ThinkPad Edge Overview
The first thing you notice when you take a look at the ThinkPad Edge is that it does not look like a ThinkPad! The ThinkPad’s that we’ve reviewed have that all black business look to them. We received the midnight black glossy version of the ThinkPad Edge, so the lid of the laptop has a glossy finish to it. The Edge also comes in a midnight black matte version and a very surprising heatwave red gloss version. That’s a new color for a ThinkPad! The only thing that really lets you know that this is a ThinkPad is the logo on lid.
This laptop is very thin as you can see from the side shots below. With the battery installed the Edge is just over an inch thick and only 3.6lbs so this laptop is the perfect size for traveling. Starting on the left side of the notebook you have a lock port, exhaust vents, VGA out, HDMI out, Ethernet and one USB port. On the opposite side you have the power input, 2 more USB ports, headphone jack, and a smart card slot. You will notice there is no optical drive on this notebook. This really is not a big deal to me as I don’t even have an optical drive on my desktop system.
As you can see from looking around the system it does have silver accents to it and some curves, things you normally would not see on a ThinkPad. Also when you have the battery installed it sits flush with the back of the notebook, it does not stick out like larger batteries we have seen on other notebooks.
Flipping the Edge over we can see why the battery is able to sit flush with the back of the laptop because it is thicker and actually lifts the laptop off the ground a little bit. This allowed for some airflow under the laptop. Of course there are small rubber feet on the bottom of the laptop and battery to keep the laptop in place.
The lid of the laptop easily opens up and you can take a look at the screen and keyboard. Above the screen you have a webcam that is perfect for Skype.
When I was shown this laptop at CES the first thing that I really noticed was the keyboard. I’m a HUGE fan of the ThinkPad keyboards. They are the most comfortable and a joy to type on, so when they changed the keyboard I was a bit surprised. Lenovo call’s this their new “island” style keyboard. This design is very similar to many new laptops that we have seen. Along with the new keyboard you have the UltraNav trackpoint and a multi-gesture touchpad.
