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MagyarReview Lenovo B5400 MB825GE Notebook
For the original German review, see here.
It does not matter if you are a consumer or a business user: If you invest in technology, you want it to be fast enough for the next couple of years. This should be no problem since Lenovo claims groundbreaking processor performance and robust security features, right? We have a look at Lenovo's 15-inch business notebook that seems to be well equipped with a Core i5-4200M (standard voltage), a 1 TB hard drive and a GeForce GT 720M. Business devices without the ThinkPad branding represent Lenovo's low-cost series and are cheaper than the L-series ThinkPads (starting at 650 Euros, ~$879).
There are several inexpensive office devices. Because of the price we use the Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E540 (Core i3; starting at 570 Euros, ~$770) as well as HP's ProBook 450-H0V92EA (Core i3; 599 Euros, ~$810) for the comparison. The latter is also available with an AMD APU (ProBook 455).
Case
Simple, functional, but still modern – that is the plastic chassis of the B5400. The edged design with the wedge-shaped sides and the flat areas at the sides remind us of the Lenovo B580 (May 2013), but the case changed in many details. The stability of the case is not the best and that affects the quality impression. The palm rest is firm but the whole base unit can be twisted when you grab it at the edges. The display cover is connected with the base unit via firm hinges, but they cannot avoid bouncing.
The plastic frame of the panel is partly loose and there is also a small gap between the frame and the display. We could clearly dent the display cover at the center and also twist it. You will notice that the pretty heavy 15-inch device will bend when you try to lift it at one corner.
Connectivity
The standard connectivity features are complemented by a port for a ThinkPad OneLink (Pro) Dock. The power connector used to be round and yellow, but it is now black and rectangular. You can remove a special cover so that the OneLink Dock (starting at 95 Euros, ~$128) can be attached. Only the Pro version for 160 Euros (~$216) offers an additional DisplayPort and DVI-out.
Communication
The Gigabit Ethernet adaptor is provided by Realtek (PCIe GBE Family Controller) while Lenovo uses an inexpensive single-band Realtek RTL8723BE WLAN module (802.11 n). This means you cannot switch to 5 GHz networks if there are interferences with other wireless networks. We are not overwhelmed by the signal quality but the result is satisfying: Windows still had four out of five bars with a distance of 15 meters in our non-standardized test and websites like notebookcheck.com were loaded quickly. Similar to most laptops, the B5400 does not get a connection with a distance of 40 meters to our router (Fritz!Box 7270, transmitting power 100%). The wireless module also supports Bluetooth 4.0.
Security
We could not find the advertised (product page) integrated fingerprint reader. Except for Intel's Anti-Theft (via third party contract) there are no additional security features (nothing in the BIOS either), so this is more like a simple consumer notebook.
Accessories
The box of the B5400 only contains some information, warranty brochures and the 90 Watts PSU. There are no recovery DVDs for Windows 8 and the manual is on the hard drive.
Software
Solution Center is a monitoring tool for the system. You can find backup options as well as diagnostics (hardware scan) and management options for wireless connections. Even the warranty status and the product registration are visible, but the security settings of the Solution Center only use Windows settings. Special battery settings or the convenient deactivation of single devices (for example the webcam) that we know from ThinkPads are not available.
Rescue and Recovery is Lenovo's tool for creating backup media. However, our B5400 came without it, but you can still download it from Lenovo's website. You can also order a Recovery-Kit in case of an emergency on the following website: lenovorecovery.com. Other preloaded applications are Lenovo Quick Control (control your PC with a smartphone), Cloud Storage (SugarSync, 30-day trial), Power DVD (player) as well as a trial version of MS Office.
Maintenance
A maintenance cover provides easy access to the components of the B5400. You can clean the fan and also replace the WLAN module and the CMOS battery. We can also find an empty mSATA slot and one empty memory slot (1x 8GB occupied). Upgrading the latter and using a dual-channel memory configuration would improve the performance of the integrated GPU.
Warranty
The Lenovo B5400 comes with a standard one-year carry-in warranty where you have to send the device to the manufacturer. There are also several warranty options, for instance an extension to three years or accidental damage protection. All options can be found on the according website from Lenovo. An extension to 2 years is available for 27 Euros (~$36) or 60 Euros (~$81) with the accidental damage protection.
Webcam
Lenovo praises the 720p HD webcam of the B5400 for conference calls and online chats. However, the actual picture quality does not support this statement. It is very bad, even with daylight, and pictures are clearly unusable.
Input Devices
Keyboard
"The much praised AccuType keyboard ensures comfortable working and less typos." Praise is not the right word here; the keys have a spongy feedback, a flat surface (lower accuracy) and a comparatively limited travel. The pressure point is firm, but this is not enough to provide a good feedback. The arrow keys are cramped between the keyboard and the numeric keypad. The spongy stroke is a result of the slightly bouncy keyboard, and the effect is bigger above the optical drive.
Touchpad
The touchpad with the dedicated buttons has a pretty smooth plastic surface. We are not dealing with hard plastic, so there will be unpleasant wear on the pad after some time. The surface executes inputs without delays, but unfortunately that does not apply for the buttons. Their travel is too limited and they have different clicking noises (muffled on the right side). The pressure point, especially of the right button, is very imprecise. The overall feedback of the buttons is very poor.
Display
Cheap TN panels with a low resolution are a tiresome topic, not only for the reviewers, but especially for users who have had to work with them for a couple of years. Our review unit with its 1366x768 pixels (16:9) only manages a meager 100 ppi, but at least it has a matte surface. The colors are subjectively convenient after calibration and the distinct blue cast is almost gone. However, not many users are going to calibrate their displays, so the blue cast is a problem.
An average brightness of 205 cd/m² is not overwhelming, but it is sufficient for the office. Unfortunately it is limited to only 120 cd/m² on battery power, which makes it very hard to use the notebook outdoors.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Brightness Distribution: 76 %
Center on Battery: 120 cd/m²
Contrast: 500:1 (Black: 0.42 cd/m²)
ΔE Color 9.13 | 0.5-29.43 Ø5.1
ΔE Greyscale 10.13 | 0.57-98 Ø5.3
50% AdobeRGB 1998 (Argyll 1.6.3 3D)
54.7% AdobeRGB 1998 (Argyll 2.2.0 3D)
79.2% sRGB (Argyll 2.2.0 3D)
53.4% Display P3 (Argyll 2.2.0 3D)
Gamma: 2.7
* ... smaller is better
We measured 50% coverage of the AdobeRGB color space. This is not sufficient for professional scenarios, not to mention the low resolution. The photospectrometer measures the grayscale and color performance ex-works. The formerly mentioned blue cast is supported by numbers with a DeltaE value of around 10 (target value: smaller than three). However, the table above does show that the B5400 with its comparatively high contrast is not too bad within the competition.
Thanks to the low display brightness on battery you can only use the B5400 in the shade. Our pictures were taken on a winter day right before sunset, so it was not really bright.
Good viewing angles are not provided by the B5400. The picture is only good under ideal conditions, and it gets worse as soon as you leave the sweet spot. The picture is too dark when you look from above, and you can hardly recognize the top third of the display content when you look from below. It is also hard to see the content from the sides. The possible angles are slightly wider but you will have to live with inverted colors with an angle of 40 degrees.
Performance
The heart of the B5400 is an Intel Core i5-4200M from the current Haswell generation, which is supported by 8 GB single-channel memory. The dedicated Nvidia GeForce GT 720M GPU is rather unusual for an office device, but it is the right choice for occasional gaming. Finally, you get a Seagate Momentus SpinPoint M8 with a capacity of 1 TB; you can use around 870 GB out of the box.
Processor
More and more notebooks are now equipped with very frugal low voltage CPUs from the Haswell generation (TDP of 15 Watts), even in some 17-inch devices, where the runtimes and the low emissions are not very important. This is, however, not the case with the Core i5-4200M (37 Watt) and the result is a significant performance advantage over the Core i5-4200U (e.g. Dell Latitude 3540). The processor with a letter "U" in the designation falls behind by 18 - 23%.
Inexpensive office notebooks can also be equipped with Pentium and Celeron CPUs (2117U), AMD APUs or Core i3 processors. Cinebench R11.5 shows the i5-4200M clearly beats the mentioned rivals. The slowest chip is the aged Trinity APU (-68%), and a Celeron 1037U (-55%) is not much faster either. The closest rival is the Core i3 with a deficit of 21 up to 30% depending on the benchmark.
Our Core i5-4200M can often use its full Turbo clock (2.5 up to 3.1 GHz) in our tests and works on a constant level, even under continuous load. The good results cannot be maintained on battery power, a repeated run of Cinebench R11.5 determines the following results: Single 1.34 points; Multi 2.86 points; OpenGL (GT 720M) 30.5 fps. We noticed that only a repeated run of the OpenGL test boosted the fps from 25 to the mentioned 30.5.
| Cinebench R11.5 | |
| CPU Multi 64Bit (sort by value) | |
| Lenovo B5400 MB825GE | |
| HP ProBook 455 G1 H6P57EA | |
| Samsung ATIV Book 2 - 270E5E | |
| Acer Aspire E1-522-45004G50Mnkk | |
| Wortmann Terra Mobile 1512 | |
| HP ProBook 450-H0V92EA | |
| Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E540 20C60041 | |
| Dell Latitude 13 3540 | |
| CPU Single 64Bit (sort by value) | |
| Lenovo B5400 MB825GE | |
| HP ProBook 455 G1 H6P57EA | |
| Samsung ATIV Book 2 - 270E5E | |
| Wortmann Terra Mobile 1512 | |
| HP ProBook 450-H0V92EA | |
| Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E540 20C60041 | |
| Dell Latitude 13 3540 | |
System Performance
We use PCMark 7 and 8 to determine the system performance. The former shows our review unit clearly ahead of the competition. All systems in our chart use conventional hard drives, so there is no advantage from an SSD. PCMark 8 shows a more detailed result with its four sub-scores. The B5400 cannot maintain the lead in the Storage and Home scores. An SSD would change this result, but such a drive is not available in this price category.
| PCMark 8 | |
| Storage Score (sort by value) | |
| Lenovo B5400 MB825GE | |
| Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E540 20C60041 | |
| Work Score Accelerated (sort by value) | |
| Lenovo B5400 MB825GE | |
| HP ProBook 455 G1 H6P57EA | |
| Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E540 20C60041 | |
| Creative Score Accelerated (sort by value) | |
| Lenovo B5400 MB825GE | |
| Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E540 20C60041 | |
| Home Score Accelerated (sort by value) | |
| Lenovo B5400 MB825GE | |
| HP ProBook 455 G1 H6P57EA | |
| HP ProBook 450-H0V92EA | |
| Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E540 20C60041 | |
| PCMark 7 Score | 2885 points | |
| PCMark 8 Home Score Accelerated | 2949 points | |
| PCMark 8 Creative Score Accelerated | 3062 points | |
| PCMark 8 Work Score Accelerated | 4719 points | |
Help | ||
Storage Devices
CrystalDiskMark shows that the Seagate Momentus SpinPoint is not the fastest hard drive. The sequential reading performance is average, but the other drives are faster in regard to the 4K reading performance. The WDC Scorpio Blue of the low cost Terra Mobile 1512 is even 39% faster in total.
| Lenovo B5400 MB825GE GeForce GT 720M, 4200M, Seagate Momentus SpinPoint M8 ST1000LM024 HN-M101MBB | HP ProBook 450-H0V92EA HD Graphics 4000, 3120M, Seagate Momentus Thin ST500LT0 12-9WS142 | HP ProBook 455 G1 H6P57EA Radeon HD 7420G, A4-4300M, Seagate Momentus Thin ST500LT012-1DG142 | Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E540 20C60041 HD Graphics 4600, 4000M, Hitachi Travelstar Z7K500 HTS725050A7E630 | Wortmann Terra Mobile 1512 HD Graphics (Ivy Bridge), 1037U, WDC Scorpio Blue WD10JPVX-22JC3T0 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CrystalDiskMark 3.0 | -9% | 10% | 15% | 39% | |
| Read Seq | 98.7 | 82.9 -16% | 107.8 9% | 110.3 12% | 99.4 1% |
| Write Seq | 91.7 | 79.2 -14% | 102.5 12% | 109.6 20% | 99.3 8% |
| Read 4k | 0.323 | 0.315 -2% | 0.351 9% | 0.373 15% | 0.467 45% |
| Write 4k | 0.625 | 0.607 -3% | 0.682 9% | 0.708 13% | 1.26 102% |
Graphics
Graphics are handled by the HD Graphics 4600 from Intel, which is accompanied by the entry-level GT 720M GPU from Nvidia (1 GB DDR3). The GPU supports Optimus and can be deactivated. Both chips also support DirectX 11.1. Intel's integrated GPU works with 200 MHz up to 1,100 MHz, while the counterpart from Nvidia runs with 775 - 938 MHz (core).
We use the dedicated GPU (GT 720M) for the 3DMarks, which has no problem outclassing every HD Graphics 4000, HD Graphics (Ivy Bridge) and Radeon HD 7420G. However: The ThinkPad Edge E540 uses a HD 4600 (Core i3) and only falls behind by 9 - 14%. The two GPUs of our review unit are therefore on an almost similar performance level. This leads to the justified question why the manufacturer integrated a dedicated GPU in the first place. Is the GT 720M better for gaming?
| 3DMark | |
| 1280x720 Cloud Gate Standard Score (sort by value) | |
| Lenovo B5400 MB825GE | |
| Samsung ATIV Book 2 - 270E5E | |
| Wortmann Terra Mobile 1512 | |
| HP ProBook 455 G1 H6P57EA | |
| HP ProBook 450-H0V92EA | |
| Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E540 20C60041 | |
| 1280x720 Cloud Gate Standard Graphics (sort by value) | |
| Lenovo B5400 MB825GE | |
| Samsung ATIV Book 2 - 270E5E | |
| Wortmann Terra Mobile 1512 | |
| HP ProBook 455 G1 H6P57EA | |
| HP ProBook 450-H0V92EA | |
| Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E540 20C60041 | |
| 3DMark 06 Standard Score | 8415 points | |
| 3DMark Ice Storm Standard Score | 52859 points | |
| 3DMark Cloud Gate Standard Score | 4782 points | |
| 3DMark Fire Strike Score | 782 points | |
Help | ||
Gaming Performance
The GT 720M is better suited for gaming than the integrated HD 4600, which is supported by the results of Tomb Raider and BioShock Infinite. The accordingly equipped ThinkPad Edge E540 is about 45 and 38% slower. The Cloud Gate scores above are of limited relevance for the gaming performance.
| Tomb Raider - 1366x768 Normal Preset AA:FX AF:4x (sort by value) | |
| Lenovo B5400 MB825GE | |
| Samsung ATIV Book 2 - 270E5E | |
| HP ProBook 455 G1 H6P57EA | |
| Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E540 20C60041 | |
| BioShock Infinite - 1280x720 Very Low Preset (sort by value) | |
| Lenovo B5400 MB825GE | |
| Samsung ATIV Book 2 - 270E5E | |
| HP ProBook 455 G1 H6P57EA | |
| Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E540 20C60041 | |
| low | med. | high | ultra | |
| Tomb Raider (2013) | 52.7 | 37 | 21.3 | |
| BioShock Infinite (2013) | 43.9 | 28.3 | 23.5 | |
| Dota 2 (2013) | 77.1 | 29.6 |
Emissions
System Noise
The fan of the B5400 is usually very quiet and is sometimes even deactivated during idle. We can only measure the slight noise of the hard drive (31.1 dB(A)) in this scenario. The DVD drive is very loud with up to 46.8 dB(A) during DVD playback. Most drives are somewhere between 35 up to 38 dB(A). The system noise under maximum load is very moderate, our stress test only results in 38.6 dB(A) with a slightly pulsating fan behavior.
Noise Level
| Idle |
| 31.8 / 33.5 / 34.6 dB(A) |
| HDD |
| 32.3 dB(A) |
| DVD |
| 46.8 / dB(A) |
| Load |
| 37.6 / 38.6 dB(A) |
 | ||
30 dB silent 40 dB(A) audible 50 dB(A) loud |
||
min:  , med:  , max:  Voltcraft sl-320 (15 cm distance) | ||
Temperature
A lot of performance, a lot of heat? This seems to be the case for the B5400. Our comparison devices, most of them 15-inch notebooks, are slightly cooler, but that is not really surprising when you consider the low voltage processors. However, Lenovo's ThinkPad Edge E540, where the hot spots are 22 up to 27% cooler, also shows that standard voltage systems can be better.
We used our stress test to simulate the maximum load for the system. The processor reduced its clock to 2.5 GHz after 10 minutes but remained constant after that, while the CPU temperature leveled off at 81 °C. The GT 720M, which is also stressed, was able to maintain the maximum Turbo clock (936 MHz). Nvidia's GPU seems to be favored by the energy management. Throttling is, however, no problem; the clock never drops below the nominal value. A 3DMark benchmark run immediately after the stress test did not result in a lower score.
(-) The maximum temperature on the upper side is 49 °C / 120 F, compared to the average of 34.2 °C / 94 F, ranging from 21.2 to 62.5 °C for the class Office.
(-) The bottom heats up to a maximum of 49 °C / 120 F, compared to the average of 36.7 °C / 98 F
(+) In idle usage, the average temperature for the upper side is 30.5 °C / 87 F, compared to the device average of 29.5 °C / 85 F.
(+) The palmrests and touchpad are cooler than skin temperature with a maximum of 30.9 °C / 87.6 F and are therefore cool to the touch.
(-) The average temperature of the palmrest area of similar devices was 27.8 °C / 82 F (-3.1 °C / -5.6 F).
Speakers
The stereo speakers of the B5400 are above the keyboard behind a perforated plastic cover. They produce a sufficiently rich sound but lack bass. The performance is decent for an office notebook and they do not distort with higher volumes. We recommend headphones or external speakers for a better sound experience.
Energy Management
Power Consumption
The B5400 with a standard voltage CPU and a dedicated GPU has the highest energy consumption within our comparison. It needs 77 Watts during our stress test and still 64 Watts with medium workloads (3DMark06). Notebooks with a 35/37 Watts TDP, but without a dedicated GPU, are significantly more frugal; the Edge E540 only needs half of that (36 up to 39 Watts) and the HP ProBook 450 is even more frugal (-57%).
If you want the lowest energy consumption for the office, you do not necessarily have to live with the reduced performance of a low voltage system (Intel or AMD APU). The average idle consumption (idle, maximum display brightness) shows the lowest result for the ThinkPad Edge E540 (35 Watts) with 7.7 Watts, followed by the ULV rivals HP ProBook 455, Wortmann Terra Mobile 1512 and Samsung ATIV Book 2 - 270E5E with 11, 13.6 and 9 Watts. Only the consumption under load is usually much higher for the faster cores, but most office notebooks are idling quite a lot during a typical business day.
The 90 Watts power supply unit does not have any problems with the consumption. A complete recharge of the battery takes 2:34 hours.
| Off / Standby | 0.3 / 0.1 Watt |
| Idle | 6.5 / 13.7 / 14.6 Watt |
| Load |
64 / 77.5 Watt |
   
| |
Battery Runtime
We can see a clear difference between the B5400 and the competition in regard to the battery runtimes, but they do not favor our review unit. All the competitors have an advantage of at least 40% in total. Our WLAN test (script refreshes websites every 45 seconds, brightness at 150 cd/m²) results in 263 minutes for the ThinkPad Edge E540 (48 Wh) and only 164 minutes for our review unit. The ProBook 450 (47 Wh) only has an advantage of 16% in this scenario. The 48 Wh battery capacity of the B4500 is similar to the competitors (37 or 35 Watts TDP respectively).
Our test also includes the runtime during DVD playback. We decided to use a high-resolution movie from the hard drive (150 cd/m ², flight mode). The loop stopped after 3 hours and 5 minutes.
| Battery Runtime | |
| Reader / Idle (sort by value) | |
| Lenovo B5400 MB825GE | |
| HP ProBook 455 G1 H6P57EA | |
| HP ProBook 450-H0V92EA | |
| Wortmann Terra Mobile 1512 | |
| Samsung ATIV Book 2 - 270E5E | |
| WiFi (sort by value) | |
| Lenovo B5400 MB825GE | |
| Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E540 20C60041 | |
| HP ProBook 455 G1 H6P57EA | |
| HP ProBook 450-H0V92EA | |
| Wortmann Terra Mobile 1512 | |
| Samsung ATIV Book 2 - 270E5E | |
| Load (sort by value) | |
| Lenovo B5400 MB825GE | |
| Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E540 20C60041 | |
| HP ProBook 455 G1 H6P57EA | |
| HP ProBook 450-H0V92EA | |
| Wortmann Terra Mobile 1512 | |
| Samsung ATIV Book 2 - 270E5E | |
Verdict
Lenovo offers a powerful notebook with the B5400 that should have sufficient performance for many years. The emissions are reasonably low, even with the dedicated GPU. But that is all the praise, our review unit is otherwise average at best. This also applies for the input devices, which are especially important for an office device. A spongy typing experience and the cheap touchpad are not very convenient. The stability of the flexible plastic case is just acceptable for the desk. The ports are reasonable for the undemanding office class (2x USB 3.0) and you can attach Lenovo's OneLink Dock for more peripherals and improved handling. Battery runtimes are comparatively short and the TN panel has limited viewing angles and a visible blue cast. However, the contrast (495:1) is decent. Finally there are smaller issues, like the unusable webcam (picture noise even with daylight) and the very loud DVD drive.
So there are not many reasons for acquiring the B5400. You can get a ThinkPad Edge E540 (Core i3, 35 Watts) from the same manufacturer for around 570 Euros (~$770) if you can waive the dedicated Nvidia GPU. It manages an overall rating of 84% with its stability, quality impression, very good input devices and slightly better runtimes. Slightly more expensive, but also better: HP's ProBook 450-H0V92EA (Core i3; 599 Euros, ~$810). The 15-inch notebook has very good input devices and very low emissions, only the display has a lower contrast.
