Thinkpad Edge E220s Review

I’ve owned the E220s for about a week now, and so far I am very pleased with my purchase. Specifically, I own the TopSeller 5038-2KU (i5-2537M, 4GB, 320 GB 7200, Pro 64).

Background
Before I break it down, let me give you a little background on what I was looking for so you can appreciate the perspective from which I am judging this laptop. I was looking for a very portable laptop that I could easily commute with but could also serve as a part time HTPC in my bedroom. I would use this primarily for multimedia, web surfing, some general productivity apps and casual gaming. I was kind of getting fed up with hardware failures on my HP desktops, and wanted to look elsewhere for my notebook. A few months ago I saw the IdeaPad U260 and really loved the form factor and quality build. At the same time, I thought it was overpriced, especially given Sandy Bridge processors were right around the corner. I decided on this laptop, considering it a sort of "refresh" of the U260.

Build Quality
The build quality of this machine is superb compared to consumer laptops and fair/good for a business machine. It is solid and the materials don’t feel cheap at all and the machine is a pleasure to touch and handle. This definitely feels like a premium laptop, especially compared to what I saw from last year’s Edge models. Understand that this is still the Edge line; it’s probably not quite as durable as, say, the T-series. That being said, the quality seems far better than any consumer grade Windows notebook that I have run across.

Form Factor
The form factor is perfect for the commuter. It is small and extremely thin, very easy to fit into a bag. It is also very light and no problem to carry around. Due to the small form factor there is no optical drive, which may be an issue for some but I personally did not care because portability was a much higher priority.

Sound / Heat
This is a very quiet machine. The fan runs for a few minutes when you start up and then turns off and only comes on again as needed, but even when the fan is on you can barely hear it. The machine overall does not get very warm, except under the upper right part of the keyboard where it vents. Otherwise very cool, even under the hard drive on the lower left.

Keyboard / Trackpad
The keyboard is excellent, a pleasure to type on. The clickpad is pretty good but the whole buttonless aspect of it does take some getting accustomed to. I find myself using the trackpoint far more often, especially on a crowded train where I am a little cramped. The Thinklight is wonderful to have, providing just enough light to see the keys in the dark.

Screen
Unfortunately, the screen is glossy. Not nearly as glossy as some other notebooks that I have seen, but you can clearly see your reflection when the machine is off. In brightly lit rooms you will probably have to turn the screen brightness up pretty high, but when you do you won’t have any issues seeing the screen. The screen is 16:9, which I personally don’t mind but appreciate that it does drive some people mad. I have my Windows task bar situated vertically on the side to compensate for the lost vertical space, and this works fine for me. Screen quality seems perfectly acceptable but nothing to write home about. Another minor complaint is that the hinge does not allow the screen to tilt back quite as far as I would like, maybe 120 degrees. It’s fine most of the time but 10 more degrees or so would be helpful for situations where I’m standing and the laptop is on a desk.

Battery
Battery life is undoubtedly the weak point of this machine. Remember above when I said that this was perfect for a commuter? I deliberately did not say business traveler because the battery life would just not support that use. I have been getting around 3-4 hours a charge primarily web browsing and watching videos (flash and recorded TV), along with some casual games. About half my disconnected time is on the train with the screen bright, wireless turned off, USB tethered to my phone. The other half is at home with a fairly dim screen and wireless N. Given that the battery was only rated for 6 hours, I’m not terribly surprised, but at the same time I was hoping for a little more. Given my usage this is acceptable, but I understand this could be a deal breaker for some.

Speakers
Bad. Tinny. I don’t really mind since I didn’t expect much. Fine for video chat, short video clips or a casual game but I wouldn’t put up with it for a whole movie. As flat screen TVs get thinner the speakers seem to get worse, and it would seem the same holds true for laptops. Sound from the headphone jack is excellent.

Wireless
I have the Intel 1000 card, and it has been excellent. I have been getting anywhere from 70-160 Mbps, depending on distance from the router. No issues whatsoever streaming HD recorded TV from my HTPC. I have not used the Bluetooth at all.

Performance
The machine’s performance seems solid, but I doubt my usage is very taxing on resources anyway. Startup and shutdown times are pretty good given the mechanical drive. HD playback looks great both on the screen and connected to a 42 inch LCD. Just know that you are dealing with the ultra-low voltage processor here, which I believe is fine for most uses but you’re definitely not getting the most processing power for your buck if that’s a concern for you. If you need more power, the X220 probably makes more sense.

Software
I was impressed by the lack of bloatware. The ThinkVantage tools seem generally useful and I really like the control it gives you over the battery (when to start/stop charging).

Conclusions
Generally I would say that this is an excellent consumer notebook but maybe an average business notebook. As someone looking for a personal laptop that wanted something a little nicer than your typical consumer quality I am very satisfied. I would purchase this laptop again but at the same time realize that it will not be for everyone.

Pros

• Form factor
• Build quality

Cons

• Battery life
• May not be best choice for business considering X220i can be had for a little more.

 

Much appreciated. The E220s hasn't been getting much commentary, so it's nice to see a review. Would you say the display is similar to the previous Edge display (if you can recall)? One thing I noticed with the Edge line was that the glossy display was not nearly as reflective as most.

 

I've seen the glossy screen of the previous Edge on display in a store but can't really recall how reflective it was. I can say that the E220s isn't too reflective. Compared to other laptops I have seen up close recently, it is far less glossy than an m11x r2 and somewhat less glossy that a timelinex 1830t.

I haven't had a situation where I have had trouble seeing the screen due to the glossiness, even with bright lighting (although I have yet to try it outside). That being said, I have had to turn up the brightness to overcome the lighting more so than I probably would need to with a matte screen, which isn't ideal given the battery life.

 

Thank you for the review. It's sad to hear about the battery life, although it's not really shocking considering how small the laptop is. If it was significantly cheaper than the x220/i, it may convince people to look past the poor battery life.

I will say that it is by far the best looking laptop I have seen to date. Do you have any pictures of it?

 

Nice review. I agree about the build quality. I even have two previous generation builds and still find them much better than present consumer builds.

Two questions for you. Lenovo's website says battery life up to 6 hours. What has been your average experience so far?

Also, can you tell us how the Intel 3000 graphics are? I know you said you haven't really pushed it but for me Intel graphics don't exactly thrill me.

 

It is a great looking laptop. Enough so for me to forgive its shortcomings. I haven't taken any pictures but I'll try to get to that tonight.

I have been averaging about 3.5 - 4 hours a charge doing fairly light tasks. I mentioned in my review but probably should emphasize that I am tethering via USB to my phone about half the time. I am guessing that must kill the battery faster than wifi because I am technically charging the phone too.

The most I have pushed the graphics is to project a 1080p video to my 42 inch lcd with no noticable issues. I would guess the graphics would be sufficient for anything short of mid- to hardcore gaming. I have read about how this current Intel generation's graphics is supposed to be vastly superior to previous generations', and so far I haven't experienced anything that would prove otherwise.

 

This isn't for tireddad particularily, but how would the Intel 3000 be on the ULVs vs the standard processors?

The difference in frequency is around 350MHz between the i5-2410 and the i7-2617; and seeing that it would go up and down depending on avaliable TDP, I can't see CPU heavy games such as StarCraft 2 being much different between the two, but I don't know for sure.

The reason is that I like the thin profile of the E220s vs the X220, and I like the chicklet keyboard more than the flat on the X.

 

Here are a few pictures to go along with my review. I didn't just want to repeat what you can already find with a quick Google search, so I did mostly comparison shots to give a better sense of the size of the laptop. Comparison devices are my wife's Xoom and my MyTouch 3G / HTC Magic.







This is how wide the laptop opens. Not bad but feels just not quite enough.


Love the keyboard!

 

One thing I'm curious about (and E420s owners may be able to comment on this as well), is whether the 'clickpad' design of the trackpad lends itself to accidental presses, say when your palm moves across it during typing. Obviously this would vary depending on how you position your hands while typing, but it's one thing I disliked about the Macbook and HP notebooks..typing away and 'click!, whoops, click, whoops..

Also the palmrest area looks decently sized, but it's hard to tell from pics. For someone who rests their hands down on the surface, would you say it provides ample space (without overhang)?

 

Hi, thank you for your review. Could you please also make a printscreen of windows experience index of this model (example on the image)? What is the less number?

Thank you

 

I believe that the clickpad was designed around the Mac trackpad, so the default behaviour may be that you would have to click it to initiate a mouse click.

 

I own an e420s and there are no worries about depressing the clickpad while typing. You actually have to push down on one of the lower corners to make a mouse button move.

Hope this helps.

BenMar

 

It is pretty difficult to accidentally click the clickpad because you actually do have to physically click it down on the lower left or right side. If you typically click near the center (the right side of the left button or vise versa) of a standard trackpad this takes a little getting used to because clicks register much more reliably from the corners.

The palmrest is surprisingly large and comfortable for a notebook of this size. I am really pleased with the ergonomics of this machine.

Here's a screenshot of the WEI score:

 

Good to know, thank you (and thanks tireddad as well).

 

The feedback people are giving about the alleged layer of plastic over the 420s is a little concerning, but I saw a passing comment saying that the 220s display somehow wasn't as affected. Does it really just look like a matte screen with a layer of plastic over it? Sorry for so many questions.

 

I guess you could say it looks like a matte screen under a glossy cover. I'm not sure whether you can say the glossy cover "looks" either plastic or glass, but touching it and pushing on it a bit reveals that it is almost certainly plastic. I can't speak to the E420s because I have never actually seen one, but the complaints about the flimsiness seem a little more extreme than what I can say about the E220s. Maybe the additional couple of inches magnifies its flaws. This is not super flimsy plastic, but then again I don't make pushing on my screen a regular habit. I don't get the impression that it would damage any more easily than a standard glossy screen.

That being said, Lenovo probably shouldn't market the screen as "infinity glass" if it is in fact plastic. Also, I'm not sure I see the point of the additional glossy layer, getting the reflectiveness of a glossy screen without the perceived added color vibrancy sometimes associated with it.

Overall, I see the screen as average. It's certainly not a reason to buy this laptop, but it's no deal breaker either unless a high end screen is a priority to you.

 

Thanks for the review. Reading it last week was a significant factor in pushing me over the edge (har har) enough to order my own. Looking forward to seeing and using it in person.

 

They seem to have jacked up the price on the E220s. $909 base price, up from $749. Still $699 for the e420s, though. Seems strange, especially since the X220i base price is $849.

 

I think that was roughly the price for the e220s with WWAN option, which is now curiously absent. Maybe they just transposed the price onto the non-WWAN model. We in Canada still have a listing for the base model at $749.

http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/...-category-id=B0E24B458C6DE6667246B11A09BE0DDE

 

Since so many people are mad about the "plastic" infinity glass screen, has any one just taken the plastic off? This would make the laptop the same as the basic E420.

 

Anyone notice how I seem to be killing threads, look at how many threads end with a post from me.

 

I'll toss a post down here to make ya feel better.

 

Here's another one to make you feel even better:

Anybody tried to switch the screen with the X220 one?

 

In fact, I had the opposite problem with my E220S. The bottom corners of the clickpad didn't register clicks AT ALL. Drove me nuts. I finally had to give up and return it, which I was pretty bummed about, but I couldn't get used to pressing a different part of the clickpad in order to register a click.

I'd like to find out if mine was an isolated problem, of if this is an issue with this generation (e220, e420) of clickpads in general.

 

Anyone take the infinty glass off of their e220s

 

the diagonal look in the front really reminds me of the now discontinued Z series. too bad the actual screen bezel is still too much compared to the Z series

 

Has anyone removed the bottom panel to access the ram and battery?

 

Access to the RAM and battery is not done from removing the bottom panel. If you remove the two screws in the middle of the underside, you can pop off the keybaord and access the RAM, mSATA slot, and mPCIe. If you want to access the battery (as well as every other internal component), just remove all the screws from the bottom, and pop off the panel that includes the touchpad. There are a few wires to disconnect with each panel, of course.

 

How do you 'pop off' the keyboard? I removed the two screws used a small flat head screwdriver to pop the keyboard tray out but no dice. Is there a method to removing the kb tray or latch/switch to press?

 

Watch to your heart's content...

Lenovo Service and Support Training

 

Oh man, thank you for that. Been searching for a diy and was not successful.