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日本First impressions of Lenovo ThinkPad E560 – the famous budget ThinkPad business notebook
Lenovo did a really good demonstration on how their ThinkPad models can take a good beating. We’ve got our hands on a notebook from the series and we’re going run the usual test and write a review, which you can expect in the near future. For now a hands-on article should do the job.
Design
The ThinkPad E line has always been popular among Lenovo users since the notebooks are extremely durable and offer the much-needed working comfort at a decent price.
Devices from the ThinkPad series are easily distinguishable. Although they’ve been on the market for 10 years now, ever since Lenovo bought the brand from IBM, all the models are more or less similar. As soon as you get the machine out of the box you’ll see the “ThinkPad” engraving at the bottom right part of the lid. The notebook also comes in the traditional matte black color, which, by the way, looks fantastic along with the red LED dot of the letter “i”.
Lifting the lid reveals the traditional “TrackPad”, which is an irreplaceable part of the series, as well as the “Fn” button being in in the place of the “Ctrl” key. The keyboard is comfortable, as always, and the touchpad is pleasant to use. Above it we see the three mandatory physical mouse buttons – the middle one ис for scrolling. Dealing with the TrackPad is much easier and faster to some users and that’s why the ThinkPad series has always emphasized on that. The fingerprint sensor, which provides the best type of security password you could ask for, is located right next to the touchpad.
Moving on to the display, where we immediately noticed something that’s different about it. It has e 15-inch Full HD panel, but this isn’t its most impressive feature. It also boasts an IPS panel, which is definitely something new in the ThinkPad E series. The display of E560 now looks great from all angles – it’s a significant upgrade compared to the last generation.
On the left side of the notebook, we find two USB ports (USB 3.0), one HDMI, one VGA and an Ethernet LAN port, as well as Kensington Lock. The optical drive and the DC charging port, along with another USB connector, are located on the right side of the machine. You can also benefit from the SD card reader that’s located at the front.
Hardware
All the notebooks from the ThinkPad E series have been budget-oriented. However, this doesn’t mean that they boast low-class specs. ThinkPad E560 is equipped with a latest generation Intel CPU – Core i7-6500U, as well as AMD Radeon R7 M370 GPU. The rest of the specs include 1TB HDD and 16GB of DDR3 RAM.
You can check out our teardown of the model here: http://laptopmedia.com/news/lenovo-thinkpad-e560-disassembly-internal-photos-and-upgrade-options/
Specs sheet
| CPU | Intel Core i7-6500U (2-core, 2.50 – 3.10 GHz, 4MB cache) |
|---|---|
| RAM | 16GB (2x 8192MB) – DDR3 |
| GPU | AMD Radeon R7 M370 (2GB GDDR5) |
| HDD/SSD | 1TB HDD, 5400 rpm |
| Display | 15.6-inch (39.62 cm) – 1920×1080 (Full HD) IPS, matte |
| Optical drive | DVD |
| Connectivity | LAN 10/100/1000 Mbps, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.0 |
| Features |
|
| Weight | 2424 g (battery included) |
