Review Lenovo ThinkPad SL510 Notebook

Lenovo has come a very long and arduous journey to the pinnacle of its popularity and fame. After Lenovo bought out a division of IBM, they did everything to make the world known about such a well-known brand as ThinkPad, and a lot of efforts were also made to make this brand accessible to everyone on our planet. Over time, the company's success began to expand its capabilities and Lenovo began to thrive and show positive results in the multimedia business. The ThinkPad SL series was specially designed for small and medium-sized business users, the representatives of this series were two models SL400 and SL500, with diagonals 14 and 15. But as they say, the company does not stand still, every year it works to improve its models, which would be even more convenient for their users. Therefore, quite recently another model SL510 appeared, which is almost completely different from its older brothers. The new model of a personal computer has a matte case, the computer display exceeds the frames of the first two predecessors, and is 16: 9. With each new Lenovo laptop model released, the company is trying to make it easier to use, and the company also tries to ensure that the price for such laptops is not too high, and that they are available to as many users as possible.

At first glance, the package contents of the SL510 laptop are simple.

The weight of the ThinkPad SL510 laptop is only 2259 g. The battery increases this weight by another 301 g. The power supply unit, as well as the cord to it, increase the weight by another 230 + 112 g. The laptop also comes with a laptop service manual, SL510, L510, L410, SL410. There is also a safety manual, and of course a warranty card.

There are no discs restoring the program in the kit, there is also no trackpoint attachment, but for many this will not seem a problem, since many are not comfortable using the standard attachment, and they simply change it immediately after buying a laptop. In the operating system of the SL510 laptop, Windows 7 Home Basic (Russian version) is initially installed at the factory. The hard drive is split into two at once, one of these drives is hidden, and has a backup that helps restore the OS.

PERFORMANCE

At the very core of the laptop, the company used an outdated Intel Core 2 Duo T5870 with a clock frequency of 2.0 GHz, a bus frequency of 800 MHz and a 2 MB L2 cache. This obsolete processor is called due to the fact that it has a 65nm (Merom) manufacturing process and a TDP of 35 watts. There is also a standard set of line processors: MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, EM64T.

The memory card is split into two slots, and is located under the cover at the bottom of the laptop. One slot takes up 2048 MB of memory, this slot is manufactured by Micron, its DDR3 PC3-8500F standard. Well, the maximum volume supported by the Intel GM45 chipset is 8 GB.

The company often conducts synthetic tests, and here the T5870 lags clearly behind those models that were produced after the T5870. Today, the good news is that modern AMD processors have switched to 45nm technology, in all other respects the situation remains the same. However, if you are a simple user who does not chase every second when compressing archives, then this little detail will not be a big problem for you, and you can safely use your laptop for all the tasks you need.

The laptop's video system is not overly strong. But the reason is only that the SL510 laptop was primarily designed not for gaming, but for office work. However, if you really want to play a little during a break from work, then you can safely download a simple race, a strategy, or watch a video. The evaluation of the laptop today is only spoiled by the integrated graphics.However, the pluses are the hard drive that has come out ahead.

BODY

The case of the SL series laptops was a pleasant surprise, because at last it got rid of the glossy sheen that is so hard to scratch, and made it matte. Lenovo is always striving to make a practical laptop primarily for work, and only then for entertainment. It is for this reason that there is no choice of colors in the color scheme, the company believes that black is practical and suitable for various office suits. The ThinkPad logo will now flaunt on the top of the lid of the laptop, and the name of the company Lenovo SL510 itself is safely hidden inside the laptop. The design of ThinkPad notebooks clearly shows a classic shape, namely, to inspire the shapes of the laptop, they took as a basis the lunch box, which the Chinese used many years ago. After all, these boxes look so simple, elegant, and practical, which is exactly what you need for a fully functional laptop.

Lenovo was striving to release an inexpensive laptop, so it was necessary to somehow get out of it not expensive and practical, so the company tried to completely simplify the case from the side of functionality, while it was decided to leave the strength as reliable. The lid of the ThinkPad SL510 laptop has acquired rounded corners, which pleases more of the population. The plastic from which the laptop was originally made did not have a rough look, but a smooth one, it was this feature that added a plus to the laptop, since with prolonged use the corners wiped to a shine will not be noticeable. If you press down on the laptop lid and test it for strength, you will be pleasantly surprised, since it does not flex as much as it did on earlier models such as the T500. However, there is still a drawback in the case, the lid does not work for distortion, it is immediately obvious that the laptop lacks side stiffeners. It is also worth noting that the ThinkPad SL510 model does not have any latches and locks at all, which are present on all other models of Lenovo laptops, but this detail cannot be called a minus at all, since the lid itself fits snugly to the body and does not open on its own. All the first models of laptops had a small protrusion for which many simply could not grab their fingers to open the laptop. With the release of the SL510 laptop, the designers worked on this past mistake, and made the protrusion so large that it would be difficult to miss it. The laptop model SL510 uses the most common hinges that are located in a plastic sleeve, with careful handling of the laptop, such hinges will easily serve you for a long time.

The laptop has a beautiful interior, its matrix is framed by a black frame. The disadvantage is that the laptop does not have a built-in web camera, there is only a microphone and a place for you to build a web camera yourself if you want. The laptop is equipped with two stereo speakers, which the designers placed below under the matrix frame, and for a more beautiful look, the speakers were covered with a perforated panel.

It is worth noting that Lenovo did not work very well for the laptop keyboard, since there is plenty of space on the laptop, but for some reason the designers did not deign to install a separate digital block on the right, which is located in most laptop models of various brands. In the SL510 notebook on the right there are volume control keys, there is a key that turns off and on the microphone, as well as on the right you can see such familiar keys as Vol UP, Von DN, Mute. The buttons located on the right side of the keyboard have an elongated elongated appearance, they have rounded edges. To the right of the keyboard itself is not a small laptop power button, which is highlighted in a pleasant green light. Indicators that show the battery charge and standby mode are located on the side, near the ledge that is designed for easy opening of the laptop.

The laptop case is not that thin, however, it smoothly curves towards the leading edge, there is plenty of room for the hands, so it will be comfortable to type.

The bottom of the SL510 laptop is divided into 4 compartments, the first and largest compartment is intended for storing the cooling system, hard disk, as well as the laptop memory slots. In the second compartment, a miniPCI slot is hidden, intended if you want to install a 3G modem, but it is worth noting that the laptop does not have antennas brought out, so before installing the modem you will have to remove the antennas yourself. In the third compartment, there is a SIM-reader, which, if you wish, will turn your laptop into WWAN Ready. The fourth compartment is for storing the battery. The ThinkPad SL510 laptop is equipped with rubber feet, which allow the device to stand firmly on the table, not to be poked, and even when you open the laptop lid too much, it will not tip over backwards.

KEYBOARD AND TACHPAD

For a long time, Lenovo has produced laptops with a standard 7-row keyboard, which you get used to and work with without even looking at the keys. With the release of the ThinkPad SL510 laptop, the designers surprised all users, since all the usual keys have radically changed their location, and before you start again without looking at the keyboard, it's worth a lot of sweat and get used to the new location. The ThinkPad SL510 keyboard takes only one detail from its predecessors, and that is the page navigation keys. They, like on other keyboards, are located near the arrow keys, and often irritate users, since many believe that they are not needed there at all, because so often you press them by accident. The keyboard has one more minor disadvantage, which is expressed by the bending of the keyboard in the left part of it. The keyboard of the ThinkPad SL510 laptop, as well as all predecessors of the Lenovo brand, is equipped with a drainage system for draining water, so do not worry too much if you accidentally spill a small amount of water. The ThinkPad SL510 is equipped with a convenient touchpad under which there are three buttons, right, left, and middle, designed to scroll through the page. The touchpad itself is covered with some kind of rubberized base, on which relief dots are applied, the touchpad is very convenient to control.

PORTS AND COMMUNICATIONS

The case is wedge-shaped, which has led to an inconvenient positioning of ports on the laptop. All the ports present are located in special niches, and are marked with icons, so you should not count on the fact that you can easily find even the same USB input for the blind. However, it should be said that there are pluses in the ports, and they consist in how correctly they are located on the laptop. For example, on the right side, we observe the modem ports VGA, USB + e-SATA, RJ-45, HDMI, as well as 2 audio connectors. Above these ports is a 34mm ExpressCard. Due to the fact that the front panel is beveled, it was not possible to place any additional port on it, so only the ventilation grill flaunts in front.

On the left side we can see the power connector, drive, 2 x USB, cardreader. There is another USB port and Kensington Lock on the back of the laptop.

In laptop communications, we can only observe the most common gigabit network adapter, and Wi-Fi.

Display

The display of the ThinkPad SL510 laptop has a size of 16: 9, which may seem inconvenient to many, since the screen turns out to be too elongated and inconvenient, you can still watch movies, but for office work, the monitor would need a more square shape. The second disadvantage of the display is that it has a glossy matrix coating. In the SL510 15.6 "laptop, the designers put a matrix made by LG Philips. The matrix is equipped with LED-backlighting, which is why the laptop has a high level of brightness and its uniformity. The final contrast cannot boast such positive ratings as the matrix, but this detail practically does not interfere with the work.

HDD

Lenovo is proud to say that they were the first to bring the most reliable hard drive anchorage to life. Drive the hard drive, requires proper handling, and is afraid of even the slightest damage. The reliability of the hard drive is stored in a metal casing that is separately mounted in the case. For safe storage of the hard drive, the ThinkPad SL510 is equipped with a special accelerometer that protects the laptop from small vibrations, shocks, and even from dropping the laptop to the floor. The accelerometer is equipped with special sensors that, at the slightest threat to the laptop, send a signal to the hard drive, which immediately hides its heads in a safe state. This laptop protection technology was taken from mechanical engineering, where it is used to trigger the airbag system on impact. This is why the accelerometer in the ThinkPad SL510 is called Lenovo Airbag Protection. Today, the ThinkPad SL510 laptop costs about 23,000, its low cost is due to the fact that the hard drive is not the coolest, and its memory is only 160 GB. However, many do not consider this a problem, since if you are low on memory, you can always expand it to the size you need.

The optical drive of the ThinkPad SL510 laptop is provided by Hitachi-LG GSA-T50N, there is nothing supernatural on it, but it is quite sufficient for working with CD and DVD disks. The drive has an LJR which is designed for dual layer DVD-R discs, this feature allows you to write multisession data, improves read compatibility and allows you to use data volumes up to 8.5 GB. The downside is again because of the laptop case, since it is completely impossible to determine by touch where the button for ejecting the drive is located.

HEAT RELEASE

The ThinkPad SL510 is equipped with an excellent cooling system, so even working for days, you will not be able to overheat your machine to more than 29 degrees. The ThinkPad SL510 has been subjected to some of the toughest tests the laptop has withstood before being 100% guaranteed that the laptop will not overheat. The noise from the laptop is also the smallest, since the fan rarely rotates at too high speeds, in the event that it needs it.

BATTERY

The ThinkPad SL510 is powered by a 65-watt power supply. The laptop really cannot boast of the length of its cable, which stretches to a 220 volt outlet. But this is a problem that is not difficult to fix on your own. The plug on the outlet is huge and seemingly inconvenient, but the plus is that it is made wobbly, which does not lead to a break in the cable inside when you wake up to carry the laptop from place to place. The laptop battery consists of 6 elements, which are secured by two latches.

The laptop battery has passed several tests, and now the developers can set the exact operating time of the laptop not from the 220 volt network, but from its own battery.

The first test was carried out in normal mode, with 100% matrix backlight on, high performance mode, with Wi-Fi working. As a result, the laptop worked for 1 hour and 22 minutes.

In the second test, the read mode was turned on, with 40% brightness of the matrix backlight, the laptop was turned on in the power saving mode, and also with active Wi-Fi. With these settings, the laptop worked for 5 hours 09 minutes.

The third test was with the laptop watching a movie, with 100% screen brightness and Wi-Fi turned on. The result of such a test showed 2 hours and 25 minutes.

The last test was intended to find out the time it takes to fully charge the battery, as a result of this test, the time was found out 2 hours 13 minutes. The notebook comes with quality ThinkVantage software that works with the Power Manager utility. It is thanks to this program that you can regulate the power consumption of your laptop battery, as well as be able to keep track of the time that remains until the battery is fully charged.

Conclusion to all of the above, we can add that the ThinkPad SL510 laptop is one of the best models in the budget business class. It will always have a stylish body thanks to its matte finish, the reinforced body structure, will protect it from careless handling by its user. An incomprehensible reason is also the fact that at a price of 23,000 rubles, the ThinkPad SL510 laptop was supplied with a not very good RAM / ROM configuration = 2048/160. The fact that the processor does not differ at all from the old models should not be considered a disadvantage, since it is not bad at all, and can still easily solve many problems. Lenovo provides a one-year warranty on all of its notebook models.

After reviewing all the characteristics of the laptop, we can highlight all its pros and cons.

CONCLUSIONS

Pros of a laptop:

- Long working time of the laptop when reading;

- UltraNav;

- Practical and one-piece body;

- Waterproof laptop keyboard;

- Bright screen matrix;

- Good equipment and laptop ergonomics;

Cons of a laptop:

- Glossy matrix;

- Low contrast matrix;