Lenovo ThinkPad W520 Review Discussion

[Amber Riippa]

The Lenovo ThinkPad W520 is Lenovo's upgrade to the W510 mobile workstation notebook. This 15.6-inch notebook is powered by up to an Intel Core i7-2920XM processor and equipped with up to a discrete NVIDIA Quadro 2000M GPU, switchable to Intel HD integrated graphics. Like last year?s model, the full HD (FHD) displays on the 1920 x 1080 resolution models have a 95% color gamut and a huey PRO color calibration system application. At the time of writing this review Lenovo has not yet announced if there will be an upcoming multi-touch screen option like last year or not.

In this review we will measure the ThinkPad W520 up with other workstations in its class by putting every specific detail of it to the test. Read on to find out if this is the laptop for you.

Read the full content of this Article: Lenovo ThinkPad W520 Review

Related Articles:

• Lenovo ThinkPad X220 Review
• Lenovo ThinkPad X120e Review
• Lenovo ThinkPad T510 Review
• Lenovo ThinkPad T410s Review
• Lenovo ThinkPad W510 Review

[John Ratsey]

Thanks for the review.

How much does the review W520 weigh and how does it compare to the manufacturer's starting weight?

Also:

Horizontal viewing angles aren’t better than average and start to distort images when the workstation is around 20-25 degrees tilted backward or forward from the straight position. This actually surprised me given the high quality display. Vertical viewing angles, however, are significantly different—they do not visibly distort at all until the notebook is too slanted for proper viewing.

My take on the viewing angles is that the horizontal viewing angles are better than the vertical ones (which is normal for notebook screens).

John

[knight427]

You guys really need to address the HP 8740w 3DMark06 results. We have thoroughly tested many configs in the owners lounge and your results are clearly wrong. It should get about 13,000.

[Ahbeyvuhgehduh]

Hmm ... was surprised by the battery life! Although I have heard that the new i core cpu's have better power management in them....

[E30kid]

Hmm ... was surprised by the battery life! Although I have heard that the new i core cpu's have better power management in them....

Yeah, switchable graphics will do that to a power-hungry system.

[ivanox1972]

Is this AUO B156HW01 v4 screen_

[wlandry]

I find the results for the temperature a bit puzzling. The highest temperature that you recorded on the bottom was 90 degrees. Considering that this is a quad core 55 watt cpu coupled with a 55 watt GPU, that seems low. It is much lower than the 100 degrees you got for the T510, which had a 35 watt CPU and a 14 watt GPU. Also, the people over at LAPTOP magazine got a much higher temperature of 98 degrees. Are you sure about that temperature?

[sgogeta4]

TDP and temperature are related but aren't proportional. It's possible that there is better cooling so even if there is a higher power consumption, the heat can be expelled more efficiently. Also, you cannot directly compare other people's results because there are many factors that can influence the result. To name a few: ambient temperature, stress test(s) used, and amount and application of thermal compound used.

[NUTSH3LL]

Yeah, switchable graphics will do that to a power-hungry system.

If I'm not mistaken, the W520 doesn't have switchable graphics.
Improved battery life is probably because of the large 94mW battery and more efficient CPUs

Is this AUO B156HW01 v4 screen_

+1
I'd like to know as well because I thought those were discontinued and were being replaced by B156HW02 or something. Seems to be a different screen though because you guys measured only an average of 207 nits while NBC recorded an average of 231 nits (as high as 257) for the W510. No matter since I already have one in my Elitebook

[wolfindersteppe]

If I'm not mistaken, the W520 doesn't have switchable graphics.
Improved battery life is probably because of the large 94mW battery and more efficient CPUs

W520 does have switchable graphic units, two of them, Intel3000 on board (Sandy Bridge architecture) and NVidia 1000/2000 model.