The ThinkPad Edge E430 has a 14.0” screen with 1366 x 768 resolution. There are no options to upgrade the resolution, though you can choose between either glossy (VibrantView) or matte (AntiGlare). If you’re a business user I highly recommend sticking with the standard matte screen finish, it reduces eye strain which is important when you have to stare at a screen for several hours on end. As far as screen quality, the E430 screen is nothing to write home about, but it gets the job done and is certainly bright Lenovo ThinkPad R500 AC adapter enough for indoor use. The viewing angles are just so-so, below are some pictures I took of the screen tilted at various angles:
The different design the E430 keyboard feels much like a regular ThinkPad keyboard -- each key has a nice travel distance and a very solid stroke, there is no flex or “clickety-clack” going on at all. The keyboard allows you to move your fingers fast and the noise is minimal even if you’re a key punishing typist like myself. One complaint is that the The Page Up and Page Down keys are ridiculously small and poorly located on the lower right side.
The edges and corners of the laptop are all noticeably curved, this prevents any sharp edges and makes for a less boxy look. The lid and keyboard area have a ThinkPad logo in which the dot on the “i" lights up, an interesting design touch. The keyboard uses a chiclet style design, while we would say this is different Lenovo ASM 92P1130 battery from a typical ThinkPad, rumor has it all future models will adopt this. You still get the red pointing stick and multi-navigation buttons at the bottom of the keyboard, along with a touchpad that has integrated mouse buttons as well.
The ThinkPad Edge E430's stereo speakers, located on the underside of the system, are surprisingly powerful for a small business laptop. When we listened to Nicki Minaj's "Beez in the Trap," each bass hit sounded clean and distortion-free. Kansas' "Carry on Wayward Son" sounded just as good, with the blues-inspired guitar riffs and cymbal crashes coming through loud and clear. The included Dolby Advanced Audio 2 software is a definite plus. Turn it off, and the Edge's audio quality takes a significant hit.
The Lenovo's 3.5 x 2.1-inch UltraNav textured clickpad was also quite accurate. Multitouch gestures worked for the most part, but we found ourselves repeating some of Lenovo ThinkPad R500 battery them occasionally, such as using the three-finger flick function to navigate the picture gallery. Two-finger scrolling and pinch-to-zoom, however, were spot on.
One interesting design change with the Edge series is that they now have a drop hinge. This is good for those who need to use a laptop when traveling as it makes the screen height slightly less, if you’re on an airplane with the person in front tilted back you’ll come to understand why. It’s worth noting that the hinges are strong, stiff and prevent any screen wobble from occurring as you type.
The ThinkPad Edge E430 includes all of the ports and plugs a small business owner could need. On its left side are a VGA port, USB 2.0 slot, HDMI port and two USB 3.0 ports. Over on the right Lenovo ThinkPad R500 adapter side, are the E430's power port, Ethernet jack, tray-loading optical drive, a USB 2.0 port that can charge devices while sleeping and a combination audio and microphone jack. Up front, the E430 features a 4-in-1 media card reader.
On PCMark 07, a synthetic benchmark that tests a system's overall performance, the E430 scored 2,337. That's on a par with the thin-and-light laptop category average (2,389), and about 200 points higher than the Acer Aspire TimelineX 4830TG-6808, which has the same CPU.
The Edge E430 also managed to boot faster than the competition, starting up in just 44 seconds compared with the category average of 57 seconds and the Acer 4830TG's 65 seconds. That's largely a result of the difference in rotation speeds between the E430's 500GB, 7,200-rpm drive, and the Acer's 500GB, 5,400-rpm drive. The ThinkPad Edge E430 fared pretty well on the LAPTOP File Transfer test, duplicating 4.97GB of mixed media files in 2 minutes and 53 seconds Lenovo ASM 92P1130 battery for a rate of 29.4 MBps. That's nearly identical to the category average of 29.9 MBps.
The E430 is small and light enough to carry around from meeting to meeting and can easily be plugged into a larger monitor via HDMI or VGA out when you’re at your desk. The design of the Edge series is a little more modern than the boxy classic ThinkPads; the curved edges, option of a colored lid and illuminated ThinkPad logo are just a few examples. That said, the E430 is still not going to really turn heads in public. Nonetheless, if you’re a practically minded person and you don’t need a flashy computer but rather one that is built well, costs a reasonable amount and gets the job done then the E430 should be on your short list to consider.
