Lenovo ThinkPad Edge 11 notebook review

Final thoughts and rating

Lenovo's ThinkPad Edge 11 is almost the perfect ultra-portable notebook. Its chic chassis, robust build quality and excellent keyboard have made it our favourite 11.6in machine, and the sprinkling of ThinkPad business tools act as the icing on an already-scrumptious cake.

We'd liked to have seen the inclusion of USB 3.0, and the trackpad could be bigger, but our criticisms are few and far between.

Users concerned with the sub-five-hour run time could pay a little extra for the superior battery life available from an Intel Core i3 configuration, but the reviewed model - armed with an AMD Athlon Neo K325 - offers a solid mix of performance, graphics and longevity.

The Good

Stylish design is both cute and sophisticated
Slim, light and highly portable
Good all-round performance
Excellent keyboard
Great build quality

The Bad

Protruding battery detracts from overall design
Display viewing angles could be better
Trackpad can feel cramped

HEXUS Rating

Lenovo ThinkPad Edge 11

HEXUS Awards

Lenovo ThinkPad Edge 11

HEXUS Where2Buy

TBC.

HEXUS Right2Reply

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Simply copy-paste all the comments from the “ASUS readying 13in U31 ultraportable” thread.

Honestly, a Core ix laptop with that resolution and *cries* without an expresscard slot is frustratingly limited. At 11.6" if it sported ec34 and a 1280x800 resolution, you'd find a LOT of musicians sitting up and taking notice.

We'd give anything to swap the Fn and left Ctrl keys around

You sure the software side of this isn't in the bios, as per the x100e? I understand the physical key switch is a simple job with a wide screwdriver (not tried it myself).

Looks very much like an updated x100e. Nice to see HDMI has made an appearance, but they should have kept the matt screen.

Most important thing on arrival is to disable the trackpad buttons - lordy me they're annoyingly easy to press (why would I use anything but the trackpoint?).

I'm not convinced that 1280x800 would be a better fit - at that screen size I reckon 1366x768 is a better fit. 1440x900 would probably be best before the display becomes too small for most people to read at native res and dpi, but I've not used that sized screen yet so I'm not 100% on that.

The Ctrl & Fn key nightmare really needs sorting though. Seriously, does anyone want a Fn key there? It's just silly.

I perhaps should have said specifically a 16:10 resolution such as 1280x800 or above. Personally I would also prefer at least 1440x900. But I suppose these are supposed to be more “average inexpensive mainstream” laptops and not “portable workstations”.

I did notice the differing aspect ratios there ;)

But in this case, without having tried out those two resolutions, my impression is that the 16:9 ratio trumps the 16:10 by dint of having more pixels on a screen which isn't overburdened with them. In exchange for a 4% drop in vertical real estate, you gain a 6.3% increase in horizontal real estate.

Certainly I'd agree that in most situations, 16:10 beats 16:9, but I'm not convinced ultra-portable form factors is one of them - not with those two resolutions being compared, anyway. Like I say though, I haven't tried out those two resolutions for a long time now so you may well be right that the vertical pixels remain more important than horizontal pixels at that resolution.