The Lenovo ThinkPad T450s Review: Bridging The Ultrabook
by Brett Howse on September 15, 2015 8:00 AM ESTWireless
Lenovo has leveraged the Intel Wireless AC-7265 solution for wireless connectivity, and this has been a very popular M.2 card in many notebooks this year. It has 802.11ac capabilities with 2x2:2 which means it has a maximum connection speed of 866 Mbps. We have seen it not being able to deliver much more than about 400 Mbps transfer speeds in other notebooks.
On the T450s, I was only able to get 346 Mbps which is below average in transfer speed even with this wireless card. It is not a fantastic result. For those that need faster connections, The T450s does have a Gigabit Ethernet port which is the Intel I218-LM controller. For many businesses, Ethernet is still the only way to go so it’s great to have a built in port. It of course also supports Ethernet with the optional Docking station.
Speakers
Like many Ultrabooks, The T450s has stereo speakers which are downward firing at the front of the notebook. It’s not ideal for frequency response to have the speakers fire downward.
The speakers on the T450s are adequate but not overly loud. I measured a maximum SPL of just 83 dB(A) which is certainly middle of the road compared to most notebooks. Sound quality was ok though even at maximum volume, but as usual with speakers this small the T450s lacked any low end at all.
Temperatures and Noise
As a notebook gets thinner, cooling it becomes more difficult. Because this notebook has a Broadwell-U series processor, it needs to be actively cooled unlike some devices with Core M. There is 15 watts of TDP to account for, and as devices get thinner it gets more difficult to expel that heat. The T450s, being slightly thicker than most Ultrabooks, has one of the better cooling systems I have seen on this class of system.
At idle and low impact workloads, the cooling fan is either not running or not audible. I was unable to detect any noise at all with a sound meter at idle, which to me is a great feature. This isn’t the only device to do this at idle though. What is even more impressive is how the T450s responds under load. In order to stress the system to the full 15 watt TDP, I ran our DOTA 2 benchmark for an hour. During that time, the maximum temperature of the SoC peaked at just 67°C, which is pretty cool for an Ultrabook. But perhaps the most interesting part of that is the cooling fan slowly ramped up in speed, peaking at close to 4000 rpm but the sound pressure was just over 39 dB(A) measured just over the trackpad. Many notebooks can be well over this, hitting 41-44 dB(A) in the same workload. For those that like a quiet notebook but don’t want to compromise performance with a fanless model, The T450s is one of the best around.
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Samus - Tuesday, September 15, 2015 - link
I like the idea of power bridge a lot. I also appreciate they have finally dropped 1366x768 completely (unlike HP) but what the hell is wrong with Lenovo...The battery life is not competitive and it's really thick. The HP zBook 14 is the same thickness and it has a discrete GPU while meeting all the same MIL STD 810G criteria. Then there's the Elitebook 1040 putting this thing (and the X1) to shame in overall capability and performance is a thin durable chassis.
I appreciate the review of a corporate notebook, keep'em coming, I'd like to see some Dell's and HP's!
close - Tuesday, September 15, 2015 - link
Also it appears that times are a'changin'. The only way this keyboard feels good and you can say Lenovo "really nailed it" is if you haven't tried the old style keyboard in years. I have the X1 Carbon and it's ok but as soon as I fall back to my old X200 I get all these memories coming back, reminding me what a good keyboard is.I understand that the old-style keyboard doesn't fit the ultrabook format but I still can't fully agree with the "really nailed input" remark.
Flunk - Tuesday, September 15, 2015 - link
The X1 has a particularly shallow keyboard due to its thickness. I've used the more recent t series keyboards quite a lot and I find them quite good for a laptop keyboard.jimpreis - Sunday, September 20, 2015 - link
X1 *Carbon. The X1 was a completely different product.LoganPowell - Friday, November 27, 2015 - link
the Lenovo Thinkpad is one of the best laptops on the market in my opinion, but there are still a couple that are higher ranked (see http://www.consumerrunner.com/top-10-best-laptops/ for example...)Brett Howse - Tuesday, September 15, 2015 - link
Everyone loves the good old days, but the X1 Carbon keyboard is not the same as this one so please don't use it as a reference for this model's keyboard. The T450s is one of the best notebook keyboards that I've used in recent times.noeldillabough - Tuesday, September 15, 2015 - link
I too was **extremely** pessimistic when they changed the keyboard (X230 days) but I've been using the new keyboards for years now and they're really great.Now don't get me started on the function keys changes and touchpad fiascos, they've finally come to their senses a bit.
Now Lenovo please make a T460P...I need a new computer.
michaelhouston12 - Saturday, November 14, 2015 - link
If you're looking for a laptop that can give you best features but affordable, I strongly recommend Acer C720 Chromebook. Found here: http://www.consumerrunner.com/top-10-best-laptops/chris9000 - Thursday, September 17, 2015 - link
Yep. I own the T450s and I have to say that I actually like the keyboard. The IPS screen is also quite nice.quanta - Wednesday, September 23, 2015 - link
Really? The only thing Lenovo nailed it is coffins to loyal Thinkpad users. Last time I checked, when Lenovo switched to the ill-conceived layouts from the Intel CBB[1] in ThinkPad X1 Carbon and X230, the users resorted to ripping the old Lenovo laptop keyboards to the new models[2], because it is so bloody awful![3][4][1] https://web.archive.org/web/20071109025732/http://...
[2] https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkPad-X-Series-Lap...
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jb7p3VkQCOo
[4] http://arstechnica.com/staff/2014/01/stop-trying-t...