The Edge 14 is the latest consumer and small business oriented ThinkPad from Lenovo. Edge notebooks offer looks weakened compared to the SL and T-series Thinkpads changed, even including Chiclet-style keyboard. In this article we take a thorough look at the 14-inch ThinkPad and see how well it stacks up against other similar notebooks.
Construction and Design
The Lenovo ThinkPad Edge 14 is a consumer-driven design that takes a few steps of SL-series ThinkPads. While the SL-series looks like a painting with the ThinkPad replaced with rubber-like matte black paint, the Edge has a completely new shape and contrasting colors. The borders of the screen cover and keyboard are trimmed with silver plastic. The top cover on our test unit is matte black, Lenovo but it also in other colors. Another subtle change is the standard indicator with a single red LED, which were also happens to be the point above the ThinkPad “I”. The design is so different from other ThinkPad models, if you click on the logo with another label cover, few people would recognize as a ThinkPad (In fact, most people would not believe you right now, even if you said it was a ThinkPad.)
The production quality is above average compared to consumer notebooks, but a step below business-class ThinkPad notebooks. The screen hinges are noticeably smaller than what you might find on a standard ThinkPad, they are plastic face, not metal. ThinkPads have strong screen hinges, which announced last during the notebooks life without wear. Some smaller models, like the X200, have used small hinges to feel complements the smaller size, but this depends on the ThinkPad in comparison weak. Unlike the Edge 13 we have a couple of months ago, the edge 14 has not verified the same gloss paint problems. Lenovo went with a matte surface on the Edge 14, a much more consistent look and feel than a glossy surface. That is, options are glossy on the Edge 14 “Midnight Black” and “heat wave red” colors available.
The chassis feels strong and durable, with very little flex in the plastic plates. In contrast to more expensive ThinkPad models, the boundary 14 not managed by an internal roll cage, but Lenovo still keep the notebook quite strong. The palm rest, touchpad and keyboard have no discernible flex flex under strong pressure and not the frames, if you take the corner of the palmrest. The only area of the rim 14, I like to see an improvement like, the screen cover. With even pressure, you can see ripples on the screen – a first for a ThinkPad model.
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Users can easily upgrade components on the edge 14 by two covers on the underside of the notebook. A panel houses the SIM card and WWAN PCIe slot, while the other can access the system memory, CPU and hard drive. Our review model does not come with WWAN installed and it lacked the needed connectors soldered available for future upgrades. Most ThinkPad models have the slots available on all models, but it seems that if you want on the edge WWAN 14, you should order it if you buy the notebook.
Screen and speakers
The Lenovo ThinkPad edge 14 with a brilliant 14-inch WXGA panel. The average jury awards by 13 and 14-inch screens, we compared the test. Color and contrast are sufficient, but some nice panels we fall seen in the market have, including one on the 13.3-inch MacBook Pro and HP Envy 13 short. set at maximum brightness, we measure a screen brightness of 224 cd/m2 in the middle of the screen. Backlight uniformity was great with the top, bottom and sides stay within 20 cd/m2. Viewing angles are starting to color in 10-15 degrees below the title to the front or rear turn average.
The Edge 14 has speaker right below the display is covered by a grid on a panel surface. The speakers are average compared to other notebooks CULV, lacking both bass and most mid-range sound. While listening to the basic purposes or streaming music or video, they should be sufficient. If you watch movies over headphones or a stereo system connected through the Edge 14′s HDMI connection would be a better option.
Keyboard and touchpad
When I first saw the leaked pictures of the new ThinkPad keyboard, I must admit that I was less than satisfied. The keyboard is one of the few remaining original and unchanged parts of the ThinkPad notebook. The layout has been updated over the years, but the keypad could be identified always as “ThinkPad”. With the new design, Lenovo has a touch of other new keyboard designs on the market and blended a combination of form and function.
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The keyboard takes Chiclet/Island-style, often on notebooks of the latest phones on the latest Apple MacBook, and blends them with a traditional ThinkPad design. What makes the keyboard is unique in that it is the first rubber keyboard I’ve found that very comfortable and easy to type of friends. Most keyboards have Chiclet-style flat top keys, different distances and flatter than a normal keyboard to throw. The ThinkPad 14 does not these problems, creating an ideal hybrid keyboard, which I can easily say is among the best implementations I have used so far.
Typing pressure and feedback is similar to a typical ThinkPad keyboard, something like that when you type with your eyes you may not even realize the closed form of key changes. The throw seems to be of the same with my T60 with the same kind of click sound when pressed fully. Removing the top layers show the scissors-known event in the traditional ThinkPad keyboard found. My best guess would be Lenovo kept the original frame and action assembly, only the updating of the buttons and the addition of an internal structure bezel. The change does not affect strength, but shows no flex under pressure, strong typing.
The Edge offers a generous Synaptics touchpad, with almost three times the area compared to my T60. If you regularly smaller touchpad, you might have a bit of a learning process before it becomes second nature. During the first few days, I would frequently touch the bottom of the touchpad surface rather than on the left or right buttons. This would move the cursor from the target, it was annoying until I adjusted to his size. Overall, the touchpad pleasant to use, with a fast response time and without noticeable delay. Sensitivity was excellent and no adjustment out of the box needed. This particular pad has some multi-touch features, including pinch-to-zoom and pivot rotation. After prolonged use, I have no problems with the touchpad texture, smooth matt finish was at ease on dry or slightly damp fingers. The touchpad buttons seem a little flatter on movement compared with other ThinkPads, but have still made available to good feedback.
Ports and functions
Compared to the Edge 13, the Edge 14 additional ports, and a beautiful SDHC card reader. The edge 14 by a gain eSATA combo port, three USB ports and an eSATA/USB port contains. The larger model Edge now offers an ExpressCard/34 slot for future expansion and an optical drive.
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One aspect of the clean design that I disliked on the edge 14 is the lack of both hard drive and wireless activity indicator lights. Compared to other notebooks, the system prevents you must be able to recognize that wireless cards are currently on, which is handy if you have multiple wireless devices such as Bluetooth and WWAN, or if some activity is really tasking your hard disk.
Heat and Noise
The larger edge 14 is held with the thermal requirements of its AMD Turion Dual-Core Processor II P520 with the Intel GMA combines HD graphics. Under constant stress, the suspension warmed up on average 10 degrees higher than room temperature. During our stress test, the fan noise slightly above background noise, and barely noticeable, even in the immediate vicinity of the notebook. If you are a person who does not like to draw attention to himself is in quiet places with loud noise Notebook, you will like the Edge-14. All temperatures are in degrees Fahrenheit.
Battery Life
The edge 14 is not as good as 13th in our battery test Edge The Edge 14 has a smaller battery 6WH than his brother and has much faster hardware. reduced in our test with screen brightness at 70%, wireless active and Windows 7 on a balanced profile that was the edge 14 to four hours and 33 minutes.
Performance
The Edge 14′s system performance, was with an AMD Turion Dual-Core Processor II, P520, and Intel GMA HD graphics, very good compared to the CULV-based Edge 13. Overall system performance and 3D performance almost double compared to SU7300 processor and graphics in the previous X4500M Edge. The edge 14 can easily normal system activities such as surfing the Web, write documents, listen to music and watch movies. It can also decode HD video without a hitch, the notebook decoded our 720P and 1080P downloaded movies with ease. found high-density flash sites like YouTube have no problems in our test.
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Conclusion
The Lenovo ThinkPad 14 is a good choice for people looking for a consumer or small business-oriented notebook do. It offers an extremely comfortable keyboard island, a step above many other models. Compared to its smaller brother, the Edge 13, Edge 14 almost double the system performance is the transition from CULV-based Intel SU7300 CPU and chipset on the powerful dual-core and GMA HD. The only area that is not on the edge 14 to improve, is battery life, but given the increasing power and the same size batteries, is to be expected is to take a hit. Overall, the ThinkPad do edge 14 is a good alternative if to avoid you, my standard T-series business models.
