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Top Customer Reviews
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The best laptop for portable business productivity
By
Gao Atamazon
on
May 28, 2015
I bought it directly from Lenovo.com. If you need to customize the configuration, you can only do it on lenovo.com and be certain of what you're getting in a specific configuration. There are so many variables to consider. Lenovo often offers a coupon for buying these laptops. Search the Web for one before you place an order. Customer configured machines would take longer to ship from lenovo.com, typically an extra week for manufacturing time.
THE BEST BUSINESS LAPTOP, BARRING NONE
I've used many and am familiar with most of the ThinkPad T and X models. I would say T450s is unquestionably the best. I do not say this simply because this is the newest. From T400, T410, T420, T430, T440, to the latest T450, not every step was a positive progress. T430 was plagued with hardware problems (for example, terribly noisy fans in some production batches), and T440 with bad designs. I honestly can't find any serious fault with the T450s (which is the lighter variation of T450). I somewhat miss the ThinkVantage one-key recovery button found on the older T and X models, but it is OK without it.
I considered the other alternatives, including Surface Pro 3 (and the upcoming Pro 4), ThinkPad X1 Carbon , X250 and Yoga, Dell XPS 13, but decided on X450s. After a week of use, I know I made the right decision.
I'm actually thankful that Lenovo makes such a laptop, when the market is clearly going after less useful gimmicks. The T450s offers all necessary functions for business productivity, yet comes in a relatively thin and light form. No gimmicky and gaudy elements, just solid components and beautiful business machine design, yet without outdatedness. Perfect balance. This is not the thinnest and lightest of course, about half a pound of extra weight compared to the lightest. However, the whole business of productivity is packed in this machine thanks to that half a pound, and I'm willing to carry that weight.
My last laptop was an X220t (the tablet version). It's an excellent laptop, but its battery life is poor and the screen size too small for work. The only reason I went with its screen size when I bought it was because anything larger would be prohibitively heavy at the time. But to get decent battery life, I had to use it with a very large battery, essentially defeating the compactness and the lightness of the machine. By the way, the tablet mode on X220t was mostly useless. The touchscreen itself was only marginally useful, especially running Windows 7.
T450s solves all those problems, and retains a long list of known advantages of ThinkPad excellence for business.
ADDITIONAL NOTES
(1) Don't believe in the hype of the 17 hour battery life. I don't know how (and why) Lenovo could be so dishonest about the battery life in their laptops. The X220 boasted a 10 hour battery life, but in fact would do less than 3 hours, even under modest settings. The T450s with its two small batteries (internal and swappable external) boasts 17 hours, but I'm getting something like 5-6 hours. It may be a matter of the definition of the operating conditions, but if it is, Lenovo must be using completely impractical operating conditions. I measure this on very practical terms. I don't run whole lot of heavyweight programs on my laptop, and I only set the screen brightness around 60-70% indoors. But at the same time, I don't artificially restrict the processor power by limiting its maximum state to a partial-power state less than 100% capacity either (this doesn't mean that the processor would always run at 100% capacity state, because the processor will always automatically adjust its state between the minimum and the maximum according to application requirements). In addition, by "running time", I mean the cumulative time when the machine is actually on, not counting sleep times during intervals.
Nevertheless, I'm quite satisfied with 5-6 hours on time because this is capable of lasting through a whole day during which sometimes the machine may be in sleep. The fact that this machine wakes up from sleep almost instantly is an important factor, because if it couldn't do that, you might have no choice but setting the machine to be always on during the day, in which case 5-6 hours would not be sufficient for a whole day. And that's important, because at the end of the day, you would be recharging the thing anyway as a habit.
(2) The keyboard of T450s is backlit, which is an important feature. But the implementation of T450s is a very crude one. It's helpful, but it's so not elegant. Instead of using illuminated characters on individual keys, it relies on some LED lights placed underneath the keyboard. When it is on, you see more light leaking from the peripherals of the keys than illuminating the characters on the keys themselves. No doubt helpful, but it just feels like it's not good engineering.
(3) It is quite easy to DIY upgrade this machine's SSD and RAM. The hardware installation could be done within 10 minutes, plus about 20 minutes of hard drive migration, which can be automated with proper software (e.g., Intel Data Migration Software).
No special tools are required. Just a small and good-quality regular Phillips screwdriver will do. Except for the one screw that is beneath the battery, all screws are directly accessible from the back. You will need to remove the battery in order to open up the laptop anyway. Once all the screws are removed, it is quite straightforward to pop it open to remove the back. No messy business with the keyboard through the front.
With the back removed, replacing the hard drive is very simple. The hard drive can be removed by removing just one small screw. There is a small plastic harness to hold the hard drive, and it can be removed without any tools. But before you remove it, pay close attention of its orientation, lest you be confused when you try to put the new hard drive in.
A new RAM stick can be inserted without any tools quite easily. A 4 GB RAM stick is fixed on the first slot, and not removable.
If you need more instructions, you might just search YouTube which has several videos illustrating the process.
(4) I recommend getting the base HDD and RAM, and upgrade them yourself. Lenovo's SSD and RAM prices are at least twice the retail price. Besides, because I wanted a particular SSD brand and model which I felt was more reliable, so I would need to do an SSD update anyway. The replaced HDD can be used as a backup drive when mounted on an external hard drive enclosure, which can be purchased for under $15.
To match the original RAM, you should get memory sticks with the following specs: 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3L 1600 (PC3 12800), Cas Latency 11, Voltage 1.35V (at least this is the case as of May 2015). A mismatch could result in loss of the dual channel benefit, or even more serious problems.
(5) Get the IPS screen, even if your budget is relatively tight. This is the component that has the greatest impact on user experience, because the IPS panel is vastly superior to TN panel.
(6) The processor choice is a different story. i7-5600u benchmarks about 15% higher (on average) than i5-5200U, and 10% higher than i5-5300U. It would show the difference if you do intensive computing such as graphics, gaming, and decoding. But for office work, there would be no noticeable difference. I would recommend getting the better processor if the budget allows, but if not, spend your money on other things such as a better screen, a better SSD, and more RAM.
(7) I don't recommend getting the touchscreen on this laptop. I say this after years of experience with X220t. With a laptop, touchscreen has very little usefulness with Windows 7, and has a bit more but still only marginal usefulness with Windows 8.1 and 10. I thought it would be more useful when I got the X220t, but it turned out I could hardly think of any occasion where the touchscreen really helped me. All it did was a distraction, and an extra drain of battery (yes, the touchscreen consumes extra battery). T450s has an excellent touchpad, making navigation just as natural as a touchscreen. In fact, if you use a laptop for prolonged periods of time, constantly lifting up your arm to reach a touchscreen can be tiring, while in contrast the touchpad is far more efficient.
(8) Also, I recommend getting the SD card reader option. Buy yourself a large and fast SD card, format it in NTFS, set it as the backup storage under "File History"(assuming you're using Windows 8.1), assign your important files into libraries (right-click any folder to do that), and you are now protected with automated file backup in the background. The file history keeps old files to allow you to get back to an earlier version of the files at certain point of time if you have to. This is more useful than ordinary scheduled or manual backups. It is the first time that Windows PC could do this kind of file backup with the ease and without external software. However, because the file history is done in time intervals rather than continuous real-time, this is not the same as real file versioning to allow you to restore your file to any specific earlier version. If you need true automated file backup with versioning, you may still need dedicated software.
All this gives you a brilliant file history management and backup solution with Windows 8.1 (and the upcoming Windows 10). But even with Windows 7, the SD card reader comes handy for other purposes. Although you could do it with an external flash drive as well, an inserted SD card which semi-permanently stays is a far better solution.
(9) I seriously considered the tablet and 2-in-1 solutions, including Lenovo's own Yoga and Microsoft's Surface Pro 3 (and the upcoming Surface Pro 4). Because I use professional speech recognition for text input, I don't rely on a good keyboard that much, so I should find it far easier than others to compromise on the keyboard with a 2-in-1 solution. But at the end, I decided to stay with the traditional form of laptop with T450s, for now.
My decision was based on three considerations: screen size, the number of USB ports, and sturdiness.
The screen size of Surface Pro 3, although one of the largest among tablets, is still a bit too small for a laptop for productivity. This is no small consideration. As long as a mobile PC is not too heavy, a larger screen is always an important asset, as it directly affects productivity.
And I do need all three USB ports, and I don't want to carry with me another adapter as I already carry too many accessories.
Besides, compared to Surface Pro 3, ThinkPad T450s is superior in sturdiness and overall handling of the whole thing. I actually used Surface Pro 3 for some time. When traveling, I just felt it was more fragile, more scattered and loose as a system, and required more of my care. I need a tool that takes care of me, not a delicate piece that requires my attention.
But to be fair, I think the rumored 14 inch Surface Pro 4 would be a much stronger argument for replacing the traditional laptops.
(10) Get the Windows 8.1 and upgrade to Windows 10 later. Don't downgrade to Windows 7. Before the latest updates of Windows 8.1, I would have said the opposite. After I briefly experienced the terrible Windows 8.0, I thought Windows 7 would be my last Windows OS. In fact I believe the initial Windows 8.0 is the worst Windows OS Microsoft has ever produced. But I have come to like Windows 8.1 more and more, and believe Windows 8.1 is already a very strong alternative to Windows 7, especially on laptops.
If I have to rate, I would give Windows 7 a score of "9/10", Windows 8.0 a "3/10" (worse than Vista which would have earned a "6/10" in my book), Windows 8.1 with the latest updates a "9.5/10", and I'm expecting Windows 10 to approach "9.9/10". But I digress.
AN UPDATE: I have since updated my T450s to Windows 10 with no problems.
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Excellent Laptop....Shame on Dell
By
Jeffery T. Bagley
on
August 20, 2015
Style: Intel Core i5
Verified Purchase
This is a hard review to do. I ordered the XPS 13, loaded with all options, top of line. Received it in six days vice the next day delivery that I had requested. That is on Amazon. Now for the laptop review. The HD touch screen looks fantastic, build and materials are hands above other laptops this size I have looked at. The processor is responsive, I do not have the issues with keyboard depth that some others have complained about. All in all this is a wonderful ultra laptop. Probably the best on the market IF:
Here is the bad part. The present bios and drivers for this laptop do not play well with Windows 10 at all. The first XPS 13 I got from amazon had a screen that flickered and jumped around, the speakers had static in them, it had constant trouble trying to stay connected to WiFi and would not mate with my Logitech MX anywhere Bluetooth mouse (or any other BT mouse). I thought something was bad wrong with laptop and returned it for a replacement.
I receive the replacement, and the same issues were present. This time I did some significant research into the problems. Dell did not prepare a new bios or drivers for this laptop. Originally it was put out with Windows 8.1. They slapped a windows 10 install on the computers with no new drivers. After poring through some forums I did discover a work around for these issues until Dell puts out new Bios and drivers. You go into bios and disable the advanced C-states option. Fixes all the issues but may decrease your battery life some. The really knowledgeable guys on forums believe it is caused when the broadwell cpu tries to wake up from various c-states (where processor powers down). The work around will probably affect your battery performance a little bit until permanent fix.
So...I will keep the laptop. It is that good a machine. I give it three stars only because Dell jumped the gun to have a "Windows 10" ultrabook ready on 7/29/15 but did not adequately prepared a new bios and drivers. Shame on you Dell for giving this wonderful laptop a bad name in your rush to jump on Win10 bandwagon.
Updating my review. Nearly three months after release of windows 10 and Dell has still not fixed driver bios issues on this laptop. I have all the latest drivers and updates and still frequently dropping strong WiFi signals for no reason. Will not connect consistently to any of three Bluetooth mice I have tried. Having to use a usb mouse. Windows 10 boot takes FOREVER and I have applied every single fix that I can find on the internet. I still think this is a SSD/Chipset driver issue. Gorgeous laptop and excellent construction... poor driver support ruins it. I am probably going to wipe the SSD and go back to windows 7 or 8.1. I no longer recommend this Laptop if you are going to use Windows 10.
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*Final Update* Falling Apart! Horrible Build Quality! Stay Away!
By
J. Mejia
on
October 31, 2016
Style: Touchscreen
Size: Intel Core i5, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD
Color: White
Verified Purchase
***Update 2***
After having to pay over $50 to ship it to Acer and having it returned with them literally doing nothing to it. Apparently, they couldn't' find a problem so they shipped it back to me. Two weeks later the case starts to fall apart. First, as noted by another reviewer, the top left corner of the shell that holds the screen is literally falling apart. Considering I am right handed and don't even touch the top left corner of the screen, I don't see how this can be caused by normal wear and tear. A few days later the lower right part of the shell is starting to fall apart as well. I can literally see the innards of the LCD screen. Not to mention my original issue with the touchpad was never fixed. The build quality on this computer is beyond suspect. I called customer support and because I have owned this computer for exactly 91 days (one day over the limited warranty) I not only have to pay for shipping but I might be responsible for the repair costs. Keep in mind I have already sent it to them before and had to pay for my own shipping. Just stay away. Stay far away!
***Update 1***
I want to love this laptop but the shoddy build quality is starting to show. The screen is detaching from the case, as noted by other reviewers. The touchpad occasionally gets stuck in the click position. I contacted customer service and had to pay for my own shipping to their center (keep in mind it's still under warranty). They sent it back saying they couldn't figure out an issue.
***Original Post***
I needed an everyday laptop for grad school. I need to carry it with me every day and it's light enough and battery lasts long enough that it does the job. It is capable of running advanced data analysis software (STATA and SPSS) no problems. If you are looking for a good overall laptop for work and the occasional netflix episode between classes this is it!
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A very nice machine for office use with trivial issues. Upgradable. Upgrades suggested.
By
Jeff N.
on
November 14, 2016
Verified Purchase
Nice machine. Third machine bought in a short period of time. Other two were Dell Precision 5510 and Asus ZenBook Pro. Both were Core i7 machines, had 4K displays and cost much more than this one did.
4K turned out to be unusable because so many applications scale so poorly. I ended up reducing the display resolution to full HD or a bit higher. Ended up sending both laptops back.
This machine is full HD, and had the processor minimum that I was looking for (at least a Core i5).
Among the documentation that came with the machine was a one-leaf sheet that explained that the machine had an additional M.2 slot inside for an SSD. There were no instructions on opening the machine or installation of the SSD. 10 screws on the bottom. I'm game!
I ordered a Samsung 500 SSD with the correct physical dimensions and 32GB of RAM.
Removing the 10 Philips head screws from the bottom panel was easy. Unfortunately, the bottom was still firmly attached. As firmly as before the screws were removed. I had not a clue on how to open the machine up. I looked. I pried with my fingers. I dropped it off the dining room table (not really!). Finally, I sought help on YouTube. Not finding anything on this exact model, I did find a video where a similar machine was opened. The video author used a credit card, inserted around the seam between top and bottom halves and slid around freeing the tabs inside. I think this is what a spudger would be used for, but a credit card did the trick. Five minutes later the halves were apart, nothing was broken or damaged and there wasn't even a fingerprint on the thing.
Finding the memory slots for the SO-DIMMs took a moment. There's a shield covering them. Five screws or so, and that came off. The hard drive was obvious. That would stay in until I transferred all the partitions to the M.2 SSD. Then it would come out and find a useful life as an external drive, wherever needed. Removing the hard drive also decreased the weight of the machine by a couple of ounces.
Now... where to put the M.2 card. About the size of a stick of chewing gum, there was only one place it seemed to fit. Unfortunately, I didn't see a socket for it to plug into.
I was stymied for some time until I found the screw provided to hold the SSD down and verified, with a small flashlight, that the surface mounted "chip" I thought was just that turned out to be a socket for the card edge of the SSD. Installation of that then took a minute, and I closed up the case.
Seagate software mirrored the 1TB hard drive to the 1/2 TB SDD and I then removed the former. The machine booted up into Windows 10 the first time and all was fine.
I was able to upgrade Windows 10 Home to Pro at no cost by updating 10 to the latest, applying Microsoft's generic key for Windows 10 (Google for it), letting Windows upgrade itself with the generic key, then activating Windows 10 Pro with a Windows 7 Pro product key. That took about an hour, including the Googling.
There are two small issues with the machine. I called Samsung support, but they were not helpful (they did offer to have me send the machine in for service, something I don't feel was necessary).
Issue one: Sometimes after the lid has been closed and is reopened and the machine wakes up, the mouse pointer is gone and the keyboard is turned off. No combination of putting the machine into and taking it out of tablet mode helps. Folding back and unfolding the keyboard doesn't help either. I have turned off the option to ask before entering tablet mode and set it to never enter tablet mode. We'll see if that helps. [Update: After a week, so far, so good.]
Issue two: The keyboard backlight state (on or off) is controlled by the ambient light censor (a tiny hole in the case just above the F2 key). You can set the duration of the backlight and the intensity, but if the room is bright, the light will go off anyway. One of the reasons I returned the Dell was that the backlight shut off in 10 seconds. No matter what. A software upgrade was able to increase that duration to five minutes on the Dell. The Asus ZenBook Pro backlight turned off after one minute. I think backlights that turn off on their own are maddening. No MacBook Pro does this!
I am hoping that some software update on the Samsung will keep the backlight lit no mater how long the keyboard remains untouched and no matter how bright the room is.
Despite these two issues, I am very happy with the machine. It's on my desk at the office and let's me take care of non-work-related tasks while at work. It's small enough to fit on a shared desk with three other monitors, two phones and some other stuff.
With the SSD, the machine is fast. All in all, it's a modern machine, with a very nice display, some features I don't need (tablet!), ample storage (500GB), and generous RAM (32GB).
With the enhancements, the machine still came in at under a grand.
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Four Stars
By
Tracy Landis
on
October 7, 2015
Verified Purchase
Great laptop, best keyboard! Fast and light. Would give 5 stars if it had a bluray player.
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2016 15” MacBook Pro with Touchbar Review – Attached Pictures
By
Jose Ortiz
on
December 3, 2016
Display Size: 13.3
Size: 256 GB
Style: Space Gray
Verified Purchase
Pros
1.) The space gray color, in my opinion, looks more attractive and appealing. I own the 2012 MacBook pro with retina and in terms of color, the space gray one takes the trophy.
2.) The retina display is a lot brighter and sharp.
3.) Very fast when using final cut pro or Photoshop.
4.) You can’t even notice there is a fan on this laptop. On my 2012 MacBook Pro, I constantly hear the fan when rendering in final cut pro but not on this one!
5.) Lighter and smaller than the previous generation. Although not by much, you can feel the difference.
6.) The trackpad is, as Donald Trump would say, “Huge!” When I went back to work on my 2012 MacBook pro, I missed having the humongous trackpad in front of me. It is a nice to have the extra space to scroll and click.
Cons
1.) Touch ID is limited: When you turn on the computer for the first time, you need to input your password, you are not allowed to use your finger to login. I have yet to see a program that takes advantage of the touch id. You cannot even use touch ID at the apple store on the mac, you must input your password manually.
2.) The 15” – 512gb is expensive! I couldn’t believe apple would sell a $2400 computer with 256gb in 2016! I honestly recommend you get at least 512gb of memory. With all the new programs coming out, music and video, your hard drive will get full fast. Not to mention that if you plan to install windows 10 (only windows version that you can install) with boot camp, you will need the additional hard drive space…
3.) You must buy dongles for almost any device you own (to charge your phone, your current external hard drives, printer, etc.).
4.) No more illuminated logo on the back of the screen. Not a big thing to me but I know some people loved that.
Overall: If you already own a 2012 MacBook Pro or newer, it will probably be a waste of money to upgrade to this one. Unless you are an apple fanboy, like me, and just need to have the newest apple product. Otherwise, stay with your MacBook Pro, which can probably do 90% of the same things this one can. If it is your first time buying a mac and you will be working on photo or video editing software, this is the computer for you! For casual web browsing and school work, go with a much cheaper 13” MacBook pro or the 12” MacBook. The touch bar is a nice feature but it does not add much to the user experience (I wish they would have given me more Gigabyte’s instead).
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