Lenovo ThinkPad T460s (Core i7, WQHD) Ultrabook Review

You might think that the T460s is based on the chassis of the T450s at first – but this is not the case: Lenovo actually reworked the construction at several points and focused on improved mobility in particular. Our review unit is around 19 millimeters high and only tips the scale at around 1.35 kilograms, so it is 2 mm thinner and around 250 grams lighter than before. For comparison: Even a MacBook Air with a smaller 13.3-inch screen basically weighs the same. Subjectively, the boxy ThinkPad appears more massive than it actually is, but it is no problem to hold it in one hand or use it on the lap for longer periods in practice.

Such a diet can always hold risks for the stability and torsion resistance. But not in this case: A complex material mix of magnesium and carbon-fiber reinforced plastic – which can, by the way, convince with a surprisingly sophisticated tactile feel – ensures that the chassis does not warp a lot even under heavy pressure. The situation is similar for the display, which is connected via two hinges. They can prevent bouncing very effectively, but you can still open the lid with just one hand. Lenovo also advertises the certification according to the military standard MIL-STD-810 but does not list all the individual tests (among others, the standard includes temperature, vibration, dust and humidity tests) the ThinkPad successfully passed.

The build quality of the T460s can also withstand an extensive inspection and convinces with small gaps and extremely accurate material transitions. Purely from a visual perspective, there might be more appealing unibody metal Ultrabooks, but such a professional working device is more focused on business qualities anyway. The smooth matte-gray surfaces do not attract fingerprints, and dust as well as smaller scratches can be easily cleaned with a damp cloth.

Similar to the T560, Lenovo sorted out the old VGA port for the T460s and replaced it with a modern HDMI output. Skylake only supports HDMI 1.4 though and not the latest HDMI 2.0 standard, so the resolution of an external monitor is limited to 2560x1440 pixels (60 Hz) or 3840x2160 pixels (30 Hz), respectively. It is possible to drive 4K panels at 60 Hz via Mini-DisplayPort.

The other ports are similar to the T450s, even though Lenovo slightly adjusted the layout. Two of three USB 3.0 ports are on the right side with the video outputs and Gbit-LAN, while the card reader and the headset port are now in the front area on the left side. Overall, the layout leaves a sophisticated and ergonomic impression; all ports are easily accessible for the user.

You should consider an external docking station if you plan to use the T460s as a stationary device most of the time. It can be attached to the bottom of the ThinkPad. Examples would be the ThinkPad Pro Dock for 150 Euros (~$166), which offers six additional USB ports, a couple of video outputs and several other connectors.

Intel's current high-end wireless adapter has the designation Wireless-AC 8260 and now also supports Bluetooth 4.2 besides the Wi-Fi standards 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac. Even though the theoretical maximum transfer rate of 867 Mbps (2x2 802.11ac) did not change compared to the predecessors Wireless-AC 7260/7265, the module manages new records at 70 MB/s in our measurements (TP-Link Archer C7, short distance). Range and signal quality are above average as well. Mobile Internet connections for the T460s are provided by a WWAN module from Huawei, which also supports GNSS location services (like GPS) besides the mobile standards UMTS/HSPA/LTE.

Almost on the expected low level is the quality of the webcam. The 0.9 MP sensor takes pale pictures with blurry details and visible noise. Much better is the performance of the accompanying dual-array microphone. Voice recordings are excellent and you do not always need an external headset for Skype and the like.

Security 

The T460s does not need cryptic passwords anymore – a finger from the user is sufficient for a secure login. Previous ThinkPads were equipped with fingerprint scanners as well, but this model generation uses modern touch instead of the old swype-style scanner. A short press with the fingertip is enough to unlock the device within fractions of a second. Easy, reliable and fast.

The other security features do not disappoint, either. You get TPM, vPro support, SmartCard reader, Kensington lock as well as optional passwords for startup, hard drive and BIOS. Here we can also see one reason for the higher price compared to the ThinkPad E and L series.

Accessories

Shipped accessories are limited to a power adapter (65 Watts; 45 Watts for smaller configurations) as well as the usual quick-start guide. We still did not miss anything: The upgrade from the preloaded Windows 7 Professional to Windows 10 Pro was easy and all the drivers and manuals for a clean installation are available on the manufacturer's support website. More information about optional accessories, like the docking stations we mentioned before, will be available in dedicated articles later.

Maintenance

Similar to the recently reviewed ThinkPad T560, the T460s also lacks a dedicated maintenance hatch. However, the bottom cover is only secured by five screws and can easily be removed once you loosened them, so even inexperienced users should have no problems opening the device and not damaging it in the process. There are numerous surprises inside the chassis: Lenovo waived the 2.5-inch slot completely and exclusively uses M.2-SSDs (2280). There is unfortunately no information from the manufacturer if every configuration supports fast PCIe-3.0 SSDs – it is possible that the M.2 slot of some SKUs is only attached via SATA. We are also pretty surprised by the fact that both batteries are now integrated; the T450s had one internal and one external battery, and the latter could be replaced on-the-fly.

Furthermore, the ThinkPad only has one DDR4 slot (occupied) as well as the slots for Wi-Fi and WWAN module (occupied). Another 4 GB RAM as well as the processor are soldered onto the motherboard. Commendable: The fan and cooling unit are directly accessible and therefore easy to clean.

Warranty

The standard manufacturer's warranty period of the T460s is three years, which can be extended for a comparatively small amount of money. An upgrade to four years only costs 60 Euros (~$66), while an upgrade of 5 years retails for a very fair price of 120 Euros (~$133). It is more expensive if you want to include additional services or insurances (e. g. accidental protection).

Even the base model of the T460s uses a high-quality IPS display with 1920x1080 pixels (157 PPI), but our review unit is equipped with a WQHD panel and 2560x1440 pixels (210 PPI). The high resolution ensures a crisp picture in combination with the 14.0-inch screen, and you cannot see individual pixels even at a short distance. We would recommend a scaling factor of around 150% in the Windows settings to get an acceptable font size.

Besides a higher resolution, the WQHD panel also promises a higher maximum brightness of 300 cd/m², while the Full HD model only reaches 250 cd/m². At least according to the spec sheet – we can only measure 257 cd/m² (WQHD model) and 226 cd/m² (Full HD) in the center, respectively. Even though this should be sufficient in most scenarios, such a discrepancy between the advertised value and reality is always problematic. If the manufacturer cannot rule out certain production fluctuations, they should advertise a lower value in the first place. Compared to the rivals from HP and Dell, which manage more than 350 cd/m², Lenovo is very far behind. The display can at least convince with an even brightness distribution and annoying backlight bleeding is no problem.

The T460s uses PWM below the maximum brightness to control the luminance by activating and deactivating the LED backlight in periodic cycles (frequency: 220 Hz). Sensitive users could therefore notice slight flickering, even though we did not notice it subjectively. The rather mediocre luminance is combined with a very rich black value (0.26 cd/m²), so we get a high contrast ratio of 988:1, which is typical for an IPS panel.

Inexpensive and low-quality TN panels are not available for the Lenovo T460s – both the Full HD as well as the WQHD panel of our test model are – as we mentioned before – based on the IPS technology. The latter not only ensures a high contrast ratio and rich colors but also pretty stable pictures independent of the viewing angle. We can only see a slight contrast reduction from extreme angles, but it does not affect the visibility of the picture contents.

Lenovo still uses frugal ULV processors from Intel for the T460s, which are now based on the Skylake generation. Compared to the predecessor Broadwell (also 14 nm manufacturing process), Skylake is about 5% faster at the same clock and can show significant efficiency improvements in some scenarios. The low-end configuration uses the Core i5-6200U (2.3-2.8 GHz), but you can also get the Core i7-6600U (2.6-3.4 GHz) from the review model, which is also the top CPU of the (regular) 15-Watt lineup. However, there are some special chips like the Core i7-6650U with the same CPU performance, but much faster GPUs (Iris Graphics 540, 48 EUs + eDRAM). All available processors for the ThinkPad only include the slower HD Graphics 520 (24 EUs, no eDRAM).

We use the Single- and Multithread tests of Cinebench R15 to evaluate the Turbo Boost utilization of the processor. This is always a critical point, especially for high-clocked top models of a TDP class – like the Core i7-6600U in this case. Those models often surpass the specified maximum consumption under maximum load, and therefore have to reduce their performance after a short while.

This is no problem for the T460s: The CPU can utilize its Turbo Boost perfectly at 3.2 GHz (Multi) and 3.4 GHz (Single), respectively, and there are no drops even under sustained load. At the same time, we can see that the integrated sensors show a consumption of 20 Watts – how is this possible? The solution is called "configurable TDP", short cTDP. This means the standard TDP of 15 Watts was raised to 25 Watts. With no power constraints, the Core i7-6600U can beat the i5-6200U by around 20% and also outclasses the older Broadwell flagship i7-5600U. The advantage over the other chips for the T460s, the i5-6300U and i7-6500U, however, should be pretty small and not really noticeable in practice.

Samsung's SM951a (probably almost identical to the Samsung SM951) inside our review unit is not a common 512 GB SSD with the M.2-2280 standard: Instead of the SATA interface, the SM951a is attached via PCIe 3.0 x4, which allows much higher transfer rates. It also does not use AHCI but uses the NVMe protocol, which was specifically designed for flash-based storage drives. NVMe is supposed to minimize latencies and overhead losses during multiple simultaneous accesses.

As a result, the SM951a is currently one of the fastest SSDs on the (notebook) market. Sequential transfer rates north of 2 GB/s (read) as well as 1.4 GB/s (write) are almost 4 times higher compared to common SATA drives, and the performance with small 4K files is excellent as well. In combination with the good reputation for the durability of Samsung SSDs, it seems that Lenovo made an excellent choice.

Equipped with a high-end CPU, a lot of DDR4 memory and a very fast SSD, the T460s is almost too powerful for office applications and web browsing. It can handle much more and works perfectly as a full-fledged working device with an external (4K) monitor, demanding software and excessive multitasking. We can only see two situations where users will reach the limits of the hardware: Heavily parallelized and CPU-demanding applications (like video editing, simulation software), which can benefit from a quad-core processor like the one inside the sibling ThinkPad T460p (+50-100%). The performance of the HD Graphics 520 is limited as well, even though it can handle simple 3D applications as well as smaller CAD projects with ease.

We want to have a closer look at the previously mentioned HD Graphics 520. Thanks to several architectural improvements (Intel Gen9 architecture), higher clocks and the higher bandwidth of the DDR4 memory, the GPU can manage a lead of around 20% over its predecessor HD Graphics 5500 (Broadwell, Intel Gen8 architecture) in 3DMark. Even though we appreciate the additional performance, it is still not more than a drop in the ocean: Even a dedicated low-end GPU like the GeForce 920M is about 30% faster; the optional GeForce 940M of the ThinkPad T450s is even 70% faster. It is a bit strange that Lenovo only offers the T460s with the slightly slower GeForce 930M, but the dedicated GPUs are limited for certain configurations in North America.

The best and most efficient solution would have probably been to equip the ThinkPad – at least for an additional charge – with CPU models from the Iris Graphics series. Microsoft's Surface Pro 4 proves that the Iris Graphics 540 of the Core i7-6650U is pretty much on par with the GeForce 930M and GeForce 940M. The additional performance of the Iris 540 is primarily a result of the faster eDRAM cache as well as a wider design with twice the number of shaders, so the i7-6650U does not have a higher TDP compared to the i7-6600U.

Finally, some words about the CAD performance of the HD Graphics 520: It seems there were several (driver) optimizations from Intel, because the performance gains over the HD Graphics 5500 are pretty substantial in some tests of SPECviewperf 12 (medical, SolidWorks). Even the GeForce 940M is clearly beaten in some situations.

The fan is usually not only completely deactivated while idling but also during office tasks or web browsing, so the T460s is a completely silent working device. If the fans starts spinning under sustained load, the system noise will hardly surpass 33 dB(A) – which means the notebook won't be audible in many office environments at a usual viewing distance. Only the impractical stress test will make the ThinkPad noticeable at 38.5 dB(A), but we still would not call the steady murmur (mainly in the range between 2 and 4 KHz) particularly disturbing. The predecessor was slightly quieter under maximum load, but the 25-Watt CPU of the T460s (T450s: 15 Watts) also provides much more performance.

Despite the adjusted processor TDP and the low fan speed, Lenovo can handle the temperature development of the T460s very well. The chassis only reaches values of around 40 °C at two spots even with simultaneous load from the tools Prime95 and FurMark. The rest of the case stays lukewarm and there are no problems when you want to use the notebook on your lap – a very impressive performance for such a thin and powerful Ultrabook.

A look at the hardware sensors shows that the manufacturer has to fiddle a bit for these results: The small CPU cooler cannot handle 25 Watts for longer periods, which is why the GPU clock will fluctuate between the minimum (300 MHz, 20 Watts, core temperature around 70 °C) and maximum clock (1,050 MHz, 25 Watts, core temperature around 75 °C) after a while. The processor on the other hand can maintain its nominal clock of 2.6 GHz. Competitors with the standard 15-Watt TDP show much bigger clock reductions under similar loads.

There should not be any limitations by this in practice: Even 3D games are not as challenging for the processor and graphics card as our stress test, so the Core i7 usually does not consume more than 20 Watts anyway and can always utilize its Turbo Boost potential.

It seems that Lenovo not only updated the case of the T460s but also the speakers. They can cover deeper frequencies compared to the T450s, both subjectively and objectively in the measurements. The small speakers are surprisingly linear up to around 250 Hz; the volume will only drop significantly at lower frequencies. Subjectively, we would call the sound pretty balanced and rich, and you can even notice some sort of bass. The maximum volume of 77 dB(A) is unfortunately not really sufficient for bigger rooms, so you should use an external sound system. Such a system can either be attached digitally (HDMI/DisplayPort) or via 3.5 mm jack. The latter provides clean signals, but they are not really powerful enough for high-impedance headphones.

After around one week of comprehensive testing, we can say that the ThinkPad T460s is more than a boring Skylake update of the old T450s – and already one of the best business notebooks in 2016 in our opinion.

Even though the design hardly changed, the T460s is actually a completely new construction with an even thinner and lighter chassis. Its build quality and stability can easily meet the high expectations we have for a notebook with a price far north of 1,000 Euros (~$1110). The same applies for the input devices: If you are looking for a keyboard with a rich pressure point, it will be difficult to find a better alternative right now. The touchpad/ClickPad might not be quite on the same level, but the performance is still solid in combination with the TrackPoint.

We once again want to emphasize the excellent application performance of our – admittedly not inexpensive – high-end configuration. Without any TDP constraints, the Core i7-6600U manages surprising performance results without affecting system noise and temperature development too much. Combined with an SSD, which manages transfer rates of up to 2 GB/s, as well as 12 GB of fast DDR4 memory, the notebook can even handle complex applications with ease. The integrated graphics card can at least provide acceptable frame rates in older games and smaller CAD models.

Our few points of criticism are primarily related to the new chassis construction, which neither offers space for a 2.5-inch drive nor a bigger battery. However, Lenovo really could have implemented a modern USB-C port or a slightly brighter display – some inexpensive consumer notebooks perform better in this respect. This does not really affect the excellent overall impression though. There is no reason why you should not purchase the device if you can and want to invest the necessary 2,350 Euros (~$2609) and also had a look at the competition from HP and Dell.

Note: The test model from notebooksandmore.de is available to us for the next 12 months as a long-term loan. In this time we want to perform long-term tests about the build quality and the battery runtime, review external docking stations, and check the performance with 4K displays as well as the compatibility with Linux. We are happy to receive further suggestions for additional tests!