Unpleasant surprise: Core i5 Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Tablet 25% faster than i7-SKU!

[William]

Can you please test the Core i7 underclocked to i5 speeds? (is it possible to underclock?) And maybe another test for the i7 underclocked to i5 speeds and underclocked as well. Just do this as a control, so we know that the results are not some kind of QC/manufacturing problem with Lenovo, but rather a design issue.

[heeeeresJohnny]

I literally unboxed my i7 X1 tablet less than 48 hours ago. In that time, without putting it through its paces, I noticed that it was hotter than I expected. I suspect that I have exactly the problem outlined here. Hoping for  a firmware fix.

[S.Yu]

To think...at least the i7 should get a better bin!

[Derek]

Do you think this problem is just your model or the entire i7 allotement.

[james A Tomlinson]

I believe you are experiencing a problem in the settings.

Goto Lenovo Vantage. Hardware Settings. Smart Settings.

Turn off Intelligent Cooling and select Performance. Now re-test.

[james A Tomlinson]

My Desktop benchmark on "userbenchmark dot com" went from 69% to 88% what that setting change.

[sticky]

Rule of thumb is to always go for lowest i5 U series and i7 H series.
Last year those were i5-8250U and i7-8750H.

You could expect better performance on i7 U or better efficiency on i5 H but the value trade off is usually not worth it. This probably applies to the 98% of people and Intel processors since 4th gen Haswell.

[james A Tomlinson]

My Desktop benchmark on "userbenchmark dot com" went from 69% to 88% with that setting change.

FYI, my laptop has the i7-8550U

[Derek]

Is anyone having issues with screen coating scratching and scuffing only after a few weeks of use?  Check the lenovo forums

[Rayncmail]

who will use the laptop doing Cinbench over and over? Is it a realistic scenario?

[Rayncmail]

What a mess. I've seen this on other brands too (where i5-U is faster than i7-U). Don't brands test their equipment to optimize their performance before selling them? It just looks like they just slap parts together and hope for the best, which doesn't seem like top engineering to me. Hopefully Lenovo (and other brands) learn from this and start to take things seriously.

Hi, I'm wondering if the manufactures' tests are somehow different and probably more like real world use?

Can some one compare different benchmark methods/ real world office workload/ video editing photo editing tasks?

I feel there are quite some surprises, too.

[Rayncmail]

I purchased this Tablet from Lenovo about 2 months ago as a replacement for a Surface Pro. I wanted a larger display.  I got the i7 sku and 16gb of ram.  After two days I had to return it.  The machine overheated significantly, making it nearly unusable.  I was worried about the longevity of the machine because I've never used a laptop that got that hot under my typical workload.  I assumed it was defective unit.  It appears it is a heat management design issue, or an Intel problem.  I purchased a Surface Laptop 2 as a replacement.  Microsoft's heat management for their i7 sku appears to be much better.  The machine runs cool and performs well for me under load.  I also own a Huawei Matebook X Pro i7 for home use.  It's heat management for the i7 sku is somewhere between Lenovo and Microsoft.  It gets much warmer under old and doesn't appear to be as fast.   I believe this website indicates the Huawei Matebook X Pro i7 is no faster than the i5 and I believe that based on my experience.

Hi, David,
I'm more curious about your typical work load. why you could make it warm up so quickly. Maybe that could help me to decide if I could use that. Right now probably I'm thinking to get a gaming model for office/photo work because of the cooling solutions.

[Rayncmail]

@Dantoine:

Our performance rating is automatically calculated by the benchmark results. However, we also have a look at the sustained performance and deduct points in the magnitude of the deficit. For example: The i5 performance drops by ~15%, so we deduct 15%. This is to ensure that an i7 with a higher initial result (but lower score under sustained workload) does not get a better rating than an i5 with a higher performance under stress, like in this case.

Yes, this is obviously an Intel issue, but Lenovo should have noticed it, too, and they should have set a fixed limit to avoid this behavior. Other manufacturers and other devices from Lenovo do this as well.

Andreas, would you fill me in on the benchmark methods? what really does Cinbench do during that time and how does it compare to real world usage? And usually what people would choose an i7 Thinkpad? Video editor? Photographer? or Powerpoint/PDF content editors? programmer?
Maybe most of us normal people just use the i5?

[Dan T]

Could you clarify if the keyboard was on or off for these tests? I have found that the TDP management is different with the keyboard off. My 8650u x1 is able to sustain scores ~580 when the keyboard is attached and package wattage hovers around 14w. With the keyboard detached the score goes to ~420 and the wattage ~8w.