Finding a business laptop when you have a limited budget can be quite difficult. Most of them cross the $1000 mark pretty easily. Yet, Lenovo with its ThinkPad E580 offers a complete business laptop for a starting price of just $699.
The laptop may not have all the IT-friendly features on other over the $1000 mark laptops, it really won’t matter too much. This is because such extended features are rarely used by an average business user. Thus, if you happen to have a start-up, you probably won’t need a high-tech business laptop which for instance offers Intel vPro technology, but rather a simple Business laptop shall suffice considering the low cost for which it is available.
The laptop has a world-class keyboard and delivers solid performance on a 15″ screen, along with a plethora of ports. This makes this the best candidate for those looking for a value for money laptop.
Design
The laptop has an excellent build quality and you can choose between two colors. You can either go for the Standard Black, but the Dark-Silver really gives the laptop an elegant look. Not only is the Laptop Lid and Deck in silver but it also extends to even the power button as well along with the fingerprint reader and the touchpad. The lid is made from aluminum making the laptop lighter and portable yet effectively giving a better shade of grey.
Being a business laptop, the weight might not be that less as compared to an average home laptop though it still is portable enough with a 4.7 pounds of weight when measured. The laptop measures 14.5 x 9.9 x 0.8 inches in dimensions, which makes it suitable for office use, since it offers space for larger screen and specs, though compromising on thickness.
If you would compare it with other business laptops of the same screen size, then it is lighter than the average 15″ laptops, though is beaten in portability by several more expensive laptops as compared to E580. Yet, this is a matter of personal choice.
Security
The laptop lacks the vPro manageability, though it won’t matter much since that is required mainly by large corporations. Instead, it has an optional fingerprint reader as well as dTPM encryption, offering sufficient security for a small to medium scale business use.
Durability
Maybe the laptop hasn’t undergone extreme tests for temperature, shocks etc. but the company does state that it is built to last and is tested for durability. Moreover, the laptop has a good build quality and considering its low price, even if it lasts for three years before the hinges wear out or something like that, you shouldn’t mind. If you are looking for extreme durability, then you should opt for higher models in the ThinkPad series, but also expect a higher price.
Keyboard
We all know how Lenovo’s very own ThinkPads are famous when it comes to offering a convenient keyboard. This Thinkpad e580 lives up to the ThinkPad’s reputation and offers an excellent typing experience. This is because the keyboard has a mere 1.78 millimeters of travel, and a force of about 72g is required to press the key. This along with the strong tactile feedback features makes the keyboard easy to use. Expect a higher typing speed than usual on this laptop.
Not only this, but since Business users are more frequented with spreadsheets, and excel, the keyboard also has a separate numeric keypad. If you want a Backlit keyboard, you can also get one with that by just paying $30 extra.
Touchpad
The touchpad is extremely responsive and measures 3.9 x 2.6-inches along with being buttonless. Even while using multi-touch gestures there wasn’t any lag of any kind.
Pointing Stick
ThinkPads are known to have a pointing stick between their H and G on their keyboard. If you haven’t ever used the pointing stick, then maybe its time to do so, since you won’t be finding yourself taking the time to use the trackpad, if you master using the pointing stick. Though, it totally depends on the user, since some might find using the touchpad easier.
Graphics
The Laptop has the integrated Intel HD 620 graphics. If you plan on using productivity software or play latest yet lightweight games, then this laptop can certainly handle that well.
Battery
The laptop’s battery is pretty good considering the fact that it’s a work power-horse. It lasted around 8 hours and 19 minutes when it was used to surf the web on Wi-Fi continuously. If you aren’t using the screen on maximum brightness, the battery is enough to last out work hours. Though compared to other laptops in the category, the battery life is a bit less, but only by half an hour or so.
Webcam
In any business, video conferencing is an integral part of the business process. Thus, comes the need for an external Webcam, but what if there isn’t an external webcam around or you simply forgot one at home. The built-in webcam isn’t bad either and can be used as a substitute for the external webcam if you want to.
Ports
In any business laptop, ports are equally important as its performance. There is the usual Ethernet port on the right side, along with a now rather obsolete USB 2.0 port. There is a MicroSD card reader too though.
On the left side of the laptop are the two relatively new USB 3.1 Type-A connectors. There is also an HDMI out port, along with the usual audio jack. For charging purposes there is also a USB Type-C port too.
What the laptop lacks out is on the Thunderbolt 3 port, but again, if you want that port significantly, you have no other option but to go for other pricier laptop models.
Cost of the Lenovo E580
The base price of the model is $699, but that is only when you in black. If you want to buy the silver one, then that is available for $50 more at $749. Though you also get a better quality screen with the base silver model, with a 1080p one rather than the 1366 x 768 pixels on the black color model. If you want to upgrade your screen on the black one, you would have to spend $50 extra. Also, both base models are available with the previous year’s core i5 7th generation 7200U processor. The good thing is you can add just $15 to get the latest Core-i5 8250U processor, which we think you should since the eighth generation i5 processors are mostly quad-core rather than dual core.
With varying degree of prices, you can add in features that you dearly want. The maximum you can currently go is for 16 GB of RAM and a Core-i7 8550U CPU. Though in $1,004 you can get a 1080p screen along with a Core i5 8250U CPU with a 256 GB of SSD, it is totally up to you, how you want to configure your laptop.