Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E420s

Lenovo uses its Edge line to cut loose, and try out new designs and features. With its latest entry in this family, the ThinkPad Edge E420s ($879 direct), the company has brought to bear some of the best weapons in its business arsenal, like a powerful Intel processor, rock-solid security, and a suite of utilities that bring out the best the laptop has to offer. Lenovo has also livened it up with an attractive design that somewhat compensates for the fact that there are more powerful systems out there than this one.

Design
The Lenovo design aesthetic has always been one of function over fashion, but the Edge E420s has a look that will catch attention while still being appropriate for the business space. Its entire exterior, from lid to underside, is done up in a dark matte finish Lenovo calls "moss black" that is soft to the touch and makes for a comfortable carrying experience. All its surfaces are highlighted by polished-metal trim along the laptop's edges (the hinges are made of metal, too), but these accents aren't purely cosmetic: They are the exposed edges of the laptop's light and strong magnesium-aluminum frame. The Edge E420s measures 1.2 by 13.7 by 9.3 inches (HWD), but it weighs only 4.3 pounds, so it's light enough to carry along on your daily commute.

The 14-inch display is covered with edge-to-edge glass, and the 1,366-by-768 resolution gives you the ability to watch videos in crisp 720p HD. Set in the bezel just above the screen is a high-definition webcam (also 720p), which features low-light sensitivity so you can Skype without turning on all the lights.

The full-size keyboard is in the island style, but uses scalloped rather than square keys to give the keyboard a distinctive look and feel. For computing in dimmer environs, the Lenovo also has a keyboard light; but unlike the LED backlighting so many models use, this one is an overhead light that's nestled just next to the webcam. Turn it on to bathe your keyboard in a soft light that's bright enough to read hard-copy documents by.

The Edge E420s also has a dual-pointer setup, with both a multitouch touchpad and a TrackPoint located on the keyboard. Just below the keyboard, you'll find three mouse buttons for use with the TrackPoint: left, right, and one in the middle for rapid scrolling. The touchpad is of the clickpad variety, with the entire surface clickable, and integrated left and right buttons are built into its lower corners.

Features
Along the left side of the Edge E420s you'll find a slot-loading DVD burner as well as an SD card reader. On the right you'll find an HDMI output, a USB 2.0 port, and a USB 3.0 port, as well as a headset jack and case-lock slot. On the back you'll find an Ethernet jack, VGA output, and USB/eSATA combination port. On the palm rest below and to the right of the keyboard you'll find a fingerprint reader, for secure biometric access control.

Inside the chassis spins a 320GB 7,200rpm hard drive, which provides fast read/write speeds but is otherwise par for the course; our current Editors' Choice, the Dell Vostro 3350 ($741 direct, 4 stars), for example, has a similar drive. Bluetooth lets you connect a variety of devices wirelessly, and 802.11n Wi-Fi lets you get online without needing to tote around an Ethernet cable. The Edge E420s even supports Intel's Wireless Display technology (WiDi), which lets you stream HD content to any TV equipped with a Netgear Push2TV ($99.99 list, 4 stars) receiver without using an HDMI cable.

The Edge E420s is light on preinstalled software: There's a 60-day trial of Microsoft Office 2010, a Bing-branded toolbar for Internet Explorer, and not much else. You will also find the usual slew of Lenovo-branded utilities, and ones that you're likely to actually use, such as security management, hard drive protection, Web-conferencing tools, and business optimization. Lenovo also includes an industry-standard one-year warranty covering parts and labor.

Performance
The Edge E420s may be slim, but it doesn't skimp on power. It's equipped with a second-generation Intel Core processor, the 2.3GHz Core i5-2410M, and 4GB of RAM. If this setup doesn't make the laptop as powerful as a mobile workstation, it has plenty of power for most business software. In PCMark Vantage, our general-performance benchmark test, the Edge E420s scored 6,688 points; this puts it ahead of SMB laptops with previous-iteration CPUs, such as the Asus B43J-A1B ($700 street, 3.5 stars), which scored 6,310 points with its Core i5-560M. And though the E420s is fast in regular use, it's a hair slower than our previous (and still-available) Editors' Choice, the Lenovo ThinkPad X220 ($1,299 direct, 4 stars): In our CineBench R11.5 processor test the Edge E420s scored 2.5 to the X220's 2.82.

In terms of multimedia performance, the Edge E420s ran neck and neck with its peers, completing our Photoshop CS5 test in 4 minutes 14 seconds and our Handbrake video encoding test in 2 minutes 38 seconds. These scores are nearly identical to those of the Asus B43J-A1B (Photoshop 4:28, Handbrake 2:36) and Dell Vostro 3350 (Photoshop 4:17, Handbrake 2:33), and just shy of that of the Lenovo ThinkPad X220 (Photoshop 3:55, Handbrake 2:25).

With integrated Intel HD Graphics 3000, the Edge E420s isn't intended to generate smooth frame rates for games, but it came up short against similarly configured laptops anyway. When tested with 3DMark 06 the Edge E420s scored 3,698 points at 1,024-by-768 resolution and 1,714 points at its native resolution. In contrast, the Vostro 3350 scored much higher: 5,672 at 1,024 by 768 and 4,648 at its native resolution. In actual gaming tests, the Edge E420s yielded unplayable frame rates in our Crysis and Lost Planet 2 gaming tests. In spite of this, the integrated graphics should have enough horsepower for most business applications. But if you're looking to do some light gaming after finishing your work, consider a laptop with a discrete graphics solution like the MSI FX420-001US ($800 street, 4 stars).

For a laptop that's just as likely to be used in the living room or at an airport terminal as in an office, battery life is essential?that's even more true with the Edge E420, which uses a sealed-in four-cell (48.8Wh) battery. In our MobileMark 2007 rundown test, the Edge E420s lasted 4 hours 59 minutes on a single charge. Though this falls far short of the Vostro 3350, which lasted 9 hours 32 minutes, that laptop had a much larger 80Wh battery. Compared with the Asus B43J-A1B, which had a nearly identical 48Wh battery, the Lenovo did even better: The Asus only lasted 2 hours 20 minutes.

The Lenovo ThinkPad E420s offers plenty of on-the-go computing power for small business users thanks to its powerful processor and speedy hard drive?and five hours of battery life is nothing to sneeze at. But even with all it has going for it, the ThinkPad E420s falls short in comparison with other business systems, like the Dell Vostro 3350. With its 13-inch screen, the Dell is a tad smaller, but it offers longer battery life and better overall performance for $138 less.

BENCHMARK TEST RESULTS:

COMPARISON TABLE
Compare the Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E420s with several other laptops side by side.

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