Lenovo ThinkPad X220 Review

System validation for the X220 can be viewed over here.

This particular review sample uses the high end Core i7 2620M which is clocked at 2.7ghz, with a maximum turbo speed up to 3.4ghz. It is a dual core design with 4 threads. There is 4MB of Level 3 cache. Lenovo have a single stick of Samsung memory configured to run at 1333mhz with 9-9-9-24 1T timings. While a single 4GB stick is better for those who upgrade later to 8GB, two 2GB sticks out of the factory would mean the system would run in Dual Channel mode. As it ships, this will suffer a performance penalty, in single channel.

The X220 uses the Intel HD3000 (GT2+) graphics which offers hardware acceleration and good battery life, but not much in the way of gaming prowess.

Many of the Lenovo upgrades are reasonably priced as you can see here. Sadly, the Intel 160GB SSD drive that is installed in this machine isn't one of them, costing £403 more than the 320GB 5,400 rpm drive, which is offered in the default configuration. Lenovo do offer a 128GB SSD upgrade for £266, which still seems somewhat overpriced on today's market. We would configure the machine with the default option, buy an SSD drive online, then mirror the drive with Acronis software and a USB 2/3 enclosure. You could buy a faster, higher capacity 256GB Sandforce drive for less money than this 160GB Intel drive.

The default software install highlighted above looks worse than it is. Lenovo install many custom applications to support various aspects of the ThinkPad. I use many of these regularly myself and wish that other companies would adopt the same policy. The power management software for instance is brilliant, as is the software updating package.

We don't hold much value in the Windows Experience Index, although it does give a quick overview of the expected performance parameters. We can see that the overall score is limited by the onboard Intel HD graphics. The single channel memory scores 5.9. The processor and solid state performance is good however, as we would expect.

We will see how the ThinkPad X220 slots in against a variety of mobile systems as well as a few desktop systems featuring Intel Core i3 and i5 processors.

Software:
Windows 7 64 Bit
SiSoft Sandra
Cinebench R11.5 64 bit
Cyberlink Media Espresso
Cyberlink PowerDVD Ultra V11
PCMark 7
Left4Dead2
Resident Evil 5
Call Of Duty: Black Ops

Comparison Systems (for specific synthetic test compares):
Intel Core i5 2500k desktop processor.
Intel Core i3 2105 desktop processor.
AMD A8-3870K.
AlienWare M18X (featuring Core i7 2960XM Extreme Edition).
MSI GT780DXR (feature Core i7 2630QM).
Dell XPS 14z (featuring Core i7 2640M processor).
MSI CX640 (featuring Core i5 2410M).
Dell laptop (featuring Atom D525 processor).
Zotac ZBox Nano AD10 (featuring AMD Zacate E350 APU)

Technical Monitoring and Test Equipment:
Asus USB powered BluRay Drive.
Nikon D3X and 28-70mm lens with R1C1 kit.
Thermal Diodes.
Raytek Laser Temp Gun 3i LSRC/MT4 Mini Temp.
Extech digital sound level meter & SkyTronic DSL 2 Digital Sound Level Meter.

All results are gained from multiple test runs to ensure any abnormalities are removed before publication.

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