Lenovo T450s vs. Dell Latitude e7470

I am looking to buy a business laptop and I have come down to these two choices. Is there any reason as to why the T450s would be worth purchasing over the Latitude? Specs aside, the only thing making me lean towards a Dell is the price. But at the same time I feel that maybe the T450s is just a better machine? Any input is highly appreciated.

 

The main advantage of the T450s is the removable battery, which allows you to use bigger 72 Wh batteries. So if you want maximum battery life, T450s is a good choice.

Other advantages: The keyboard and TrackPoint on the T450s are better. You can use traditional 2,5" drives + small M.2 SSDs in the T450s, providing you with maximum capacity and good performance. On the other hand, the E7470 has NVMe M.2 drives, which is a feature the T450s lacks. So you can use faster drives in the Dell vs. more capacity in the ThinkPad. Oh, and the Dell allows up to 32 GB of memory (vs. max 20 GB on the T450s), and of course it has faster CPUs and GPUs, since its one generation newer.

 

Just a few more questions,

I saw that you can get a 6 cell 55wh battery on the dell (swapping out the 3 cell), but then the question is how much more battery life will that give me?

Does dell make other keyboards for the latitude that can be installed and upgraded? I tried the latitude in stores and the keyboard had a terrible feel (I am using an x131e right now and the keyboard is amazing). The keyboard on the dell feels super cheap, and I really do not want to have keyboard replacement issues down the road.

Apart from that, the T450s is ~1100, the e7470 is ~900, still cant decide!

 

The ThinkPad keyboard is easily replaceable. Previous Latitudes also had this feature, but the E7470 does not have a easily replaceable keyboard, you basically have to take apart the whole machine.

Regarding the battery, 55 Wh is better than 48 Wh (the standard capacity of the T450s). However, the T450s can have up to 95 Wh, 55 Wh is the maximum for the Latitude.

 

The battery and keyboard are really a big deal. I do a lot of writing on the laptop, and the keys on my x131e are the best ever.

Going back to CPU and GPU, will a one generation difference really have a large difference in performance?

 

The difference won´t be that large when it comes to the CPU. On the GPU side, you will feel and see the difference in games for example. But I would say, if you want to game, both are not really great for that.

 

Have you used the X300/X301?

I'd vote for the T450s just for the better keyboard/stick and dual drive option. My Dell has this and it's slick. I doubt the NVE drives make much of a practical difference. One thing to consider is both the E7470 and T450s offer 1080p matte IPS screens, which offer very nice image quality, so if one has a 1080p LCD, I'd take that one over the other.

 

I just going to assume all laptops now days will be able to run the occasional counter strike 1.6 (1999-2000 series game)

No, I have never used the x300/301 before, but it does look nice. Outdated however...

Both screens on the T450s and the e7470 will be IPS. The only difference between that two is this: the T450s is an i7 5600, with 12 gigs of DDR3 ram + 256 SSD SATA 3, while the e7470 will be an i5 6300u, with 8gigs of DDR4 ram + 256 SSD. Also, there is an option of getting the i7 6600u on the Dell with all other specs being the same, but I am hesitant due to the fact that the battery life on the dell is terrible, and adding an i7 is just going to further kill the battery life.

The Dell e7470 i5 is @ $849
The Dell e7470 i7 is @ 1100
The Lenovo T450s is @ $1100


With the above stated, does any of that change any of your opinions?

 

Perhaps so, but the keyboard was sublime.

I guess to me it boils down to whether you want the better keyboard/stick and storage options the T450s offers. If so, then the T450s is likely the better fit. If you don't care about those, the E7470 offers better value due to the lower price and enhanced warranty.

 

What he said.

 

Talking about the x300 keyboard, anyway to buy the keyboard itself and install it into the t450s?

 

No, that not possible. Those keyboards have very different layouts and dimensions.

You could wait for ThinkPad Retro, which is rumored for a release later this year.

But the T450s keyboard is also great. Especially the LiteOn backlit keyboard.

 

I hope I will not regret getting the T450s with the retro around the corner...

UPDATE*
Unless there is build quality difference between the e5450 and the e7470, I tried the keyboard today on the e5450 (assuming it is the same keyboard on the e7470) and it just sucks. Most likely purchasing the T450s this weekend.

Thanks for all the input guys and gals!

 

The keyboard on the E5450 is different then the E7470.

 

I used both the E5450 and E5470 keyboard. I thought they were fairly decent, not up to ThinkPad standards, nor is the stick, but they offer excellent value if you can do the outlet thing. If you want a craptacular keyboard get the E7440. I just don't use mine enough to warrant spending money on something better. Plus, the E7440 can do a SSD and hard drive. None of the new business machines can seem to do this.

 

The T470 can do it.

 

I had a hunch. However, I received my T450s last night, and I am pretty satisfied with the purchase at the moment. Had I known earlier that the e5450 keyboard was different from the e7470, I perhaps would have reconsidered the lenovo.

Thanks again everyone.

 

I think you made the right call. The only reason I picked the E7470 is because I had to pick something that worked with the E-port docking stations we have put all over the place.

 

T450s has been a great business laptop for me so far. Congrats on your purchase.

Sent from my ZTE A2017U using Tapatalk

 

First off the t450s feels waaaaay different than my x131e. Everything about this laptop feels awesome and the keyboard is sooo nice!!!

However... I have just ran into a really bizzare problem...

I bought the t450s on amazon with 12gigs of ram, a 256 ssd, and a 1080p IPS. Well I just noticed that the screen has some glare on it. Turns out that the this t450s came with a touch screen. I hate it so much; that little amount of glare is extremely annoying. Furthermore, I then assumed I got the wrong order. I went to check the ssd and ram and my assumption was correct; instead of a 12 gigs of ram, I have 20 gigs; instead of a 256 ssd I have a 500ssd. Obviously I got the wrong order.

Before I go placing a "wrong item received claim", anyway I can just replace the IPS touch screen with a non touch IPS matte screen and keep the additional goodies?

No idea what I am supposed to do, and no Idea how you can mess up an order that bad. I am assuming that 20 gigs of ram + a 500 ssd is worth a lot more than 12gigs of ram and a 256 ssd?

 

True, but Kaby Lake means Windows 10 and I'm not ready to go there yet.

Sure, with enough skill all is possible, though swapping out the screen usually has a high degree of difficulty, particularly going from a touch screen, which is thicker, to a non-touch screen. If you bought this at Amazon, they're usually pretty good about these things, especially if you're exchanging it, so it never hurts to ask.

P.S. - Watch the language as we run a G rated forum here.

 

You can´t just change the Touchscreen with a non-Touch one. For that, you need a completely different screen assembly, as well as different cables, hinges etc.

It might be easier to sell the T450s and get a different model without Touch.

 

Zaz, I noted your g rated comment rules, went back to edit the post, saw it was already edited. Thank you.

With regards to the screen, before I go through the claims dept, is the standard IPS non-touchscreen going to have a blurriness to it? The screen on this current lenovo has some glare on it, yet at the same time its also matte, making for a really strange combo where everything seems slightly blurred (I do not know any other words to describe this). I really hope the matte ips non-touch is not going to have the strange blurry quality that this screen has.

 

Yea I am going to be returning/exchanging it. Again before doing so, I just want to make sure that the ips non-touch screen is NOT going to have a blurred quality to it.

 

The non-Touch screen is definitely much less glare and more matte. When I had my T440s with FHD IPS, it was very usable.

 

Thanks

 

When I first read this I actually thought "my E5450 keyboard is no T450s keyboard but it's not horrible, in fact it's pretty nice", but then I was working on someone else's E5450 yesterday and the keyboard was horrible. Completely different keyboard then in my E5450, it was much more "clicky" and kind of metallic sounding. Felt cheap really... so then I grabbed another E5450 from the fleet and it had the same thing. So it looks like there's at least two keyboards for the E5450, one is crap and one is pretty good. I thought I'd clear that up for anyone who searches and finds this thread.

 

Thank you for pointing that out. rep'd

On a side note, or an update I should say, I returned the T450s, and went with a T460s. Hopefully I will not regret my decision.

 

2.5" hdd, m.2 ssd , wwan and wlan all work at the same time.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/fileadmin/Notebooks/HP/EliteBook_840_G3/IMG_7348.JPG
Full review here.

 

You got to bump up to WQHD to get IPS, which knowing HP will be expensive, and no center button = lame. I'll just hang onto what I've got for now.

 

Yea, I don't know what they are thinking with that missing middle button. It has been available on 15" top tier models only since the C2D era, bakc then it was standard. One step older G2 has optional 1080p IPS and older power plug. Still the two button touchpad though.

 

T450s are still too expensive and I don't want to do the touch pad surgery for the T440s, so as much as I'd like to upgrade, I don't use my notebook enough to warranty spending big bucks. It's not perfect, but I like my Dell and it's still under warranty for six more months.

 

You use a desktop mostly?

 

I don't know how to edit the title of this forum post, but perhaps now it is misleading. I traded the t450s for a t460s. Very satisfied with my exchange/purchase.

 

Just out of curiosity, the t460s came with a 500gig SSD, and the SSD itself says 417/473 gigs available for use. I understand that the OS and some Misc programs take up some space from the initial 500gigs, bringing it down to 473 gigs, but what exactly is taking up the additional 56 gigs on this new laptop?

Also, is it worth installing the listed updates that the Lenovo's System Update program recommends?

 

My guess would be the recovery partition. Turning off system restore will save some space as well.

 

I think that 473GB is the formatted capacity of a 512GB drive. ...Since a 500GB drive I have is 465GB after formatting it.

 

Ya, that's what I thought. But the question still stands, of the 413gigs available of the 473gig SSD, what could possibly be taking up 50 gigs on a new laptop? There doesn't appear to be any bloatware?

Have not tried to shut off recovery part, will try later this week.

 

You don't shut off the recovery partition. Turning off system restore will save GBs.