Lenovo ThinkPad 520: Review

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The T-series of ThinkPad laptops has long been a staple in large organisations and small businesses around Australia. If you need a general laptop with enough power and portability for general computing, these have been the machines to get the job done.

However, the laptop market is a fast-moving one, and the nature of the ThinkPad line in general has also changed over time, naturally evolving and also reflecting its new owner. IBM used to own the ThinkPad range — but for the past half-decade it’s been Chinese manufacturer Lenovo pulling the strings. So has the ThinkPad series retained its quality? Or has it been reduced to being a has-been?

Design
If you’ve seen one ThinkPad, you’ve generally seen them all. The series’ trademark square black case screams business and is now shrouded in tradition.

The T520 in particular is a solid-looking laptop about 37cm wide, by about 25cm long and with a total height of about 4cm. On the front right of the laptop when its lid is shut is a hinge which you’ll need to pull to open that lid. To be honest, when we picked up the ThinkPad 520, the fact that there was a hinge at all — in an age when many laptops simply use a magnetic lock — was our first indication that this laptop was going to be something less than modern.

When was the last time an Apple MacBook featured a hinged lock to open its lid? By our calculation … it would be quite a few years now. That impression of legacy remains throughout the 520’s design.

In an age where DVI is fairly much standard in the market, the T520 comes with a VGA out socket on its left-hand side. Alongside it sit two USB ports and an e-SATA port, and a Display Port socket, which is a positive item. We are finding very little use for Firewire these days, with most devices being USB. However, the T520’s left-hand side also features a 4-pin Firewire socket. On the same side are a series of airflow vents.

On the other side of the laptop are a 3.4cm Expresscard slot, an SDcard slot, a fairly bulky DVD write-capable optical drive, the headphone jack and the Ethernet port. On the back of the laptop sits another USB port, a 56k modem outlet (who uses those these days?!) more vents, and a fairly bulky power socket.

On the bottom of the laptop are removable bays for various components. The battery can also easily be slid out of its tray.

When you open the laptop’s lid you’ll find a grainy-feeling trackpad, surrounded by five! buttons. We don’t know what you would even use that many buttons for. Two large-sized speakers sit on either side of the full-sized keyboard, and there’s one of the little toggles in the middle of the keyboard that can be used for moving the mouse. A fingerprint reader sits to the right of the trackpad.

Features
The T520 we tested had a 15.6″ display running at a resolution of 1600×900, a 320GB hard disk, an Intel Core i5 dual-core CPU running at 2.5GHz, and 4GB of DDR3 memory. The graphics card was an on-board “Intel HD Graphics 3000 (GT+)” chip, according to the CPU-Z utility which we used to probe the T520’s internals.

It looks like from the T520’s online specifications page at Lenovo’s site that the laptop can also be delivered with a discrete NVIDIA NVS 4200M card, which would boost graphics performance.

The in-build DVD drive can burn DVDs and CDs as well as read them, and the T520’s battery life is rated at 11 hours, with its 9-cell battery. It supports the 802.11n Wi-Fi standard, and comes with gigabit Ethernet — more or less standard in this day and age.

Performance
To be honest, we were fairly dissatisfied with the ThinkPad T520’s performance in general.

To start with, the laptop comes loaded with crapware. From various Corel packages, to several dozen custom Lenovo utilities, to Windows Live bits and pieces and even Microsoft’s Bing toolbar, this is a laptop which you are going to want to completely reformat when you get it — to get rid of all the custom bloatware clogging its hard disk and its speed.

Windows 7 is a great operating system, and has virtually all of the basic functionality you need. Why clog it with extra software to carry out basic tasks like connecting to Wi-Fi networks?

Then there was the T520’s poor build quality. This machine just does not feel like a ThinkPad. Its plastic feels cheap, its lid fits poorly and makes a rattling sound when you pick it up, with the hinge not settling the display seamlessly onto the laptop’s bottom when the lid is shut, and the same is true of its battery — the unit just does not sit squarely with the rest of the laptop and rattles when you pick the laptop up.

Then there are the other archaic features which Lenovo has brought to what should be a new mainstream laptop. A 56k modem — in an age where 3G mobile broadband has replaced dial-up as the tool of choice for travelling executives. A trackpad that boasts five! buttons, where Apple’s comparable MacBook Pros feature none.

A VGA port instead of a VGA adapter, a mouse toggle which we haven’t seen anyone use in a decade, a latch to shut the laptop’s cover, where other manufacturers are preferring magnetic locks, and a giant oversized plug where the charging cord slips into the laptop’s back. Why, Lenovo, why?

The icing on the cake for us was the system beep that the T520 makes when you open its lid and it wakes from sleep. This ‘POST’ beep screams ‘legacy’ to us — why should a laptop beep when you open its cover, and if it does, why should it make a sound that we associate with motherboard crashes half a decade ago?

Then, too, the laptop feels bulky and heavy. This isn’t a desktop replacement machine — it’s meant to be mobile and taken on the road — but it feels too large and too weighty to easily slip into a laptop bag of any normal size.

Now, once you get past the T520’s obvious hardware faults, you find a laptop which is actually solidly powered — it performed very well in our day to day usage — and its battery life is also pretty decent. You can leave this one on your desk for a couple of days asleep, and the battery won’t be completely drained when it wakes up. And you could use it throughout most of a business day before charging.
The basic system specs are quite reasonable for a laptop in its category.

But the T520 could be compared to fitting a farm plough with a hotrod engine. Sure, it’ll perform OK, and at its heart it wants to be a speed machine, but its decent internals are surrounding by legacy hardware that will hold it back in practice. It’s a pity, but that’s the way things are.

Conclusion
Lenovo’s T520 is a decently specced business-focused laptop which performs well for daily use but comes in a weighty, bulky and buggy form factor which suffers from poor build quality. In addition, the manufacturer has loaded the laptop with its own custom bloatware, and a bunch of dated hardware options such as a 56k modem.

There are better options out there, and many of them. Some of them are even offered by Lenovo itself, but you can also check out Dell, HP and Apple for great business laptop options. We’d recommend giving the T520 a miss at this stage.

Image credits: Lenovo

34 COMMENTS

  1. As a seasoned Thinkpad user I am sad to see some decline in the quality of the Thinkpad line after it’s acquisition by Lenovo. I have never used a T520 myself, but this review seems somewhat inadequate in some respects.

    One area Renai refers to more than once is the 5 buttons near to the touchpad.

    “When you open the laptop’s lid you’ll find a grainy-feeling trackpad, surrounded by five! buttons. We don’t know what you would even use that many buttons for.”

    “A trackpad that boasts five! buttons, where Apple’s comparable MacBook Pros feature none.”

    If you don’t know what “you would even use that many buttons for” then you obviously don’t know anything about the Thinkpad line in particular. Sure, you may know a thing or two about tech in general and be able to talk-the-talk, but if you don’t know that the “trackpad” only has two buttons, while the TRACKPOINT (what you referred to as “a mouse toggle”) uses the other three, then I really don’t know what you are doing reviewing a Thinkpad in a manner that suggests you have any past experience with them.

    Why do you constantly compare the Thinkpad to Mac products? So what if Mac uses different technology or features!? Mac’s are Mac’s and Thinkpads are Thinkpads. Attempting to make the case that Thinkpads are inferior because they use buttons on their touchpad, or a latch on their lid, is childish and nonsensical.

    You also ramble on about the power socket on the back of the laptop and again make it out to be something horrible or inferior. I have used EVERY brand of laptop and see absolutely no reason why the Thinkpad power socket is any worse than anything else available. Sure, Mac use the magnetic socket, but I have had Mac users complain to me that it’s too finicky after a while and they would rather just have a normal socket.

    What bothers me is that you carry on about some of these features, which are liked by some and disliked by others, and you place this overall negative bias over the entire thing – this discredits the rest of your review in my opinion.

    You call both the optical drive and the power socket “fairly bulky” – what does that even mean??

    You also write:

    “the laptop feels bulky and heavy. This isn’t a desktop replacement machine — it’s meant to be mobile and taken on the road — but it feels too large and too weighty to easily slip into a laptop bag of any normal size.”

    Again you give negative bias with no particulars. This is a 15 inch laptop by the way! I don’t when was the last time I heard someone say that a 15 inch laptop was “meant to be mobile and taken on the road” – HA! Maybe true for a 14 inch and smaller, but a 15 inch, fully featured, laptop? Come on!

    I cannot speak to the build quality, because as I said I have never used one of these in particular, but so much of your review screams “NOVICE” and “BIAS” in relation to Thinkpads that I cannot take anything useful from this review.

    E. Boder

    • Thanks for your comment, E. Boder, it’s appreciated!

      I intend to shortly post a follow-up commentary on Lenovo’s current performance, which is very much a mixed bag, but I’ll address some of your comments first.

      Firstly, I’ve personally used a ThinkPad for many years at previous workplaces. I currently use a MacBook Pro, but I wouldn’t really personally buy any other machine other than a ThinkPad or a MacBook. I consider those two brands to be the ‘premium’ heavy duty brands in the marketplace in terms of excellent build quality. That’s why I compare them — most people I know, if they are making a choice, are making a choice between a ThinkPad and a MacBook if they are looking to buy an awesome laptop.

      As for the buttons … I can accept that many people would like at least two buttons with their laptop — that’s logical. And not everyone likes Apple’s zero button approach. However … I personally (and I am a power user) cannot think what you would use five buttons for. I have five buttons on my gaming mouse, and even then I only use the extra three when I play a complex first person shooter like Crysis 2.

      I stand by my comment that the Trackpoint is a legacy item that is irrelevant in 2011.

      The ThinkPad power socket is bulky, with a large plug compared to other models, and it sticks out of the back of the laptop in a way that (given it is quite rigid) would lend itself to easily being broken. I hated it. I stand by my comment there. Apple and other vendors have innovated in power sockets … why not Lenovo?

      The optical drive on the laptop takes up SO much space in the chassis. It’s questionable whether you really need an internal optical drive these days (better to have an external one, for those rare times you need a CD or DVD-ROM), but Lenovo could have integrated this better into the T520 in a less obtrusive way.

      And yes, 15″ laptops are meant to be taken on the road … most journalists I know use 15″ laptops, and they are taken on the road constantly. It’s a standard size.

      Novice? Nope, I’m not. Bias? Nope … I have none ;) If you read Delimiter for a while, you’ll realise I slam Apple just as much as I slam Lenovo — and praise them both when necessary.

      In point of fact, you might be interested to know that I am about to write an article pointing out that the new Lenovo X1 has *excellent* build quality, and questioning why there is such divergence between different Lenovo models.

      Cheers,

      Renai

  2. “Firstly, I’ve personally used a ThinkPad for many years at previous workplaces.”

    See how can this be true when you don’t even know what to call the trackpoint!? How is the above possible when you (still) refer to the “five buttons” as if they were all for controlling a singular function!?

    How is it possible for you to know the Thinkpad so well when you rake it over the proverbial coals for a so-called lack of innovation shown by the “bulky” power socket!? If you knew the Thinkpad you would know that this is a relatively new socket for the Thinkpad and is very different to the socket of it’s predecessors. This IS Lenovo having innovated – you hate it? – well that’s too bad!

    You claim that :

    “The ThinkPad power socket is bulky, with a large plug compared to other models, and it sticks out of the back of the laptop in a way that (given it is quite rigid) would lend itself to easily being broken. I hated it.”

    Several of my currently owned Thinkpads have this “bulky”, “large” socket, while others are from the era before that, with the pretty generic type of power socket. The truth is that I find that the new one, yes, the “large plug” one, fit’s into the socket very nicely and has a very solid feeling when connected, unlike the generic type of plug which many vendors still use and which I am glad Lenovo has innovated into a better application in my view and experience. The fact that the socket is at the back of the computer is not anything to write home about. Sometimes I wish it was on the side of the laptop, but then again when I am using a laptop which has the socket on the side it sometimes bugs me to death and I wish it were in the back. So it’s really a non-issue.

    You also claim that the socket, due to it being “quite rigid”, “would lend itself to easily being broken”. Have you witnessed this? Are there some case studies showing this supposed resulting trend? Because again, from my experience with these sockets there is no evidence to suggest that they are too “rigid” or that they are “easily broken”. But you should know this with all your years of experience using Thinkpads – right!?

    Getting back to the “five buttons” – They are not all for one device! Stop comparing them to your Macbook or your five-button “gaming mouse”. The Thinkpad has two pointing devices – a trackpad/touchpad, and a trackpoint. The three buttons above the trackpad/touchpad and immediately below the keyboard are to control the “click” actions of the trackpoint. The other two buttons at the bottom of the trackpad/touchpad are for controlling the “click” actions of the trackpad/touchpad. – If after this detailed explanation you still “cannot think what you would use” the five buttons for, nobody can help you.

    You may be of the opinion that the trackpoint is “irrelevant” in this day and age, but there are many that would disagree with you. Even though I use the trackpad/touchpad most of the time, I find that for some particular things the trackpoint is more accurate and controllable. I know a fair few other Thinkpad users who actually prefer to use the trackpoint over the other options. So it’s all fine that you would rather not have it there, but putting a laptop down because it’s got too much functionality is lame, unless the functionality gets in the way – which it does not in this case!

    Ok, the optical drive. Your on about whether or not there should even be one in the system. This seems utterly foolish as I cannot bring to mind a single 15″ laptop today which does not have one! – maybe you know of one!? Sounds like your comparing the Thinkpad to something else which does not even exist yet …

    You also complain about the amount of space the drive takes in the chassis. So? Why would that be an issue if the laptop is comfortably dishing out all the other ports etc? I would understand if you thought that the space was wasted because maybe they put only one USB port in the system, but that isn’t the case, is it!? Also, isn’t that area also useful for an additional battery? Isn’t the optical drive in a hot-swappable bay? Isn’t that in fact the pretty awesome “UltraBay”? I dare say it is – and it’s damn cool! You can swap out the optical drive and replace it with all kinds of neat things, like an extra battery or extra hard drive – and you can do this while the system is on. Pretty neat huh!

    Another thing that I caught onto was you referring in the article to the dialup modem. Yes, and so what? Does it again bother you that Thinkpads are able to have so many modern and legacy features all in the same unit? And by the by, Integrated Mobile Broadband is an option as well – so again, yes there is a “legacy” technology presented, but not at the expense of anything.

    So I think I stand by the “novice” part in relation to Thinkpads. Maybe you know Lenovo a bit – but Thinkpads? – Nah! (This is a REAL review IMO: http://www.storagereview.com/lenovo_thinkpad_t520_review)

    • Well, most of this is opinion — I won’t get into arguing about each specific case because I don’t think you’d be amenable to discussing it. You’re right — that review you linked to is a better, more comprehensive review. However, I disagree with his conclusions — build quality, and the archaic way that the ThinkPad T520 is set up, mediates against this being a good performer. The laptop just feels like a blast from the past.

      • Whether or not it’s a “blast from the past” does not really matter all that much – does it? – Not when it does everything the modern business laptops do, in addition to having those legacy features, which people actually do still use. Maybe people in down town Sydney, Mebourne etc, don’t use a dialup modem, but what about the people in rural Australia? What about people in Africa, South America etc? I was travelling around South Africa again in 2008 for 6 months, and there were many people still using dialup Internet connections. I can only image how many people all over the world still use dialup modems. So you say they are legacy and are not needed, but that is only in your little part of the entire world. And besides, the Thinkpad in question still has integrated mobile broadband, so what’s the harm in having both if you can!? I get it – it just bums you out because Apple can’t/won’t manage that. ;)

        Ok, again, build quality is essential. If you say that you don’t think it’s got good build quality can you at least expound? Where is the bad flex etc? Or are you comparing it to your single slab of aluminium MacBook Pro!? Waste of your time if you are … One is metal and one is plastic composite.

        If you were to compare a … let’s say … T61 with a T520 … which is better build quality and why?

        “the archaic way that the ThinkPad T520 is set up, mediates against this being a good performer.”

        Ha – I love that “archaic .. set up” bit. How does that way the Thinkpad is “set up” lend it to not being a “good performer”? – and what do you mean by “performer”? Are you talking about hardware performance? Are you talking about performing in the work place in regards to features? Are you talking about performance on the market? Whatever way you mean it to be, how does the way the Thinkpad is “set up” make it not a “good performer”?

        I think you just don’t like the Thinkpad – period. You don’t like the way it looks, the features it has, the colour perhaps … you just don’t like it – right!? I mean so far you have given no compared specifics in relation to other business laptops (Is the MacBook a “business laptop”? – dunno). You haven’t even compared this model to any past model. All you have done is compare this laptop to a MacBook Pro – and come to a pretty typical conclusion from an Apple customer, I might add.

        • Actually in my head I’m mainly comparing the T520 to other laptops from Lenovo — I’ve also played with an X1 recently, and my previous experiences with the company. I think Apple does currently make the best laptops — but that is more to do with a solid integration between hardware and software, especially focused on battery life, than anything else. I’ve recently seen some very good Dell laptops that were comparable hardware-wise, as well as the aforementioned Lenovo X1.

  3. I like having the track point as I can do basic mouse movements without having to take my hands off the keyboard. That being said, I have not liked the build quality on my current Lenovo compared to my previous IBM and Lenovo laptops.

    • I do agree with you there, that the Lenovo Thinkpads have just not been able to match the pure ruggedness of the IBM Thinkpads.

      However, the T4x systems built buy IBM were known to have an issue where the gfx chip on the system board could be loosened from the board by picking up the laptop from one of the palmrest corners when the system is hot, causing too much stress and flex on the centre of the board, which is where the gfx chip sits. This issue was reportedly sorted out at some stage, but I still have T42, T41 and T40’s coming to me with that issue. But then again these machines have been slogging it out for a number of years, so I suppose something has to give sooner or later.

      The issue I have with Lenovo is mostly the myriad of cheap’o systems they are bringing into the Thinkpad line. The SL, EDGE and even the L series’. I have used a few SL Thinkpads and was not impressed in the least – but of course they are cheaper then the T, X and W series’. But in my view the Thinkpad was always about getting the best quality and therefore being willing to pay a higher price – now people say they have a Thinkpad, but is it REALLY a Thinkpad!?

      I am interested to know what’s your current Lenovo Thinkpad.

  4. This is a spectacularly half baked review. (diclsoure: I own a T520)

    That’s a DisplayPort not HDMI on the left.
    eSata is also on the left not the back.
    If you don’t know what the purpose of the 5 buttons are for, perhaps it would behoove you, as a reviewer, to do some research, instead of flippantly declaring your ignorance.
    Also baffling that you take them at their word regarding 11 hour battery life.
    As for build quality, I haven’t seen any volumous amounts of complaints on the net regarding the T520.
    No mention about the poor volume of the speakers.

    This reads like a 10th grade high school assignment.

  5. Seriously?

    “When was the last time an Apple MacBook featured a hinged lock to open its lid? By our calculation … it would be quite a few years now. That impression of legacy remains throughout the 520′s design.”

    I don’t see the relevance of this. My Thinkpad SL400 isn’t a prime example of a Thinkpad (it’s given me a taste and I want more, more, more), and doesn’t have a latch. Personally, I actually rather that it did have one.. It’s like having a deadbolt on your front door as well as the lock on the door knob, it’s extra security.

    “In an age where DVI (and now the new Thunderbolt standard) are entering the market, the T520 comes with a VGA out socket on its left-hand side.”

    I can understand your argument for having DVI (but take into account that many businesses would still have projectors that don’t have DVI ports), but since when was Thunderbolt a standard? How many devices actually use it at the moment? From what I can tell, eight. How many systems not manufactured by Apple have support for it? From what I can tell, zero. It may be a standard in the future, but at the moment I consider it not to be.

    “…a fairly bulky DVD write-capable optical drive…”

    I note in of your comments you say that you don’t think optical drives belong in laptops. I disagree. In the past few weeks I’ve gone through half a 50 pack of blank DVDs and about two thirds of a pack of blank CDs.

    In any case, what else could they put in place of the optical drive?

    “…56k modem outlet (who uses those these days?!)…”

    People obviously want them. I doubt they said “We have some extra space, let’s throw in a dialup modem”, because that costs them money, and companies love their money.

    “a fairly bulky power socket.”

    It looks like the same power socket that my Thinkpad is (it probably is, Lenovo don’t like changing things too often if ever), it’s very strong. Pressing down hard on it with my hand didn’t break it. Pulling it out about five inches away from the system with one finger had it come out without damaging anything. Pulling it out with my foot about a metre and a half away from the laptop had it also come out without damaging anything. I assume this is the same basic premise behind Apple’s magical and revolutionary and all that jazz magic magnet power adaptor?

    “When you open the laptop’s lid you’ll find a grainy-feeling trackpad, surrounded by five! buttons. We don’t know what you would even use that many buttons for. ”

    Top left is left click for Trackpoint, middle is like clicking the scroll wheel (this is the most useful button I have ever seen and I use it regardless of if I’m touchpading or trackpointing), top right is right click for trackpoint.

    Depending on what forces are affecting my movement on any given day, when use the touchpad I often go to the top left button as opposed to the bottom one or tapping.
    If you have something against the feeling of the grainy trackpad, try using a system where you can’t tell where the trackpad ends.

    “To start with, the laptop comes loaded with crapware. From various Corel packages,”

    Nuke and replace with Nero and PowerDVD if you don’t like them. That’s what I did.

    “to several dozen custom Lenovo utilities,”

    Which, unlike other manufacturers, are actually useful… Yes, Toshiba, I’m talking about you and all your weird and somewhat questionable utilities.

    “to Windows Live bits and pieces and even Microsoft’s Bing toolbar”

    The former of which have no place on a business PC, the latter which has no place on any PC in existance. I will give you that point.

    In any case, have you seen the amount of crapware that the average HP ships with? What about an Acer? They make Lenovo look tame in comparison.

    “Windows 7 is a great operating system, and has virtually all of the basic functionality you need. Why clog it with extra software to carry out basic tasks like connecting to Wi-Fi networks?”

    Because they’re just that: basic.

    Access Connections actually tells you what’s going on when you connect to a Wifi network (finding the network, getting the IP, etc.), whereas Windows just says it’s connecting. Access Connections troubleshooters actually give you reasons why it is not working, does it quickly and provides solutions that make sense, Windows’ troubleshooter screws around and gives vague answers.

    Power Manager is more precise than Windows’ power management, because it knows how to talk specifically to a Lenovo battery, squeeze more life out of it, and get more info than what Windows can (I can tell you that my battery is a Panasonic battery that is on charge cycle 368, as well as current wattage should I ever feel the need to know that. If you can do this in Windows, it’s very well hidden). The little meter on the taskbar has also sparked questions from friends who want it, and are disappointed when I tell them that it’s Lenovo only (on a slightly related note, do HP laptops tell you how much battery life they have left still, or do they still only have percentages?). The slider in Basic mode is also good for those who are confused by words.

    Lenovo Recovery Manager actually plays nice with my system, unlike Windows Backup which always failed with an error.

    “A trackpad that boasts five! buttons, where Apple’s comparable MacBook Pros feature none.”

    A Macbook has one pointing device. A ThinkPad has two. Resting my pointer finger on the trackpoint, moving my thumb down to the mouse buttons under the trackpad is a stretch and actually hurts a little. Having said that, I have rather small hands, so your mileage may vary.

    “A VGA port instead of a VGA adapter, a mouse toggle which we haven’t seen anyone use in a decade, a latch to shut the laptop’s cover, where other manufacturers are preferring magnetic locks, and a giant oversized plug where the charging cord slips into the laptop’s back. Why, Lenovo, why?”

    Do you complain that a Holden Cruze doesn’t offer a V8 engine, and that the Honda Accord Euro doesn’t come in a four wheel drive variant?

    The Cruze and Accord are so because their manufacturers did research which said “this is what our customers want”: Holden figured out that people want an affordable small card that doesn’t drink petrol, Honda figured out that people want a car with some luxury touches at a decent price.
    Unless Lenovo are taking stupid pills, they obviously did research and figured out that, yes, their average customer wants a VGA port, a trackpoint and a latch to close the lid, whereas Apple have figured out that their customers don’t want those things.

    With regards the trackpoint, if, like me, you have the misfortune of having a large belly, using the touchpad in bed with your laptop at an angle is difficult or annoying: I generally mash both buttons on the touchpad at once, and chaos ensues. Solution: turn the touchpad off, use only the trackpoint, and I can use my computer comfortably in bed. And to think that before I got it I was thought I was never going to use that infernal, impossible to control nipplepointer.

    Also, next time you’re in some kind of store that sells laptops, look at them all. I bet that most if not all will have VGA ports, and some will probably even have dialup modems. Shock horror!

    “The icing on the cake for us was the system beep that the T520 makes when you open its lid and it wakes from sleep. This ‘POST’ beep screams ‘legacy’ to us — why should a laptop beep when you open its cover, and if it does, why should it make a sound that we associate with motherboard crashes half a decade ago?”

    Because a single beep lets you know that it’s working, just like most desktops make when they wake up or turn on? When you plug it in, it should also make a double beep. This tells me that yes, I have electricity and that my battery which is about to die isn’t going to anymore, hooray!

    If it offends you, there’s an option in the BIOS to turn it off.

    “Then, too, the laptop feels bulky and heavy. This isn’t a desktop replacement machine — it’s meant to be mobile and taken on the road — but it feels too large and too weighty to easily slip into a laptop bag of any normal size.”

    Did you try slipping it into a laptop bag of any normal size and take it for a walk? Walking around with a heavier than normal laptop is no doubt good exercise.

    “But the T520 could be compared to fitting a farm plough with a hotrod engine. Sure, it’ll perform OK, and at its heart it wants to be a speed machine, but its decent internals are surrounding by legacy hardware that will hold it back in practice. It’s a pity, but that’s the way things are.”

    I’m going to assume that this is some kind of joke that didn’t translate well across the internet, because I have no clue as to how VGA ports and dialup modems affect performance.

    “…but you can also check out Dell,”

    Yes, Dell make some lovely laptops, however aren’t their support centres based in India?

    “…HP…”

    Garbage with wonderfully terrible support.

    “…and Apple”

    Overpriced garbage. I’m sure one of many reasons why large corporations roll out Lenovos\Dells\whatever, and one of those would be money.

    Usually I find little to fault with your writing, Renai… but this is terrible. Really, really, terrible.

    • lol … ThinkPad fan, much? Did you actually say this?

      “Walking around with a heavier than normal laptop is no doubt good exercise.”

      Who on earth would *want* a heavier laptop??

      Look, I respect that some of this is preference, but a lot of your objections seem to be objections just for the sake of it. I tested the T520. Compared with other laptops on the market, it is oversized, overweight, bulky, and with a lot of legacy features. Yes, I see a lot of laptops in my job. Yes, I am objective, leaning, if anything, towards Lenovo, not away from it. Can you say the same, or are you just reacting from your existing experience?

      • I don’t prefer walking around with a heavier laptop (an X1 would be nice but I don’t have the spare cash lying around to buy one), but exercise is exercise, I’m lazy and will take what I can. The weight, in any case, makes it feel sturdier (it no doubt is) and makes it feel like it can take a beating (and considering that mine has been rammed into a concrete column, flung off the seat of a bus travelling at 110kmh in a bag and fallen off my bed twice, I think it can)

        I have, in the past week, used Asus, an Acer, a Toshiba, as well as my Thinkpad.

        The Asus was heavy on the crapware and their update utility specified driver updates but didn’t say which would be being updated, but otherwise had decent build quality.

        The Acer was actually pretty good as far as build quality goes (probably the best I’ve seen from them) but the Windows install was screwed so it got nuked and replaced with a clean install, but if the crapware is anything like the typical Acers I have seen it is cringeworthy.

        The Toshiba was delivered to us fresh out of the box with the directive “set it up”. Once I’d gotten through their terrible OOBE (an hour and a half and a big screen with bold red letters on a black background saying WARNING THIS WILL ERASE ALL YOUR DATA later), it got a visit from PC Decrapifer.

        As far as HPs go, I have never dealt with their support personally, but comments I hear tend to follow the lines of “they don’t want to know you” and “they screw you around for weeks”… and this is coming from people who deal with business grade computers.

        • Precisely my point — the machines produced by the manufacturers you mentioned are generally pretty bad as well, unless you buy the really high-end versions. That’s why I was disappointed with the T520 — it definitely doesn’t have Lenovo’s normal build quality.

          I’ll be writing more on this issue shortly :)

  6. Thinkpads are about choices, and Macbook Pro is about lack of choices (not many customisations options). But there are advantages and disadvantages to them. But i like both of these types of laptop, they all have things going for them and which make them unique. If every laptop is like Macbook Pro, then the laptop market would truly be a boring place.

    Regarding the 56 k modem port. Did you know that the windows software allows you to send fax through that port? Surely, business still do use Fax these days, even if it is not that frequently. Do where you work provide you with a fax number? So there are other functions apart from dial up modem.

    Regarding magnetic latch (that is the proper name for the device you are referring to), how many laptops have you counted to date have this (other than the various Apple laptops)? I am sure if you really put in the effort of doing so, then you would find not very much.

    DVI port is slowly been phased out in favour of HDMI and Displayport, you can see that your new MBP don’t have a native DVI port either (unless you are using pre-Unibody MBP).

    Regarding VGA ports, there are quite lot of older projectors that only have vga connections. Also, having a native vga port means that these people don’t have always lug around various adapters with them when going to different conference rooms. Business people have enough things to remember, and could do away with worrying about having to carry a bag of converters around with them, so they could just do their presentation.

    You would still find vga connectors on many other business grade laptops, so this is not a Thinkpad specific thing, obviously Macbook/pro don’t have them, but then again they are not something used widely in corporate environment.

    Lenovo power sockets are extremely robust, and the large size makes it more difficult to break and you could plug in the adapter even without looking at it (i could do it even whilst wearing a skiing glove, which is handy). I guess this is the 10 cents pencil compared to the Apple’s 10 million dollars space pen MagSafe Connector.

    Regarding the Ultrabay, yes the T520 has a bulky ultrabay enhanced drive. But given that you have used previous Thinkpads, then you would know that pre-T510 Thinkpad has the Ultrabay slim drives, which are only 9.5 mm thick (as compared to the 12.7 mm thick Ultrabay enhanced drive). If you have taken apart a Macbook Pro, then you would know that the macbook pro internal disc drive is also around 9.5 mm thick. The ultrabay can easily be used for other functions like an extra hdd. Also, having a removable optical drive, means that you can take out the ultrabay and plug in a weight saving spacer when you don’t need it. Again this is about choice and easy serviceability (you could easily put in a new optical drive if the old break, without having to break open the laptop case).

    About the dual Trackpoint/Trackpad features, i am not going to say too much about it, since some other people have explained quite succinctly. But i would like to say, this is about choices. And with Trackpoint you can do the typing and mouse navigation without having to lift your hand, which quite handy if you do a lot of typing for a living.

    When you say grainy, these bumps are designed by Lenovo to increase tactility. Personally i don’t like to use it for prolonged period, Apple trackpad is still the industry standard for usability and accuracy.

    Furthermore, the T510 and T520 was meant to replace the R500 laptops when the R series was dropped. So the T510/T520/W510/W520 are no longer a portable laptop, but rather a desktop replacement machine, this is why it has a thicker base construction as compared to the T500.

    Finally, i am not sure how the legacy ports would make the actual performance of the laptop any more different without them? Do you care to explain what you are trying to say with:

    But the T520 could be compared to fitting a farm plough with a hotrod engine. Sure, it’ll perform OK, and at its heart it wants to be a speed machine, but its decent internals are surrounding by legacy hardware that will hold it back in practice. It’s a pity, but that’s the way things are.

    P.S. Macbook Pro also have Firewire ports, and VGA ports/RJ 11 (or what you call the modem ports) are also present on similar sized HP Elitebook and Dell Latitude. Another thing the 5 buttons combo as you refer to it, is also present on the Dell Latitude and HP Elitebook……

    http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/au/en/sm/WF06a/321957-321957-64295-4307559-4307559-5071171.html

    http://www.dell.com/us/en/enterprise/notebooks/latitude-e5520/pd.aspx?refid=latitude-e5520&cs=555&s=biz

    • Good write-up!

      I agree with everything except one which I may or may not be correct in.

      The R series, to my knowledge, was eventually replaced with the L series. I could be wrong, but I have never (before just now) heard that the 15″ T series were the replacement for the R series. It would seem strange to wipe out the 15″ T series’ design and replace it with that of the slightly inferior R series – no!? – especially when simultaneously bringing into existence the L series.

      • L series is basically a rebadged SL series. While Lenovo did consolidate the SL and R series into the L series, the L series is no match for the R series in terms of quality. R series had the internal magnesium rollcage, while the L series didn’t.

        R series is every bit as good as the T series, but slightly bulkier. So much so i think R series cannibalised lot of sales from the T series, and this is one reason i guess why Lenovo decided to dump it.

        For example, T400 and R400 shares the lot of the same parts, i.e. the the top and bottom magnesium rollcage, motherboard, etc. T400 and R400 used the same top screen assembly.

        R series had the same base thickness as the T510/T520/W510/W520 with the same ultrabay enhanced drive. You can use the R500/R400 ultrabay enhanced drive in the T510/T520/W510/W520 (these machines all use the same ultrabay enhanced drive at 12.7 mm), but you can’t use the ultrabay enhanced drive in the T400/T500 (which uses ultrabay slim drive at 9.5 mm).

        • Yes, I also agree that the L series are not as robust as the R series.

          “So the T510/T520/W510/W520 are no longer a portable laptop, but rather a desktop replacement machine, this is why it has a thicker base construction as compared to the T500.”

          I looked over the spec sheets of the T500, T510 and T520 (among others) which puts the T520 only 2mm thicker than the T500. Looking at the breakdown I’d say that Lenovo is keeping the 15″ T models pretty tight in form factor – which is great. Even the W520 is not that far off from the T520 with the only measurable difference being the weight.

          T500 –
          357.5 x 255 x 33.5mm
          Weight – 2.63kg

          T510 –
          372.8mm x 245.1mm x 35.8mm
          Weight – 2.67kg

          T520 –
          373mm x 245mm x 35.6mm
          Weight – 2.52kg

          W520
          372.8mm x 245.1mm x 35.6mm
          Weight – 2.7kg

          L520
          379.9mm x 246.8mm x 36.0mm
          Weight – 2.6kg

          R500
          358 x 260 x 35.5mm
          Weight – 2.94kg

          • as you can see from your dimension tablet, the T520 and W520 is closer in thickness to that of the R500.

  7. I don’t know why the industry decided to standardize on a touchpad; it’s a much more awkward pointing device than the TrackPoint. Besides, keeping my hands near the keyboard reduces the context switch time.

    Lenovo bloatware is generally fine, except for a Corel service. Most of the ThinkVantage Tools are useful and offer functionality that you would otherwise have to pay for, or find as a random little freeware that lacks support or shareware/payware. Access Connections offers plenty of features that Windows won’t, especially in corporate environments where switching between static and dynamic IPs can be often, and Windows offers no easy switch.

    Latch are just a design aspect, as well as a functional consideration. It’s like the difference between having that flap of velcro on your jacket in addition to the zipper. What’s necessarily good about a no-latch design, anyway? (Likewise, what’s necessarily good about having fewer buttons?)

    FYI, the modem was phased out on the W520 in the latter half of production. It’s not all that expensive to include a 56k modem anyway.

    The large optical drive means you can slot in another 2.5″ 9.5mm hard drive via the UltraBay adapter without voiding the warranty as you would with an equivalent mod on a MacBook. You might be able to shim in a full 12.5mm 2.5″ drive in this generation in the UltraBay too.

    You also offer no other details about poor performance aside from simply noting that there exist “non-essential” software. (There’s a video of Cinebench benching better in a virtual machine on a Core 2 Duo running XP in Vista than a quad-core Mac Pro.) In fact, on restoring the system, you can opt out of some of the Lenovo utilities.

    ThinkPad’s are for those who do, if that means anything to you.

  8. People, people, no need to get angry. If you don’t agree with this reviewer (and I don’t) just don’t visit this website again! There are plenty of other computer review websites.

    I mean, I was just skimming over this review and the moment I read “In an age where DVI is fairly much standard in the market, the T520 comes with a VGA out socket on its left-hand side.” I knew this reviewer has absolutely no idea what he’s talking about. I can’t remember the last time I’ve had to give a presentation where the project DIDN’T have VGA.

      • I guess that depends on the company. There are those of us who do presentations everyday and VGA seems to be the defacto standard around here for projectors. Yes, I could carry an adapter, but why would I want extra crap to carry?

        • Well, there’s nothing wrong with needing VGA in-built if you need it, but to my mind the vast majority of people don’t need it every day — at best a couple of times a month.

          • Obviously Lenovo could just use mini Displayport, and charge you 120 dollars for a displayport to vga adapter, but wouldn’t that just become something you clearly disliked about MBP in your other review?

          • When companies have calendars to schedule conference room use and have 10+ conference rooms to accomodate the employees, I think it’s more than a couple times a month. Any sales rep, project manager, or general manager will be giving presentations on a regular basis.

            Why drop a port that is on nearly every monitor and tv made in the last 5 years? When all monitors and TVs are mainly limited to DVI/HDMI/DP then a company can do away with VGA without pissing off a large chunk of their customer base. That day isn’t today though.

  9. I’m not going to lean one way or the other, but I’m curious as to how much of the questioning of the build quality of newer thinkpads is just psychological because of the switch to lenovo. I’ve seen people praising some of the more recent (not most recent) thinkpads with IBM branded on them and say that lenovo’s new ones are crap, blissfully unaware of the fact that lenovo has manufactured the IBM branded laptop that they love. Now, I’m really not qualified to be making these statements because I’ve never owned a thinkpad before my current T420, but my brother went to West Point and was issued a specially made military Dell. The thinkpad seems just as sturdy in build quality (percieved build quality, I know thinkpads have roll cages etc but I haven’t done my homework on the dell). Not to mention the Dell is heavier than sin.

    Just my devil’s advocate two cents. Also, Renai LeMay, you do an excellent job of being polite in your responses. And I agree that Lenovo has to start cutting some legacy features, or at least try to include certain newer ones. (the dlisplayport/usb port is a neat little idea for saving space)

  10. I use my modem daily when connecting to network equipment remotely. Not everything works over 3G/4G service.

    The modem, keyboard and trackpoint are the main features that keep my company buying Thinkpads.

    Oh, and T520/W520 models are desktop replacements. Though they should just offer a W520 and drop the T520, in my opinion.

  11. (cross-posted from NotebookReview.com)

    Hi everyone,

    thanks again for your feedback!

    I think this is a very interesting issue. I think it’s pretty hard for me to respond to all of the criticism in detail, however I just wanted to post a few comments:

    1. This review is not a comment on the overall quality of ThinkPads. It is a comment on the quality and features of the T520. Having tested both the T520 and the X1 over the past few weeks, I currently believe there is a great deal of difference between the quality of ThinkPads on the market. The X1 is an excellent machine which I highly recommend. But I could not overlook the T520’s build quality issues. I would highlight the fact here that most of you are objecting mainly to my critiques of the T520’s features (eg the ports) but not the build quality problems I mentioned.

    2. Yes, the MacBook is being used in business settings. In fact, for example, the Commonwealth Bank, one of Australia’s largest banks) is rolling out MacBook Airs, which have even less ports than most Macs, to thousands of workers in its new Darling Walk facility in Sydney. Many of the IT workers and developers I know prefer MacBook Pros, and it is very common at developer conferences to see whole rooms of them where you used to see whole rooms of ThinkPads. Yup, I’ve been around that long

    http://www.itnews.com.au/News/252286…book-airs.aspx

    3. I have worked in a number of environments at large companies which used projectors in meetings on a daily basis. I never saw people complain about having to use an adapter to plug in their laptop to the project’s VGA port. A quick query of some of my friends and readers working in IT confirms they don’t see it as an issue and don’t really expect a VGA port on a laptop in 2011.

    4. I have found that the opinions of the readers from NoteBookReview.com differ quite a bit from those of other readers — you are much more likely to want advanced features in laptops which others are not looking for. I understand that you are advanced users, but is it possible that you are asking for features — such as the TrackPoint — which non-advanced users do not use? I find that this sort of thing occurs a lot when readers from one site converge on another. It’s not a bad thing — but Lenovo has a wide audience for its laptops, and I am trying to meet that wide audience in Australia with my reviews

    A good example would be the comment about serial ports. Yes, I was a former sysadmin and used my machine’s serial port all the time to access routers etc. However, I would say that 99% of laptop users these days would never need to use their laptop’s serial port.

    I hope this makes sense

    One further question: Given that you guys have all piled in to slam me for my review, can I ask you to name what your favourite laptops models are, and what features you like to see in modern laptops? I ask both so that we can structure our review program with the input of informed readers, but also so I know what you think of the laptop market in general etc.

    Cheers, and once again thanks for the debate!

    Renai

    • *can I ask you to name what your favourite laptops models are*

      Toshiba Portege (if i could afford one).

      *and what features you like to see in modern laptops?*

      ability to hook-up externally to 4 monitors via DP.

    • Features I require in a laptop – ie, the stuff I use Daily or at least weekly.

      Trackpoint !!
      eSata
      PCMCIA – used for Panasonic P2 based TV / Film cameras
      ExpressPort – used for Sony SxS TV / Film cameras
      SD card slot
      Firewire port – used to get footage from PC’s on to Mac HFS formatted drives
      VGA port – used to display films in public venues.
      S-Video port – used for same as above.
      USB – min 3 of
      Modem (okay, so maybe I don’t use it weekly)
      WiFi
      Gigabit network
      Bluetooth
      DVD Burner

      Basically, I’d drop the infra-red port, but if I could get a new machine with all the features of a Lenovo Z60m and a new series processor, I’d be very happy.

      I light, shoot, edit, display video and do Data Wrangling on location.

  12. I use a non thinkpad in the academic world and will be switching back.

    All of the projectors and computer systems in all the universities I have given presentations at including my own use VGA.

    Having a burnable CD/DVD drive is a must.

    I don’t care if my laptop is a little bit heavier or bulkier. I know my data is safe and I’m not going to show up to give a presentation to an entire department with a dead notebook. I think the reviewer is wrong on most of what he says about the think pad. If you were comparing business notebooks to business notebooks that’s one thing. However, the thinkpad line is not meant to be a consumer line. It never has and never will be. Thus, when comparing the thinkpad you need to compare it to other business lines not overhyped consumer products.

    One thing the reviewer fails to heed is that the corporate, academic, and small business world are very resistant to change and converting systems costs an arm and a leg. There’s nothing like having to replace not one projector but 25 when you’re a small business. Not to mention that you’re going to get laughed out of a lot of conference rooms for suggesting a business get mac books over PCs with faster specs for less (see W520 series). Plus, what business doesn’t use either a linux/unix or windows exchange server? I have yet to visit a business or university that runs on an Apple server.

    The reviewer would be better spent not reviewing laptops but gaining some ‘real world’ experience if he is going to review business laptops. Oh, by the way. 56k is a must if you ever plan on going on business trips to Central or South America and get off the beaten trail. I had to use my 56k less than a month ago in Panama. Without it I would’ve been SOL.

  13. Well, after reading the review, which was half baked at best… and the comments, I’m actually more inclined to consider the T520 as a possible new machine.

    On the front latch – if you ask me, it’s daft to put strong magnets anywhere near electronics, especially where data security is required.
    The lid on Lenovo’s ‘rattles’,…. you mean it sits high enough away from the keys so that they don’t rub scratches in to the screen like ALL high usage Macbooks end up with.

    You can put me firmly in the group of people who prefer the trackpoint to the touchpad – The touchpad is frakking useless when you’re editing video.

    In fact, the one on my Z60m (17″ Titanium) used to be disabled because of how annoying I find them – I use the trackpoint and a Logitech trackball that I take with me (in a regular sized laptop bag) for most things, and have only re-activated the touchpad because the mac-philes I work with aren’t savvy enough to figure out how a trackpoint works.

    I haven’t read through all the responses, but so far notice that I haven’yt yet found a comment on the ‘tap’ feature of the trackpoint that replicates left button clicks….

    And that Logitech trackball – I use that when I have to work on Macbooks with FCP, because the touchpad on a mac is crap.

    Both the mac and the Lenovo touchpads can be programed with hot zones to replicate the functions all those lovely tactile buttons give on the classic Lenovo interface.

    The ‘leagacy’ features, and the ‘look’ is what keep Lenovo selling in to business environments, where reliability and familiarity of the user interface is extremely important – in business, more money is spent on retraining people to use new hardware then you would believe…. Corporations save a fortune with the Lenovo products simply because their staff are all ready familiar with where everything is and how it works.

    As for the modem, DVD Burner and other legacy hardware – you forget that Lenovo sell world wide, not just in to city’s with WiFi cafe’s and Mobile connectivity in range.

    There are more places in this world where you can find a phone line then where you can find a hotspot.

    And I’ve burnt more disc’s on location with the DVD Burner then I have at home.

    And just on the Lenovo vs IBM,…
    Lenovo has always made the Thinkpads, they used to make them for IBM, and bought the brand-name from IBM to bring it in-house.

    One thing not mentioned in the who Mac vs Lenovo argument – And you can take this to the bank – Lenovo’s warranty and after-sales service makes Apples look like shit.
    I’ve had Lenovo staff go out of their way to fix minor problems and take care of customers out-of-warranty,.. And had Apple tell me that they refused to support anything beyond the currently on sale hardware.

    The only thing that initial review revealed is that the reviewer may not be qualified to perform such reviews.

  14. I’d like to thank you for the efforts you’ve put in writing this blog.
    I’m hoping to see the same high-grade blog posts from you in the future as well. In fact, your creative writing abilities has inspired me to get my very own website now ;)

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