Lenovo today announced the release of a "mobile workstation" that takes the desktop replacement category to a whole new level. Dubbed ThinkPad W700ds, Lenovo's upcoming laptop is impressive in many ways, but has been attracting headlines for one very particular reason: it comes in a dual-monitor configuration, with a main 17-inch display and a slide-out 10.6-inch secondary screen.


It weighs a hefty 11 pounds and pricing starts from $3,600, but this notebook certainly packs a plenty of power under the hood. There's a choice of Intel's Core 2 Quad processors, together with an Nvidia Quadro FX 3700M GPU that gives the power of CUDA parallel processing, a Blu-ray drive, up to 8GB of RAM and up to 960GB of SSD or standard hard-drive based storage in an optional RAID array.

It also features a built-in WACOM digitizer in the palm rest like its single screen sibling, the W700, and a full-size keyboard with a numeric keypad included. Lenovo expect the ThinkPad W700ds to begin shipping in January 2009.