Pre-installed Software and Performance

The ThinkPad X220 we received for review came with Windows 7 Professional person 64-scrap, although Domicile Premium and Basic will also be available equally options. Every bit we've seen on other ThinkPads, the X220 comes with a light installation of tertiary-party applications. The only questionable app was the Bing Toolbar. Other software includes a Microsoft Office 2022 trial forth with Office Starter 2022, Skype, Norton Internet Security and Microsoft Silverlight.

Lenovo installs enough of their ain software such as the ThinkVantage Toolbox, which is a suite of programs that embrace things like system health, security, networking and diagnostics. Lenovo's custom power direction program, Ability Manager 3, is also included and set up to a medium ability / energy saving profile past default. Out of the box, the X220 takes about 47 seconds to boot into Windows and go fully responsive.

Intel'southward Turbo Boost 2 is besides office of the new second generation Core series chips and is designed to better manage workloads by dynamically adjusting individual cadre speeds depending on the processing power is needed.

Intel is quick to point out that this is not considered overclocking equally the processor is still running within its thermal specifications. The Core i5-2520M in our unit is clocked at 2.5 GHz and should ramp upwardly to three.2GHz every bit and if needed.

Below nosotros've included a set of benchmark numbers and graphs from several tests run on the ThinkPad X220 to requite you an thought of how the system performs under load.

Lenovo ThinkPad X220 Organisation Specs

  • 12.five" Premium Hard disk drive LED-backlit IPS 1366 x 768 brandish
  • Intel Core i5-2520M (two.5GHz - 3.2GHz, 3MB L3 cache)
  • 4GB PC3-10700 DDR3 SDRAM
  • Intel HD 3000 Graphics (650MHz - 1.3GHz)
  • Hitachi 320GB 7200RPM difficult drive
  • Microsoft Windows 7 Professional (64-chip)

Lenovo IdeaPad U260 System Specs

  • 12.5" HD AntiGlare 1366 x 768 display
  • Intel ULV Core i5-470UM (one.33GHz, 3MB L2 cache)
  • 4GB PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM
  • Intel Hd Graphics
  • Hitachi 320GB 5400RPM hard drive
  • Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)

HP Green-eyed xiv System Specs

  • 14.5" HP Radiance 1600 x 900 display
  • Intel Cadre i5-450M (2.4GHz - ii.66GHz, 3MB L3 cache)
  • 4GB DDR3 system memory
  • 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650
  • Seagate Momentus 500GB 7200RPM
  • Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)

Lenovo ThinkPad T510 Organization Specs

  • 15.vi-inch HD+ anti-glare 1600 10 900 display
  • Intel Core i7-620M (2.66GHz - three.33GHz, 4MB L3 cache)
  • 2GB PC3-8500 DDR3 arrangement memory
  • 512MB Nvidia NVS 3100m
  • 250GB 5400RPM
  • Microsoft Windows vii Professional (32-bit)

Criterion Results

Synthetic Tests X220 U260 Envy 14 T510
3DMark 06
3DMark Score 3786 3DMarks 1148 3DMarks 6866 3DMarks 3250 3DMarks
PCMark Vantage
PCMark Suite 7201 PCMarks 3557 PCMarks 6840 PCMarks 5781 PCMarks

The ThinkPad X220 relies on the processor's integrated graphics, all the same it made an impressive showing in 3DMark 06, only falling behind the HP Envy 14'due south detached Mobility Radeon GPU. The X220 handled graphics improve than last year'south ThinkPad T510 that carried a discrete Nvidia Quadro mobile GPU.

In PCMark Vantage where the CPU plays a more than of import role, the X220's concluding-gen Core i5 blasted through somewhat similar 2022's offerings.

Awarding Tests X220 U260 Envy 14 T510
iTunes Encoding Examination 01 min 14 sec 02 min 39 sec 01 min 34 sec 01 min 22 sec
File Transfer Test
Pocket-size files 1 min 20 sec ane min 42 sec 01 min 20 sec 02 min 05 sec
Large file 56 sec i min 31 sec 01 min 14 sec 02 min 11 sec

The iTunes encoding tests consist of converting xiv MP3s (119MB) to 128Kbps ACC files and measuring the functioning's elapsing in seconds. For the file transfer exam, we measure out how long information technology takes to copy two sets of files from one location to another on the same difficult drive. On the small files test we transfer 557 MP3s, totaling two.56GB. For the large file, these aforementioned MP3s were zipped into a single file measuring ii.52GB.

Gaming Performance X220 U260 Envy fourteen T510
Far Weep 2
1024x768 Medium Quality 27.56 FPS -- -- --
Native Resolution, High Quality xviii.46 FPS -- -- --
StarCraft 2
1024x768 Medium Quality 15.60 FPS -- -- --
Native Resolution, High Quality 10.21 FPS -- -- --

We accept merely begun collecting benchmarks with our revamped set of gaming tests for notebooks, hence the lack of scores for comparison. The Far Cry 2 exam is meant to give you an idea if the laptop is capable of playing a modern showtime person shooter, even on reduced settings. So StarCraft 2, a game that needs no introduction, I'm sure will stick around for the years to come, and so it's some other game nosotros take set for reference.

The StarCraft 2 test nosotros performed here is the aforementioned we utilize for desktop graphics cards and thus involves a lot of on-screen action which explains the depression average FPS. I found that in a beginner fashion game, I was averaging effectually double the frame rates that our custom test produced.