A performance comparison of all new ThinkPad notebooks

[Redaktion]

How much performance will you really get? The current 2018 ThinkPads from Lenovo are all equipped with new quad-core ULV processors from Intel, but the actual improvement in performance varies depending on the model. We have compared the new ThinkPads' performance in various scenarios.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/A-performance-comparison-of-all-new-ThinkPad-notebooks.286486.0.html

[Yohanes]

Eagerly waiting for Yoga X380 performance! I would like to know if it is close to Yoga X1 performance.

[frogg]

It's as if  these machines have a Ferrari engine in a Fiat Punto body. They can be very fast on straight lines (but not for too long!), but when it's time to brake or turn it's a catastrophe. What's the goal, really ? With all the heat, noise, and battery drain,  are these still notebooks ?
A Thinkpad with a Core-M, passive cooling and looooong (real) battery life, when ?
 

[adamto]

I like this article. Since all devices with quad-core ULV processor has a weak cooling system,  I think using a Laptop Cooling Pad can complete the cooling system and help to have more constant performance.

I think this post can be more useful and completed if you also run the tests with a Laptop Cooling Pad.  I am interested to know how much a cooling pad can boost the constant performance at home.

[Eric]

The P52s really disappointed me  :-[. I expected a lot better.

[Hicham Mawlawi]

What a great, informative article! Thank you

[ruimanalmeida]

Don't forget that, on a day to day basis, we never use these machines at these high levels, so don't choose your future computer only by the result of this comparative.

[Valantar]

It's as if  these machines have a Ferrari engine in a Fiat Punto body. They can be very fast on straight lines (but not for too long!), but when it's time to brake or turn it's a catastrophe. What's the goal, really ? With all the heat, noise, and battery drain,  are these still notebooks ?
A Thinkpad with a Core-M, passive cooling and looooong (real) battery life, when ?

You're kidding, right? Most Thinkpads have excellent battery life, at least if you stay away from the entry level series or the workstation models -
which are meant to be respectively cheap or have a high level of sustained performance. Increasing bursty performance like this is extremely valuable in most computing tasks today, and being able to do that in an "ultrabook" without it exploding is in and of itself a huge feat. Sustaining that performance over a significant amount of time is not really what these chips are made for (can't do that within a 15W TDP anyhow), but Intel allowing OEMs to configure this how they want is great for end users. That the T480s can sustain a 44W load is kind of crazy, but hey - you get 7700HQ performance for cheaper, and in a much smaller chassis! You really can't complain about that. As for battery life, it's a given that sustained performance equals higher battery draw - which is why Windows has power profiles, and separates battery powered operation from plugged in operation. Remember, Core-M is the exact same hardware (well, as the previous gen dual core chips, that is) just with even lower power limits. Given that these limits are often configurable through Intel XTU, why not get a notebook capable of higher performance and tune it to your needs? You'll get more features (ports, battery size, max performance) for the same price, just slightly thicker and heavier. You'd likely get better battery life too, given the bigger batteries.

[PlsputIrisUHD640inX1Yoga]

Did you also test the i7-8650 on the X1 Yoga... Was there any difference to the 8550

[Yohanes]

I am leaning either for X1 Yoga or X380 Yoga. I do not mind FHD resolution of X380 Yoga as long as the X380 has dual channel memory and the power limit and temperature limit allows the intel gen 8 processor run in their full turbo boost speed. Can you test Yoga X380 please?

[starship863]

Excellent and professional benchmarks, thank you very much.

It is really surprising to see that the power and temperature strategy differs so much between all the ThinkPads.

Thanks to these benchmarks, now the customer is able to choose the one that fit best for his own need.

[Dan Ridenhour]

The t580 is essentially the same chassis... without the option for a dedicated GPU.  With its size it seems cooling would be a strong suit...  but it looks like it has one of the worse cooling solutions in the mix.

More than with most processors... the new 8550u/8250u are really cooling depending when it comes to performance.  Definitely not all created equal.  Its looking more and more than unless a system is designed specifically to handle cooling and have higher TDPs...  the 8250u is going to be the most bang for the buck as the 8550u isn't ever going to get a chance to stretch its legs.

[Jag]

Is it possible to change power limits? so for example allow P52s to go to 90C?

[kilou]

Nice review but there's something I don't get: with a TDP of 44W, both the i5 and i7 in the T480s score 720 points on the first run. Yet the i5 clocks at 3.4Ghz while the i7 clocks at 4.0Ghz. How's that possible? I understand that these are turbo clocks that will drop due to CPU temperatures but this should only affect long term performance. But it's unclear to me why the first run of the benchmark leads to the same score when the i7 effectively runs at 4.0Ghz while the i5 clocks 600Mhz lower...

[Milan]

Kilou: the thing is that a single Cinebench test run takes about ~1 minute to complete and limits kick in earlier. So the result of the first run is already some kind of average of max performance and throttling.