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Resolved Question

Thinkpad Yoga 14 or L450?

May 12, 2015 8:35AM PDT

I run a small architecture practice and I'm looking for a 14" laptop to chuck in a bag everyday for seeing clients, working at home/on the road, and the kids will nick it for homework and iplayer no doubt. It doesn't need to be full workstation level but reasonable graphics for occasional 2D CAD work, sketch up, sometimes presentations with animations etc, and hopefully decent-ish battery life. Specs I'm considering are i5 chip, FHD screen, 8G RAM, 500G HDD and a basic dedicated graphics card. I like thinkpads for the keyboard and general ruggedness but can't afford a T450! The Yoga 14 and the L450 are coming out at a similar price (around £800). The Yoga is a bit more fun but is the touchscreen a liability? Any opinions welcome!

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GreenTriangle has chosen the best answer to their question. View answer

Best Answer

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Chuck? Then neither.
May 12, 2015 8:55AM PDT

Both models don't seem good for chucking. If harsh handling is going to be the norm, look at the Panasonic Toughbooks.
Bob

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Wow!
May 12, 2015 10:40AM PDT

Hi Bob. Thanks....I haven't come across those before. Certainly rugged! I think I was being slightly flippant with the 'chuck' and the toughbooks are probably a bit more rugged than I need. It's not really muddy sites so much as carrying around most days. I've had a Thinkpad Edge E420s for 3-4 years until the motherboard recently expired and that was sufficiently tough. It did have a 128G SSD which was nice and might have helped with occasional bumps but I was looking for a bit more storage without blowing the budget if possible. Do you think the ones I suggested would be similar build quality and meet the other performance needs? Ian

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Even if I ignore the chucking part.
May 12, 2015 10:34PM PDT

The models are product lines with about 6 to more models in each line. So I can't comment which may perform. About build quality, they look fine to me. But I treat my laptops with care and they usually get old before they fail.
Bob

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More detailed specs
May 13, 2015 12:36AM PDT

Thanks Bob. The main specs in more detail are:

Thinkpad L450 £755
Intel Core i5-5200U Processor (3MB Cache, up to 2.70GHz)
OS: Win 8.1 (options for 7 pro or 8.1 pro)
Display: 14.0"FHD (1920 x 1080), IPS, AntiGlare, with WWAN
Memory: 8GB PC3-12800 DDR3L SDRAM 1600MHz SODIMM or 8GB PC3-12800 DDR3L (2 DIMM)? (also options up to 16GB)
Graphics: AMD Radeo R5 M240 2G
Keyboard: Keyboard - UK English
Pointing Device: UltraNav (TrackPoint and TouchPad) with Fingerprint Reader
Camera: 720p HD Camera
Hard Drive: SSHD 500GB5400 8GB Cache (several options for size, speed. cache etc and inc SSD eg. up to 256 GB Solid State Drive, Serial ATA3 OPAL2.0 - Capable (+£70 seems quite good value but does it make much difference to my sort of work?)
Rear Battery: ThinkPad Battery 6 cell Li-Ion (47Whr) Cylindrical (up to 7.7 hours)- (option for 6 cell Li-Ion (72Wh) Cyl HC Rear - would that mean 11.5 hours and would it weigh more?)
Wireless: Intel 7265 AC/B/G/N Dual Band Wireless + Bluetooth Version 4.0
Weight: Starting at 4.25 lbs / 1.92 kg
Ports: 3
x USB 3.0, 4-in-1 card reader (SD, MMC, SDHC, SDXC), audio/headphone
combo jack, RJ-45, mini DisplayPort, smart card (optional), FPR
(optional)

Thinkpad Yoga 14 £818
Intel Core i5-5200U Processor (3MB Cache, up to 2.70GHz)
OS: Windows 8.1 64 (option for 8.1 pro)
Display: 14.0"FHD (1920 x 1080) LED,IPS, AntiGlare, Multitouch, Black
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 840M 2GB
Memory: 8GB PC3-12800 DDR3L SDRAM 1600MHz SODIMM (top spec offered)
Keyboard: Keyboard Backlit - UK English
Pointing Device: NO Fingerprint Reader, Black Cover
Hard Drive: SSHD 500GB5400 8GB Cache (several options inc 256 GB Solid State Drive, Serial ATA3 OPAL2.0 - Capable +£100 (maybe if worth it) or 512GB Solid State Drive, SATA3 +£236 (seems too pricey))
Battery: 4 cell Li-Polymer 56Wh (up to 8 hours, no options)
Wireless: Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC/B/G/N 7265, Bluetooth Version 4.0
Weight: Starting at 1.9kg (4.2 lbs) / 21mm (0.8") thick
Ports: 2 USB 3.0, 1 USB 2.0 (always on), 4-in-1 card reader, HDMI, Lenovo OneLink Technology, combo headphone/microphone port

Thanks for your help. Ian

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Looks like a horse race.
May 13, 2015 1:17AM PDT

The glaring difference seems to be the ATI or Nvidia choice. Nobody I know uses the fingerprint reader so for folk I know, won't pay for that.

I'll get to why companies offer either GPU in a second. The battery time is worth noting. Given the battery pack is 300 cycle rated no one at the office runs on battery power all the time. Why? Because if you ran on battery daily, charged at night you can easily be replacing the battery yearly.

About the GPUs. You can google this "Notebookcheck 840M" and the other to compare GPU results.
Companies know there are fanboys for both brands so they know to get the most sales they must provide both ATI and Nvidia GPUs.

While I have a preference I never let that sway my writings as a moderator.
Bob

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last questions....
May 13, 2015 3:09AM PDT

Thanks Bob

All the review sites give you pages of numbers but its great to have some perspective!

Graphics:
To my untrained eye, the Nvidia seems to be a 'mid' range compared to the AMD 'entry' level and all the numbers look correspondingly bigger and better on:
http://gpuboss.com/gpus/Radeon-R5-M240-vs-GeForce-840M
Would you say they should both be OK with occasional 2D CAD, small animations etc or not?

Memory:
Is 8GB enough for this use?

Storage:
Would I notice the difference an SSD hard drive makes and is it that much more stable/safer/more resilient?

Cheers

Ian

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My choice would be the 840M
May 13, 2015 3:19AM PDT

Your GPUBOSS, unless I misread it had it bringing in much higher, faster results.

As to 2D, the 3D chip accelerates that too.

8GB. The sweet spot.
SSD. Always a nice thing but we can change that later on most machines.
YES. SSD always is noticeable.

SAFE? Neither is safe. Both have issues that means we always backup (many times) what we can't lose. Imagine this recent news on SSD. Be sure to read the fine print. It's not all that bad but could wipe some applications out. -> https://www.google.com/search?q=Solid-state+drives+lose+data+if+left+without+power+for+just+a+few+days&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

Don't panic. Read the fine print. Backup what you can't lose.
Bob

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Big Thanks
May 13, 2015 8:23AM PDT

Hi Bob
You're a star! Great service from c-net too.
Think I'm pretty much settled on the yoga with 840m...and getting a mechanical back up!
Thanks for your patience
Ian