So I’m a bit confused about Lenovo’s choice of processors as they opt for 15 W TDP CPUs in their premium T-series laptops e.g. T450s (i5-5300U) while Apple goes with the 23 W CPU in the MBP 13" 2015 (i5-5257U).
This results in considerably worse CPU performance on the Lenovo side and even my old 2013 MBP 13" model (i5-4288U) at 28 W scores better than the newest T450s with its best processor option (i7-5600U).
I understand that Lenovo may have somewhat better battery life and that Apple’s focus is more towards graphics professionals but Lenovo should be able to deliver a premium model that matches Apple in terms of CPU.
What opinions do you people have on this? Does this make the Lenovo T-series less viable?
What would be a good alternative to the T450s if I still want the docking and quality feel but match the Mac in performance without going up to a bigger size? Could be any manufacturer that builds Windows laptops (I’m not running Windows on a Mac).
You get more battery life out of a 15W CPU than a 28W one. As far as I can tell, the Iris graphics CPUs that Apple gets are exclusive to them (cue someone correcting me). You can find other laptops with Iris graphics, but chances are they'll be unjustifiably more expensive than the non-Iris counterparts.
The T450s is aimed at people and businesses who don't necesserily need the extra graphics horsepower.
You just answered your own question. its lower power and lower speed than those other two CPUs of course its not going to do as well. Are you going to notice? Unless you have a specific use case probably not.
I think @Zavar is also correct Apple keep trying to buy up all the iris CPUs. The CPU lenovo uses also has features the ones apple uses do not that they may have decided would better suit their customers.
There is an Acer with the same CPU but but besides that there only seem to be Apple laptops with i5-5257U so you're probably right about the 'exclusivity' here.
So maybe this is not a design choice on Lenovo's part but a question of availability? Businesses are not that strictly about battery life so it's not clear that this is the optimal choice. I'm inclined to agree with that the graphics performance doesn't have to be the priority but between the processors listed there are also notable differences in computational power and memory performance as well.
What I'm getting at is that some 18 months separate these two computers, they are both considered as the best offer in their size category by both manufacturers and despite this Lenovo is behind in performance benchmarks.
Yes I have to wonder about that to, they have been doing odd stuff lately. Like W series used to be the power house series and now the new P series is. and now what the T series was the W series is... Its weird.