I had an anti-mac period a few weeks ago and thought it would be a good idea to order a Thinkpad. The lack of ports on newer macbook and lack of possible upgrade made me look away for a few minutes.
I decided to do a small comparison between my two laptops for fun and entertainment.
I chose the Lenovo Thinkpad 580 because it's very customizable and it was 35% OFF. There was no point choosing another laptop with soldered ram or disk. I didn't choose the Dell XPS because you cannot customize it enough in the canadian online store.
Note: I know I could have picked up a beefier CPU, but I checked the reviews of beefier CPU in the same laptop and it seemed like there was some cpu throttling which made the 8350 the best deal for the $$. I do programming and use VM but so far, no issue with performance.
I ordered a dual batteries configuration. You can even hot-swap the 2nd battery when the laptop is in use, which is nice.
Thinkpad T580
Specs:
8th Generation Intel® Core™ i5-8350U Processor with vPro (1.70GHz, up to 3.60GHz with Turbo Boost, 6MB Cache)
● Windows 10 Pro 64
● Windows 10 Pro 64 French
● 15.6" UHD (3480 x 2160) IPS anti-glare
● 32 GB (16 + 16) DDR4 2400MHz
● NVIDIA GeForce MX150 2GB GDDR5
● IR & 720p HD Camera with microphone
● Backlit Keyboard - French
● Fingerprint Reader
● FPR NoNFC
● Hardware dTPM
● Hardware dTPM2.0 Enabled
● 256GB Solid State Drive, SATA3 OPAL2.0 - Capable
● Smart Card Reader
● 4 cell Li-Ion 32WH
● 6 cell Li-Ion 72Wh Cylindrical Rear
● 65W AC Adapter (2pin) - USB Type C
● Intel Dual Band 8265 Wireless AC (2 x 2) & Bluetooth 4.1 with vPro
● vPro Certified
● 15.6" UHD slim flat IPS, non-Touch, w/ IR-Camera, w/ Mic, w/ WLAN, w/o WWAN
● NVIDIA GeForce MX150 2G
● Publication - French
● 1 Year Depot or Carry-in
PRICE : 2300$ CDN (including tax) was over 3000$ before the rebates.
Mac
Both machines were patched, bios update (lenovo).
Cinebench
mac :
POWER CONSUMPTION:
Lenovo windows 10:
MAC 2013 with Mojave B5 :
Lenovo - Arch Linux (4.14 kernel, XFCE 4.12, tlp):
GEEKBENCH4
Lenovo windows 10: SC: 4606 MC: 15571
MAC 2013 with Mojave B5 : SC:4081 MC:13260
----
Additional notes Lenovo:
+ The Window's hello camera is very fast and nice.
- the trackpad is average compared to the mac
+ the keyboard feel superior
+ sdhx card reader
+ network rj45 slim jack
+ hdmi and other ports
+ user replaceable batteries (I have 2)
+ hotswap the battery when powered on
- you can see fingerprints quickly on the case
+ matte screen
+ full numeric keypad
+ colors on the Lenovo seems better, but based on my personal opinion.
+ fingerprint scanner
Additional notes Mac:
+ glossy screen
+ fingerprints it not an issue
+ keyboard is good (but lenovo feels better)
+ best trackpad ever
+ sdcard
+ plenty of video/usb ports on the 2013.
+ ssd speed
Mac
Lenovo pic
side by side
Conclusion
I wish for the price paid and the 5 years that have elapsed that there would be a bigger difference in performance or quality. The Macbook is still in top shape, almost same exact performance as the Lenovo, have an excellent screen and can last another few years. It was a great buy (~2300CDN refurbished).
Note: I didn't compare the SSD because I ordered a cheap slower version for the Lenovo. I ordered a 2TB SSD (450$CAD) from amazon and will probably swap it soon.
Overall, it's wasn't a great move
if you're in the same position, you know what to expect.
I'm not sure yet I will run Win10 or Arch as the main OS.
I decided to do a small comparison between my two laptops for fun and entertainment.
I chose the Lenovo Thinkpad 580 because it's very customizable and it was 35% OFF. There was no point choosing another laptop with soldered ram or disk. I didn't choose the Dell XPS because you cannot customize it enough in the canadian online store.
Note: I know I could have picked up a beefier CPU, but I checked the reviews of beefier CPU in the same laptop and it seemed like there was some cpu throttling which made the 8350 the best deal for the $$. I do programming and use VM but so far, no issue with performance.
I ordered a dual batteries configuration. You can even hot-swap the 2nd battery when the laptop is in use, which is nice.
Thinkpad T580
Specs:
8th Generation Intel® Core™ i5-8350U Processor with vPro (1.70GHz, up to 3.60GHz with Turbo Boost, 6MB Cache)
● Windows 10 Pro 64
● Windows 10 Pro 64 French
● 15.6" UHD (3480 x 2160) IPS anti-glare
● 32 GB (16 + 16) DDR4 2400MHz
● NVIDIA GeForce MX150 2GB GDDR5
● IR & 720p HD Camera with microphone
● Backlit Keyboard - French
● Fingerprint Reader
● FPR NoNFC
● Hardware dTPM
● Hardware dTPM2.0 Enabled
● 256GB Solid State Drive, SATA3 OPAL2.0 - Capable
● Smart Card Reader
● 4 cell Li-Ion 32WH
● 6 cell Li-Ion 72Wh Cylindrical Rear
● 65W AC Adapter (2pin) - USB Type C
● Intel Dual Band 8265 Wireless AC (2 x 2) & Bluetooth 4.1 with vPro
● vPro Certified
● 15.6" UHD slim flat IPS, non-Touch, w/ IR-Camera, w/ Mic, w/ WLAN, w/o WWAN
● NVIDIA GeForce MX150 2G
● Publication - French
● 1 Year Depot or Carry-in
PRICE : 2300$ CDN (including tax) was over 3000$ before the rebates.
Mac
- MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013)
- Retina display: 15.4-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit display with IPS technology; 2880-by-1800 resolution at 220 pixels per inch with support for millions of colors
- Native resolution: 2880 by 1800 pixels (Retina); scaled resolutions: 1920 by 1200, 1680 by 1050, 1280 by 800, and 1024 by 640 pixels
- 16gb ram
- i7 4850hq 2.3
- VIDEO GEFORCE GT750M
- 512gb SSD
Both machines were patched, bios update (lenovo).
Cinebench
mac :
opencl: 599cb
opengl: 59.18
lenovo 2018:opengl: 59.18
opencl: 623cb
opengl: 58.00
opengl: 58.00
POWER CONSUMPTION:
Lenovo windows 10:
idle: 9.6W
firefox youtube: 13W
edge youtube : 13W
firefox youtube: 13W
edge youtube : 13W
MAC 2013 with Mojave B5 :
idle : 10.25W
firefox youtube: 26W
safari youtube : 23.52W
firefox youtube: 26W
safari youtube : 23.52W
Lenovo - Arch Linux (4.14 kernel, XFCE 4.12, tlp):
idle: 9.6W
firefox youtube: 22.8W
firefox youtube: 22.8W
GEEKBENCH4
Lenovo windows 10: SC: 4606 MC: 15571
MAC 2013 with Mojave B5 : SC:4081 MC:13260
----
Additional notes Lenovo:
+ The Window's hello camera is very fast and nice.
- the trackpad is average compared to the mac
+ the keyboard feel superior
+ sdhx card reader
+ network rj45 slim jack
+ hdmi and other ports
+ user replaceable batteries (I have 2)
+ hotswap the battery when powered on
- you can see fingerprints quickly on the case
+ matte screen
+ full numeric keypad
+ colors on the Lenovo seems better, but based on my personal opinion.
+ fingerprint scanner
Additional notes Mac:
+ glossy screen
+ fingerprints it not an issue
+ keyboard is good (but lenovo feels better)
+ best trackpad ever
+ sdcard
+ plenty of video/usb ports on the 2013.
+ ssd speed
Mac
Lenovo pic
side by side
Conclusion
I wish for the price paid and the 5 years that have elapsed that there would be a bigger difference in performance or quality. The Macbook is still in top shape, almost same exact performance as the Lenovo, have an excellent screen and can last another few years. It was a great buy (~2300CDN refurbished).
Note: I didn't compare the SSD because I ordered a cheap slower version for the Lenovo. I ordered a 2TB SSD (450$CAD) from amazon and will probably swap it soon.
Overall, it's wasn't a great move
if you're in the same position, you know what to expect.
I'm not sure yet I will run Win10 or Arch as the main OS.
