Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E520 review

Lenovo’s ThinkPad Edge range of mid-range laptops might mainly target business customers, but that’s no reason to write them off – the good-value E520 combines the power of Intel’s Core i5 processor and a discrete 3D graphics chipset.

Like other ThinkPads, the Edge E520 has very reserved looks. The matt black colour scheme, plastic chassis and trademark Lenovo touch stick all scream business, but that doesn’t make it any less usable in the home – we had no trouble typing on the fantastic Chiclet-style keyboard, which is full-size but still small enough to fit in an additional numerical keypad. Each key has just the right amount of tactile feedback, which meant we were typing at full speed almost instantly. The two sets of touchpad buttons weren’t as firm as we’d like, but the touchpad itself is at least a good size, with a smooth surface that creates minimal friction.

Unsurprisingly, the E520 has a business-friendly matt display finish that helps keep screen reflections to a minimum, even under harsh office lighting. The downside is that colours aren’t quite as pronounced as we would like and darker images appeared grey, rather than deep black. Viewing angles were also only average, but with over 180 degrees of screen tilt you should have no trouble finding an angle to suit your working style.

We wouldn’t suggest using the integrated speakers to listen to music or watch videos – they produce weak audio and struggled to fill a small room with sound. High notes were too tinny and there was a definite lack of bass, although the mid-range was at least acceptable. A good pair of headphones would be a wise investment if you value sound quality.

The laptop comes with the Professional version of Windows 7, which has domain support so is well suited to office use, but copies of Corel WinDVD and MovieFactory will let you play and edit films. There are plenty of connection options, with four USB ports, one of which also doubles as an eSATA port, HDMI and VGA video outputs and a multi-format card reader, which should be more than enough for connecting all your peripherals. It’s a shame there’s no USB3, but an ExpressCard/34 slot will allow for future upgrades or expandability.

Powered by an Intel Core i5-2410m processor and with 4GB of memory, the E520 is certainly no slouch – it flew through our multimedia benchmarks with an overall score of 49, which proves it should be able to handle even demanding 2D applications. Gaming shouldn’t be a problem either – the AMD Radeon 6650m dedicated graphics card isn’t particularly high-end, but it can more than handle itself in modern games. In our demanding Dirt 3 test, it managed a very smooth 39.8fps with anti-aliasing enabled.

Thanks to AMD’s switchable graphics, which change to the processor’s integrated graphics when you’re not playing games, battery life doesn’t suffer from the addition of a dedicated graphics card – the E520 still managed a very respectable six and half hours in our light use battery test. You should be able to get plenty of work done when on the move.

If you’re looking for a mid-range laptop that’s capable of more than just presentations and word processing, the ThinkPad Edge E520 is a great middle ground between home and business machines. It looks smart and has plenty of connectivity options, yet hides some powerful components and a competent graphics card. It doesn’t have the best screen we’ve seen, but there are few laptops that offer more for less than £600.