Review Lenovo ThinkPad W540 Workstation

[kororo]

Just seen the screen connectors fail on my W500 2 months out of warranty and the battery was pathetic within 9 months of ownership but not faulty per se.

Looking at replacements, it seems everyone is offering just about the same spec.
From my perspective as a 3d artist, educator, web designer... who wants a lame TN panel at 1920 res, semi gloss surface and a 1080 instead of 1280 aspect ratio? It is assumed everyone just watches 16:9 media and doesn't edit an A4 document frequently and the screen on my W500 was further awful for colour accuracy in professional graphics work with a cold blue glint and lousy viewing angles. Lenovo seems to be getting very disappointing in genuinely supporting professional users.

My last Fujitsu Celsius mobile lasted near 6 years so I am going back to them and have been happy these products are finally available in Australia by special order. Apart from the higher res IPS screen of the Lenovo, Fujitsu are charging $AUD700 less for the same machine and there's room to pull out the optical drive and add a second battery. Bye Lenovo until you sort yourselves out.

[Andy Weinstein]

I have to decide between a W530 with K2000, FHD screen, and 128M SSD and W540 with K1100, FHD screen and 500M 7200 HDD. Price is virtually identical, and don't want to spend more. Keyboard and trackpad are not issues for the person I am helping to buy who needs it for design work. I doubt the extra storage space will be important. Graphic performance would seem to be very, very close. CPU performance W540 has the edge. The major issue possibly favoring W530 (along with SSD) would seem to me to be the screen quality - from what I see from reviews on this site, contrast was significantly better on the W530. But I will not be able to compare the screens myself. Can anybody help here? Thanks!

[Bvinla]

 One of the key selling concepts of the thinkpads was being able to upgrade parts with off the shelf hardware to extend service life.  Another selling point was reuse of other thinkpad peripherals such as docking stations and power supplies.   The 540 now requires custom sized drives which can only be bought at a premium from Lenovo.  Also the docks and power modules have been customized (again!), meaning you can't leverage older ones.  Add the weight of the w540, the weight and size of the power brick, the poor battery life, and frequent batter replacements with Lenovo's,  this model is not very attractive.

[wy6688]

just got one, stupid keyboard design, left side almost have no space for palm rest, home-end key on bottom line while pageup/down key near bottom, very hard to type, 4 out 10 missed type key. just psck up to return, very disappointed.

[Vladimir]

Guys if you want to buy this workstation you need to know that most of the software won't be adapted for your resolution.

For example, Photoshop only now published beta version for this resolution. Software from NVIDIA IS NOT (!) adapted for this resolution. But there is inside NVIDIA Quadro Graphic adapter.

I'm so disappointed, guys. Whatever, this machine goes really fast. If adaptation doesnt play any role for you, you can purchase this.

[david222]

Is there any architect who bought this!? I need to know how many render buckets exist in vray max!?

[Bauden]

After using the computer for over a year, the W540 has to be the worst workstation for a working pro.

Awful track pad, NOT PRECISE, unlike what the reviewer mentions.
No indicator light for ANY part.  Often I have to go from plug to plus in a library, McD or Starbucks, as there is no light on the PSU (unlike my other system Dell that has a visible 'ON' light on the plug.... No HD activity light, so when streaming, hung up or in a loop, there is no warning. See my other concerns.  Just a shill review, a disservice to the readers.

[Neal]

Bunch of whiners in here.

My W540:

i7-4900mq
nVidia Quadro K2100m graphics chipset.
32gb PC3-14900/ram
1tb Samsung 860 EVO SSD
500gb Samsung 860 EVO SSD in ODB
480gb MyDigital SuperBoot 2, M.2 NGFF SSD drive as a storage device for my computer image, and a few other things.
3k IPS display.
T450 "FrankenPad" trackpad transplant.
Pantone color adjustment.
Excellent backlit keyboard.
PCI Express with USB 3.0x2 ports. I now have FOUR USB 3.0 ports, and two, USB 2.0 ports!
Win7Pro

Ok, This is the BEST ThinkPad, I've ever owned. It's extremely fast, takes a BEATING, VERY upgradeable. Also, I own 30 ThinkPads, from an R400, to the W540 (I actually own TWO W540 ThinkPads), so I've dealt with a lot of Lenovo's products.

I can't find a single thing to complain about. It's even a pretty decent gamer.

To the complainers, and whiners? Go pound sand.