The ThinkPad E-series is traditionally Lenovo’s cheapest business laptop, which is therefore also interesting for consumers. With the E580, the easy upgradeability, the replaceable battery and the characteristic sturdy plastic housing have unfortunately been done away with. What remains is a laptop with an i7 processor that holds its own, has a battery life of more than eight hours during video viewing and is equipped with a reasonably good screen. The fingerprint reader is practical, while the micro SD reader is not. Fortunately, the ThinkPad keyboard has remained and taps nicely.
Pros
- Nice keyboard
- Fingerprint scanner
- Upgradable hardware
Negatives
- Hardware not easily accessible
- Micro SD card reader
- Battery not easily replaceable
Lenovo’s ThinkPad laptops are generally sturdy, easy to upgrade, and have a good keyboard. Over the years we reviewed the E550 , T470 , X1 and E570 , among others . The ThinkPads are officially Lenovo’s business laptops, but the E-series in particular could be of interest to consumers. The E-series included the cheapest ThinkPad models, which had all the features of the more expensive ThinkPads, such as the sturdy housing and the nice keyboard. However, ‘business’ options, such as a smart card reader, fast video cards and double batteries, were missing. That was perfect for the average consumer, who doesn’t need all those extras, but could use a decent laptop.
The attentive reader has already noticed that we are talking about the ThinkPad E-series in the past tense and that is because Lenovo has modified the E480 and 580 in such a way that we no longer find the laptops worthy of the name. Little is left of the sturdy housing with easily accessible and replaceable parts, and the sturdy plastic and only the characteristic, and still pleasantly typing keyboard remains.
The somewhat rough plastic housing that we are used to from ThinkPads has been changed in the E580 into a smooth plastic housing, which is more reminiscent of an IdeaPad laptop. The plastic gives a thinner and less sturdy impression, although that turns out to be not too bad, because the housing only flexes further on the left and right side of the keyboard than with the E550 that we still had lying around and used for comparison. Because you normally don’t put a lot of pressure on the edges of the laptop, that’s not a big problem.
Unusual for a ThinkPad is the back of the screen; it is not made of the usual plastic, but of metal. Compared to our plastic E550, this does not appear to provide more sturdiness, but the screen has become slightly thinner. The dot on the “i” in the ThinkPad logo turns red when the system is powered on.
The connections are on the side, with Lenovo fortunately retaining the gigabit Ethernet connection on the right. In addition, there is a USB 2.0 connection, which we find cheap for a laptop of almost a thousand euros, but Lenovo is not alone in this, because Acer and Asus do the same. The regular SD card reader of the E570 has been replaced on the new E580 by a micro SD reader and that is not an upgrade. Ordinary SD cards can no longer be slid into the laptop, while with a simple adapter you could put a micro SD in a large SD reader in the E570.
On the left are two USB 3.0 and an HDMI 1.4 connection. To charge the laptop, a USB-C charger is supplied that charges at 20 volts, but the connection may also accept 15 and 9 volt chargers. It is striking that the USB-C connection also supports USB hubs, so that you can expand the number of USB connections.
If you turn the housing upside down, you will find some cooling fins, but not a removable battery or a cover behind which the hard drive and memory are hidden, as with previous ThinkPad E laptops. The housing can be opened, but that is not as easy as with previous E-series laptops, where you could access the inside by loosening one or two screws. With the E580 you have to unscrew nine screws, after which you can pry the entire bottom from the rest of the case. Do this carefully, as the plastic tabs that hold the two parts of the housing together break easily.
The version we tested is equipped with a 1TB hard drive the E580 is always supplied with an SSD. Except for storage, the laptop is equipped with the same hardware as the 20KS001QMH model. Under the hood, the memory appears to consist of an 8GB module, which you can easily expand through the empty slot next to it. Our test model has an m2 slot and a normal SATA connection, but we do not know whether that SATA cable is also included if you order the version with an m2 SSD. The 45Wh battery can also be replaced if necessary, but that is not as easy as with previous versions, where the battery could simply be slid out of the housing.
| Tested: 20KS001KMH | NL: 20KS001QMH BE: 20KS001QMB |
NL: 20KS001JMH BE: 20KS001JMB |
|
| CPU | Core i7-8550U | Core i7-8550U | Core i5-8250U |
| Memory | 8GB DDR4 | 8GB DDR4 | 8GB DDR4 |
| Storage | 1TB HDD | 256GB SSD | 256GB SSD |
| Price | – | EN: Unknown BE: Unknown |
EN: Unknown BE: Unknown |
benchmarking
As mentioned, the version we tested is not for sale in the Benelux, but only differs in terms of the hard disk from the i7 version, which can be purchased for just under a thousand euros. We hadn’t tested a laptop with a hard drive in a while, and we strongly advise against using one, as the slow drive makes the laptop feel much slower than you’d expect from a $1,000 system.
Our E580 features an i7-8550U processor, which is one of the fastest power-efficient processors Intel offers. We have of course run some benchmarks on the E580 and the laptop scores reasonably well. The Cinebench score is not particularly high in the multicore test, because the CPU is limited to a boost consumption of 25 watts, while some laptops can go up to 37 watts. However, Cinebench is a render test, which cannot be compared to average use. In Photoshop, the i7 processor is better in the test, but in Lightroom the IdeaPad 520 with i5 processor is faster. This is probably due to the hard disk, which ensures that the exported images are not written as quickly as is the case with an SSD.
Keyboard and touchpad
We are generally very pleased with ThinkPad keyboards. The keys have a dimple, so you can blindly find your way to the center of the key, and in general there is a lot of travel. The spacious housing of the E580 also allows that, which makes it pleasant to type on the laptop. It is a keyboard with a numeric keypad next to it, so that the touchpad is left of the middle of the laptop. Those who find this a disadvantage may want to look at the 14″ version, the E480, which is narrower and therefore has a keyboard without a numeric keypad.
The touchpad has a pleasant, smooth surface and detects multi-touch movements without any problems. The mouse button underneath gives a nice muffled click when you press the touchpad, but you can of course also use the trackpoint. You use the mouse buttons above the touchpad and, with a short click, they feel a bit cheaper than with the E550 that we use as comparison material.
The fingerprint scanner is an improvement over the older ThinkPad E laptops. They were still equipped with the old-fashioned scanner over which you had to swipe your finger. This new scanner, just like on a smartphone, only needs the touch of your finger and then logs you in quickly.
Screen and battery life
Finally, we look at the screen and the battery life. The battery is, perhaps because it is now built-in, slightly larger in capacity than that of the E570. The laptop has also become slightly more economical in the video test, with the just under ten percent larger battery resulting in more than twenty percent longer battery life. When browsing it is the other way around and the E580 loses an hour to the E570. For a 15.6″ laptop that is not specifically built for mobile use, we think the result of the video test is a good score, but we expected more when browsing.
The screen used is probably the same as the one in the E570, with exactly the same maximum brightness. It is not exactly high, but quite average for this price range. The used panel, which comes from LG, has good viewing angles, a matte finish and a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels. We measured it with our SpectraCal C6 colorimeter and CalMAN 5 software.
As far as calibration is concerned, Lenovo could have done a bit better. The gray values are not correct at all, which leads to a color temperature that is too high, so that gray tones are displayed too cool. The gamma value is also slightly too high and that leads to a high ΔE deviation. That’s a shame, because with the E570the screen was much better calibrated, with a deviation that was barely noticeable. The test with primary and secondary colors shows that the screen used cannot display the maximum saturated colors, something that we also saw with the E570. We don’t mind that, because those maximally saturated colors are less common. So the screen is not bad and the most important things, such as the matte finish, the full HD resolution and the viewing angles, are okay. The calibration could have been a lot better and makes the screen unsuitable for image editing, for example, but users who are not too critical of the colors may not even notice.
Conclusion
In recent years, the ThinkPad E series has been a good alternative to a regular consumer laptop. If you’re purely concerned with the specifications, there were plenty of alternatives that offered more, but the business ThinkPad E series managed to distinguish itself on other points. The sturdy housing, the easily replaceable battery and the upgradeability plus the good keyboard made the E-series worth considering. With the E580, Lenovo has taken a different tack and disappeared the characteristic housing, the upgradeability and the easily exchangeable battery.
What you’re left with is a laptop that doesn’t underperform in benchmarks, has more than eight hours of battery life while watching video, and has a pretty good screen that could have been better calibrated. The fingerprint reader is useful, the micro SD reader is clunky and the hardware is snappy, but there are faster laptops for less money. That is a pity, because the E580 does not distinguish itself enough, so you can buy an Acer Aspire 5 for a hundred euros less, or an IdeaPad 520 with the same specifications for almost two hundred euros less . Perhaps Lenovo backs down and the E590 becomes a ‘real’ ThinkPad again, because the E580 seems to us to be more of a consumer IdeaPad, with a ThinkPad logo.