Lenovo ThinkPad T440s or HP 250 G6?

[Explore Blocks]

I need a new laptop for school and my budget is sub €300. I'll be using the Office suite and doing web browsing. I'll also be doing some light gaming (Rocket League).

I've researched a bit and I think the best options I have are the ThinkPad T440s or the HP 250 G6. The ThinkPad seems to have a better CPU and more RAM but the HP seems to have a better graphics card.

Can anyone recommend which one I should get, or even another laptop altogether? If anyone wants to recommend another laptop, please keep in mind that I have a sub €300 budget and it needs a 64bit processor (and should be capable of running Rocket League). Thank you so much for your time.

HP 250 G6:

• 
  ■ i3-6006U
  ■ Intel HD 520
  ■ 4GB RAM

Lenovo ThinkPad T440S:

• 
  ■ i5-4300U
  ■ Intel HD 4400
  ■ 8GB RAM

The links to the laptops:
HP 250 G6: https://www.amazon.it/dp/B073XF1VMK/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_.qamBbA0VJZRS
ThinkPad T440S: https://www.amazon.it/dp/B07B522HS7/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_XtamBbPE1YPD5

 

[Saga Lout]

Aside of the laptop choice, you can save a packet of money if you use LibreOffice. It can do everything MSOffice can and doesn't cost anything unless you give a donation.

 

[jaguarskx]

Between the two laptops the HP will be better for games since the Intel HD 520 is two generations newer than the Intel HD 4400; roughly speaking the Intel HD 520 is generally 15% to 20% more powerful than the Intel HD 4400. The Intel has made some minor improvements to CPU performance between the two generations the 6th generation i3-6006u running at 2.0GHz is roughly equal to a 4th generation Core i3 CPU running at 2.2GHz. The 4th generation i5-4300u is capable of reaching 2.9GHz with turbo boost, but only when one core is being used. If both cores are being used then I believe the max clock speed drops down to about 2.6GHz. The i3-6006u does not have turbo boost, so it's max speed is actually 2.0GHz (equivalent to 2.2GHz 4th gen Intel CPU) when both cores are being used.

Basically what this means is that the i3-6006u CPU has 85% the CPU performance of the i5-4300u while the Intel HD 520 iGPU has at least 15% better performance compared to the Intel HD 4400. That performance difference depends on the specific game though. When playing games 15% better performance can be the difference between barely playable and decently playable. Though "barely" and "decently" can vary from person to person. Because most games are limited by the GPU rather than the CPU, the generally recommendation is between a desktop / laptop with:

#1 - a more power GPU and less powerful CPU versus
#2 - a less powerful GPU and more powerful CPU

the choice would typically be #1.

The link below is a video demonstrating Rocket League running on a laptop with a core i3-6100u (2.3GHz) and the Intel HD 520 at various settings. The laptop also only has 4GB of RAM. I did not watch the video... I will let you do that and you can make your own conclusions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaW9ToWCohQ


If / when you can afford to do so, I highly recommend you install a 2nd stick of RAM for better performance. The HP 250 G6 definitely only has 1 stick of DDR4 RAM (SODIMM) installed. The ThinkPad T440S might already have 2 sticks of 4GB RAM installed... I think all T440S models comes standard with 4GB soldered into the motherboard; if it has 8GB then that should mean it has a 4GB stick of DDR3 RAM installed in the single available RAM slot. Ask the seller about the same configuration to be sure. The reason why you want 2 sticks of RAM installed is because 1 stick means the RAM runs at half speed (single channel) while 2 sticks of RAM means the RAM will run at full speed (dual channel). This is pretty important when playing games using integrated graphics because the iGPU will use system RAM and if that RAM is only running at half speed, then that will lower performance. Generally speaking, game performance would improve by 10% to 20% with 2 sticks of RAM compared to only 1 stick. So if the youtuber in the link above installed a 2nd stick of RAM, then he would have better game performance. For doing "normal things" RAM running at half or full speed will not be noticeable.


Things to take into consideration:

- The ThinkPad T440S has a 250GB SSD vs. a 500GB hard drive in the HP. That means the T440S will bootup faster. It can also make Windows updates install much faster.

- Assuming the T440S does in fact have 4GB of RAM soldered into the motherboard and a 4GB stick of RAM in the free slot (dual channel), my guess is gaming performance would be marginally less / about equal to the HP with only 4GB of RAM (single channel) because the Intel HD 520 is more powerful and because that laptop has DDR4 RAM rather than DDR3L RAM; which is faster.

- The HP will definitely have better game performance once you install a second 4GB / 8GB DDR4 RAM (SODIMM).

- The ThinkPad already comes with Office Starter 2010 which means you do not have to buy Office through your school.... unless your school offers all students Office for free in that case it doesn't matter.

- The ThinkPad T440s has a 1600x900 resolution screen while the HP only has a 1366x768 resolution. I bought a 14" Lenovo IdeaPad Y470 with a 1366x768 resolution back in August 2011. At first I was okay with it, but probably about a year later I had regrets buying it because it limited the amount of information I can see on the screen. I wish Lenovo offered a 1600x900 or 1080p option. In January 2014 I purchased a 15.6" Dell Inspiron 3540 with a 1080p screen and was much happier. The fact that it had a Radeon HD 8850m (one of the better GPUs back then... about equal to a more modern 940mx GPU) was an added bonus.