When comparing Lenovo ThinkPad T460s vs Dell XPS 15, the Slant community recommends Dell XPS 15 for most people. In the question“What are the best laptops for photo editing?” Dell XPS 15 is ranked 2nd while Lenovo ThinkPad T460s is ranked 4th. The most important reason people chose Dell XPS 15 is:
Two display choices are available for the XPS 15, an Ultra HD touchscreen or a Full HD non-touch screen. Both screens have a very wide array of colors as they cover approximately 100% of sRGB color space. The viewing angle is around 170 degrees. However, at 45 degrees, slight color change can be noticed. With around 350 nit output for brightness, it’s a viable choice for outdoor usage. All of this makes it an amazing display.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Great performance for daily mainstream tasks
The Thinkpad T460s is more than adequate at performing daily mainstream tasks. It achieved a Geekbench 3 score of 6796 which is way ahead of the average for this laptop category (6271). The 256GB SSD is also very fast and is able to copy 4.97GB worth of data in just 33 seconds.
Even though the GPU does not support any heavy gaming or CAD work, it's still possible to do some picture or video editing comfortably.
Pro Great build quality
The body is made of magnesium and the lid is reinforced by carbon fiber which makes it extremely durable as well. Lenovo claims that the laptop has passed MIL-STD 810G durability tests for extreme temperatures, high altitudes, humidity and vibrations.
Pro Great minimalistic design
The chassis has a simple matte black coating that surrounds the whole laptop. The only dashes of color are provided by the red trackpoint on the keyboard and the red dot on the logo on the back of the lid.
Pro Good touchpad
The T460s has a 3.9x2.2inch buttonless touchpad which provides relatively accurate navigation without lag or stuttering. It has a matte surface which has the right amount of friction to be enjoyable to use. The touchpad also supports multi-touch gestures and two-finger swiping.
Pro Very portable
At 3lbs and at 13 x 8.9 x.74 inches it's a very small, lightweight, and portable laptop.
Pro Amazing display
Two display choices are available for the XPS 15, an Ultra HD touchscreen or a Full HD non-touch screen. Both screens have a very wide array of colors as they cover approximately 100% of sRGB color space.
The viewing angle is around 170 degrees. However, at 45 degrees, slight color change can be noticed.
With around 350 nit output for brightness, it’s a viable choice for outdoor usage. All of this makes it an amazing display.
Pro Good battery life if you pick the 1080p display
Models with the 1080p screen last about 10 hours with general usage. Naturally, if more intensive tasks are involved, the battery will be drained faster.
Pro Solid keyboard and trackpad
The keyboard and trackpad are reliable and solid all-around. The keyboard is responsive but is not super “clicky”, rather a bit soft. It has a white backlight on black keys that illuminates them at night. The touchpad is rather large while having no buttons. Despite this, the XPS 15 can reliably distinguish between the left and right clicks which are done on the trackpad itself.
Pro Optional password-free-sign-in via a fingerprint reader
For an additional $25 it’s possible to enjoy a password-free-sign-in by having a fingerprint reader. It will keep your laptop safe while still providing convenient access to it.
Pro Slick design
The whole design is quite stylish. The aluminium chassis provides a very clean look while the black carbon fiber palm rest with an almost borderless display cements it as a visually modern laptop. All of this is made with a premium build quality.
Pro Very well-rounded laptop
The cheapest configuration is a great choice for general non-intensive use - things like internet browsing, watching movies and similar tasks.
Whereas the more expensive configurations are gradually more capable of intensive tasks, like video editing or gaming. It’s not as good as a specialized computer built for a specific purpose, like a video editing laptop with an enormous RAM size or a gaming laptop with a superior graphics card, but it’s a very well-rounded, reliable laptop.
Pro Operates well on a Linux system
All essential things, like network connectivity, ports and sound, work right “out-of-the-box” with a Linux operating system. There is a compatibility issue on the new 9560 model with its graphics card but the laptop is still very usable with its integrated Intel graphics card.
Pro Can run most modern games
Being an excellent all-rounder, it can be used as a gaming laptop for games that are not exceptionally demanding, like Overwatch or Dota 2. Unless you’re using the cheapest model, you can expect a reasonable 60 frames per second for almost all modern games, provided that you’re willing to lower the game’s settings.
Cons
Con Poor battery life
In order to make this laptop thinner Lenovo have opted to remove the extended and removable batteries which in turn has decreased the overall battery life of this laptop. Simple web surfing using Wi-Fi at a screen brightness of 100 nits caused a full battery to be drained in just 7 hours.
Con Stiff and shallow keyboard
The keys are relatively stiff and require too little actuation force which in turn makes users "bottom out" rather often which can get quite annoying.
Con Battery doesn’t hold long with the Ultra HD screen
If you’re choosing the configuration with an Ultra HD screen, expect a very short battery life of around 6 hours for general usage. With more intensive tasks it's even less than that.
Con 9560 model's GPU has compatibility issues on Linux
The new 9560 model has some trouble accepting its GTX 1050 Ti video card while running a Linux operating system. Fortunately, the integrated Intel graphics card is capable enough to substitute it. The manufacturers are probably aware of the issue and will, most likely, release an update for it.
Con Palmrest collects sweat
The palm rest is made from carbon fiber which attracts fingerprints and sweat. After some time it gets kind of unpleasant to touch and needs to be cleaned.
Con Some ghosting in games
The display is not intended for gaming purposes so it can produce an effect called “ghosting”. Ghosting is when the pixels are not able to change their colors fast enough, so the color of the preceding frame can still be slightly seen on the next frame. This causes a blurring effect. Note that it only happens on high framerates coupled with fast objects.
Con Noisy fans
The laptop is very quiet during idle and light usage but when there is some workload, the fans get quite loud and distracting.
Con Awkward webcam location
The webcam is located under the screen instead of on top. It means that your face will be shown from a lower angle which can seem a bit weird. It also means that your fingers can partially obstruct the webcam while you’re typing.
Con Audible coil whine
Coil whine can be heard when it’s generally quiet and the fans are not running. Audible when the laptop is connected to the power supply. The manufacturers have acknowledged it as a problem and, if possible, will push out an update which should eliminate it. Until then, it’s still a gripe.