Lenovo E51-80 80QB0008GE Notebook Review

For the original German review, see here.
With its E51-80, Lenovo offers an office laptop for both private and professional users. The laptop is familiar to us. We tested the largely identical predecessor model a few months ago – the Lenovo E50-80. Rivals of the E51-80 are laptops such as HP's 250 G4, HP's 350 G2, HP's ProBook 450 G3,Dell's Latitude 3550, Lenovo's ThinkPad E560, Acer's TravelMate P257-M.
Since the E50-80 and E51-80 feature an identical build, we will not go into details about casing, connectivity, input devices or speakers. The relevant information can be found in the review of the Lenovo E50-80.
Are you a techie who knows how to write? Then join our Team! Wanted:
- News Writer (Romania based)
Details here
Case & Connectivity
The E51-80 has a maintenance hatch that conceals two working memory banks, the hard drive slot, Wi-Fi module and BIOS battery. Only one of the working memory banks is filled. Replacing the hard drive is not a problem. 2.5-inch models with a height of 9.5 and 7 mm (~0.38 and 0.28 in) can be installed. The fan cannot be accessed without opening the casing.
The number and positioning of interfaces on E51-80 are the same as those of its predecessor. One difference is found: The E51-80 comes with a docking port, making it possible to connect Lenovo's OneLink docking solution to the E51-80.
Display
|
Brightness Distribution: 90 %
Center on Battery: 215 cd/m²
Contrast: 478:1 (Black: 0.45 cd/m²)
ΔE Color 12.03 | 0.5-29.43 Ø4.9
ΔE Greyscale 13.06 | 0.5-98 Ø5.2
56% sRGB (Argyll 1.6.3 3D)
35% AdobeRGB 1998 (Argyll 1.6.3 3D)
38.03% AdobeRGB 1998 (Argyll 2.2.0 3D)
55.4% sRGB (Argyll 2.2.0 3D)
36.81% Display P3 (Argyll 2.2.0 3D)
Gamma: 2.71
Screen Flickering / PWM (Pulse-Width Modulation)
Screen flickering / PWM not detected | ||
In comparison: 53 % of all tested devices do not use PWM to dim the display. If PWM was detected, an average of 8627 (minimum: 5 - maximum: 343500) Hz was measured. |
The screen shows a DeltaE 2000 color deviation of 12.03 in the state of delivery - not a good rate. A rate of less than 3 would be desirable. Furthermore, the screen suffers under a visible bluish tint.
Display Response Times
↔ Response Time Black to White | ||
---|---|---|
25 ms ... rise ↗ and fall ↘ combined | ↗ 8 ms rise | |
↘ 17 ms fall | ||
The screen shows relatively slow response rates in our tests and may be too slow for gamers. In comparison, all tested devices range from 0.1 (minimum) to 240 (maximum) ms. » 55 % of all devices are better. This means that the measured response time is worse than the average of all tested devices (20.9 ms). | ||
↔ Response Time 50% Grey to 80% Grey | ||
47 ms ... rise ↗ and fall ↘ combined | ↗ 23 ms rise | |
↘ 24 ms fall | ||
The screen shows slow response rates in our tests and will be unsatisfactory for gamers. In comparison, all tested devices range from 0.165 (minimum) to 636 (maximum) ms. » 79 % of all devices are better. This means that the measured response time is worse than the average of all tested devices (32.7 ms). |
Lenovo has installed a viewing angle dependent TN panel in the laptop. Thus, the screen is not legible from every position. The E51-80 cannot really be used in the outdoors due to the screen's far too low brightness. This is at most possible in cloudy conditions or in shaded environments.
Performance
Lenovo's E51-80 is a 15.6-inch office laptop, aimed at private and professional users. Skylake processors are installed in this series. Thus, it has enough computing power for all common application fields. Our review sample costs roughly 700 Euros (~$773). Other configurations also exist. Currently the cheapest model costs around 490 Euros (~$541).
Processor
Our test device is the most powerful model of the E51-80 series. A frugal ULV processor (TDP: 15 watts) in the shape of Intel's Core i7-6500U (Skylake) model is inside. The processor clocks at a base speed of 2.5 GHz, which can be boosted to 3 GHz (both cores) or 3.1 GHz (one core) via Turbo. Turbo is almost always completely utilized. The processor clocks at "only" 2.8 to 2.9 GHz when calculating Multithread applications in battery mode.
Geekbench 3 | |
32 Bit Single-Core Score | |
Dell Latitude 15 3550-0123 | |
Lenovo E51-80 80QB0008GE | |
Lenovo ThinkPad E560-20EWS00000 | |
HP ProBook 450 G3 | |
HP 350 G2 L8B05ES | |
32 Bit Multi-Core Score | |
Lenovo E51-80 80QB0008GE | |
Lenovo ThinkPad E560-20EWS00000 | |
Dell Latitude 15 3550-0123 | |
HP ProBook 450 G3 | |
HP 350 G2 L8B05ES |
Sunspider - 1.0 Total Score | |
Lenovo B50-80 | |
HP 350 G2 L8B05ES | |
Lenovo E51-80 80QB0008GE | |
Dell Latitude 15 3550-0123 | |
HP ProBook 450 G3 | |
Lenovo ThinkPad E560-20EWS00000 |
JetStream 1.1 - Total Score | |
HP ProBook 450 G3 | |
Lenovo ThinkPad E560-20EWS00000 | |
Lenovo E51-80 80QB0008GE |
Mozilla Kraken 1.1 - Total | |
Lenovo B50-80 | |
HP 350 G2 L8B05ES | |
Dell Latitude 15 3550-0123 | |
Lenovo E51-80 80QB0008GE | |
HP ProBook 450 G3 | |
Lenovo ThinkPad E560-20EWS00000 |
Octane V2 - Total Score | |
Lenovo ThinkPad E560-20EWS00000 | |
HP ProBook 450 G3 | |
Lenovo E51-80 80QB0008GE | |
Dell Latitude 15 3550-0123 | |
HP 350 G2 L8B05ES | |
Lenovo B50-80 |
Peacekeeper - --- | |
Lenovo ThinkPad E560-20EWS00000 | |
Lenovo E51-80 80QB0008GE | |
Dell Latitude 15 3550-0123 | |
HP ProBook 450 G3 | |
HP 350 G2 L8B05ES |
* ... smaller is better
System Performance
A fast solid-state drive and a strong processor ensure a fast system. We did not encounter any problems. The PCMark benchmark scores are very good. A look at our comparison chart shows that a Lenovo ThinkPad E560 based on a stronger AMD graphics core sometimes scores worse than the E51-80. This is due to the different desktop resolutions. The ThinkPad is equipped with a Full HD screen while the E51-80 has an HD panel. The ThinkPad would score better than the E51 when its desktop resolution is reduced to HD. It is possible to increase the E51-80's system performance by, for example, installing a second working memory module.
PCMark 8 Home Score Accelerated v2 | 3509 points | |
PCMark 8 Creative Score Accelerated v2 | 3854 points | |
PCMark 8 Work Score Accelerated v2 | 5194 points | |
Help |
Storage Device
A 2.5-inch solid-state drive serves as the system drive. It has a total capacity of 256 GB. Replacing the SSD is easy since the E51-80 has a maintenance hatch.
Graphics Card
The E51-80 is equipped with AMD's Radeon R5 M330 graphics unit. It belongs to the lower mid-range sector. The GPU supports DirectX 12, and clocks at speeds of up to 955 MHz. The graphics unit clocks at AMD's specified speed of 1030 MHz in laptops from other manufacturers. Lenovo cuts the maximum speed of the chip installed here. The 3DMark benchmark scores are roughly on par with those of Nvidia's GeForce 920M graphics unit.
3DMark 11 Performance | 1884 points | |
3DMark Ice Storm Standard Score | 45537 points | |
3DMark Cloud Gate Standard Score | 4784 points | |
3DMark Fire Strike Score | 858 points | |
Help |
Gaming Performance
The combination of Radeon's graphics unit and the Core i7 processor allows rendering many games smoothly. However, the user will have to be satisfied with low resolutions and low to sometimes medium quality settings in most cases. This applies to games that do not have very high hardware requirements. Performance-driven sensations such as "Hitman" will never achieve sufficiently high frame rates.
low | med. | high | ultra | |
---|---|---|---|---|
BioShock Infinite (2013) | 46.3 | 26.6 | 22.1 |
Emissions & Energy Management
System Noise
Since the E51-80 is an office device, excessive noise development should not distract its owner at work - and it does not. The fan is usually inactive in idle mode and silence prevails. The noise level climbs to only 33.8 DB(A) during the stress test - a very good rate.
Noise Level
Idle |
| 31 / 31.6 / 31.6 dB(A) |
HDD |
| 31.6 dB(A) |
Load |
| 33.4 / 33.8 dB(A) |
![]() | ||
30 dB silent 40 dB(A) audible 50 dB(A) loud |
||
min: ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Temperature
The E51-80 performed our stress test (Prime95 and FurMark run for at least one hour) differently in AC and battery mode. The processor clocked at 2.7 to 2.8 GHz in battery mode, while the graphics unit clocked consistently at 400 MHz. The GPU achieved its full speed (955 MHz) when the stress test was performed in AC mode. The CPU's clock speed constantly fluctuated from 800 MHz to 1.7 GHz. The laptop heated up moderately. Forty degrees Celsius (~104 degrees Fahrenheit) was exceeded on some measuring points.
(±) The maximum temperature on the upper side is 44.1 °C / 111 F, compared to the average of 34.3 °C / 94 F, ranging from 21.2 to 62.5 °C for the class Office.
(±) The bottom heats up to a maximum of 42 °C / 108 F, compared to the average of 36.8 °C / 98 F
(+) In idle usage, the average temperature for the upper side is 26 °C / 79 F, compared to the device average of 29.5 °C / 85 F.
(+) The palmrests and touchpad are reaching skin temperature as a maximum (34.7 °C / 94.5 F) and are therefore not hot.
(-) The average temperature of the palmrest area of similar devices was 27.6 °C / 81.7 F (-7.1 °C / -12.8 F).
Power Consumption
We measured a maximum idle power consumption of 8 watts - a good rate. The rate increased to 44.6 watts reducing only briefly in the stress test. The power consumption fluctuates since the CPU performs the stress test at varying speeds. The requirement will range around 33 watts (+/- 5 watts) in gaming routine. The power supply has a nominal output of 65 watts.
Off / Standby | ![]() ![]() |
Idle | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Load |
![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | |
Key:
min: ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Battery Runtime
Our practical Wi-Fi test simulates the load required for opening websites. The "Balanced" profile is enabled, and the screen's brightness is set to approximately 150 cd/m². The E51-80 achieves a runtime of 4:39 hours - not an outstanding rate. We expect at least 5.5 to 6 hours from a modern ULV laptop.
Pros
Cons
Verdict
Lenovo's E51-80 is a 15.6-inch office laptop. Its price is slightly lower than that of the ThinkPad E series, and is aimed at professional and private users. It does not lack computing power thanks to the Core i7 processor. Games can at least be played conditionally. The laptop runs quietly over the entire load range and only heats up moderately. Replacing the SSD is not a problem since the E51-80 has a maintenance hatch. The installed keyboard will satisfy the needs for home use. Prolific writers should, however, opt for a ThinkPad model. The battery life can also be called average at most. We expect more in this regard nowadays. The screen will not excite anyone, either: It is dark with low-contrast and viewing angle unstable.
The main problem of the E51-80: Price and performance are not in line. The price would have to be reduced by 150 Euros (~$165).
The question Lenovo should ask itself is why should anyone spend 700 Euros (~$773) on the E51-80 when a ThinkPad E560 (model: 20EV002UGE) is available for 720 Euros (~$795). Although the latter is equipped with a somewhat weaker processor and a conventional hard drive, it can score with a stronger graphics unit (Radeon R7 M370), Full HD panel and much better keyboard. The price difference of the cheaper models of both series is also quite narrow. E51-80 models start at 490 Euros (~$541), while ThinkPad E560 models start at 520 Euros (~$574). In any case, the ThinkPad always offers the better keyboard - an important aspect in an office device.
Lenovo E51-80 80QB0008GE
- 06/02/2016 v5.1 (old)
Sascha Mölck