Lenovo ThinkPad T460s (Core i7, WQHD) Ultrabook Review

[WayneN]

Nice review. But, I do agree with the sentiment in earlier comments that the score is too high. I had the chance of using both the T450s and E7450 and the Dell flagship can get 8+ hrs on battery while T450s can only pull 5 hrs without an extended battery. They had the same specs and same usage patterns. It seems Lenovo only improved 1 hr for T460s but 6 hrs is barely cutting it - pretty mediocre for today's standards.

Splitting the battery in 2 adds a second point of failure and you can't replace the battery easily. I imagine 1 battery will wear out first if no wear leveling is used. Also the PWM is a huge con if you have to be at 90% brightness all the time to avoid flicker. This just depletes battery even faster.

The Thinkpad wins for the keyboard and trackpoint for sure but the E7450 had a brighter screen, more rigid construction imo, 8+ hrs with standard battery and 3 year NBD warranty included. Anyway, I think the T450s and T460s were over-scored. I'm looking forward to see what Dell does with the E7470.

[Zepherex]

Nice review. But, I do agree with the sentiment in earlier comments that the score is too high. I had the chance of using both the T450s and E7450 and the Dell flagship can get 8+ hrs on battery while T450s can only pull 5 hrs without an extended battery. They had the same specs and same usage patterns. It seems Lenovo only improved 1 hr for T460s but 6 hrs is barely cutting it - pretty mediocre for today's standards.

Splitting the battery in 2 adds a second point of failure and you can't replace the battery easily. I imagine 1 battery will wear out first if no wear leveling is used. Also the PWM is a huge con if you have to be at 90% brightness all the time to avoid flicker. This just depletes battery even faster.

The Thinkpad wins for the keyboard and trackpoint for sure but the E7450 had a brighter screen, more rigid construction imo, 8+ hrs with standard battery and 3 year NBD warranty included. Anyway, I think the T450s and T460s were over-scored. I'm looking forward to see what Dell does with the E7470.

I'm compelled to agree. Even though I love my T450s dearly, there are clear flaws with the screen (I got the AUO panel, which, though not significant, does have slightly warmer colours compared to my XPS 13), the bending of the screen (which is quite significant and distorts the backlight), and the soldering of the RAM. An HDMI port would also have been appreciated.
In the case of the T460s, the PWM, lacking brightness, soldered RAM, and two battery design WITHOUT hot swap should not give it a higher rating than the T460s. However, I think all of the business laptops are slightly overscored.
I'd put the E7450 and the T450s at around the same footing, but maybe bring them down 1-2%. I'd lower the T460s to 1% below the T450s (as the keyboard is apparently worse... Too many sacrifices for less weight)

[Tamas Kerecsen]

How is the docking functionality on the T460s? Docking on the E7450/E7470 is quite comprehensively broken (google E7450 flicker to see an example), so if the T460s is truly docking-capable, then it has a leg up for business users.

[irfan]

Can you disable CPU hyper-threading on the review model you have received?

[Li]

may I have the display color calibration file? if anyone has it, plz send me a copy via email.

[Crystle Brockmannn]

I thought this was a pretty interesting read when it comes to this topic How to become an affiliate?

[odbc]

Thanks for the nice review.

You seems to say the keyboard is still very good. On many other reviews (US based) they complain about the keyboard a lot, saying that it is not as firm as it used to be.

I could understand if you have different keyboard (US ones vs  european ones, not made by the same company). Care to confirm that for you, the keyboard is very good?

I believe I read that the keys register with 40 g of force, not the 60-65 grams of past Thinkpads. The key travel is still 1.8 or 1.9mm.

[CereS2015]

Nice review. But, I do agree with the sentiment in earlier comments that the score is too high. I had the chance of using both the T450s and E7450 and the Dell flagship can get 8+ hrs on battery while T450s can only pull 5 hrs without an extended battery. They had the same specs and same usage patterns. It seems Lenovo only improved 1 hr for T460s but 6 hrs is barely cutting it - pretty mediocre for today's standards.

Splitting the battery in 2 adds a second point of failure and you can't replace the battery easily. I imagine 1 battery will wear out first if no wear leveling is used. Also the PWM is a huge con if you have to be at 90% brightness all the time to avoid flicker. This just depletes battery even faster.

The Thinkpad wins for the keyboard and trackpoint for sure but the E7450 had a brighter screen, more rigid construction imo, 8+ hrs with standard battery and 3 year NBD warranty included. Anyway, I think the T450s and T460s were over-scored. I'm looking forward to see what Dell does with the E7470.

I'm compelled to agree. Even though I love my T450s dearly, there are clear flaws with the screen (I got the AUO panel, which, though not significant, does have slightly warmer colours compared to my XPS 13), the bending of the screen (which is quite significant and distorts the backlight), and the soldering of the RAM. An HDMI port would also have been appreciated.
In the case of the T460s, the PWM, lacking brightness, soldered RAM, and two battery design WITHOUT hot swap should not give it a higher rating than the T460s. However, I think all of the business laptops are slightly overscored.
I'd put the E7450 and the T450s at around the same footing, but maybe bring them down 1-2%. I'd lower the T460s to 1% below the T450s (as the keyboard is apparently worse... Too many sacrifices for less weight)

Hi,
at least for the T450s i can say, that there are 3 different keyboards from 2 different manufacturers. i had two T450s (one from Lenovos Website w/o backlit, one from distribution w/backlit). Which seemed not to be a regional difference.
The non backlit keyboard wasn't for me, felt cheap, hollow and heavier to use. I then replaced it and now everything is fine!

For the display you can download the icc profiles here in the tests - its a huge difference compared to the standard yellowish profile.

[Dominic DeMarco]

Hello, I just purchased a T460s  with the I76600 core along with the 1440 Resolution screen along with 12 gigs of ram(4mb/8 DDR4 2133)
and I was wondering what would be the difficulty level of me upgrading the Graphics card on my own? If possible and what kind of graphics card for gaming would work?

[Josh]

I have a T460s i7/20GB/512GB, and the battery life is abysmal (3.3 hours).  Lenovo corporate has now shut down on me. After dozens of ThinkPads, this will be my last.

This is their "explanation".  Unacceptable.

• Additional 16GB DIMM Memory will increase power (+0.3W)
• High Bin CPU will increase power (+0.2W) i7 is higher than i5 CPU.
• External USB device(USB Mouse?) doesn't enter to Selective Suspend (+0.7W)
• Vmware Virtual Ethernet devices are missed or not configured correctly (+0.7W)
• Intel Ethernet device are missed or not configured correctly (+0.6W)
• Card reader is missed or not configured correctly (+0.9W)
• USB Mass Storage Device connected. It will increase power consumption (+0.8W)

[GTCai]

Many people complained about the brightness of the LCD screen.
I own a T460s for a month, in my experience, the max brightness is good enough for the indoor activity. If it can use the screen adopted by MS Surface Book, it will be a prefect machine.

[Alan]

Is there an expresscard slot on the t460s? is it expresscard 34 or 54?

[Kobi Bueno]

I need Lenovo T460s I-7 12GB 512SSD WITH US KEYBOARD,May i have the type number for these laptop?
Is it possible to make an order for these laptop?
It must be the type with the US Keyboard.

Thank you very much.
Kobi Bueno.

[Himanshu dora]

I got a Lenovo t460s , Does 3.5 mm headset works, it did not for me in win 10 pro. I had to return laptop. Tried all drivers but still headset no sound from headset nor it is detecting.

[AE]

Thank a lot for the detailed review. I noticed something interesting about the two batteries (according to ThinkVantage Power Manager).
(1) First battery battery (23.58 Wh) is produced by SMP and has Li-Polymer chemistry, whereas the 2nd one (26.33 Wh) is from Sanyo and has Li-Ion chemistry. Is there any specific performance related reason for that?
(2) Upon load, the first battery drains first. Once it reaches the lower threshold (I don't remember the exact %) then the 2nd one starts providing power to the system automatically. When I plug in the power cord, the 2nd battery recharges first.

I'm no battery expert. So, bear with me please: will it be better if we can use two batteries somewhat simultaneously? Assuming it is a good practise, is it possible, for e.g., to use both batteries in smaller % portions - say 10% from Bat 1 and then 10% Bat 2 and then switching back to Bat 1 for another 10% and so on?

Bests,
Ash