Thinkpad W550s Owner's Thread

Man, every time I see the numpad, the only thing I can think of is how ugly it is
In my opinion of course....

Anyway congrats, I hope you won't regret it. Btw, may I ask why W550S and not something else? 15" screen? what else?

 

Congrats on the notebook - nice writeup. You might be the first person to post "in the wild" pictures of it.

I dig the fact Lenovo included the numpad on this (vs. HP not doing so on their competing ZBook 15u). However I don't understand why the F-row keys aren't primarily the F-keys e.g. F1-F12 and not the other functions like volume and so on. I get the Fn-Lock feature but it should be the other way around - F keys primary, and Fn-Lock to switch what should be the secondary functions to primary. Maybe it's me but on a machine built for productivity, you don't mess with the F-keys.

Additionally I don't get why Lenovo is leaving out physical caps lock and num lock indicator lights ...they put in a light for Fn-Lock so what gives? Gotta wonder what the logic is (if any) behind these decisions.

 

I chose the w550s over the dell because of the docking station. I'll be using this at work with dual monitors. I chose it over the other think pad models because of the dedicated graphics and portability. I really do carry my computer everywhere and wanted something light enough to carry all the time and still do well with large assemblies in SW.

 

I actually prefer to have the function keys default so I can quickly change the volume, brightness, whatever. When I'm working the FN-lock will be on so no loss in productivity imho.

You're right about the caps and NumLock indicator lights missing. I hadn't noticed that yet and I wish it had it. Not that hard to add a couple LEDs.

What does bug me quite a bit is the Ctrl and FN keys are swapped, so when I go to use Ctrl+c, Ctr+v by muscle memory I have to think twice about it.

That being said still would take this keyboard over any other one I've used.

 

Check in bios for option to reverse Fn Ctr behavior.

 

@Tossthedice - May I bother you with some questions?
1. Do you plan to install an NGFF drive? If so, would like to hear you experience, since the slot is supposed to be single-sided and the only aftermarket NGFFs are double-sided.
2. The large battery is not exactly in the center, but a little offset. My T440s has the large battery, but it is in the center. Does this sit stable on the desk and on the lap?
3. Would you happen to have a scale to weigh it? I am deciding between the W550s and T450s, but the T450s is a whole lb lighter.
4. Looking forward to the benchmarks.
Thank you.

 

Seems like I will be getting mine tomorrow...will install Windows 10 Tech Preview, and I will also test some games with the K620M. I anyone wants a special benchmark, I can do it as well...

 

quite miss having a thinkpad as i went to buy one last year to find that the dedicated buttons were not going to work for me but now they fixed that its soldered cpus now. so i cant even upgrade it if i really liked it a lot. but very nice machine. but as one said i do agree with the numpad opinion. im not a fan. only neg i saw on the picture that spoiled it "just a lil bit" for me.

 

Of course you can ask questions.
I'll do my best to answer them.

1. I don't plan to install NGFF drive. Though I'd like to upgrade to a 512 GB ssd sometime in the future.

2. I noticed the offset battery too, and as I sit here at a desk the computer doesn't wabble at all and sits firmly. The bottom of the battery has two large rubber feet that grip very well, so there's no sliding or rocking. I used it on my lap last night and didn't notice the extruding battery creating any imbalances. Here's some pics of it sitting on the table.


3. I weighed it on the digital bathroom scale with the battery in to be 5.0 lbs.

4. I've never benchmarked before, not sure what kind of programs I should run. Superpi? What else? I've been using it on battery for four hours now downloading and installing things, and I still have 70% battery left. That's at 13/15 screen brightness and high performance mode in the lenovo power manager.

 

The machine is top notch, and I don't think I'll need to upgrade anything except installing an ssd. The number pad is useful for me when entering data at work but if you don't use it, the keyboard layout is still great to type on.