Lenovo ThinkPad W550s Ultrabook Mobile Workstation Review

In some ways, business laptops have a tougher balance to strike than consumer systems. A gaming notebook with a high-end graphics card, but a keyboard that flexes could still sell. A business machine with a lack-luster keyboard? Word will get around. Build quality is as important as performance, especially when you consider the mobile workstation user the ThinkPad W550s is targeting.


The Lenovo ThinkPad W550s has the performance chops to satisfy most creative pros. It’s also good for some gaming in your downtime, and HD video work isn’t a problem, either. The W550s has a tough competitor in the Dell Precision M3800, as we saw in our tests – both systems offer solid performance for their size and price. What may be the deciding factor for some is the W500s’ battery life, which outstrips any notebooks we’ve tested in recent memory, thanks to its extended battery option. It can easily handle a workday or a long flight without needing a recharge.

The W550s handles as we’ve come to expect from the ThinkPad line: It’s a tough, capable system that has solid performance and little in the way of flash or glitz. You won’t turn heads with this notebook, but you’ll have the tools and the performance you need without having to lug a heavy beast of a laptop around. We like this new Lenovo mobile workstation and frankly it's a product segment where the company has always excelled. So, it comes as no surprise that the ThinkPad W550s, like its predecessor the ThinkPad W540, handled so well in both the benchmarks and everyday usage. This latest iteration of Lenovo's W500 series is a real workhorse by every measure, with endurance to boot, both physically and in un-tethered up-time.