Lenovo ThinkBook 15 Gen 2 (Intel) review

Lenovo ThinkBook 15 Gen 2: the MX450 that punches far above its shelf

The ThinkBook 15 Gen 2 (2020, Intel) at $604 is an odd and appealing artifact: an Intel Core i3 1115G4 paired with a GeForce MX450 discrete card and a full 40GB of memory. Business laptops of this vintage rarely carried a real GPU, and that combination is the entire reason this listing is interesting.

Where it holds up

The graphics score of 44.73 towers over the business-class median of 3.84 — better than eleven times the typical showing, mainstream-tier and firmly in the top quartile. The CPU posts 70 against a 52.97 median, and the performance index at 57.77 sits 39% above class. Photo design lands at 71 (high) and value at 72.45 (high), while the recommended-bar checks pass for Overwatch and Rainbow Six Siege, GTA V is judged by its pass flag alone, and Far Cry 5 logs a plausible 34 frames at its recommended bar. Photoshop and Visual Studio Code clear their minimums.

Where it falls short

Mobility is the named weakness: 51 against a class median of 60, a 15% shortfall that reflects the bigger chassis and discrete-card thermals. Portability at 49 (mid) tells the same story from the carrying side. Gaming at 44 (mid) clears recommended bars but the i3 CPU keeps it far from comfort-tier, and engineering CAD at 44 (mid) marks the professional ceiling.

Price and depreciation

The $604 listing carries a class rate of 8.92% per year — one of the gentler curves in this batch — with no cohort anchor for a concrete projection. Slow-drifting business hardware with a discrete card already priced near its floor is about as low-risk as used-laptop economics gets.

Alternatives to consider

The ThinkBook 14 Gen 2 from the same year at the same $604 keeps the CPU and memory but drops the discrete card — the pick if office silence outranks GPU headroom. The ThinkBook 15 Gen 4 at $780 upgrades to an MX550 and a newer platform while holding the same value proposition.

Bottom line

Fairly priced for the class. The Gen 2 is the budget pick for anyone who needs a real, if modest, discrete GPU inside a business chassis — eleven-times-median graphics at a $604 asking price, paid for honestly through below-par mobility and an aging CPU tier.