The Lenovo ThinkPad T450s Review: Bridging The Ultrabook
by Brett Howse on September 15, 2015 8:00 AM ESTDesign
It is hard to mistake a ThinkPad. They have had a consistent look, and it has served the brand well. At CES in January, Lenovo showed off the 100 millionth ThinkPad, and the brand has always carried a consistent understated look. The T450s does not differ in this regard, and carries the familiar matte black exterior and ThinkPad logo on the lid. The T450s is a 14-inch model just like the ThinkPad X1 Carbon but unlike the X1 it has a thicker body with squared off sides. It is a couple of millimeters thicker than the X1 Carbon and tips the scales at about 3.5 lbs.
The slightly thicker dimensions make a big difference in a couple of features with the T450s. Unlike the X1 Carbon, there is just barely enough room for a RJ-45 port for wired networking, which is very important in a lot of business scenarios. The X1 Carbon has built in wired networking as well but requires a dongle to access it. There is a full assortment of connectivity options, and the T450s includes a docking port for use with the optional ThinkPad Ultra Dock, which offers a large selection of connectivity options, display outputs, and USB.
ThinkPad Docking Port (Bottom)
The biggest benefit to the thicker chassis though is extra travel possible in the keyboard. The ThinkPad brand is well known for their keyboards, and the one fitted to the T450s is really a great one. Key presses are firm and the extra travel makes for a pretty fantastic typing experience. It is likely the best laptop keyboard that I have had the pleasure to use, and with the move to thinner and thinner devices it is great to see one that leverages a thicker design to give a better experience.
As a ThinkPad, it also includes the TrackPoint in the keyboard. This is certainly a love it or hate it concept, but I personally find the TrackPoint to be a much more accurate way to navigate, and you do not have to remove your fingers from the keys to do the navigation. The 2015 ThinkPad models have also returned to actual buttons for the TrackPoint which is going to please a lot of fans. For those that prefer a track pad, the T450s has a very nice one of these as well, but unlike the TrackPoint there are no dedicated buttons for it. You can of course turn to the physical buttons at the top for the TrackPoint as well but it is designed as a clickpad and works well. The ThinkPad T450s really nails down input, offering a fantastic keyboard, the TrackPoint, and a good clickpad. If you are someone who does a lot of typing, this notebook would certainly be one to consider on that point alone.
Normally I don’t dedicate much of the review to the underside of a notebook, because generally there’s not much to say. That’s not the case on the T450s though. Here is where we see Lenovo’s Power Bridge technology in action. At the back of the notebook is the half size removable battery, and it can easily be removed and replaced with another one without having to power down the laptop. We’ll dig into this more in the battery life section. The battery is nestled in close to the docking port and has two latches to remove it and slide in a new battery.
Rear Battery and removal latch
Lenovo brands the ThinkPad T450s an Ultrabook, and it is maybe not as thin and light as most Ultrabooks, but the design itself should not be a detraction because they have not gone as slim and light as something like the ThinkPad X1 Carbon. In fact, by providing a slightly bigger laptop, you gain a lot of advantages that we have kind of lost over the years, including an Ethernet port, and the ability to fit a very good keyboard inside. The design is very much ThinkPad, and people who like the matte black conservative look should really like the T450s. The thin bezels make the T450s feel more like a 13-inch notebook which is nice The integrated fingerprint reader makes login a breeze, and will work with Windows 10’s Hello feature.
Despite the ThinkPad X1 Carbon being what I would consider Lenovo’s flagship ThinkPad, I really like the T450s because of the keyboard, but really the Power Bridge adds the capability to have unlimited battery life (assuming you have enough batteries). A full dock makes this work with a more traditional docking station unlike the X1 Carbon which needs to be connected with a dongle.
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lilmoe - Tuesday, September 15, 2015 - link
Thanks for the review.Would be nice if you'd include the battery capacity of each device in the comparison chart.
lilmoe - Tuesday, September 15, 2015 - link
*All the devices* that is, not just the one being reviewed.Gigaplex - Tuesday, September 15, 2015 - link
"Durability is something that business wants too, since these devices are going to be used as long as they can be before replacement."Most businesses I've seen that get mobile workstations like this tend to operate on a 3 to 5 year cycle. Once the warranty expires, the machine is retired. It's generally home computers that limp along for as long as possible.
DanNeely - Tuesday, September 15, 2015 - link
Or shifted to 2ndary duty anyway. If you need a 2nd computer with something other than the standard configuration where I work; odds are you're going to get an older laptop that was lifecycled back to IT by its original user.jbwhite99 - Tuesday, September 15, 2015 - link
First off, warranty can be extended to up to 5 years - sometimes in the base, sometimes as a warranty upgrade.The PC is a small part of TCO (total cost of ownership); keep in mind all of the other pieces - licensing software (Office will cost you $250 per machine, etc), the customization you do when you get a new PC, transferring files over, etc. So for companies, if you keep your PC longer, you will save in the long run. The other thing you get with this is unsealed batteries - so if the battery conks out, you can replace it (not so sure about the built in battery). This is why I don't like sealed batteries - it makes the machines thinner, but you can't replace parts.
To the first page of the article, the T20 (first T-series, followon to the ThinkPad 600) came out in July of 2000. The first lettered ThinkPad was the A20, and it came out in April 2000.
nico_mach - Tuesday, September 15, 2015 - link
All the pictures have this curvature that I find distracting. Was that taken with a smartphone?Brett Howse - Tuesday, September 15, 2015 - link
All pictures were with a Canon DSLR.flashbacck - Tuesday, September 15, 2015 - link
How does the clickpad compare to the one in the t440?Brett Howse - Tuesday, September 15, 2015 - link
I've never used the T440 sorry.GeorgeH - Tuesday, September 15, 2015 - link
Any chance of sourcing the T450s with a dGPU for review? Curious what the American market is missing.