Lenovo Thinkpad T420 Intel i5 2520M Win 7 Pro Business Laptop Review

Lenovo Thinkpad T420 Enterprise Laptop via Amazon

Lenovo Thinkpad T420 - Intel Core i5 2520M



Lenovo Thinkpad T420 is offered with the speed and performance of a Sandy Bridge Intel i5 processor and multitasking power of 8GB memory, functionality, durability-build quality, great battery life, reliability and versatility as a business laptop- is a tested, certified and refurbished unit by a Microsoft Authorised Refurbisher, looks just like brand new, comes with a 12 month warranty and the original accessories. Windows 7 Pro on this Lenovo is actually much preferred to the later Windows 8 by a great percentage of customers and this is one of the main pros of this computer.

Lenovo Thinkpad T420 has the second generation dual core Intel i5 2520M processor (3MB cache) at 2.5GHz speed with Intel Turbo Boost that moves the speed up to 3.2Hz as require by more demanding tasks and Hyper threading for decent four-way processing power, 8GB SO-DIMM DDR3 SDRAM at up to 1333MHz speed, 320GB Serial ATA HDD hard drive at faster 7200rpm rotating speed but not as fast as an SSD and 64-bit Win 7 Professional. 14 inch matte TFT HD display with 1366 x 768 pixel resolution offers decent picture quality. This is not a gaming PC but with the integrated Intel HD 3000 you can play older games like World of Tanks and Diablo 3 smoothly at higher frame rates. Sound is quite all right through the stereo speakers and High Definition- HD Audio. It has an integrated 720p high definition webcam with dual array digital microphone with mic mute, volume up, down and mute buttons.

Lenovo Thinkpad T420 weighs 4.5 pounds and measures 13.50 x 1.20 x 8.80 inches so it is average weight for its size and a little thicker than normal but feels very solid and robust. Ergonomic spill-resistant backlit keyboard with Thinklight keyboard light is very comfortable to type on- feels snappy but without the 10-key numeric pad on the side but many people prefer it without as it just gets in the way and has the UltraNav dual-pointing system with a TrackPoint with Internet scroll, Press-to-Select and magnifying glass and a wide and functional multitouch touchpad just below in the middle and a special Fn key in the lower left. There are mixed reviews on battery life of 6-cell battery varying from 3-4 hours to 8 hours. You’ll find a few flexible connectivity options including the 802.11bgn wireless, 10/100 Ethernet LAN with RJ-45, Bluetooth 4.0, 4 in 1 Media Card Reader, CDRW/DVDRW Optical Drive, Audio and microphone combo jack, 3 x USB 2.0 ports, VGA port, Display port, 1 x eSata 1.5Gb/s but there is no USB 3.0 nor an HDMI port.

Lenovo Thinkpad T420 Business Laptop

Conclusion: Lenovo Thinkpad T420 ‘enterprise notebook’ is promoted as the ideal balance of manageability, security and portability, it works smoothly and is a very fast computer with intelligent features, has great build quality and product engineering for how much it costs. RAM is expandable as the i5 2520M supports up to 16GB and if you want more speed overall simply swap the hard drive with SSD or you may get an extra HDD/SSD slot by replacing the DVD drive with a HDD caddy. Keyboard is both backlit for working or playing comfortably with improved visibility in the dark and spill-resistant in case of liquid spillage accidents and those that have spilt their drinks into their keyboard know how helpful this feature is. It even has a Fingerprint Reader on the palm rest so none will be able to use your computer or have access to your data without your permission. Quarter 1 2011 release Sandy Bridge Intel i5-2520M has the Passmark benchmark score of 3559 as of today, which puts it in the high mid range CPU category which means it can handle more demanding tasks quite well and a Thermal Design Power- TDP of 35 watts. Despite all the power and performance chassis stays cool and the system works quietly. 720p webcam quality is pretty good for live work conferences. Optical DVD drive would come in handy for work but there is no HDMI (you may get an inexpensive displayPort to HDMI converter) and you’ll need to do with three USB 2.0 ports as the faster 3.0 is not installed.

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