Lenovo ThinkPad E495 Laptop Review: Inexpensive office device with a lot of power, but without keyboard illumination

Unfortunately, with the low-priced ThinkPad E-series, customers will have to make some sacrifices if they opt for the AMD-based model. The first difference, which one notices immediately, is the top surface of the base unit. It consists of much rougher and therefore cheaper-looking plastic. However, fingerprints are not as noticeable as with the "smoother" ThinkPad E490. The rest of the materials are identical.

Since the ThinkPad E495 is also a bit cheaper, you can certainly live with this difference. Nevertheless, what we cannot understand at all is the abandonment of a backlit keyboard; in contrast to the Intel model, this is not even available at extra cost. By the way, this also applies to the fingerprint scanner.

Furthermore, one would also have to forgo the advantages which the AMD SoC otherwise would offer, such as HDMI 2.0 and FreeSync.

The ThinkPad E495 is offered in Germany only with a matte Full HD panel, which is based on the IPS technology. According to the data sheet, there is still an HD-TN display offered in other markets. However, one should avoid it in any case. Lenovo also uses panels from various suppliers (Innolux, BOE and AU-Optronics) in the production of the ThinkPad E495.

The manufacturer claims a brightness of 250 nits for our 1080p panel from Innolux (N140HCA-NCE), which we can confirm only at two measurement points. On average, there are only 230 nits. Thus, the AUO and BOE models in the E490 or last year's E485 perform better. The subjective impression is nevertheless good, because the contrast ratio is excellent at almost 1500:1. Screen bleeding is minimal at the bottom, which is only noticeable if the picture is completely black and has high brightness settings. This is not a problem in everyday office use.

The review unit came with a single-channel RAM configuration, so we test it that way. With another RAM module, however, the graphics performance of the Vega 8 can be increased even more. To compare with, we have included the ThinkPad T495, which comes with dual-channel RAM. 

To take advantage of the full power, you have to disable Lenovo's "intelligent cooling" in the Vantage app, otherwise the power consumption of the processor is limited to 12 watts. The only advantage of this setting is that the fan does not start and the case temperatures remain very low. Our subsequent benchmarks were performed with this option disabled, thus representing the maximum performance of the ThinkPad E495.

With the Vega 8, the AMD Ryzen SoC offers a powerful integrated graphics unit, which is perfectly adequate for normal multimedia applications, including the playback of high-definition videos. Even Intel's integrated UHD Graphics 620 is clearly outperformed. To unlock the full potential of the Vega 8, however, another RAM module should be installed. The Vega 8 in the ThinkPad T495 (dual-channel RAM) is around 20-30% faster, depending on the benchmark. The fact that Lenovo does not include another RAM module is certainly due to the low price. 

Also interesting is the comparison with the dedicated Radeon RX 550X, which is available for the ThinkPad E490 as well. It is about twice as fast, especially if you want to play games with the ThinkPad and is thus the better choice. With the Vega 8 you have to limit yourself to older or undemanding e-sports titles.

In the Fire Strike stress test of the current 3DMark, the ThinkPad E495 achieves 98%. Even under load for a prolonged period of time, the machine does not show any drops in performance. On battery power, GPU performance is not reduced.

At low load levels, the bottom of the ThinkPad gets comparatively warm with values of more than 30 °C (86 °F), which is also due to the defensive fan control. However, this is not alarming or even annoying. In the stress test, we then measure temperatures of 43-44 °C (109.4-111.2 °F) on the top of the base unit and a maximum of 47-48 °C (116.6-118.4 °F) on the bottom. These values are not low for an office laptop, but the performance remains constant in this scenario as well. A 3DMark 11 run right after the stress test did not show any performance deficit.

The Lenovo ThinkPad E495 is a rock solid office laptop for little money. For under 700 Euros (~$770) you get a stable case, great input devices, a lot of power and a decent battery life. The comparison with the Intel model also shows that Lenovo artificially limits the E495 a bit. The plastic on the surface of the base unit looks much cheaper with its rough coating and we do not understand why there is no keyboard illumination or a fingerprint scanner not even at extra cost.

The performance of the Ryzen SoC is very good and both CPU and GPU score better than the Intel Core i5. However, the (optional) dedicated Radeon RX 550X in the ThinkPad E490 offers noticeably more graphics power and is therefore recommended if you also want to use the ThinkPad for gaming. Neither the E490 nor the E495 offer Thunderbolt 3, so connecting an eGPU is not possible. To exploit the full potential of the AMD SoC, you also need another RAM module.

Good value for money: The ThinkPad E495 offers more power than the slightly more expensive Intel model and has no longer any disadvantages in terms of battery life. However, one should be able to accept the lack of features (especially the keyboard illumination) and the cheaper plastic.

Please note: Since the review of the ThinkPad E490, we have updated our scoring system to version 7 (see here). This reduces the rating of the E490 from 89% to 86%. The ThinkPad E485 achieves 84%. The discrepancy, as we have listed in this article, results from the differences in the equipment and the case material.