Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E420 Review

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Verdict:

With great build quality, a modern design, an excellent keyboard, good battery life, fast performance, and now an affordable price, the ThinkPad E420 is an excellent choice for a student that wants a laptop that will last through four years or more of college or a budget-conscious small business owner.

Pros:
Excellent performance overall
High build quality; semi-rugged
Great keyboard and signature TrackPoint
Inexpensive, starting at just $480
Good battery life
Relatively lightweight
Low power consumption, noise, and heat
Matte display is great for outdoor use and has acceptable horizontal viewing angles
Wide range of options including Core i7 processors, higher capacity batteries, fingerprint readers, and a docking station
ThinkVantage Utilities

Cons:
TouchPad is worthless
Display has low color accuracy and vertical viewing angles; no option for higher-quality screen
Gaming performance is lackluster
No USB 3.0

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Lenovo designed the ThinkPad E-series mainly for small business owners that don’t want to sacrifice performance but still want to get good durability at a lower price point than the ThinkPad T-series. Today we’ll be looking at the E420 to see if Lenovo cut many corners to get to a lower price point or if this is a worthy laptop for a small business or a college student.

Design and First Impressions

The laptop comes in a brown box which details the specifications and model on the side. Inside, you’ll find the laptop itself, a netbook-sized 65W power adapter, a user’s guide, and warranty information.

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The first impression you get when you look at the exterior of the laptop is that it’s well-built but at the same time much more modern than the traditional ThinkPad. The lid is made out of a matte soft touch plastic that looks adept at hiding fingerprints, and on the edge of the display area you’ll find a matte silver trim. The rest of the exterior is made out of black matte plastic. In overall dimensions it’s noticeably smaller than the typical 15.6” laptop, but much bigger than an 11.6” netbook or ultraportable. The 6-cell battery sits flush with the chassis, but on the downside, the laptop is not thin at 1.2”.[/FONT]

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[FONT=&quot]Open the latch-less lid and you’ll find a 14” 1366x768 display. On top is a 1280x720 “low light” camera as well as the integrated microphone. Unlike other ThinkPads, this has an island-style keyboard (more on that later) and all of the keys are black instead of black and blue. You also lose some special system keys. The keyboard is full-sized and has great key spacing. On the middle of the keyboard you’ll find the signature TrackPoint pointing stick. Just below the space key you’ll find the left, middle, and right mouse buttons which are used in conjunction with the TrackPoint. Below it is the TouchPad, which for a 14” laptop is quite big. It also has dedicated left and right mouse buttons just below. On the bottom right you’ll find the integrated fingerprint scanner (optional).
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[/FONT] The design of the laptop distinguishes itself from its more expensive brother, the T420, by having a soft touch lid, a latch-less mechanism for opening, an island-style keyboard, more rounded edges, and a bigger TouchPad. It’s comparable to the T420 in that has a completely matte body and build quality is very good. Even though it doesn’t have the T420’s internal roll cage, it still feels very solid: there is no flex at all from the palm rest area and there is only a bit of flex on the keyboard tray when you press very hard. In terms of styling, it looks like a business laptop, but not as bland as normal ThinkPads. You could say, then, it’s a more modern interpretation of the ThinkPad design. At the same time, enough was kept about the traditional design that it’s still unmistakably a ThinkPad.

 

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As far as upgrading and replacing the internals go, it’s very easy. On the bottom of the laptop you have an access panel which has four screws. After you remove those, you’ll be able to upgrade the RAM, the Hard Drive, the wireless card, and you’ll find a free SIM card slot and a free mSATA slot.

The four screws can be easily removed using a smaller philips head screwdriver

From left to right: wireless card, Hard Drive, and memory

A free mSATA slot allows you to install an mSATA SSD and enjoy both instant response and high capacity

Port selection: on the left of the laptop we find a multi-media card reader, a single headphone jack, an HDMI output, a combo eSATA + USB 2.0 port, two additional USB 2.0s, a VGA output, and a relatively large exhaust vent. On the right we find a 34mm ExpressCard slot, a powered USB 2.0 port, a multi-format DVD Writer, the charging port, and a Kensington lock slot. On the back we find another exhaust vent, the included 6-cell battery, and an Ethernet port.

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Display and Sound

The display is the same as the default for the T420. Resolution is standard fare at the typical 1366x768, but in a 14” screen it’s much more tolerable and most everything looks crisp. Viewing angles are a mixed bag: vertical, they’re horrible. Even turning the screen up by 20 degrees means a big color shift and everything turns much darker. Horizontally, viewing angles are acceptable up to an angle of 50 to 60 degrees where there’s a clear color shift; it would still be decent if some people are going to view content on the screen at the same time. In terms of color accuracy, it’s not good due to the combination of a TN panel and a matte screen. Contrast and panel uniformity aren’t good, either, but it’s still not the worst I’ve seen. When watching a movie at night, blacks are actually black except in the middle right and middle left corners of the screen where there’s a small amount of backlight bleed that makes it look slightly grayish. Perhaps the only thing I could give the screen a 5/5 on is the matte treatment. Unlike the treatment you usually see in IPS panels, which can on occasions look grainy, here it’s more subtle and similar to what you see in a VA panel. You still have the benefit, however, of it being much more suited to outdoor use than glossy screens. With the backlight set to 50% you can use it outdoors with zero problems and without having to squint at the screen or getting distracted at reflections.

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For regular tasks the display is just fine and a step up from the crappy 15.6” glossy displays we’re used to seeing, but it’s not suited for professional use. It wouldn’t be a good choice for professional video or photo editing or very accurate print work, but it’s mainly a business laptop so it’s excusable. You still have the benefit of it being more usable outdoors than glossy displays and for everyday tasks and some movie watching you’ll be fine.

A common problem with many consumer laptops after two or three years of use is that the display hinges develop cracks or come out of place, or they become very weak and almost any movement results in a big wobble. Fortunately, Lenovo took a good decision here and decided to use stainless steel hinges like in the higher-end T420. The hinges on the E420 are very sturdy and reasonably stiff, and they feel like they can easily last five years or more. Another good design feature is that the display can be opened up to a 180 degree angle, until it lays flat.

The display hinges on the E420 are made out of stainless steel and are stiff, making them feel solid.

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[/FONT][FONT=&quot]They also allow you to position the display in a 180 degree angle.

The speakers are good for speech since they can become loud enough to fill a medium-sized room, but not much else. Like most laptop speakers they’re completely lacking at the low frequency range, so you have no bass. If you want higher quality audio you should connect some external speakers or headphones. For presentations and the occasional video they’ll do fine, though.[/FONT]

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

Keyboard, TouchPad, and TrackPoint

[FONT=&quot]Earlier I mentioned the E420 having an island-style keyboard, and for some that may have already spelled doom. This is very different from typical island-style keyboards, however, in that the keys have excellent travel, are well spaced, and are slightly curved, making touch typing a breeze.
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[FONT=&quot]Compared to traditional ThinkPads it has a very similar feel and it’s one of the best reasons to get this laptop. When you’re typing normally the keyboard tray has no noticeable flex, but if you press it hard enough there is a small amount of it. My only gripe with it would be that the arrow keys are small.
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A noteworthy change is that the Function keys are now set by default for making system changes like lowering/raising screen brightness and volume, turning Wi-Fi on or off, and playing/pausing your music. You can still use them as function keys by pressing “Fn”.
Lenovo advertises the keyboard as being spill-resistant and it has a channel that can handle small amounts of water, but for obvious reasons I have not tested it.

After using the TouchPad, all I can say is that you should use the TrackPoint instead. If you don’t know how to, you should learn because once you use it for some days you’ll find it works much better than any TouchPad. While the TouchPad in the E420 is ample and has a good texture for gliding, lines on the edge so you know where it ends, and two dedicated left and right click buttons, it has some fatal flaws. The first one is that scrolling is terrible. It’s very erratic, and even after fine tuning and changing settings you’ll find yourself frustrated because of it. You can be scrolling down a page, and all of the sudden you’ll find yourself at the very top of a page without moving your fingers. You’ll also find yourself trying to scroll at times and be frustrated that nothing happens. While it has two dedicated left and right click buttons, they seem like an afterthought. They’re very mushy, feel low-quality, and are pretty small.

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[FONT=&quot]As far as the TrackPoint goes, it’s standard fare, which is to say it’s very good. It uses a rubber dome that is located between the G, B, and H keys and you can set how fast or slow it reacts depending on how much pressure you apply to it. I found the best setting to be two just below the default. If you’ve ever used a TrackPoint you know the best thing about it is that you never have to move your fingers off the home row when you’re typing, it’s better in terms of ergonomics, and it’s more comfortable. It’s also more accurate. Below the keyboard you have three dedicated buttons, all of which are good in terms of travel and feel. They can be used for left and right click functions and the middle button makes scrolling with the TrackPoint effortless.
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Specifications, Benchmarks, and Performance
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Specifications[/FONT]

My ThinkPad E420 is configured as follows:

• CPU: Intel Core i5-2410M (2.3GHz Base; 2.7GHz 2C/4T Turbo; 2.9GHz 1C/1T Turbo)
• Memory: Samsung 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1333MHz (Max 8GB using 2x4GB DIMMs)
• Graphics Card: Intel HD Graphics 3000
• Chipset: Intel HM65
• Hard Drive: Seagate Momentus 7200.4 500GB (ST9500420AS)
• Display: 14”, matte, LED, 1366x768, TN panel
• Optical Drive: 8x Multi-format DVD Burner
• Networking: Intel Centrino WiFi Link 1000 (2.4GHz single-band; supports 802.11b/g/n) and Realtek PCIe GBE Controller Family (Ethernet)
  
• Battery: Sony Lithium-Ion, 6-cell, 48Whr
• Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• Dimensions: 13.34” x 9.05” x 1.10 – 1.29”
• Weight: 4.6 pounds with 6-cell battery
• Intel Wireless Display (WiDi) Technology
• Bluetooth 3.0 + EDR
• Fingerprint Reader
• Integrated 720p low-light webcam

• Price as configured: $550
• Starting price: $480

 

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Benchmarks:

First up is 3D rendering. In Cinebench 11.5, the i5-2410M scored 2.60 points for multi-threaded and 1.13 points for single-thread.

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Then we have file compression and decompression. 7-zip gives it a rating of 7184 MIPS (million instructions per second) for compression and 7864 MIPS for decompression. When it comes to the actual speed of the tasks, it results in 6,292KB/s for compression and 83,630KB/s for decompression.

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Moving on to video encoding, the x264 HD 4.0 Benchmark gives the following score:

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Pass 1
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encoded 1442 frames, 76.52 fps, 3912.26 kb/s
encoded 1442 frames, 76.65 fps, 3912.26 kb/s
encoded 1442 frames, 76.71 fps, 3912.26 kb/s
encoded 1442 frames, 76.77 fps, 3912.26 kb/s

Pass 2
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encoded 1442 frames, 14.10 fps, 3961.52 kb/s
encoded 1442 frames, 14.03 fps, 3961.33 kb/s
encoded 1442 frames, 14.22 fps, 3960.54 kb/s
encoded 1442 frames, 14.36 fps, 3961.19 kb/s

Now onto file encryption, where TrueCrypt 7 takes advantage of the i5-2410M’s support of AES instructions and it scores a mean of 61.7MB/s on the very intensive AES-Twofist-Serpent benchmark.

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Now let’s look at some synthetics:

First up is PCMark 7, which gives the E420 a score of 1698 points.

A 32M run of wPrime is completed in 26.159 seconds.

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AIDA64 puts the memory read and write at 15,162MB/s and 15,049MB/s, respectively.

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As most of you know, the Windows Experience Index can be flawed, but it’s still a decent way to see what the overall bottleneck in your system is. In the case of the E420, Windows rates it with a base score of 5.7, pinpointing the Hard Drive and Intel HD 3000 graphics as the bottlenecks. The highest scoring component is the CPU at 6.9.

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Finally, here’s some benchmarks for the Seagate Momentus 7200.4 500GB:

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It’s fairly fast for a Hard Drive when it comes to sequential speeds, scoring an average of 82.5MB/s reads. Access times are average at 16.5ms. A 5400RPM Hard Drive of the same capacity will net you around 70MB/s avg. sequential reads and 20ms access times, so this is definitely an improvement.

Performance:
In terms of CPU performance, the i5-2410M is comparable to the desktop i3-530 and 540, and the desktop Athlon II X3 445 and 450. Unlike those CPUs, the 2410M supports Turbo. In the E420, the CPU always runs at 2.8-2.9GHz in programs that use one thread and 2.7GHz in programs that use 2-4 threads. It’s similar in speed to the last generation Core i3 desktop processors and is within 10-15% of Sandy Bridge Core i3 desktop processors, which means you’ll get good performance for most demanding tasks including video encoding, multi-tasking, and compiling. At the same price point you can get a Llano laptop with an A8 APU, but their CPU performance is overall around 50% lower. If you're thinking of doing video transcoding, keep in mind the i5-2410M and HM65 chipset support Quick Sync Technology, which uses the IGP for the handling of transcoding and is much faster than using the CPU.

On the flip side of the coin, if you’re want decent gaming performance, look elsewhere. I ran some games including the aging Far Cry 2 and DiRT 2, and while they run, they’re only playable at the lowest settings and low resolutions like 1024x768, which is far less than ideal for a good experience.

On the upside, the HD 3000 graphics consume very little power and can handle decoding of the vast majority of video formats flawlessly. 1080p .mkv movie files, for example, run with a low CPU usage of 10%. 1080p Flash video is dealt with swiftly, too, with CPU usage at 10-15%. No stuttering occurs in either situation.

The Hard Drive is definitely a step up from the sluggish 5400RPM models most consumer laptops come with and it’ll be just fine for normal tasks, but if you’re looking for instant responsiveness and very fast boot times you’ll want an SSD. Windows 7 boots up in 50 seconds, and it becomes usable 5 after you see the desktop. Firefox takes around three seconds to launch, and Word takes four seconds to launch. If you open many things at once, you’ll get sluggish performance; owing to the fact HDDs have mechanical parts. You don’t have to be stuck with a single Hard Drive, though, because you have a free mSATA slot on the back access panel you can use to install an mSATA SSD. These are becoming more popular, and you have different controllers and capacities to choose from. They’re not that expensive, either: you can get a 64GB model for $80-120 or a 128GB model for $200-250. If you want instant response and high capacity, leaving the stock Hard Drive as a data drive and using an mSATA SSD as a boot + programs drive is highly recommended. Another option you have is to replace the stock Hard Drive with a 2.5” SSD, but be advised that you will be limited to SATA 3Gbps interface speeds as the HM65 chipset does not support SATA 6Gbps. If you want an SSD for this machine you’re better off getting one in the mSATA form factor because you get the best of both worlds. However, if you don’t need an instant-on experience but still want more responsiveness than a sluggish 5400RPM drive, the stock one will do.

The E420 does not come with support for USB 3.0, but the problem is mostly alleviated by the fact it supports eSATA for large file transfers which for now is as popular and widely-supported as USB 3.0. On the right side of the laptop you have a powered USB 2.0 port which can be used to charge USB devices like your smartphone or portable media player while the laptop is in Sleep or in Hibernate or Off if the laptop is plugged into the wall.

When it comes to multitasking, the E420 can handle browsing the web in Firefox while running music in the background with Songbird, downloading files through uTorrent, writing a document in Word, reading emails using WLM, and doing a virus scan in MSE all at the same time without any slowdowns. Multi-tasking like this can be handled just fine with the stock 4GB of RAM, but if you want to do multi-tasking while running heavier programs like virtual machines and doing some casual video editing you’ll probably need 8GB. RAM comes in a 2x2GB configuration, which has the benefit of enabling dual-channel memory mode and giving you higher IGP performance, but it’s costlier to do an upgrade since you need to replace both modules. The good thing is, even a 2x4GB DDR3 kit of laptop RAM is pretty cheap now-a-days.

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

On the go

Battery life is an important thing to many of us with laptops, and here the E420 does pretty good. With the battery set to charge to 90% capacity using the ThinkVantage Power Manager (more on that later) for longer lifespan, I am able to get 4:30 hours of battery life daily while doing web browsing and checking emails and writing a document in Word. In my case, the CPU is set to stay at 800MHz and display brightness is at 35%, and the energy saver plan is selected on Power Options. If you use it solely as a glorified typewriter, expect to see battery life of around 5 hours. If you charge the battery completely you incur in a big penalty to its lifespan, but you will be able to go from 4:30 hours to 5 hours and from 5 hours to 5:30 hours of battery life, respectively. If you want more you can opt for a $130 9-cell, 94Whr battery which should boost battery life by about 95% compared to the 6-cell. If you want all-day battery life, this is your best option.

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[FONT=&quot]The E420 has a weight of 4.6 pounds and most of it is evenly distributed, so it won’t weigh you down much unless you’re carrying a lot of other things. The power adapter weighs less than half a pound and is netbook-sized, so with it combined weight is around 5 pounds. If you need more battery life, like I said earlier, the best choice you can make is to buy the 9-cell battery because you won’t need to carry the power adapter around and you instantly get almost twice the battery life. It does, however, make weight rise to around 5 pounds and it’ll protrude from the back.[/FONT]

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The included power adapter is very small and weighs little but can recharge the battery from 10-90% in less than two hours.

Comparing the size of the E420 against the LG Optimus V smartphone.

[/FONT]The thickness of the Optimus V is 0.5", while the E420 is 1.2" thick.
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Comparing the ThinkPad X120e, an 11.6" ultra-portable, to the E420.

[/FONT] The advantage to having an average thickness is that Lenovo was able to achieve good ventilation and heat dissipation due to the two large exhaust vents and a relatively beefy heatsink assembly. Doing normal tasks the fan rarely comes on and as a result it’s nearly silent (I say nearly because the Hard Drive is a bit louder than average, but you only notice it running if you put your ear against the laptop). If you run CPU intensive applications, the fan will exhaust a decent amount of heat, but even then the E420’s chassis only gets lukewarm and you don’t hear any noise from the fan bearings; only the air being exhausted.

Under idle and in an ambient temperature of 30C the processor runs at the low 40C range, under typical use in the mid to high 40C range and under full load at the low 80C range. Expect temperatures 5C lower in the more typical 25C ambient temperatures in the states. Power usage is excellent thanks to the use of Sandy Bridge processors and its on-die IGP.

The E420 consumes a measly 4W on idle, 6-8W with typical usage, and 38-40W with the CPU at full load. Even with the most stressful and unrealistic scenario, having both the HD 3000 graphics and i5 processor at full load, the laptop didn’t reach 50W but hovered from 42-45W.

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Included Software

PCs typically come with Windows 7 but have an install that is riddled with bloatware and software trials. In the case of the E420, it still comes with trials for Microsoft Office 2010 and Norton Internet Security, but in comparison to most consumer laptops it’s nearly nothing. Something very useful that comes with all ThinkPads is Lenovo’s ThinkVantage Tools, which includes many useful utilities. The most noteworthy are Power Manager, System Update, Toolbox, and Active Protection System.

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Power Manager[/FONT]

Probably the most useful utility out of all, and the one I personally use the most. It has an intuitive, easy to use interface and can be used to monitor the laptop’s power usage, set up very specific power agendas, lower battery degradation by setting it to stop charging the battery before it reaches 100%, calibrate the battery, and change performance settings to enhance battery life.

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System Update[/FONT]

The name speaks for itself. This is a program for updating everything from drivers to the BIOS to the ThinkVantage utilities themselves. All of these are downloadable in a single place, making it free of any hassles.

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Toolbox

[FONT=&quot]A good program for doing hardware maintenance, diagnostics, and viewing the specifications of your laptop. Very easy to use, although I do question why the Messages section exists.

[/FONT] ThinkPads come with an accelerometer which is put to use in what Lenovo refers to as an Active Protection System. What this system does is monitor the position of the laptop and its movement and based on that puts to sleep the Hard Drive. While useful for situations where the laptop is prone to fall, I recommend you leave the protection system on but set it to the Low level because it can get quite intrusive. With it set to Medium or High, almost any movement causes the Hard Drive to sleep and can therefore make the system unresponsive as it spins back up. It also puts a significant stress on the Hard Drive components since it’s done so constantly.

If you have the optional Fingerprint Reader, you’ll need to use the included Fingerprint software to set it up. It allows you to input all your fingerprints and for higher security scans your fingers multiple times. Using your fingerprints for logging into the system is just as or more secure than using a password and it’s faster.

Competition:
The main competition for the ThinkPad E420 is the HP ProBook 4430s, but it does not feature a pointing stick and the keyboard isn’t nearly as good.

The Bottom Line:

With great build quality, a modern design, an excellent keyboard, good battery life, fast performance, and now an affordable price, the ThinkPad E420 is an excellent choice for a student that wants a laptop that will last through four years or more of college or a budget-conscious small business owner. With options ranging from Core i3 to Core i7 processors, docking stations and available 9-cell batteries, it’s similar to its more expensive T420 brother when it comes to performance and accessories. There is definitely still a market for the T420, and that’s if you’re working in construction or other similar settings where you need something extremely rugged that can handle high falls or need one more hour of battery life stock (48Whr and 5 hours for E420; 57WHr and 6 hours for T420). You also have the option for a higher-resolution, higher-quality 1600x900 screen with the T420 which would be worthwhile for photo or video editing.

For most people, if they want something that’s just as fast, more affordable, and can handle day-to-day wear and tear with good reliability, the E420 will fit the bill. Just don’t try to do any intense gaming on it.

Pros:
Excellent performance overall
High build quality; semi-rugged
Great keyboard and signature TrackPoint
Inexpensive, starting at just $480
Good battery life
Relatively lightweight
Low power consumption, noise, and heat
Matte display is great for outdoor use and has acceptable horizontal viewing angles
Wide range of options including Core i7 processors, higher capacity batteries, fingerprint readers, and a docking station
ThinkVantage Utilities

Cons:
TouchPad is worthless
Display has low color accuracy and vertical viewing angles; no option for higher-quality screen
Gaming performance is lackluster
No USB 3.0

Scoring:
Design and build quality: 9/10
Display: 7/10
Input devices: 9/10
Port selection: 9/10
Battery life: 8/10
Heat and Noise: 9.5/10
Application performance: 9/10
Gaming performance: 5/10
Included Software: 9.5/10
Price: 9.5/10

Total: 84.5/100

 

[podspi]

:thumbsup: Great review. I've been wanting this laptop for a while, is it true that if you close your eyes you can't really tell between the new style keyboard and the old?

Forget about the screen, I do a lot of typing. I need a good keyboard on any laptop I buy...

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

:thumbsup: Great review. I've been wanting this laptop for a while, is it true that if you close your eyes you can't really tell between the new style keyboard and the old?

Forget about the screen, I do a lot of typing. I need a good keyboard on any laptop I buy...

Thanks.

I was actually very impressed by the keyboard. Like I mentioned in the review, even though it's an island-style it feels a lot like the traditional ThinkPad keyboards. Key travel is excellent and all the keys are well spaced, full-sized, and have a curvature so you don't make any errors when typing. When I'm at my house and need to so uni work, I prefer to use the laptop and not my desktop for typing. Overall, the keyboard is one of (if not THE) the things I like the most about the E420.

If you're looking for one of the best keyboards on a laptop it's a great choice. :thumbsup:

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

Update:

Errors fixed, images have been re-sized to take better advantage of most screens, some details and PCMark 7 results added.

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

Yet another update: added more info and corrected a few errors that were left.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Very nice. I like it. I'm a big fan of the "nipple". I have some desktop keyboards with trackpoints on them.

Price didn't seem to bad either. But no USB3.0, that's kind of a killer. I want to make certain that my next laptop has USB3.0, it just makes using external HDs that much easier.

Sure, eSATA could work, but that means that you have to plug your HD into an AC outlet too, to use it.

Can you get this model with an i7 quad-core in it?

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

Very nice. I like it. I'm a big fan of the "nipple". I have some desktop keyboards with trackpoints on them.

Price didn't seem to bad either. But no USB3.0, that's kind of a killer. I want to make certain that my next laptop has USB3.0, it just makes using external HDs that much easier.

Sure, eSATA could work, but that means that you have to plug your HD into an AC outlet too, to use it.

Can you get this model with an i7 quad-core in it?

I guess this could be the solution. The laptop does have an ExpressCard/34 slot, after all.

You can't get it with a quad-core i7, unfortunately. The max you can get it with is an i7-2640M, which like mine is a dual-core with Hyper-Threading but it has a 2.8GHz base and 3.3GHz 2-4T/3.5GHz 1T Turbo. That basically means it's comparable to a Core i3-2130, which is pretty fast for a 14" notebook.

Take that into account, though: this has a 14" chassis. If they fit a 45W TDP CPU in it things could turn badly. There's very few 14" laptops that have the option for a quad-core i7; one of them is the Alienware 14X. That looks disgusting (IMO) and weighs more than most 15.6" laptops, though, which makes it somewhat moot.

 

[Makaveli]

This was an excellent review, nice quality photo's and very detailed!

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

This was an excellent review, nice quality photo's and very detailed!

I put a lot of effort into it so that it turned out professional like I wanted to. This is a great laptop for $500, and I definitely don't regret purchasing it.

Thanks for reading!