ThinkPad Edge S430 Review & Benchmarks

Lenovo Thinkpad Edge S430

All thumbnails link to huge pictures - beware.

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Specs:

Processor: Intel Core ™ i5-3210M (2.5GHz-3.1GHz Turbo) Ivy Bridge
Memory: 8GB DDR3 (4x2)
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GT 620M 2GB GDDR3 (128 bit bus, 40nm)
Storage: 128GB mSATA SSD + 500GB HDD 7200RPM
Screen: 14-inch HD+ 1600x900 LED-Backlit
Keyboard: Chiclet Styled, Thinklight Illuminated
LAN: Gigabit Ethernet
Wireless LAN: Intel Centrino Wireless-N 2230 (2x2 BGN & BT4.0)
Ports: USB3.0 x 2, mini-HDMI, Display Port/Thunderbolt, Microphone and Headphone combo Jack , SDXC Card slot
Battery: Li-polymer, 4800mAh, 4.2V, 48.8Whr
Dimensions: 24 (H) x 351 (W) x 238 (D) (mm)
Weight (with battery): 1.80kg
Price: £777.55 (GBP), ~ 933.06€ (EUR), ~ $1166.33 (USD) [INCLUDES 20% VAT]
Rates £1 (GBP) ≈ 1.2€ (EUR) ≈ 1.5 (USD)
Note these rates are very rough.

Packaging/Contents: 7/10

Lenovo is really stingy when it comes to packaging, it is a typical brown PC box, with some colours for company logo .etc. All that comes boxed is the laptop itself, the 90w charger and the setup guide (in English and European languages), now nobody actually reads these and well they might as well be a couple sheets of toilet paper.
Now the box did arrive a little crumpled but that's OK since it was packed quite well, considering that Lenovo does not use a lot of material, so relatively speaking it's quite environmentally friendly.

Build Quality/Aesthetics: 8/10

Being a faux-ThinkPad the build quality is overall very good, there's little flex in the actual chassis itself, you generally have to push it quite hard for it to flex anyway, however the screen lid is a different story, it flexes with moderate pressure, that said it does not creak like other screens do, note the screen flex is a lot better than Sony Vaio screens.
The metal hinges are excellent, they have just the right amount of pressure so that it is possible to open the lid without holding the laptop down and for the screen to stay firmly in position when open, even when moving it around with the screen open.

Aesthetics are simple and minimalistic, quite Apple like, it has a uniform dark brown colour to it, the only things that detract from this is the shiny piano black bezel and the chrome accent. Now some people may scream that it is boring, however for a business machine it actually looks good , and it looks good without screaming, "ROB ME!!!''
There are two ThinkPad logo's with the hal9000 dot illumination, this is generally helpful, it lights up when it is on and pulses when it's in sleep mode, it's a nice subtle touch and looks great.
The piano black screen bezel is very delicate, it only stays shiny and scratch free for a short period of time, it is a grease and fingerprint magnet, now wiping the dust .etc away with a microfiber cloth results in millions of micro scratches, now I know this as this was my experience on my HP G62 which too had a piano black bezel.

The whole laptop apart from the bezel and accent is matte and has the rubbery texture of typical ThinkPads. However be warned this thing picks up so much fingerprints and grease, it actually takes better fingerprints than the FBI. Dust also shows up well on it.
My laptop only really had one quality issue and that was hairline cracks/ scratches in the track pad, not the end of the world and perfectly acceptable, there was a also a mark on the screen but that came off after I cleaned it.
The trackpoint rubber was also put on wonky, but that was solved by taking it off and putting it back on again.

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Screen/Speakers: 6/10

I have the Samsung screen (LTN140KT03401), supposedly the best out of the bunch that Lenovo uses (AUO and LG being the others), now this screen is actually adequate, the colours are OK although on the cool side of things, the viewing angles however are a little limiting there's a definite sweet spot, however no one is going to be using their laptops at 20 Degree angles let alone 90 Degrees.
Text appears crisp and sharp which is very important for business notebooks, picture sharpness is generally good too, I have not noticed any of the graininess that users report on the t420/t430 (Use the same panels, grain reported on AUO and LGD screens)
However the screen falls down in contrast and blacks which appear grey rather than true black, however this is not important in a business notebook but for people who like a good screen for media, this laptop isn't for you.
There's also banding in pictures/ videos where there're gradients involved, this does not look good and thus makes some images and videos appear blocky, however I'm sure many users won't notice this.

The screen itself is quite bright and it is very easy to use in bright indoors environments, glare has virtually been eliminated which is nice. The screen also is evenly lit and there's no noticeable light bleed which is excellent.
My biggest gripe is Lenovo chose to use PWM backlighting, this may not be an issue to most people but for me I notice the flickering at lower brightness settings, now at full brightness this is not an issue. This flickering not only annoys me but it also gives me a slight migraine however I'm adamant that I'm going to get used to it.

The Speakers are average notebook speakers, they're loud enough to fill a room, they have good mids and highs but they lack in bass. These speakers do not crack or hiss at high volumes which is good, especially in skype calls. However for pure music enjoyment I recommend desktop speakers or headphones.

I recommend that you leave the Dolby Home Theatre setting on and for music, it seems to improve quality somewhat.

As you see viewing angles aren't great​

TN panel Comparison:

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Look how we got progressively backwards in terms of display quality (In terms of colour gamut .etc)
Click on the thumbnail to see much bigger version.

Keyboard/Touchpad: 8/10

Despite being a faux-ThinkPad and Lenovo's switchover to the chicklet keyboard, it is a very good keyboard, it has good travel and feedback, keystrokes feel crisp and responsive, it is a joy to use, It is almost up there with the T430, however it is lacking in light indicators which is quite important for caps lock and WiFi status.
It has a similar feel to my late ThinkPad T40 which has the traditional IBM ThinkPad keyboard.

The ThinkLight sort of works although not overly well, I'd say it's more of an afterthought and a novelty rather than a fully functional lighting system since it does not light up the keyboard that well for you to notice.

For those wondering, yes the keyboard is spill resistant, this is due to the fact that the keyboard has a plastic membrane on inside of the keyboard, this is stuck down with strong adhesives, now this is less elaborate than the spill resistance found on other ThinkPad models with the spill holes but it should save your laptop if you're quick enough.
[you shouldn't be spilling things on your laptop anyway]

The touchpad is suitably sized, it is slightly textured but generally quite smooth to the touch, it is accurate and most gestures work quite smoothly, however I think at this point it's all down to the drivers, the drivers definitely need some work, the touchpad doesn't seem to work straight after being woken from sleep or hibernation. It takes a few seconds to wake up and start doing its job. Believe me it gets annoying after a while.
Happily however the track point works just fine, just as it always did in the IBM days.

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Performance: 8/10

Good for the price I paid, it's very snappy and quick, I don't game that much so the week GPU isn't much of an issue. So real life usage is very good, it is certainly better than the 13'' macbook pro. The GPU and CPU is soldered, so you're going to have to spec up the machine at purchase.
I believe you can overclock the 620m to 630m levels considering they are both the same architecture, they also only seem to differ in clock speeds. However thermals aren't great. (read below)

Heat/Noise: 5/10

Lenovo has not done a very good job here, the laptop gets quite hot during usage, the thermals generally suck, my laptop apparently idles at 50°C, now I don't think that's normal - either thermal design sucks so hard that that's normal or Lenovo's fan control isn't up to the job.
Now at 100% Load using prime 95 and furmark the CPU does not go over 85°C and the GPU does not go over 95°C, so it actually seems that Lenovo has provided an adequate cooling solution, however the fan does not seem to get loud, it just seemingly whispers out hot air, now I think this can easily be fixed by making the fan more aggressive, I believe Lenovo was more concerned about silence rather than cooling performance, in this case they have got the balance wrong. However this is easily fixed by releasing a BIOS update.
(tpfancontrol does not work, I've tried)

I'd like to see your idle and load temps on your thinkpad Edge S430.

Battery Life: 3/10

Battery Life isn't that good, If I leave it in the "Energy Saver" mode with wifi on and brightness at 10, I can maybe get 3-4 Hours Battery Life tops, that's with light browsing .etc. Now at lowest brightness on "maximum battery" Mode I can perhaps get an extra 1-2 Hours, disabling the 620m in bios does not seem to help much since optimus does a good job anyway.

Lenovo uses a 4 Cell lithium-ion based battery, I believe they could have given a larger battery by using a Lithium Polymer battery like the one used in the 13'' MacBook Pro but they didn't in fear of cannibalising into real ThinkPad sales.

However I did manage to run about 120 Minutes worth of youtube video (720p) and well battery life only dropped 60 Minutes with about 150 Minutes left of usage on Full battery (3.5 hours left reported), Maximum brightness and on "Energy Saver" Mode. So basically you're going to have to make the most out of your battery life.

Pros & Cons:
I love the laptops uniform and understated design its sleek and looks great whilst being anonymous. I also like how this laptop has a thunderbolt port, it will provide me with expandability options in the future should I need it. The keyboard is also a joy to use, it is very good especially in its class.

I however loathe the lack of screen contrast and black levels, the laptop is a fingerprint mine, it takes very accurate prints - some say better than the FBI does.
I also detest the glossy bezel, it is one thing to scratch up without meaning to.
Battery life is a big downer, it simply isn't long enough, 3-4 Hours of light browsing isn't enough, I need roughly double that, Apple seems to be the only manufacture to achieve this. (Non Ultrabooks). I also do not like how Lenovo programmed the fans to be overly tame, it needs to become more aggressive to cool the laptop more effectively.

Conclusion & Overall Rating: 7/10
Overall it's an above average notebook albeit much better than consumer notebooks, whilst it has the speed and CPU power it lacks in GPU power, it has a lovely keyboard, responsive trackpad and an OK screen, this makes for the perfect business notebook especially to those on a budget, However be warned the battery life is actually inadequate and it is advisable that you bring a charger with you, I recommend this: iGo green charger

Most importantly keep an eye out on any Lenovo offers, you can normally get amazing price discounts.

Overall I'd say it's a good buy, especially for the money I've paid, but I'd actually recommend that you save up some more money and purchase the ThinkPad T430s with the backlit keyboard and 900p display. It has much better battery life and expandability options although it does not have thunderbolt yet.

ThinkPad Edge S430 VS HP G62
No Sizeable contest here, the S430 dances and runs rings around the HP G62. It is superior in every way apart from ports (location too) and battery life (HP edges it) and screen quality (HP had better viewing angles).

However most importantly the S430 is much lighter than the HP G62 which makes commuting easier.

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Note
This is my first proper review ever, However since there's not really one on the forum yet I will take the liberty of doing one, I am generally meticulous about the quality of items and such, I generally won't purchase an item unless thoroughly researched.
Feel free to ask any questions.

Thanks for TheLawIX for the layout of the review.

 

Benchmarks
Boot-up takes around 20 Seconds.

Windows 7 WEI scores:
Processor : 7.1
RA : 7.5
Graphics (for Aero): 6.5
Gaming Graphics : 6.5
HDD : 7.8

3Dmark Vantage: p3545 (GPU 2921, CPU 9882) on Performance test preset


This is not bad for such a weak GPU, CPU as expected is fast.

PCmark Vantage: 11242 PCMarks


This score is mostly biased towards the SSD since synthetic benchmarks like SSDs, however it is a pretty good score.

CrystalDiskMark:


Unfortunately It's only SATA II, SATA III is seemingly only taken up by HDD bay. ODD bay is also limited to SATA II speeds, So perhaps in a later BIOS update that might change.

Unigine Heaven benchmark:

Well it did quite well considering it is very graphics intensive and running on a crap GPU, Don't expect to run any modern games without turning down quality and screen resolution (Lowest settings and 1366x768 seem to be the best for this laptop).

Maximum Temperature Test - 100% Load on both GPU and CPU:


Well it's not bad at full load, however the fans don't kick in too much and well only just cools the CPU and GPU enough, the GPU is actually throttled to 475 mHz as standard and further throttles to 237 mHz if the temperature goes above 95°C. The CPU actually sits on 85°C with the occasional spike as you've seen in the screenshot.

When my warranty runs out I will replace the thermal paste with Arctic cooling MX-3 and see if that improves temperatures, I also hope that Lenovo releases a bios update with SATAIII and improved fan control.

 

Great job. Thanks for posting this.

 

How can we get this in the US market? Will it be released at a later date? (Doesn't seem to be on the US Lenovo website so... sorry if this is a dumb question).

 

Unfortunately for you Lenovo decided not to release this product in the US market, you might start to see the S440 next year but who knows.

 

hopefully they have made some improvements to the US spec S430, I am seriously looking at it (my T42 not being able to play web videos is starting to be annoying)