We weren’t paid, bribed or even asked by Lenovo to give this line of laptops recognition, in fact we asked for the chance to try it hands on and we didn’t even get a response. It’s ok though because this line is just that good and will benefit photographers in ways they didn’t know a laptop could so we’ll still spread the word.

The W series from IBM has been on our radar for a few months now mostly because the line is well suited for photographers as these are workstation laptops rather than home, gaming or business class laptops. Coming equipped with NVIDIA® Quadro FX® MXM-based graphics cards means you’re system isn’t geared toward gaming, it’s geared towards getting things done. The new W510 system announced at CES 2010 sports:

• Quad Core Intel i7 processor
• 15.6″ – 95% NTSC gamut 16:9 Touchscreen Monitor
• Built-in X-Rite® PANTONE® Calibrator
• USB 3.0
• Solid State Hard Drives
• Up to 16GB of RAM
• RAID 0/1
• Blu-Ray Disc Drive

Basically it’s powerful, portable and feature rich. The other W series systems include the W700ds which includes a “palm size” Wacom tablet, built-in… yes built in. As well as an additional 10.6″ LCD display and yes it’s also built-in and folds out right next to the main 17″ display with the built-in calibrator.

The downside to the W700ds is that all those extras will hamper battery life and that currently they only offer it in the now outdated Core2 series processors. If you’re looking at the W700ds laptop we say give IBM some time to update the specs with an i7 processor for the added performance gains.

Are we saying this is the be all end all line of laptops for photographers? Not at all, in fact it would be better for the photography community if some of the other big guys would take note and compete, were looking at you DELL, HP, Toshiba, Samsung, Apple.

Currently IBM is only taking orders for the W510 via phone, we’re guessing they just haven’t had enough time to ramp up production to offer them on their site (or they’re just greedy and want to keep all that computing goodness to themselves).

Visit Lenovo’s website for more information.

These releases mark milestones in the computing world. Windows 7 is the first version of Windows to seriously beta test, take input, listen and respond with positive changes to the operating system. Windows 7 is also the first operating system since Windows 98 I personally will be installing at release rather than waiting for the first service pack release. I can’t hide the fact that I’m excited but this release is like an early Christmas, I have played with the beta and enjoyed it the ease of well… everything! I don’t doubt for a second this release is bound to even make the most die hard Mac Addict to take a second look.

These new processors and Windows don’t just mark a milestone for PC users. It marks a time for Apple, to both be proud and at the same time question. Why be proud? Well, from the outside I would say that in part this new version of Windows is not only because Microsoft knew they had to do better, but because they had to do more then some hugably cute commercial that had 5 year old making a slide show, they had to put a shot across Apples proverbial bow. Without Apple lobbing hits at at Microsoft over the last few years and over the dismal Vista release I don’t know that Microsoft or Apple would be where they are today.

With all that hype, marketing and banter Apple has also gained, oh boy have they gained. The question for Apple now is can they live up to their hype in the real world. Until now most everyone knows that Apple computers have claimed to be “Fast, Hassle and Virus Free” but that could be changing. As Apple’s market share has grown so has their viability to attacks from hackers, virus writers and others. Which until now hasn’t been a big concern but Apple has a problem, one that was pointed out at a hacker and security conference this summer. Apples problem is their OS is not as hardened against nor as well tested against attacks in the real world, their OS has more code leaving them more vulnerable than Windows. A few of these vulnerabilities were even pointed out at the conference and Apple given notice of their public discussion prior to a fix being released. In the end only time will tell if  Apple simply survives this storm or thrives within it. Either way, we the consumers and professionals are likely to be the winners.