Review Lenovo ThinkPad S540 20B30059GE Ultrabook

For the original German review, see here.
Ultrabooks have found their ways into the business segment with their low weight, compact cases as well as long battery runtimes. Lenovo offers these products with the ThinkPad S-series, where the manufacturer wants to combine ThinkPad qualities with the features of ultrabooks. The previously reviewed devices ThinkPad S440 (Core i7-4500U, Radeon HD 8670M) and ThinkPad S531 (Core i7-3537U, Radeon HD 8670M) showed that it was a success for the most part. Our review finds out if the ThinkPad S540 can follow this trend.
We use the rivals Dell Latitude E7440 (Core i5-4200U, HD Graphics 4400) and Fujitsu Lifebook E753 (Core i7-3632QM, HD Graphics 4000) to classify the notebook. Our review configuration of the Lifebook costs more than 1,000 Euros (~$1367), but there are also less expensive versions.
The ThinkPad S540 is very similar to the ThinkPad S531, so we won't have a closer look at the case, the connectivity, the input devices and the speakers. The according information can be found in the review of the S531.
Connectivity
WLAN Problem
Many forums of online shops and also our own Notebookcheck forum are filled with complaints about the wireless module of the ThinkPad S531, and it seems that the S540 inherited the problem: The WLAN connection of our review unit caused trouble. The connection was lost from time to time without any apparent reason, but the problem is not the connection between the notebook and the router. The S540 just cannot access the Internet (evident from the small exclamation mark next to the wireless indicator). The download performance also drops significantly from time to time to a few kilobytes per seconds. The problems usually disappear automatically, but you will have to reconnect manually or restart the notebook to fix it immediately. The position of the notebook was not changed at any time; the distance to the FritzBox was around 4 - 5 meters.
We suspect a software and not a hardware problem. Why? We installed another hard drive with a new installation of Windows 8.1 and the according drivers. The mentioned wireless problems did not occur, so there is probably an issue with the preinstalled software. If you have the problem we recommend a clean Windows installation (= without the software from the manufacturer) to check if the problem is fixed before you return the notebook.
Operating system
The ThinkPad comes with a preloaded version of Windows 7 Professional (64-bit), but you can also install Windows 8 Professional (64-bit) from the provided DVD if you prefer it. A Windows 7 DVD is not in the box, so we recommend that you create a recovery DVD.
Maintenance
The ThinkPad does not have a maintenance cover, but accessing the components is still very easy. You just have to loosen some screws to remove the whole bottom cover and gain access to the memory, hard drive, WLAN module, SSD cache, fan and the battery.
Contrary to the S531, the S540 is equipped with two memory slots. One slot is occupied with an 8 GB module. Replacing the hard drive is very easy. You can use 2.5-inch drives with a height of 7 or 9.5 mm. The ThinkPad is also equipped with an M.2 slot. Our review unit uses an SSD cache, but it is also possible to replace the cache with a larger drive and then use it as the primary drive. However, according SSDs are still rare.
According to the hardware maintenance manual of the ThinkPad, the slot can also be used for appropriate 3G/LTE modems. Our review unit is however not equipped with the necessary antennas, so this option is not possible in this case. The according SIM card tray is still available. Replacing the battery is possible if it is damaged since it is only secured by screws. The fan can be dismantled if you want to clean it.
Display
Both the ThinkPad S540 and S531 use the same display, but the measurements of the S540 are slightly better. This is not surprising since two similar panels are never completely identical. The manufacturer can also influence the display brightness to a certain degree. Both ThinkPads have bright Full HD panels with a mediocre contrast ratio. Considering the price of the notebook we would have expected a better performance.
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Brightness Distribution: 84 %
Center on Battery: 280 cd/m²
Contrast: 346:1 (Black: 0.81 cd/m²)
ΔE Color 10.84 | 0.5-29.43 Ø4.89
ΔE Greyscale 12.6 | 0.5-98 Ø5.1
48.7% AdobeRGB 1998 (Argyll 1.6.3 3D)
54.6% AdobeRGB 1998 (Argyll 2.2.0 3D)
76% sRGB (Argyll 2.2.0 3D)
53.3% Display P3 (Argyll 2.2.0 3D)
Gamma: 2.76
Performance
Lenovo's ThinkPad S540-series offers 15.6-inch ultrabooks for private and professional use. All devices provide sufficient CPU performance for common tasks. Thanks to the Radeon GPU you can also play current games – to a limited extent. Our review configuration currently retails for around 850 Euros (~$1161). Lenovo also offers other versions with different hardware equipment (display, processor, memory, hard drive and operating system). The ThinkPad is also available with a touchscreen. The cheapest version at the time of this review is the ThinkPad S540 20B30024GE. The differences compared to our review unit are the following: It is equipped with an HD display (1366x768 pixels) and Windows 8 Professional (64-bit) is the operating system. Smaller 14-inch ultrabooks are available within the ThinkPad S440-series; the configurations are basically identical.
Processor
Our ThinkPad uses a Core i5-4200U dual-core processor based on Intel's current Haswell architecture. It has a nominal clock of 1.6 GHz, which can be raised up to 2.3 GHz (both cores) and 2.6 GHz (one core) via Turbo Boost. The Core i5 is a frugal ULV processor with a specified TDP of 15 Watts to meet the requirements of the ultrabook specifications.
The processor runs with 2.3 GHz in the single-thread tests of Cinebench and occasionally reaches 2.6 GHz for one core. Multi-thread tests are executed with 2.3 GHz. The results of the Latitude (Core i5-4200U, HD Graphics 4400) are on the same level since both devices use the same processor. Fujitsu's Lifebook (Core i7-3632QM, HD Graphics 4000) is faster because it has four cores and a higher clock as well. ThinkPad configurations with a Core i7-4500U can at least beat the Lifebook in regard to the single-thread performance (see our review of the ThinkPad S440).
System Performance
The system is snappy and there are no hiccups. This impression is also supported by the PCMark results. The Latitude (Core i5-4200U, HD Graphics 4400) cannot quite keep up, but the reason is the additional SSD cache of the ThinkPad, which has a positive effect on PCMark. The fastest device is the Lifebook (Core i7-3632QM, HD Graphics 4000) with a quad-core processor and a Solid State Drive.
A mobile device like the ThinkPad is perfect for a Solid State Drive. The operating system boots quicker and the overall system performance is improved. The PCMark results are improved as well. We tested it: Our SSD (Crucial RealSSD C300 – 64 GB) increased the score of the ThinkPad by around 47% to 4,445 points.
PCMark Vantage Result | 6279 points | |
PCMark 7 Score | 3021 points | |
PCMark 8 Work Score Accelerated v2 | 4106 points | |
Help |
Storage Solution
The ThinkPad is equipped with a hard drive from Western Digital. It has a capacity of 1 TB and works with 5,400 revolutions per minute. The hard drive is supported by an SSD cache (16 GB) from SanDisk. CrystalDiskMark determines a read performance of 99.3 MB/s and HD Tune an average transfer rate of 82.9 MB/s. These are good results for a 5,400 rpm drive. An ultrabook that is primarily designed for business users does not necessarily need such a large drive. A small Solid State Drive or a faster hard drive (7,200 rpm) would have been a better choice.
Graphics
Two GPUs are inside the thin ThinkPad: Intel's HD Graphics 4400 and AMD's Radeon HD 8670M. Both GPUs support AMD's Enduro technology, the counterpart to Nvidia's Optimus technology. The two GPUs are designed for different scenarios: Intel's GPU for simple tasks and operation on battery power, the Radeon chip for more complex applications like games. Application profiles are used to assign the GPUs with applications and the standard settings can be changed by the user at any time. The Radeon GPU belongs to the lower mainstream class. It supports DirectX 11.1 and runs with a nominal clock of 775 MHz, which can be raised to 975 MHz via Turbo.
The ThinkPad is the only device with a dedicated GPU within our competition and should have an advantage in the 3D Mark benchmarks. However, this is only the case when the CPU influence is not too big. The Lifebook (Core i7-3632QM, HD Graphics 4000) has a much more powerful CPU compared to our ThinkPad and is the fastest device in 3DMark06. However, 3DMark 11 shows the impact of the fast GPU inside the ThinkPad. Dell's Latitude (Core i5-4200U, HD Graphics 4400) uses the same CPU and is therefore almost identical with the ThinkPad in CPU demanding benchmarks.
A look at our comparison chart shows that the ThinkPad delivers better results than its predecessor ThinkPad S531. The difference is especially big in 3DMark 11, even though both notebooks have the same GPU. There are two reasons for that: The S540 has a newer GPU driver and the GPU of the S540 also has a higher Turbo clock (975 vs. 825 MHz).
3DMark 06 Standard Score | 5057 points | |
3DMark Vantage P Result | 4769 points | |
3DMark 11 Performance | 1513 points | |
3DMark Ice Storm Standard Score | 32029 points | |
3DMark Cloud Gate Standard Score | 3977 points | |
3DMark Fire Strike Score | 767 points | |
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Lenovo ThinkPad S540 20B30059GE Radeon HD 8670M, 4200U, WDC WD10JPVX-08JC3T5 + Sandisk SSD U110 16GB | Lenovo ThinkPad S531 Radeon HD 8670M, 3537U, Samsung SSD 840 250GB MZ7TD256HAFV | Fujitsu Lifebook E753 Premium Selection HD Graphics 4000, 3632QM, Micron RealSSD C400 (MTFDDAK256MAM-1K12) | Dell Latitude E7440 HD Graphics 4400, 4200U, Seagate Laptop Ultrathin ST500LT032 | Lenovo ThinkPad S440 Radeon HD 8670M, 4500U, Samsung SSD 840 250GB MZ7TD256HAFV | |
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3DMark | -6% | 4% | -10% | 1% | |
1280x720 Ice Storm Standard Score | 32029 | 32119 0% | 34900 9% | 33916 6% | 38463 20% |
1280x720 Cloud Gate Standard Score | 3977 | 3702 -7% | 5184 30% | 3832 -4% | 3713 -7% |
1920x1080 Fire Strike Score | 767 | 673 -12% | 558 -27% | 514 -33% | 699 -9% |
Gaming Performance
The ThinkPad is not designed for gamers, but the performance is still sufficient for the occasional gaming session. The CPU/GPU combination manages smooth frame rates in many current titles, but you will have to live with reduced resolutions and medium to low settings. Similar to the 3DMarks we can see that the S540 is better than the S531 – despite the same GPU. We already mentioned that the newer GPU driver and the higher Turbo clock of the GPU are the reasons for that.
low | med. | high | ultra | |
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Dead Space 3 (2013) | 67 | 32 | 26.1 | |
Crysis 3 (2013) | 19.2 | |||
Tomb Raider (2013) | 52.8 | 27.3 | 17.6 | |
SimCity (2013) | 132.1 | 22.2 | ||
StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm (2013) | 166.1 | 47.8 | 25.7 | |
BioShock Infinite (2013) | 39.2 | 24.1 | 19.6 | |
Metro: Last Light (2013) | 22.5 | |||
GRID 2 (2013) | 50 | 29.9 | 21.7 | |
Company of Heroes 2 (2013) | 23 | |||
Dota 2 (2013) | 42 | 19.2 | ||
Splinter Cell: Blacklist (2013) | 39.8 | 14.3 | ||
The Bureau: XCOM Declassified (2013) | 28.2 | 17.1 | ||
Total War: Rome II (2013) | 40.6 | 30.5 | 26.2 | |
F1 2013 (2013) | 46 | 28 | 25 | |
Batman: Arkham Origins (2013) | 40 | 22 | ||
Battlefield 4 (2013) | 33.6 | 24.8 | 17.1 | |
Call of Duty: Ghosts (2013) | 27.3 | 21.3 | ||
Need for Speed: Rivals (2013) | 23.5 | 19.4 | ||
X-Plane 10.25 (2013) | 51.2 | 24.8 |
Lenovo ThinkPad S540 20B30059GE Radeon HD 8670M, 4200U, WDC WD10JPVX-08JC3T5 + Sandisk SSD U110 16GB | Lenovo ThinkPad S531 Radeon HD 8670M, 3537U, Samsung SSD 840 250GB MZ7TD256HAFV | Fujitsu Lifebook E753 Premium Selection HD Graphics 4000, 3632QM, Micron RealSSD C400 (MTFDDAK256MAM-1K12) | Dell Latitude E7440 HD Graphics 4400, 4200U, Seagate Laptop Ultrathin ST500LT032 | |
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BioShock Infinite | -13% | -15% | ||
1280x720 Very Low Preset | 39.2 | 35.78 -9% | 36.5 -7% | |
1366x768 Medium Preset | 24.1 | 20.48 -15% | 18.6 -23% | |
1366x768 High Preset | 19.6 | 16.76 -14% | 16.4 -16% | |
Dead Space 3 | -32% | |||
1024x768 Low Preset | 67 | 52.8 -21% | ||
1366x768 Medium Preset | 32 | 20.1 -37% | ||
1366x768 High Preset | 26.1 | 16.3 -38% | ||
Total Average (Program / Settings) | -13% /
-13% | -15% /
-15% | -32% /
-32% |
Emissions
System Noise
The ThinkPad is hardly audible during idle. The fan is usually deactivated and you can only hear the noise of the hard drive with 31.4 up to 32.5 dB(A). These values can be improved when you replace the hard drive with a Solid State Drive. Latitude (30.5 up to 32.3 dB(A)) and Lifebook (29.6 up to 32.2 dB(A)) are comparable with the ThinkPad. Medium load (3DMark06) and maximum load (stress test, Prime95 and FurMark simultaneously) only result in a moderate increase to 33.5 and 36.8 dB(A). Both the Latitude (40.2 and 45.8 dB(A)) and the Lifebook (38.2 and 48.6 dB(A)) are much louder. The ThinkPad does, however, have a problem with a slightly whining fan under load. It is still tolerable in our opinion, but this is a subjective impression.
Noise Level
Idle |
| 31.4 / 31.6 / 31.7 dB(A) |
HDD |
| 32.5 dB(A) |
Load |
| 33.5 / 36.8 dB(A) |
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30 dB silent 40 dB(A) audible 50 dB(A) loud |
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Temperature
None of the three devices gets very warm during idle, but the ThinkPad and the Latitude are much cooler than the Lifebook. This is a result of the frugal ULV processors. Maximum load does lead to a noticeable increase of the temperatures around the fan exhaust of the ThinkPad and some spots even exceed 50 °C. The increase of the competitors is not as steep, but the S540 is better compared to its predecessor; the S540 is cooler than the S531 thanks to the Haswell processor.
Our stress test (Prime95 and FurMark for at least one hour) shows a CPU clock of 1.8 up to 1.9 GHz, both with AC power and on battery. The GPU only runs with its maximum Turbo clock (975 MHz) on AC power and only with 400 MHz on battery power. The CPU temperature leveled off at around 81 °C in our stress test (on AC power), which simulates an extreme scenario that is not realistic for everyday use. The CPU can use its Turbo during common tasks, which is supported by our benchmarks.
(-) The maximum temperature on the upper side is 52.7 °C / 127 F, compared to the average of 34.3 °C / 94 F, ranging from 21.2 to 62.5 °C for the class Office.
(-) The bottom heats up to a maximum of 54.3 °C / 130 F, compared to the average of 36.8 °C / 98 F
(+) In idle usage, the average temperature for the upper side is 28.5 °C / 83 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 31.4 °C / 88.5 F and are therefore cool to the touch.
(-) The average temperature of the palmrest area of similar devices was 27.6 °C / 81.7 F (-3.8 °C / -6.8 F).
Energy Management
Power Consumption
The ThinkPad consumes between 7.1 and 13 Watts during idle. The Lifebook needs a bit more power (7.9 up to 14.7 Watts), but the Latitude (3.3 up to 8 Watts) is much more frugal. Medium load (3DMark06 running) and maximum load (stress test, Prime95 and FurMark simultaneously) result in 33.7 and 44.4 Watts for the S540. The Lifebook needs more energy once again (45.5 and 65.7 Watts), but that is not surprising when you consider the standard voltage quad-core CPU. The Latitude consumes the least amount of energy with 28.7 and 33.1 Watts.
Off / Standby | ![]() ![]() |
Idle | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Load |
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Battery Runtime
The ThinkPad managed an idle runtime of 13:19 hours and clearly beats the Lifebook (10:06 h) and the Latitude (10:15 h). The idle runtime is determined by Battery Eater Reader's Test with minimum display brightness, activated energy-saving mode and deactivated wireless modules. The battery of the ThinkPad lasted for 2:24 hours under load, which is once again better than the Lifebook (1:19 h) and the Latitude (1:10 h). We use Battery Eater Classic Test (maximum display brightness, high-performance profile and activated wireless modules) to determine the runtime under load.
Our WLAN test resulted in 7:05 hours for the S540, and neither the Latitude (5:17 h) nor the Lifebook (5:54 h) can keep up. This test simulates web browsing with a script that refreshes websites every 40 seconds. The energy-saving mode is active and the display brightness is adjusted to around 150 cd/m². We use a loop of the short movie Big Buck Bunny to determine the battery runtime during video playback. The energy-saving mode is active, the wireless modules are deactivated and the display brightness is adjusted to around 150 cd/m². It took 5:49 hours before the battery was empty. We did not perform this test in our reviews of the competitors.
Battery runtimes of the ThinkPad are very good and the direct comparison with the predecessor ThinkPad S531 also shows an improvement. The S540 lasts longer with the same battery capacity.
Battery Runtime | |
Lenovo ThinkPad S540 20B30059GE | |
Reader / Idle | |
H.264 | |
WiFi | |
Load | |
Lenovo ThinkPad S531 | |
Reader / Idle | |
WiFi | |
Load | |
Verdict
"Lenovo's ThinkPad S531 is a very good ultrabook with many positive aspects." That was the verdict of the S531, and it also applies for the ThinkPad S540: The notebook offers a good application performance and is also powerful enough for occasional gaming sessions. The ultrabook also has a very large hard drive. Case and input devices are – similar to the predecessor – excellent. Battery runtimes have also been improved compared to the S531. However, these positive aspects are also combined with some drawbacks. There are problems with the wireless connection and the fan whines slightly under load. Lenovo also only grants a warranty of 12 months. These issues do not meet the requirements of the price. The display causes criticism as well: It is bright, but the contrast is very low and the viewing angle stability is not very good either. We expect more in this regard.
Fujitsu's Lifebook E753 is an interesting alternative if you need more CPU performance. It is equipped with standard voltage processors, which are much more powerful than the ULV versions inside the ThinkPad. The Dell Latitude E7440 can score with its low weight and it also has the best maintainability within our competition.