svelte 1.29-1.44 inch thickness without the touch screen.

If none of these compromises are a deal breaker for you, then Lenovo’s ThinkPad W510 will be a great all-around performance workstation for even the most demanding users. The W510 is not like most laptops, as a machine with this many features and this much engineering put into it does not become worthless after just a year or two. The ThinkPad W510 is not a commodity, unlike most laptops. It is a well honed tool, one that should serve the discerning user’s needs for years to come.

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