Thinkpad Edge 420s

Damn..good review...Gold Star....Man..I want this laptop...

Anyone know, if I can buy the e420s form Canada or UK and have it shipped here in US?? Any idea of shipping cost?? or should i just wait until 6630m hits usa.

 

Just talked to CS at Lenovo... no word on when the 6630M edition will be available here.

Now get that GPU in there, upgrade the screen quality, and you have the perfect machine...

 

omg..ffs..release the m6630 already

 

just got mine and after 5 mins, its going back. It looks like ok build quality, except for the screen.

Its not glass its a thin plastic sheet over the screen. it depresses fully and allows you to touch the screen beneath.
This plastic layer is also not well applied to my laptop, as at the bottom of the screen on each corner, there are areas where it looks like the technicians screwdriver slipped and scraped the black border under this layer.

Screen is also way lower resolution than i expected. its almost blocky, when your used to using a high res screen.

Also mine has a number of dead pixels.

Between these few things, I dont think the laptop is worth 1500 euros. Im not wasting any more time on it to see if its worth while.

I hate to say it, and i tried to avoid it, but looks like another mac for me. only thing with any build quality and style out there.

 

Man sounds disappointing..

 

Lenovo calls it "Infinity Glass", if it's actually plastic how can they get away with that?

 

Arg....that's not good...if the e420s end up being disappointing..I might jump on one of these:

- Sony Vaio SB/SA
- Sony Vaio C
- Dell Vostro 3450
- Acer 3830TG/4830GT
- Asus U41SV
- Asus N43SV
- Samsung QX412
- Gigabyte P2532

I kinda of like the Samsung QX412, though it has a GT520 gfx card...which I think is significantly weaker than a 6630m.

 

the 520 is significantly weaker than any other gpus in your list.

Your best bet would be vaio SB/SA, since the the U41 has poor build quality, the N43 is way bigger than what you would get with the e420s or the vaios.

The vostro is a good bet, considering one as well, since in brazil they sell those for 1875 USD, the problem is that I dont like the ABNT (brazillian standard) keyboard.

The timeline series is giving people headaches due to it throttling under
pressure

the gigabyte is significantly larger.

The real bummer here is the Qx412 not having a good gpu, if it had something along the lines of a 6630m, I would grab one.

Well aside all this it comes down to the new Z, which sports the highest performing GPU of the lot (6770m, external might I add), being significantly smaller, paired with a great screen, and with a great collection of ports, as to which I was waiting for ivy, it comes already with USB3 and thunderbolt. BTW the SSD is RAID 0 as standard, all this coming a little short of 2000 USD

 

Crap. Vostro 3450 does not have an option for an SSD.
Samsung QX412 doesnt offer more than 4Gb and doesnt offer an SSD.

They are the only two i liked

PC manufacturer's just dont get it. Apple build great laptops but have lousy windows battery life.
Windows based laptops sound great, but are usually plasticy tacky offerings that fail big time in one way or another.

 

Why is so difficult to make a good quality+ powerfull 13/14 incher.
I dont want to buy a desktop or some 15" bulk laptop for gaming and than some subnotebook.
A lot of people want some occasional gaming, just connect lcd to their laptop, do some gaming and than walkaway with 2kg 14" laptop.
No big deal.But we get just crappy,bad quality notebooks

I wish they have just put the GT 540 into Thinkpad L420. I would even pay 300 extra bucks for it.

 

Ooooh... just saw the E420s listed on Lenovo's US site for...

...wait for it...

$10,748.00 (on sale!!!)

I hope it's finally got the 6630M.

Lenovo - Laptop computers - ThinkPad Edge E420s

 

im starting to wonder if the complaints with the screen quality can be some what reduced if people tweak contrast/display settings....hmm...

 

Tried doing that, but it did not make that much of a difference, only improved it slightly. Played with contrast, brightness, gamma and saturation.

The main thing that bothers me with the screen is that the images are kinda pixelated.. I mean, not horribly pixelated, but when you have the laptop close to you like when its on your lap, i can see the pixels making up the screen and that irritates me and gives the impression like the display is low res.
I am not sure if anyone understands what I am saying???

 

yeah we do, the pixelation is, as you said, by the low res screen

 

Hmmm I see... But I don't know why i notice pixelation more on this than my old HP pavilion notebook which is 1280x800. Isn't that a lower res screen than this? And that was 15 inch screen too!! I don't quite understand!

 

its quite interesting, my last lenovo had a res of 1280*800 as well, it was a 14'', and I could see the pixels, however with my current I cant see it, although its a 16'' with 1366*768.

My guess is the graininess is cause by the distance of one looking at the screen, since we dont look at it as close as we did when the screen is bigger

 

Can i talk here also about E420 non S ? I have just bought it and have it under my hands right now. My configuration have the AMD 6630M graphics so i am quite wonder how good it will perform. Downloading Crysis while i am writing this
So far i found only one problem and that is missing keyboard backlit. It doesnt have even that thinklight. But otherwise its good as expected.
BTW space key has the red thinklight symbol glue on.... so they are using the same keyboard for E420 and E420s i guess..

 

Great! Give us a mini review! Pretty please!

 

Hi,

could you specify the specs.
Do you have i5 or i3?

I'm from Czech republic and E420 is being sold here as well.
But there are 2 weird configurations i5+ Intel 3000 and second one is i3+AMD.
No i5+AMD, which is totally weird. No good gaming with i3:/

Thanks

 

My config is core i3 , 4GB ram, 500GB 7.2k rpm , amd 6630M 1GB dedicated graphics, thats probably all important.
Yeah the cpu is a bit slower than i5 because of the lack of turbo mode. 16k CZK (in alza.cz) was max i could have afford now and this notebook was probably the best i could have got. My other option was hp probook 4330s with i5 but with normal sandy bridge graphics. so i took the better graphics instead of faster cpu...
Will see about the performance but i tried Crysis 1 and with pretty high details the game was smooth, not sure about fps but it was playable without problems.
BTW anyone knows why there is green LED diod next to webcam ? Its ridiculously annoying.

And i cant also find i5+amd too unless you take e420s but thats much more expensive (25k czk).

 

They are offering the 6630 on E420, that great news. I hope they will be available in the United States. Please comment on the screen.

The green LED is for let the user know that the camera is on. People wants to know if they are being watch, just to make sure the someone is not watching them (virus, or system admin.)

 

Quick question if someone can answer:

So there are only 2 left/right click buttons on top of the touchpad, and none on the bottom of the touchpad, correct? There seems to be a discrepancy in the pictures that are shown on the lenovo website. In any case, what is meant by the "touchless button" touchpad?

 

E420S has the touchpad buttons integrated in touchpad
E420 has those buttons separated on the bottom of touchpad.

 

E420S has the bottom touchpad buttons integrated? So are there left and right buttons towards the bottom, only "invisible" because they're part of the touchpad?

Also, are there still buttons on top of the touchpad?

 

yeah from one video review i saw on E420s touchpad buttons are integrated into touchpad. Left click is on the bigger part of the touchpad area and right click is only in bottom right corner of touchpad.

 

What are the respective weights of the E420 and E420s? Is the E420 really 5+ lbs?

 

Lenovo says:

E420s= 4.1 lbs
E420= 4.6 lbs

 

I can tell you that I wouldn't go with the Vostro 3450. I had one for a month, and sent it back. It wasn't awful, but the wifi and touchpad drivers gave me headaches (I say drivers, b/c I think it was Dell's awful in-house drivers, versus bad hardware). Dropped signal from my DIR655 constantly (even after I tried clean installs, reinstalling drivers, etc). Every other device I have has no problems. Then also, you randomly couldn't click to select anything on the W7 desktop (not even taskbar), or open program, with Ctrl-Alt-Del and going to task manager. Battery life was nothing spectacular either, at about 2.5 to 3 hours real world (~80% screen brightness, and balanced power settings). I may have just gotten a lemon, but that's my experience.

I have an E420s on order. Picked it up with an i5 for 680usd. I'm a bit concerned about the screen, but still optimistic that it will be okay. If I don't like it I plan on sending it back and getting the T420 that's on sale right now for $10 more.

 

If you think the screen on the Dell is ok, you E420s will be OK for you.

 

Mine should be delivered tomorrow. I'll post some opinions over the weekend, especially about the screen. I'm not expecting it to be on par with a $1000 + laptop so hopefully I won't be disappointed.

 

Thanks for the heads up. The system is actually for my gf, and she was pretty happy with the Dell screen (although it was matte, with no glossy 'infinity glass') - so I'm glad to hear she should be satisfied with the 420s.

On a side note, I am personally holding on to my T61p with WUXGA resolution for as long as I can. I can't stand to get something new, knowing that I will have to sacrifice screen real estate. Because AFAIK, there are no longer any high end laptops in a 15" or smaller form factor with 1920x1200 anymore, are there?

 

The Macbook Pro 15 @ 1680×1050. Just about everything is now 16:9. I believe Apple is one of the only companies hanging on to 16:10.(Minus the Air 11.)

 

Yeah, that's what I thought. Thanks for the info. I'll probably just have to move to stupid 16:9 1920x1080 in a T520 when it finally comes time to upgrade my T61p. It's 10% less than 1920x1200, but still ~15% more than 1680x1050. I guess at least you can still put two windows side by side - you just have to make more use of the trackpoint+scroll. Oh well.

 

Okay ... let's see if I have this right. The E420s (and 420?) come with an option for a high res display but, even though everyone else on the planet can get it with a dedicated HD 6630 GPU, we're SOL here in the states? What is up with Lenovo?

At least the T420s is available with an HD+ option and NVS 4200M, Right?

Wierd. Any word on an ETA on the dedicated GPU for the E420 series? The HD 6630 would be a far better GPU to have, even for business. It would be awesome with some Firepro drivers loaded.

Bronsky

 

Wait...since when did the e420s come with resolution better than 1366x786 ??? Where was that stated...I saw no plans for that. If that is true...the e420s would be the ideal laptop (w/ 6630m) .....but we here in the US would have to wait for like 6 months are this rate.....

 

E420s is only available in 1366x768 AFAIK. It's not mentioned otherwise anywhere. Only the E420 has optional vibrantview or antiglare screen. But those too are 1366x768 resolution. No idea on the discrete GPU though.

 

Cound have sworn I saw the E420 with an HD+ option around the time it was released. I must have been mistaken.

So what's the story on the dedicated GPU in the states? I have a friend looking for a decent 14" unit and I like the edge's value.

Bronsky

 

There was a mistake in the cto page leading to the present confusion that a HD+ screen was available. The e420 have matte screen though as an optional

 

Last I heard from Lenovo Customer Service was perhaps a dedicated GPU by the end of the month.

I've heard of the HD+ display on the E420 but haven't seen it as an option in the US. Don't quite understand the delays...

IMO, if they tacked on a high-res (1600x900), high quality screen, this would be handsdown the best 14" out there.

 

just got my e420s in the mail today. So far I love it.

 

Review! Pictures! Video! something would be nice if you have time. REally...want to see what teh screen quality looks like...

 

Yea I'm very curious about the screen quality as well. Usually this is my #1 deciding factor of buying a laptop. Since the screen is what I look at 100% of the time, it is very important.

 

Has anyone gotten anything out of a Lenovo sales rep on when the RapidDrive will be available? A 320GB HDD with an 80GB SSD (IIRC) was on the original "New Product Showcase," but it still isn't available. The rep I talked to wouldn't say anything.

 

The reps do not know, communication at Lenovo is horrible. I know a lot of us have been waiting for the AMD GPU to be available, I sent emails to some of the execs listed on Lenovo's webpage, I got one response and the person still didn't answer about the GPU, let alone the i7 or RapidDrive.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo-ibm/578843-edge-420s-review-jjjrmy.html

Read my horribly written review on the E420s. I'll add pictures later today.

 

Just looked at the E420s on Lenovo's US direct site. You can customize up to SB i7 now and there's also an option for Anti-glare (matte) or Vibrant View (glossy) screen.

Still no option for AMD GPU, though...

 

I think you are looking at the E420....the E420s has't changed. No i7, no 6630m, no matte screen option...at least in the US.

As soon as the 6630m is available..im buying this laptop..god I hope they release this soon...its been a while.

 

Huh. Swear I was looking at E420s this morning. Oh well...

It won't be the one I want until the AMD GPU comes in...

 

At this rate I am looking at buying an Acer 4830tg, it has a 530gtM nvidi card i believe. And should have better battery life, I looked at the Blue Label Sony Vaio at Best Buy, but I didn't like the size or quality of the screen, and the lid had a really cheap feel.

 

there is a bug, if you click on the non configurable options like the gpu, you get the full range of cpus to choose.

Yes the SC is to be the budget options in the S range, the SB is the middle man and the SA is the premium. The SC is plastic all the way. SB is mag alloy and aluminum palmrest. SA is carbon fiber and higher res options.

I wouldnt get the timelinex there are reports that its throttling