Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E420 Review

The ThinkPad line of laptops from Lenovo has been setting the pace for rugged notebooks right since their inception, and recently, the company has widened the series into a number of sub categories with the T, Edge, X, SL, L, W notebooks and the X series tablets. The new Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E420 is more moderately priced than the other ones in the series. Let’s have a look to see if it’s worth your money.

Brilliant design

Design and Build Quality

The Edge E420 comes in an all-black casing with a silver rim along the sides of the 14-inch screen. The customary ThinkPad logo is etched diagonally on the lid. It has a matte design and hence doesn’t attract dust or fingerprints. The insides are completely black as well and the only hint of colour you’ll find on the notebook is the red trackpoint. The design is quite sophisticated, with a strikingly clean look.

On Video: Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E420

However, the build quality was definitely a notch lower than what we expected. The build of the screen is quite poor and a slight press from the outside will show you the fragility of the chassis. The area above the DVD writer isn’t reinforced too well either. The hinges are quite sturdy, though, and there’s absolutely no vibration or wobbling. Still, it feels like the Edge E420 live up to the high quality standards that ThinkPads have always set. 

Power off USB charging port on the right

Connectivity options include a VGA port, three USB ports, an eSATA cum USB port, an HDMI port and a headphone jack. There’s also the SD card reader, Express Card slot, Ethernet port and DVD writer. The USB port on the right supports charging of external peripherals even if the laptop is switched off. The notebook weighs 2 kg and it does feel quite light whilst carrying.

Keyboard has been modified

The spill-proof keyboard has been heavily modified and only the most essential keys have been included. The windows key to the right side of the space bar has been eliminated and is replaced with the print screen key. The function and control keys have been interchanged as well. The F1-F12 keys can be executed only whilst pressing the Fn key and more important keys like the volume, camera, microphone, play/pause, Wi-Fi, and brightness have replaced them by default. The keyboard is arranged in an extremely neat manner and it gets full marks for functionality.

The design is classic, but as far as build is concerned; the E420 doesn’t live up to the standards that the ThinkPad series has been setting for a long time.

The 14-incher E420

Features
The Edge E420 comes with Intel’s Core i3 processor, which runs at a clock speed of 2.10 GHz, and has 2 GB of RAM along with a 320 GB HDD. The graphics card is an integrated one - Intel’s HD Graphics 3000, which isn’t surprising as ThinkPads have been more performance-focussed than graphics-oriented.