Lenovo ThinkPad T450

9owners with an opinion

75%of verdicts positive

5/2positive/negative since 2024

0happy after 3+ years

Praised for reliability and value; criticized for battery and performance.

What owners wrote

Likes it

My "desktop" machine is actually an old T450 I bought used over a decade ago, running Linux Mint (Mate). Weak processor, 16gb ram, but good enough for browsing and running daily tasks, and it's simple enough to connect to more powerful machines when the need arises. And the docking station has HDMI and displayport. Hardware H.264 codec, and also HEVC and VP9, but alas only with the windows driver. My big rig desktop is now in the basement, sleeping until I need to run LLMs or diffusion or a heavy compile. I also sometimes use it for Steam gaming, connecting to it via moonlight (which works surprisingly well, even over WIFI).

Likes it

I was assigned an E14 once. Compared to a T14: The case is all thick ABS. It weighs like 2.4 kg, and the weight is unbalanced. The USB-C charge only works at 20V, nothing less. While charging it overheats and spins up the fans. It came with a TN screen with terrible viewing angles, that could not be used in a brightly lit room. I didn't use the laptop for two months while I waited for a replacement screen from aliexpress. Keyboard is much thinner, the trackpoint drifts easily. Camera quality is worse, somehow it cannot handle sun-lit scenes. Microphone and speakers are similar to the T14. It stopped receiving firmware updates after two years. It uses about 0.5 W while suspended, so its tiny 48 Wh battery typically doesn't last the weekend with the lid closed. The motherboard has design issues, a missing protection diode in the headphone jack microphone input ended up frying the CPU due to a ground loop. Meanwhile the T14 has eaten the same ground loop and even a 48V passive PoE in an accident and dealt with it by rebooting. A T450 from 2015 is still running.

Likes it

I am the same. I decided a few years ago that I really really like the thinkpad t450, and have gradually bought 5 of them online for a total cost of about 300 USD. I may never need to buy a laptop ever again.

Neutral

I have a T450 with a issue that I haven’t been able to figure out for years: When I shut the lid, the screen will shut off, and when I open the lid again, I can hear the fans spinning and I know the laptop is on, but the screen WILL NOT TURN BACK ON. I have to hold the power button to force power off and then start it up again. Issue happens in Windows and Linux. I tried disabling the sleep enhancement feature in the BIOS (can’t remember what it’s called). So it’s just sitting on my bookshelf. Sad because it works great, but you just can’t close the lid.

Doesn’t like it

I've used Thinkpads consistently for 25-30 years, and still do. I can't really draw a line between "before" and "after" but if I take a long enough period I can definitely see differences in the experience getting watered down or generally worse, from less flexibility to lower reliability. I still have and regularly use a fully functional X200, somewhere in the box I have a fully functional T42 and an R31 whose only defect is a small screen blemish caused by me closing the lid with something on the keyboard. But my multiple X1 Gen1 and Gen2 all have various failures (screen, battery, webcam, or keyboard), my T450 has big battery issues, my T470s have screen/GPU and battery issues. T490 is fine for now, X1 Gen11 has crappy battery and is overheating from the get go. These are different generations, different lots and still affected by the same constant issues.

Doesn’t like it

Does this mean I will be able to buy an extremely cheap, fairly new, windows laptop and install linux on it? Needs to be really cheap, My state pension wont cover a brand new one My old T450 with arch installed is looking a bit sore these days

Likes it

Still rocking a Thinkpad t450 from 2015. Aside from one or two dead keys it works great. 12gb ram is plenty for a modern Linux installation.

Likes it

There are laptops that are sold with Linux preinstalled as an option. They do support sleep correctly. In particular, sleep worked for me on T series Thinkpads: T420, T450, T490, my current T14.

Likes it

T450 series - I bought this specifically to work with my 4k monitor.

Likes itHasn’t owned it

Personally I think beyond T450 generation, i.e. over 10 years old systems, you are starting to make pretty severe compromises. T440 generation had really bad Trackpoint setup, and older hardware starts to lose features. Random stuff that T450 has that T400 doesn't * USB3 * Up to 32 GB of RAM (vs max 8 GB for T400) * M.2 slot (for SSD), 6 Gb/s SATA (vs 1.5 Gb/s on T400) * x86-64-v3 (AVX2 etc) and OpenGL 4.6 * Dual-band AC wifi and BT4.0 (optional 4G LTE WWAN) * DisplayPort with 4k@60Hz output * Slightly larger screen estate (1600x900 vs 1440x900), with FHD 1080p display option * Dramatically better battery life * Backlit keyboard Many of these are not merely nice to have but also ensure longevity by being compatible with lot of other modern stuff. On the other hand I do believe that T450 generation device might remain viable daily driver for a long while still. From the specs the biggest obvious shortcoming to me is the lack of USB-C, especially USB-C charging. But besides that, it seems pretty usable system. For reference, I have old X240 that I still occasionally use.