Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E545

Do not let the good looks the Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E545 (with $ 474.05 as tested) cheat you. Despite its solid build quality and smooth, soft-touch finish 15-inch desktop-replacement laptop carries a very affordable price and some features that you would expect to find on a laptop budget, including the dual output video and DVD burner. Its AMD A6 processor delivers more than enough power to run the main house productivity and light office apps, but you do not get a lot of storage capacity, and battery life is mediocre. For a few dollars less, you can get more storage and better overall performance in our Editors' Choice budget desktop replacement laptop, the Dell Inspiron 5000 Series 17 Non-Touch.

Design and Features
Black, soft-touch rubberized finish E545 and durable, dual-hinge assembly give it a robust and solid look and feel. The familiar ThinkPad and Lenovo logo badge adorn the cover, which is slightly rounded corners and a band of silver trim around the edges. At 1.3 by 14.8 by 9.6 inches (HWD) and weighs 5.4 pounds, the E545 is larger and heavier than the Dell Inspiron 15 Non-Touch, but it's portable enough to travel around the house or office anyway.

With a maximum resolution of 1366 by 768, the 15.6-inch screen can not display 1080p video, but it's bold colors and a detailed 720p picture quality with decent viewing angles. Matte coating is non-reflective display, too. The spacious keyboard featuring both slightly curved keys used on Lenovo Z40, and they, too, were responsive and comfortable to type on. Fans of older ThinkPad models will be happy to know that the E545 offers a Trackpoint pointer stick and buttons in addition to a 3.5-by-2.5-inch clickpad. -Texture Clickpad surface provides just enough friction to ensure accurate cursor control and easy gesturing.

The left side of the E545 hold three USB 3.0 ports, an HDMI video output, and a VGA video output. Over on the right side is a tray-loading DVD Multidrive, a headphone jack, a LAN port, and a USB 2.0 port with the ability to sleep-and-charge. Embedded options include Wi-Fi b / g / n, a 4-in-1 card reader, and 720p webcam. E545 has a 320GB hard drive, which is small compared to the 500GB drive with the Dell Inspiron 15 Inspiron 17 Non Touch and Non Touch laptop. In addition to Windows 8, it has a trial version of Norton Internet Security and Microsoft Office 365, as well as PowerDVD Mobile, eBay, Zinio, and Skype apps. The E545 has a one-year warranty.