Lenovo ThinkPad T500 review

It's certainly a beefy laptop - in more than one respect - but battery life is by no means bad. It can't compete with the Z21's enormous 9hrs 32mins, and in High Performance mode, its time of 3hrs 43mins isn't particularly notable.

Switch it into Energy Saving graphics mode, however, and it'll do over five and a half hours in light use conditions, and which is very impressive for any laptop with workstation pretensions. If you want to spend even more time away from the mains an optional nine cell, 8,400mAh battery is available, which should extend this even further.

And let's not forget there are all the usual benefits of buying a Lenovo laptop here, as well. The Excellent ThinkVantage tools allow quick, easy access to important components such as the wireless modules and battery life settings. There's all manner of other useful tools available by pressing the blue button just above the keyboard, too, from backup to system restore and update utilities.

Conclusion

In the T500, Lenovo has produced yet another sound laptop. Ok, so it can't boast the good looks or the all-round panache of the Sony Z21 with its incredible battery life, good performance and light weight, but, to be fair, it is an altogether different proposition.

The combination of that familiar, high-quality Lenovo keyboard with a large, high-resolution screen and all-round supreme build quality make for a very capable desktop workstation. Factor in the substantially lower cost and that makes the T500 a tempting proposition; if you don't mind sacrificing sex appeal for comfort and reassurance, it's a good, solid buy.

Author: Jonathan Bray