"the T470 cannot utilize its full potential of the drive due to the x2 interface. The sequential transfer rates could be up to twice as high with an x4 interface."
Next line: "However, the impact in practice is negligible."
What!? Nope, sorry. This is a huge deal breaker for me as my 1tb samsung sm961 and 2tb 960 pro nvme ssds are going to waste and I don't fully trust that optane drive just yet. I'm sure many others feel the same.
Also, please note that according to the official psref documentation, it looks like the manufacturer has come up with another gamble along with existing display and keyboard lottery. There are two models: one with magnesium lid and another with pps(much less durable low quality plastic used on thinkpad L and E series). Seems like notebookcheck got the latter. Of course the weight different isn't significant but with the 72whr battery plus the ac adapter it is definitely noticeable and a serious stepback from previous generations.
http://psref.lenovo.com/syspool/Sys/PDF/ThinkPad/ThinkPad%20T470/ThinkPad_T470_Platform_Specifications.pdfOther big personal deal breakers:
1) Still a crappy display, 1/2 people will probably still get pwm, max brightness drops on battery power.
2) Still no displayport 1.4 and hdmi2.0b. Other high-end laptops at this price point already have either or both. And aren't business laptops supposed to be feature-rich in this particular area? (Thunderbolt 3 isn't the solution here since it only covers displayport 1.2.)
3) No support for 9mm 2.5" drives, Could've put two m.2-2280 slots like the thinkpad P50/70 instead of one for people on budget (e.g. 256 sm961 nvme ssd for boot drive + 1tb sata 3 ssd for content storage). Yes there's an m.2-2242 slot but currently no commonly available nvme ssd in that form factor is noticeably faster than a sata 3 ssd.
4) I've practically given up on windows laptops' speaker quality but internal dac(soundcard) has become much more important because of this. I own a P50 and have tried other models in a retail store and all the last gen thinkpads except for the x1C and x1Y have unbearable dac quality. I suspect the T470 is no exception. I already carry a bulky headphone. I don't have to carry a portable dac as well.
Great review as usual but I'll wait for the 2017 x1C and x1Y reviews.
