Lenovo ThinkPad E520 review

Business laptops don’t usually fall into the budget end of the price spectrum, but the Lenovo ThinkPad E520 costs just over £500 and has a fairly decent set of components, including an Intel Core i3 processor, a 500GB hard disk and Windows 7 Professional. It’s also the only laptop this month that has an ExpressCard slot, which is ideal for adding extra ports, storage or a card reader. Plus, its battery lasted almost eight hours.

It’s one of the larger laptops in this month’s group, but, surprisingly, it’s also the lightest laptop too, weighing just 2.1kg. That, combined with its excellent battery life, makes it well suited to travelling. If you’re in the cheap seats when travelling, you’ll be glad to know that the lid tilts back more than 180 degrees so you can always get a good view of the screen, even if you’re struggling for legroom.

You’ll need the best angle possible because the E520’s screen has very tight vertical viewing angles. The matt finish reduces glare from reflected overhead lights, but it dulls colours. The backlight isn’t very bright either, and its contrast is fairly poor, but colours are fairly accurate, with only a mild red cast adding a bit of warmth to images.

Intel’s Core i3-2350M CPU is energy efficient, but it is of average speed. The E520 scored a respectable 46 overall, which means it should be capable of handling most applications. The integrated graphics chip can decode HD video content, but it’s not up to playing games. It only scored 17fps in our Dirt3 test, so you’ll have to lower graphical settings to achieve playable frame rates, even in the least demanding of games.

Business laptops often have a few tricks up their sleeves that consumer models lack. Windows 7 Professional supports old Windows XP apps and it also lets you join domains, which is useful if you need to connect to a network in a large organisation. It also lets you back up to a network storage device, which is very handy if you own a NAS or a media streamer with local storage.

As well as the versatile ExpressCard slot, the E520 has four USB ports, one of which also doubles as an eSATA port. Sadly, we didn’t like the fact that the USB ports are placed towards the front of the case where they might get in the way of an attached mouse. It also has an SDHC card slot and a single 3.5mm jack that supports headsets, replacing separate headphone and microphone ports.

The ThinkPad’s design, as ever, is functional, and it feels well built. As is usual with ThinkPads, you get a touchstick as well as a large touchpad. Both are responsive and have large buttons. Lenovo has used the full width of the case to accommodate the keyboard and, if anything, the keyboard feels too wide. The moulded keys are slightly convex, providing good tactile feedback when you strike the key, and their action is light and crisp.

We don’t like its layout, however; the Control and Function keys’ positions have been swapped, while the Function key is now used to access the F1-F12 functions rather than the shortcuts it normally activates. We also don’t like the small PageUp and PageDown keys because they’re tucked away above the arrow keys and recessed to half-height, which means they’re almost impossible to press without also hitting an arrow key.

All in all, the E520 is fairly boring, but its low weight and long battery life make it ideal for working on the move. The keyboard is a delight to use, and our only complaint is its dull screen, which prevents movies and photos looking their best. Still, it’s the ideal travelling companion for the price, and it wins our Business Buy award.