Lenovo ThinkPad T15 Gen 1 Laptop Review: Foiled by lack of AMD option

[Redaktion]

This year's T-series ThinkPads have only received minor updates. Nevertheless, the smaller 14-inch models have improved quite a bit in regard to performance thanks to AMD Ryzen 4000. This cannot be said about the larger ThinkPad T15 Gen 1 though as it lacks the Renoir option entirely and has to make do with Intel's Comet Lake. Our extensive review revealed that this can be a major show-stopper for the large T-series ThinkPad.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-ThinkPad-T15-Gen-1-Laptop-Review-Foiled-by-lack-of-AMD-option.482531.0.html

[john22082020]

Our extensive review revealed that this can be a major show-stopper for the large T-series ThinkPad.

........and then......87%.

Because...... >:D

[DeepskyScorpion]

One bad apple spoil the bunch. Gotta call lenovo out.

[Daniel Ridenhour]

Thinkpad T15 considering its march to mediocrity that began with the T590.   The T580/P52s was the last great 15" thinkpad...  the last two releases have seen it become more and more of an 'also ran'... any chance they could license their keyboard to another PC maker.

Eventually I'll want to replace my P52s...   but what do they offer...  so so battery life...   barely better performance 2 generations newer than I'm getting with an 8550u...  no leaps in GPU performance either...  no power bridge removable battery...  no dual battery...   etc. 

All so it could be a mm smaller here and there so it can be marketed as a poor mans X series instead of the unrivaled T series that came before it.

[Jesse]

"Foiled by lack of an AMD option".  Damn right.  I might melt my dic off if I have to do any heavy compute work with this intel version.

But hey, that's no reason to give it less than 87 on your 65 to 95 scale.

[_MT_]

"Foiled by lack of an AMD option".  Damn right.  I might melt my dic off if I have to do any heavy compute work with this intel version.

But hey, that's no reason to give it less than 87 on your 65 to 95 scale.

If you had bothered to look at the scoring, you would have noticed that only one category relates to performance out of 13. And that's gaming performance. Which is not very important in an office laptop (meaning it probably has lower weight in the total score) and in this case is more of a test of the integrated GPU. It looks like the big gap in multi-threaded CPU performance is not represented in the score at all.

It does suck. However, it's really more of the same. Because of the U series chips, T590 also wasn't a good choice for heavier computing. So, it's a shame because the AMD version would have been a viable alternative to a workstation for me (although I would prefer either an 8:5 15.4" display or a 17.3" display). The Intel version wasn't and still isn't.

[john23082020]

"Foiled by lack of an AMD option".  Damn right.  I might melt my dic off if I have to do any heavy compute work with this intel version.

But hey, that's no reason to give it less than 87 on your 65 to 95 scale.

If you had bothered to look at the scoring, you would have noticed that only one category relates to performance out of 13. And that's gaming performance. Which is not very important in an office laptop (meaning it probably has lower weight in the total score) and in this case is more of a test of the integrated GPU. It looks like the big gap in multi-threaded CPU performance is not represented in the score at all.

It does suck. However, it's really more of the same. Because of the U series chips, T590 also wasn't a good choice for heavier computing. So, it's a shame because the AMD version would have been a viable alternative to a workstation for me (although I would prefer either an 8:5 15.4" display or a 17.3" display). The Intel version wasn't and still isn't.

The review is a honest review and everyone can see that. But that's because people who will read the review have the knowledge to understand hardware and what they read.

That 87% is for getting this model in the Top 10 and for those who buy laptops based on that final score. Not the review or the individual scoring. They will never read those.

[Benjamin Herzig]

Regarding the score: Last year's T590 scored 87 % as well.

The score is more than just a performance rating. Performance is in there, but it only a small part of a bigger whole. For office laptops like the T15, it is an even smaller part compared to workstations or gaming notebooks. For office laptops, casing, input devices, weight and connectivity make up 45 % of the rating. App performance only makes up 8 %.

Our reviews are not purely subjective like other reviews, they are as objective as possible. This also means that we do not artificially lower the score because "it feels right".

The ThinkPad T15 can be both a good office laptop (because it objectively is a good machine for many productivity uses) and a disappointment for not featuring AMD Ryzen at the same time.

How our rating percentages are for each category: https://www.notebookcheck.net/Our-Rating-Criteria.16002.0.html

[ljkasd]

The screen must be really typical-Lenovo-level awful if upper-mid review unit came with 4k.

[Giorgos Siolas]

Hi Benjamin,

Thank you for your article. i believe that you are focusing a bit too much on the CPU issue. For example, the article has no "Ports" or LTE section. There are not so many 4K laptops with smartcard readers, LTE, IR camera, fingerprint reader and so on. For business users these features are very important

best