The Lenovo ThinkPad T450s Review: Bridging The Ultrabook
by Brett Howse on September 15, 2015 8:00 AM ESTGPU Performance
With the review unit’s Core i5-5300U processor, we get Intel’s HD 5500 GPU which has 24 execution units, and a frequency range of 300 to 900 MHz. We have seen quite a few notebooks with this GPU this year already, and performance is certainly a step up with the Gen 8 graphics on Broadwell as compared to Haswell’s Gen 7.5. Depending on the processor, maximum clock speed can be as high as 950 MHz, so this model is slightly down on the best possible performance for the GT2 graphics.
As with the system performance, the graphs have a sampling of similar devices but if you would like to compare the T450s to any other notebook we have tested, please use our Notebook Bench.
3DMark
Futuremark’s 3DMark suite is one of the oldest synthetics around, and they roll out new versions with new features. The current version is 2013, and they have updated it several times to include more demanding tests for multi-GPU setups and for testing UHD readiness. With just integrated graphics, the T450s is not going to be able to do those but we ran it through the normal suite. As you can see, the T450s does very well here compare to other Ultrabooks. It is beaten only by the ThinkPad X1 Carbon which has a Core i7 CPU and the top 950 MHz clock speed for the GPU.
GFXBench
GFXBench is a cross-platform test and is one of the staples of our smartphone testing. This is the DirectX version. Once again there are no real surprises here, with the T450s falling in the same range as the other Broadwell-U based systems. The one exception is Alpha Blending which seems a bit low.
DOTA 2
This may be the last chance to try out DOTA 2 since Valve is moving towards DOTA 2 Reborn. Apparently the new take will finally move away from DirextX 9 and the new engine is supposedly better on both low end hardware as well as high end hardware. Once Reborn launches we will take a look at it as a replacement for our iGPU testing. Taking a look at what we have today though shows that the ThinkPad T450s actually falls behind some of the other devices we have tested. Either this can be attributed to a game update, or drivers, since the GPU frequency stayed right at the maximum of 900 MHz throughout the test. I also verified it with a much longer test of this game and the average GPU frequency was 895 MHz. Its lower scores do not appear to be a cooling system issue in this case.
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Soulwager - Saturday, September 19, 2015 - link
I don't think it matters what device the scandal involved, because it fundamentally breaks the trust between the consumer and the company. There simply isn't anything Lenovo can do to regain that trust, except maybe open source all the software and firmware they provide.Bronek - Thursday, September 17, 2015 - link
I like that they pause charging of the rear battery at 80%. This means that the battery can be disconnected during this period and safely stored for extended period, without the risk of degradation.BobCollins - Thursday, September 17, 2015 - link
Can you explain your conclusion that "the i5-5300U is a reasonable upgrade over the base offering?"Every discussion I have read suggested that mid-level processor upgrade was so marginal as to be not worth it.
thisch - Friday, September 18, 2015 - link
One really bad point though: these T440s / T450s are awfully hard to maintain. Separating the bottom part of the casing from the rest is almost impossible, using a screwdriver will dent the plastic, using one's nails does not work, I spent 15mn trying and was not successful. Compare this to HP for instance (one latch to open, direct access to all the components in 2 seconds)zhenya00 - Friday, September 18, 2015 - link
The fact that you neglect to use the correct tools completely invalidates your arguments. With the correct tool you can have the bottom case off in less than a minute. If removing the bottom without damaging it is outside of your skillset, you have no business opening the laptop in the first place.Top10Ultrabooks - Friday, September 18, 2015 - link
Checkout best selection of ultrabooks with competitive prices at:http://top10ultrabooks.com/
topultrabooks - Friday, September 18, 2015 - link
Checkout best selection of ultrabooks with competitive prices at:http://top10ultrabooks.com/
zhenya00 - Friday, September 18, 2015 - link
Late to this, but we have been buying the T4x0s models as our standard configuration for years. The T450s is the best one by far. Still, despite the power bridge tech, your battery charts really illustrate the tradeoff that we get by Lenovo's insistence on sticking with traditional removable batteries. 46wHR for a laptop of this size is TINY today, and the run times prove it (the 12" retina MacBook has 40wHR in a 2lb device!) I'm sure there are a *few* users who actually require the ability to continuously trade out batteries, but the reality is that the *vast* majority of users would be far better served by putting in a built-in battery with ~60-70wHR capacity, giving 10+ hours of run time. Only a tiny niche of users can possibly require more battery life than this. It's too bad the rest of us are being held hostage by that vocal minority.nerd1 - Sunday, September 20, 2015 - link
That's why you have option to put larger sized batteries I think..Harry_Wild - Saturday, September 19, 2015 - link
Still not HDMI output but still a VGA output? How stupid is that? Is this a business computer or what? All the big monitors are HDTVs and many monitors have HDMI inputs!