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The Lenovo (formerly IBM) ThinkPad has been doing the rounds since the early 90s, but in 2008 the brand has branched out to cover literally all areas.

Early this year, it produced the super-slim ThinkPad X300 - a skinny-but-functional alternative to Apple's MacBook Air - and a few months ago, the range was expanded with a netbook entry - going by the IdeaPad guise.

All that's left to tackle, then, is the dual-screen mobile workstation market, and here's Lenovo's answer; the ThinkPad W700ds.

This beast of a machine, pictured below, is geared at the mobile professional who needs workstation power whilst in the field. Inside the W700ds is a choice of Intel Core 2 Quad processors, NVIDIA Quadro FX graphics and up to 8GB of DDR3 memory. There'll be a choice of hard drives in RAID configuration, or solid-state drives if you prefer, and a price-tag in the region of $3,600.

Extending the idea of desktop-like functionality on the road, and helping differentiate from the existing W700, are a pair of LCD screens that help recreate a dual-monitor setup. The primary screen is a 17in WUXGA display that boasts 400 nits of brightness - ideal for outdoor purposes - and it's joined by a pop-out 10.6in secondary display that offers a resolution of 768x1,280.

Showing the sheer size of the "mobile" workstation are a built-in WACOM tablet and a full-size keyboard, including the numpad. Not suited to the everyday user, of course, but for the mobile professional, this could be Christmas come early.

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