Techie
3:10 AM | Monday | 15 March 2010

We all knew it was coming, and now it's actually here! We have the exclusive first Philippine review of the new Lenovo ThinkPad Edge, the Chinese brand's sexiest thin-and-light notebook to date.

Design

Branded as a ThinkPad, the Edge is positioned as a business notebook, although its chassis definitely looks more "inspired" than its work-centric brethren.

The shell is simple but eye-catching. A straight gray trim surrounds the glossy top cover, making the lid stand out. The blinking dot on the ThinkPad "i" is a bit distracting but only when the PC is turned on or in standby mode.

Popped open, it looks much like a classic IBM laptop complete with the red trackpoint (aka the nipple) right at the center of the contoured chiclet-style keyboard.

Slightly slim but it's all light

The Lenovo ThinkPad Edge is hardly the slimmest notebook we've reviewed, but it more than makes up to it with its weight. At 1.65kg, it's easy to handle and store in your backpack or messenger bag.

Ports, although limited and basic, are evenly distributed on both sides unlike on the Sony VAIO VGN-FW43G. An HDMI port sits among the commoners and is arguably the most "high-tech" I/O port present.

The included 4-cell battery lifts the Edge's bum slightly, thus making the laptop more ergonomic especially when typing. And speaking of batteries, the Edge runs a full five hours during real-world use. Good enough for two movies during a plane ride to a neighboring Southeast Asian country.

Performance

Seeing as the ThinkPad Edge is a thin-and-light notebook, you should expect that it's still made for content consumption rather than content creation. Don't get it wrong, though. It performs just fine for office applications, Web browsing, and checking email. It can even hold its own when it comes to playing HD videos.

The numbers tell the same story. Novabench gave the Edge a score of 145, five points short of average but well above netbook territory. It's also faster than the supposedly more powerful Red Fox Optima RN740JT.

The Windows Experience Index, however, is not as forgiving, giving it a base score of 2.0. The culprit? Believe it or not, it's the ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics card. It shouldn't matter much, though, because the absence of an optical drive should ward off hardcore gamers and video editors from the get-go.

Watered-down specs

At P36,990, the Lenovo ThinkPad Edge is very affordable, but its specs sheet explains why. The review unit sent to our test lab is the base unit and is run by the rather conservative 1.6GHz AMD Turion X2 processor. An Intel ULV-powered version is also available, but it's more expensive, bringing the price point well into mid-range territory.

To make matters worse, the RAM is also dumbed down. While other versions of the Edge sport DDR3 RAMs running at 1066MHz, the base model settles for the older DDR2 at 800MHz. Bummer. It's a good thing, though, that they put in a 2GB module rather than a paltry 1GB.

Verdict

Despite the understandable shortcomings, however, the ThinkPad Edge is still a very tempting offering from Lenovo. It's made by a trusted brand, feels mind-easingly solid, and looks straight-up sexy – like the office secretary of your dreams. 

Click here to see the Lenovo ThinkPad Edge in the Buyer's Guide.