Face Off: Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E550 vs. Acer Aspire E5 vs. HP ProBook 450 G2

Notebooks in the $500 to $700 range tend to have full plastic chassis or a combination of both plastic and aluminum to save on costs. The Edge E550 is part of the affordable ThinkPad E series and gives up the signature metal roll cage for an overall lighter weight than its more expensive siblings. Nonetheless, we find the ABS plastic to be rigid for the price with taut hinges. Surfaces still yield and warp with enough applied force and we even discovered some unintentional gaps and flaws on our particular test model. These shouldn't be major issues in classroom or library environments.

The Acer Aspire E5 utilizes a brushed aluminum lid, but is otherwise all black plastic. Twisting the case is a bit too easy for our taste with slight creaking sounds as well. Medium pressure is all it takes to depress the keyboard or outer lid. Otherwise, the hinges are strong up to the 160-degree maximum.

The ProBook 450 G2 gets a small facelift compared to the older 450 G1 model, but ports and features remain largely identical. Like the Aspire E5, the outer lid is aluminum while the rest of the base is plastic. The rubberized outer surface adds a layer of luxury and the overall build quality is very good with no noticeable manufacturing flaws. However, the base can still visibly flex with enough force.

Our size comparison below shows no significant differences between our three models. Instead, their weight differences are much more noteworthy. The Lenovo, Acer, and HP come in at 2.4 kg, 2.5 kg, and 2.1 kg, respectively.

Acer loses this round as its chassis is both heavier and more susceptible to flexing. We prefer the much lighter and better-built ProBook between the Lenovo and HP. There are some weak spots on the HP for sure, but nothing that the Lenovo experiences as well.

Winner: HP ProBook 450 G2

Physical ports are almost identical between the three models with a few key differences. The Lenovo carries the proprietary OneLink dock for use with OneLink-compatible docking stations. Otherwise, the notebook has an equal number of ports compared to the Acer Aspire E5.

The ProBook comes out on top with its 4x USB ports and 2x storage drives. Users lose out on the OneLink port, but generic USB 3.0 docking stations offer most of what Lenovo's proprietary solutions can bring to the table. The additional storage bay should also come in handy further down the road.

Winner: HP ProBook 450 G2

The Chiclet keyboard on the E550 takes queues from the costlier ThinkPad T550 in terms of layout and design. The keys here offer satisfying travel and feedback, but they also feel slightly less firm with more clatter than the keyboards on the more expensive ThinkPad T Series models. The Acer keyboard feels similar with its firm pressure point and travel, but suffers from loud clatter as well. Lastly, the HP is the only one with backlit keys. We find its keyboard to have agreeable feedback and stroke. The keys immediately above the optical drive, however, tend to yield slightly more than on the Acer and Lenovo.

As for the touchpads, there are no major issues with the gliding properties on any of them. Swiping gestures feel a bit more uneven on the Acer, but its lack of any dedicated mouse keys at least provide a bit more surface area to work with compared to the Lenovo and HP. Of particular note is the TrackPoint on the E550, which is only available on costlier Acer and HP business notebooks.

It's a touch call, but we prefer the keyboard layout and feel on the ThinkPad E550 over the Aspire E5 and ProBook 450 G2. Otherwise, the typing experience is very similar between them. Meanwhile, the touchpad on the Lenovo is simply more comfortable out of the three as it closely mimics the popular and exceptional ThinkPad T450s.

Winner: Keyboard -- Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E550

              Touchpad -- Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E550

AMD APUs typically make up for their poorer CPU performances by having stronger graphics cores. The A10-7300 shows exactly this as the integrated Radeon R6 GPU is roughly 50 percent faster than the Intel HD 5500 in synthetic GPU benchmarks. This includes both 3DMark 11 and 3DMark 2013, though performance gains are not as wide on CineBench. The more powerful Radeon graphics core is also partly responsible for the slightly higher TDP of the A10-7300 compared to the ULV Core i3 and Core i5.

The raw graphics power of the integrated Radeon R6 carries over to real-world gaming performance. Unfortunately, the gains are not as high as the 3DMark numbers suggest. In Tomb Raider, our Acer E5 outperforms both the Lenovo and HP by about 30 to 40 percent depending on the graphics settings. Actual frame rates are still below 30 FPS even on the low native 768p resolution of the Acer. Gaming is noticeably better on the AMD solution, but not good enough for most of today's 3D titles.

See our dedicated GPU pages for the Intel HD 5500 and AMD Radeon R6 for more comparisons and benchmarks.

System Noise & Temperature

Put an ultra-low voltage processor into a large 15.6-inch chassis with no dedicated graphics and you will get one of the quietest notebooks around. The ProBook 450 G2, Edge E550, and Aspire E5-551 are some of the most silent notebooks you can get. When idling or under very low loads, the fans remain inactive and the mechanical drives themselves become audible instead.

Minimum and maximum fan noises are almost identical between our systems. The high of about 34 dB(A) is essentially the minimum for many powerful ultrathin notebooks and gaming notebooks.

Likewise, surface temperatures are very stable regardless of system loads. Hot spots do form, but average surface temperatures rise by just a few degrees C between minimum and maximum loads.

At face value, there are no losers in this category since the three notebooks perform extraordinarily well. However, we give the edge to the 450 G2 as the notebook experiences fewer hot spots under high loads. We were able to measure surface temperatures of up to 39 C on the Aspire, while the ThinkPad becomes warmer around the keyboard and palm rests than the HP in comparison.

Winner: HP ProBook 450 G2

All battery packs on the three notebooks are easily removable from the rear. It's a small feature that is all but missing on most Ultrabooks and other popular consumer notebooks.

The ProBook 450 G2 has the longest WiFi runtime at just over 450 minutes compared to the Acer and Lenovo under similar testing conditions. This is made more noteworthy by the fact that the HP carries a smaller capacity 40 Wh battery and more powerful CPU out of the three notebooks. 

Winner: HP ProBook 450 G2