Pre-installed Software and Performance

The ThinkPad X1 we tested came installed with Windows 7 Professional 64-bit with Service Pack 1. 32-bit versions of Home and Professional are also available as configurable options, however.

ThinkPads have traditionally been light on pre-installed software and the X1 follows the same trend. Aside from an installation of the Bing Bar, there wasn't any other questionable software to bog the system down. Trial versions of Microsoft Office 2010, Skype and Norton Internet Security are provided, but Lenovo leaves it up to the end user to decide whether or not to install these.

Lenovo installs plenty of their own software such as the ThinkVantage Toolbox, which is a suite of programs that cover things like system health, security, networking and diagnostics. Lenovo's custom power management program, Power Manager 3, is also included and set to a medium power / energy saving profile by default. Fresh out of the box, the X1 takes roughly 45 seconds to boot into a ready-to-use state of Windows.

Intel's Turbo Boost 2 is also part of the new second generation Core series chips and is designed to better manage workloads by dynamically adjusting individual core speeds depending on the processing power is needed. The Core i5-2520M in our unit is clocked at 2.5 GHz and should ramp up to 3.2GHz as needed.

Below we've included our standard suite of benchmark numbers tests run on the ThinkPad X1 to give you an idea of how the system performs under load.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 System Specs
  • 13.4" TFT 1366 x 768 display (covered with Corning Gorilla glass)
  • Intel Core i5-2520M (2.5GHz - 3.2GHz, 3MB L3 cache)
  • 4GB DDR3 SDRAM
  • Intel HD 3000 Graphics (650MHz - 1.3GHz)
  • Hitachi 320GB 7200RPM hard drive
  • Microsoft Windows 7 Professional (64-bit)
Lenovo ThinkPad X220 System Specs
  • 12.5" Premium HD LED-backlit IPS 1366 x 768 display
  • Intel Core i5-2520M (2.5GHz - 3.2GHz, 3MB L3 cache)
  • 4GB PC3-10700 DDR3 SDRAM
  • Intel HD 3000 Graphics (650MHz - 1.3GHz)
  • Hitachi 320GB 7200RPM hard drive
  • Microsoft Windows 7 Professional (64-bit)
Lenovo IdeaPad U260 System Specs
  • 12.5" HD AntiGlare 1366 x 768 display
  • Intel ULV Core i5-470UM (1.33GHz, 3MB L2 cache)
  • 4GB PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM
  • Intel HD Graphics
  • Hitachi 320GB 5400RPM hard drive
  • Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
HP Envy 14 System Specs
  • 14.5" HP Radiance 1600 x 900 display
  • Intel Core i5-450M (2.4GHz - 2.66GHz, 3MB L3 cache)
  • 4GB DDR3 system memory
  • 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650
  • Seagate Momentus 500GB 7200RPM
  • Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
Benchmark Results
Synthetic Tests X1 X220 U260 Envy 14
         
3DMark 06        
3DMark Score 3750 3DMarks 3786 3DMarks 1148 3DMarks 6866 3DMarks
         
PCMark Vantage        
PCMark Suite 7607 PCMarks 7201 PCMarks 3557 PCMarks 6840 PCMarks
         
Application Tests X1 X220 U260 Envy 14
         
iTunes Encoding Test 01 min 15 sec 01 min 14 sec 02 min 39 sec 01 min 34 sec
         
File Transfer Test        
Small files 1 min 23 sec 1 min 20 sec 1 min 42 sec 01 min 20 sec
Large file 1 min 2 sec 56 sec 1 min 31 sec 01 min 14 sec
         

The iTunes encoding tests consist of converting 14 MP3s (119MB) to 128Kbps ACC files and measuring the operation's duration in seconds. For the file transfer test, we measure how long it takes to copy two sets of files from one location to another on the same hard drive. On the small files test we transfer 557 MP3s, totaling 2.56GB. For the large file, these same MP3s were zipped into a single file measuring 2.52GB.

Gaming Performance X1 X220 U260 Envy 14
         
Far Cry 2        
1024x768 Medium Quality 26.59 FPS 27.56 FPS -- --
Native Resolution, High Quality 17.94 FPS 18.46 FPS -- --
         
StarCraft 2        
1024x768 Medium Quality 15.23 FPS 15.60 FPS -- --
Native Resolution, High Quality 10.42 FPS 10.21 FPS -- --