It has been six years since I last had a Thinkpad mobile workstation. My previous blog post essentially was a pipe dream, considering the price range for these machines are in the USD $2000+ range and will never be approved by my wife. Not to mention that when I bought my T42p, the machine was already a year old, the T43p was the new hotness in the mobile workstation world, and it never got past the 1GB RAM that I bought it with (it can handle 2GB but I was never able to buy those DIMMs due to the prohibitive prices). 

All that changed though when I was asked by my employer what machine should they give for me. Initially I was offered a Thinkpad T520 with 8GB of RAM, a docking station, and a messenger bag. Knowing my role, I asked for something way cooler: the mid-level Thinkpad W520. The more surprising part though, is that my employer just said “OK” and gave me a very powerful machine.

Specifications are as follows:

• quad-core Intel Core i7-2630QM at 2.0GHz
• 1600x900 screen resolution
• Intel HD 3000 and Nvidia Quadro 1000M switchable graphics
• 16 GB RAM, expandable to 32GB of RAM
• 500GB 7200RPM SATA hard disk
• onboard HSPA WWAN modem
• 9 cell battery
• 3 year warranty