Why You Can Trust CNET Lenovo ThinkPad Edge 13 (AMD Athlon Neo X2) review: Lenovo ThinkPad Edge 13 (AMD Athlon Neo X2)
The ThinkPad Edge 13 is the perfect laptop if all you want is something simple with a decent screen size to get you online. It may be modestly specced, but it's also modestly priced, which makes it a good choice for those who don't expect their laptop to do everything.
Design and features
The ThinkPad Edge 13 has, predictably, a smaller screen than the ThinkPad Edge 14. Close to one inch smaller, in fact.
Lenovo ThinkPad Edge 13 (AMD Athlon Neo X2)
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
There's more to it than that though, as the smaller space means greater attention needs to be paid to engineering to ensure the tiny laptop stays cool. As a result, rather than the Core i3 found in the 14, it runs an Athlon Neo X2 @ 1.5GHz. While using the Neo X2 means a performance drop, it also brings a price drop, the Edge 13 now hitting AU$839 — considerably less than its Core 2 Duo counterpart.
From a design sense it's the 14's twin — all matte black (gloss black and gloss red are available as well) with the same excellent keyboard, and a silver trim around the lip. It even retains the ThinkPad logo on the lid and lip in which the dot of the "i" glows red — something that becomes more vexing over time. Lenovo's dual-input system of a TrackPoint controller and touch pad is present, allowing you to choose the navigation method that best suits you.
One thing it doesn't share with the 14 though is the screen — apart from the 13.3-inch size, here Lenovo has opted for gloss instead of matte, although it retains the 1366x768 resolution of its bigger brother. If you're averse to gloss screens, this is one ThinkPad you'll want to steer clear of.
Specs and connections
Paired with the Athlon Neo X2 is 2GB RAM, a Radeon HD 3200 and a 320GB hard drive. As tends to happen in the 13-inch space, there's no optical drive included, but it does have three USB ports, HDMI and VGA out, a 3.5mm headphone jack and an SD card reader. Networking-wise, we were pleasantly surprised to find gigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n and Bluetooth.Software
Disappointingly, the Edge 13 runs on the 32-bit version of Windows 7 Home Premium or Professional. Thankfully, the Edge 13 seems to follow the same "don't clutter" principle of the 14, with all the included crapware quietly hidden away. While it does come with Norton Internet Security, you can simply choose not to install it.
The software bundle is otherwise kept simple: Windows Live Essentials (and associated Internet Explorer toolbar) and a 60-day Office 2007 trial are all that's there, short of Lenovo's own software, which offers greater control over battery life, and an excellent networking tool.
Performance
The built-in Radeon HD 3200 IGP has a little bit more grunt than the equivalent Intel 4 series chipset, returning a score of 933 in 3DMark06. Nonetheless, this is still not a gaming laptop, and it shouldn't be treated as such.
It hurts when it gets to PCMark05 though, the Athlon Neo X2 managing 2552. This is not a powerful machine. While it will run our YouTube 720p test, it struggles to display the video in full screen above 360p. Still, it should be adequate for basic office tasks and day-to-day internet use.
With such low power we'd expect longer battery life than the norm, and we certainly got it. Turning off all power-saving features, setting screen brightness and volume to maximum and playing back an XviD file, the Edge 13 lasted two hours, 49 minutes and 18 seconds. For a sub-AU$1000 laptop that's not a netbook, this is quite good, as usually cheap laptops get cheap batteries to match.
The ThinkPad Edge 13 is the perfect laptop if all you want is something simple with a decent screen size to get you online. It may be modestly specced, but it's also modestly priced, which makes it a good choice for those who don't expect their laptop to do everything.