Lenovo ThinkPad Edge 11 review

While netbooks are a cheap way to get a laptop you can carry everywhere with you, they suffer from poor performance and screen sizes. If you need a faster computer on a tight budget the Lenovo ThinkPad Edge 11 could be the model that you’re looking for.

Despite its low cost this well-built 11.6in laptop has a Core i3-380UM processor. This 1.33GHz model is the ultra-low voltage model designed to fit into tiny laptops without generating much heat. The result is that the ThinkPad Edge 11 weighs just 1.5kg, so you can throw it in a bag and carry it everywhere you go.

With such a low clock speed this laptop can’t hope to compete with models that use the regular mobile Core i3 chips. That said, a score of 50 overall in our benchmarks shows that the ThinkPad edge is around twice the speed of a dual-core netbook. It certainly feels responsive in Windows, as the Core i3-380UM has two real cores and two virtual cores thanks to Hyper-Threading.

One minor disappointment is that there’s only 2GB of RAM installed, where as we’d have liked to see 4GB, especially as the 64-bit version of Windows 7 Professional is installed. Fortunately, there’s a free memory slot so that you can upgrade the laptop yourself. A 320GB hard disk is good to see at this price and, even with the restore partition taking up space, gives you plenty of room for all of your documents.

While the base of the laptop warms up with use, it’s never uncomfortably hot and certainly an improvement over the similar AMD-based Lenovo ThinkPad x100e. Battery life is excellent thanks to the low-power CPU, with the ThinkPad Edge lasting just over seven ours in our light use test.

There’s a lot else to like about this laptop. The glossy 11.6in screen produces a decent image. We found that the backlight was even, bar bit of hard-to-notice bleed at the very top. It’s not that bright and can have trouble cutting through office lights due to the glossy finish; in fact, we had to set the screen to its maximum brightness in order to use the laptop comfortably. Viewing angles are pretty good, although for the best image you’ll want to sit straight-on to the screen; given the size of this laptop and the fact that the screen folds back also flat, this will not be a problem.

Having a small screen means that there’s less room for a keyboard, but Lenovo has used the space well, with the Chiclet-style keys taking up all the entire width of the laptop. We’d have liked a bit more travel on the keys, but they’re responsive and the keyboard feels extremely well made. We had no problems touch-typing on this model without making mistakes.

It’s a little strange that the Fn key sits where the Ctrl key normally sits. We also found it annoying that the hotkey buttons on the Function keys, such as to adjust brightness, are the default options; you have to hold the Fn key to use a Function key. As a result, if you use shortcuts, such as Alt-F4 to shut down a window, you have to press the Fn key in addition. We’d have at least liked a Fn-lock key.

As with the majority of Lenovo laptops there’s a touchstick as well as a touchpad. It means you can use your preference, although if you’re in a cramped space, such as an airplane seat, the touchstick is far easier to use.

We were pleased to see plenty of connetivity options, including HDMI and VGA outputs, Gigabit Ethernet, three USB ports and an SDHC memory card slot.

Although there are a few minor issues with this laptop, such as the relatively-dull screen and only 2G of memory, it’s a massive step up from a netbook without having to swallow a huge price hike. If you’re on a tight budget and want a small, powerful computer that you can carry everywhere, the ThinkPad Edge 11 is a great choice and wins our Budget Buy award.