The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Review (2015)
by Brett Howse on May 21, 2015 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
- Lenovo
- ThinkPad
- Ultrabook
- Broadwell-U
GPU Performance
Although the X1 Carbon is not a gaming laptop, we can still run it through some of our GPU tests to see how the i7-5600U performs. This is HD 5500 graphics inside, which is a 24 Execution Unit (EU) model integrated with the CPU. It has a base frequency of 300 MHz, and a turbo of 950 MHz, which is 50 MHz higher than the i5-5200U that we have already seen in the likes of the Dell XPS 13. It should perform slightly better. It is a bit of a shame that the i7-5650U CPU was not leveraged in the X1 Carbon since it includes the 48 EU HD 6000 GT3 graphics, and the tray price is not much more than the 5600U. It seems like Apple is the only one who puts these in notebooks which is a bit of a shame.
Regardless, we will test what we have, and as this is an Ultrabook I did not put it through our entire gaming laptop suite, since as we found with the XPS 13, even on the value settings the integrated graphics are not really up to par for those types of games. That is why we started testing DOTA 2, which has much lower requirements, to get a feel for how these devices with integrated graphics do on less demanding workloads.
As with the system performance, if you would like to see how the X1 Carbon performs against any other device we have tested, please use our Laptop Bench.
3DMark
Futuremark’s 3DMark has long been one of the standard synthetic tests, and the X1 Carbon shows that it is right where it is expected to be – at the top. With the highest turbo frequency, and the new Gen 8 graphics of Broadwell, it edges out the XPS 13’s i5-5200U in all tests.
GFXBench
On GFXBench, we see the same story as 3DMark. The X1 Carbon edges out the XPS 13. Intel has certainly made some gains with the Gen 8 graphics this round, but they still have some work to do here. The key of course is to keep it in the TDP they want.
Moving on, we have our new DOTA 2 test, which is an example of a real world game rather than just a synthetic.
DOTA 2
The reason we use DOTA 2 on these types of devices is because the system requirements are a lot lower. You are not going to be able to play big budget first person shooters with reasonable settings on Intel’s integrated GPU, but a game like this is a lot easier to handle. Even on the Enthusiast settings, DOTA 2 is fairly playable on this device, and once again the X1 Carbon edges the XPS 13, continuing on with what was seen in the synthetic tests.
Overall the GPU is right where you would expect it to be. The higher CPU frequencies help feed the GPU, and the slightly higher turbo frequency of the i7-5600U’s GPU allows it to beat out the HD 5500 GPU in the XPS 13 which was tested on the i5-5200U processor.
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mmrezaie - Thursday, May 21, 2015 - link
I wish they had Iris GPU and also better battery life. I feel Macbook Pro 13 inch is still better option for developers like me.Kristian Vättö - Thursday, May 21, 2015 - link
As an owner of the X1 Carbon, I can say that the battery life is really awful. I went back to my 2010 13" MacBook Air because it provides better and more consistent battery life and in my usage there's no difference in performance.lilmoe - Thursday, May 21, 2015 - link
A review for the T-series is long overdue guys.T2k - Friday, May 22, 2015 - link
True.Samus - Thursday, May 21, 2015 - link
Lenovo has destroyed the Thinkpad name. They destroyed it years ago. The only high-end corporate laptops to consider are HP Elitebooks\Zbooks and a handful of Dell's. Every Thinkpad I've interacted with over the past few years is either on a replacement battery, has cracked USB ports with bent fingers, overheating issues causing flaky behavior, or a combination of these. Then there is the support, which is downright awful. Lenovo is notorious for throwing end-users under the bus, especially once they're out of warranty for such widespread symptoms that they should be recalls.Don't believe me? Search google for any of these issues, you will come across thousands of them, even though Lenovo has tried their damnedest to bury them within their own forums.
neo_1221 - Thursday, May 21, 2015 - link
I've got 40 4-year old T420 Thinkpads and 20 3-year old T430 Thinkpads at my school. Of those, I've only had to send two back for repairs - one with a dead battery, and one with a failed display. They may not be as solid as they were under IBM, but they're by no means bad laptops.CasualUker - Thursday, May 21, 2015 - link
The T420 and T430 where IBM designs. It wasn't till we switched over to the 540/440 series that it was done "in house." And looking at how they where built, I have zero confidence in them for long term durability vs the older series.Also on looking at the refurb department and seeing how many X1 Carbon Genesis and Mystics that needed to be repaired because of "faulty" mobos... Doesn't speak to well in terms of quality and for their future products.
chrnochime - Thursday, May 21, 2015 - link
Any link that states the T420 and T430 were designed by IBM? The closest I could find was that Lenovo kept some of the IBM thinkpad designers around for T430.CasualUker - Friday, May 22, 2015 - link
It was of IBM design, using the same suppliers and tolerance levels.I too thought it was strange since it was no longer that of a IBM company and Lenovo had bought out the Thinkpad name in 2005. But when we started on the Oasis and others in the x40 lines the engineers where very proud to tell me that the the whole thing was done "in house."
T2k - Friday, May 22, 2015 - link
IBM had nothing to do with the T420 and newer laptops, this is patently false.