Review: Lenovo ThinkPad 11e is an ideal travel gadget

Well known for its productivity centric laptops, Lenovo had added a new notebook to its compact line-up of productivity laptops in the 11e series. Targeted at college students and professionals on move, the new ThinkPad 11e, priced at Rs46,850, offers the goodness of the ThinkPad series at a lower price without compromising on any of the basics.

Design: Sturdy and compact

The ThinkPad 11e is made of a good quality plastic with a matte finish. This gives it a robust build quality and also keeps it clean and free form smudges. The device itself is compact and weighs just 1.4kg. This makes carrying it around quite easy. The hinges connecting the lid to the base are wide and made of metal while the edges of the lid have been beefed with rubber bumpers.

The lid carries the ThinkPad logo and a light indicator which glows green when the laptop is on and red when it is charging. It is far from sleek which means there is no compromise in terms of connectivity options. User get two USB 3.0 connectors, an HDMI port, a LAN port and SD card slot. The power button and the two volume keys are placed together on the side panel.

Display: Small and non-reflective

The 11.6-inch HD (1,366x768p) display is big enough for reading, web browsing, typing, checking emails and social media posts. It is not a very sharp looking display but video looks good. We did notice a sight colour shift on tilting the display backwards. The anti-glare coating is a big bonus as it puts less stress on eyes and doesn’t reflect at all in brightly lit rooms.

Performance: Powerful enough

The ThinkPad 11e runs on Intel’s 6th gen Core i3 processor with 4GB RAM and 128GB SSD. It is adequately powerful to tackle most day to day tasks, multi-tasking and some casual games with ease. We didn’t notice any heating or performance issues. The big highlight is the battery life. On a single chare it can muster 7 to 8 hours of backup with ease, which is good enough for professionals on move. It runs Windows 10 Home edition pre-loaded on it.

The laptop offers the comfort of a ThinkPad keyboard for the tactile feedback, slight dip. Though then are not as big as in the keys of regular ThinkPad laptop, it is as comfortable to type and use. The lack of backlighting does affect typing in the dark a bit. Lenovo has managed to accommodate a wide enough palm rest and touchpad so one can use it without a mouse.

Verdict

This is one of the most compact ThinkPad notebooks you can get for less than ₹ 50,000. It is powerful enough for most tasks, has a dependable battery backup, impressive keyboard. In case you are looking for something with a more premium design and ultra-book type form-factor, you can consider the Asus ZenBook Flip UX360CA ( ₹ 6,990) which also offers 4GB RAM and 128GB SSD but runs on slightly inferior Intel 6th gen m3 processor. What gives it a slight edge over the ThinkPad 11e is the touch display, the convertible design, sleek form factor and premium design.