Lenovo E50-80 Notebook Review

Lenovo uses matte, black plastic for the construction and the case does looks similar to the B-series (see the B50-30). Noticeably different are the display hinges, which, according to Lenovo, are particularly strong. The claim isn't unfounded: the lid doesn't bounce when it's opened nor when the laptop is jostled around. One-handed opening is not possible, however. Another difference is the thickness: the B50-30 measured 28 mm, the E50-80 is slightly slimmer at 25 mm.

The back of the display lid feels different than the rest of the notebook, as Lenovo uses a soft-touch finish here, which makes the E50-80 look more upscale. There aren't really any issues with the fit and finish, although the chassis of the review notebook isn't quite a sturdy and resilient as a ThinkPad would be.

The notebook has the bare minimum of physical ports. The left side houses the power jack, VGA, LAN, HDMI and 2x USB 3.0, while the right side features the audio combo-jack, USB 2.0, and a Kensington lock slot. The Onelink docking-port, which can also supply power to the notebook as well, allows the user to connect an external docking station. The Lenovo Onelink Pro Dock, for example, costs about 150 Euro (~$170). The ports are distributed evenly and the USB ports are far enough apart so they both can be used simultaneously. Unfortunately, most physical ports are located on the sides towards the front of the notebook, which can cause issues for a lefthander who needs to plug in several cables (LAN, HDMI, etc.) at the same time.

Lenovo makes use of the same AccuType keyboard we're already familiar with. On characteristic of this keyboard are the slightly rounded lower edges of the keys. Typing at a good clip is possible and we didn't notice any rattling keys or other issues. The middle of the keyboard does flex somewhat, which takes away from the perceived quality, but that is of no consequence during actual use. 

The touchpad is very precise and reliable and multitouch-gestures execute without any lag. This is important for the traveling professional, since a mouse is frequently either not available or can't be used. The two dedicated mouse buttons are quite stiff, so it is sometimes easier to tap the touchpad surface instead. The (significantly less expensive) predecessor B50-30 had issues with its touchpad; the E50-80 is fortunately not affected by stutters.

The 500 GB hard drive - a Seagate Momentus Thin ST500LT012-1DG142 - is 7 mm thin and rotates at only 5400 RPM. Even in this price bracket, faster performance is possible: the Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E5500 comes with a 7200 RPM drive. Nonetheless, the performance of the Seagate drive is fair average at 88 MB/s; the Hitachi drive used in the ThinkPad Edge is only about 10 MB/s faster. It's doubtful that the difference would be of much consequence  - although a hybrid drive and especially an SSD would be noticeably faster.

The fan might be noisy, but at least it's effective. Under maximum load levels, we measured temperatures of up to 38 degrees C, but that shouldn't really occur during normal use. The palm rest and the keyboard area never gets unbearably warm.  

During the stress test we subject the notebook to full load for at least one hour. The CPU sensors recorded a maximum temperature of about 70 degrees C, which is far from critical. The CPU cores operate at their base frequency for most of the time. 

Lenovo claims a run time of "up to five hours", which of course means anywhere from 0 to 5 hours. When we ran our realistic WLAN test, the E50-80 lasted about four hours before shutting down. With the communication modules disabled and the screen turned down to the lowest brightness settings, five hours should be possible. Lenovo's claims are therefore believable.

The review notebook doesn't fare too well when compared to the competitors. The Dell Vostro 15 3558, for example, lasts about 2.5 hours longer - a plus of about two thirds. The Fujitsu Lifebook A555 ran for 5 hours and 40 minutes during the WLAN test, which is also a much better result. The Thinkpad Edge E550, which only has a Core i3 CPU and costs about 100 Euro (~$113) less, ran for about 5 hours before shutting down.

Since the "ThinkPad"-designator has been dropped from the name of the business notebook, we fully expected that Lenovo had to cut some corners - especially in light of the lower price. We were pleasantly surprised by the chassis, which features a high build quality and very solid - almost perfect - display hinges. Of course, the quality of the chassis still falls short of the even higher standard set by the much more expensive ThinkPad line.    

The selection of physical ports is far from generous, but at least the E50-80 offers compatibility with a docking station. The security aspects will be important to professional users, but unfortunately the E50-80 only features a fingerprint sensor. Hardware encryption, for example, isn't offered at this price point and the software only includes a password manager. At 649 Euro (~$735), a Full-HD display is out of the question as well and the notebook has a resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels just like the competition. The display quality doesn't wow us, exactly - but at least there aren't any obvious flaws like the ones we encountered with the Fujitsu Lifebook A555. Much better displays are usually only found in notebooks costing more than one grand.

The Lenovo E50-80 leaves us with a favorable impression overall, as it offers everything we would expect at this price point. With its performance and feature set, the notebook has no issues handling the typical office-type tasks one might encounter. The E50-80 is therefore an affordable alternative to much higher-priced business notebooks.