Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E431 Pro Reviews

We recommend small business owners buy a true business PC like the Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E431 rather than trying to repurpose a consumer budget laptop. It will pay off in comfort, performance, and peace of mind.

We were somewhat uninspired by last year's Edge models. Their subpar screens, speakers, and Webcams dissuaded us from giving them a wholehearted thumbs-up. After all, as we pointed out last year in our review of the E530, not just consumers use their laptops to listen to audio and view videos and photos—in many business settings, these are regular activities. Happily, this year Lenovo has addressed most of our concerns, making the ThinkPad Edge E431 our new favorite entry-level business laptop.

The Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E431 isn’t without its sacrifices, but with a starting price for a business laptop that starts at less than $550, that’s to be expected. You’ll have to pay extra for solid-state cache or storage. And you’ll have to live without a touchscreen, HD resolution, or backlit keys. And the screen’s color and contrast washes out quickly if you aren’t sitting dead center. But for productivity purposes (that don’t rely on accurate color) at a reasonable price, the E431 shines, with its excellent ThinkPad keyboard and roomy (if occasionally jumpy) touchpad. Those who want faster boot times and a generally more responsive machine when performing common tasks will want to opt for the $50 24GB solid-state cache drive. And those who want better battery life should opt for the $10 battery upgrade. But if battery life is really important to you, we recommend waiting for a CPU model that starts with the number 4 (indicating a 4th-generation Core CPU) rather than the 3rd-generation models that are available as of this writing, as we suspect Intel will roll out its newer processors for business machines in the next few months.