Edge 420s Review (~1 Year Later) - by jjjrmy

About a year ago I posed this thread:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thi...120e-sl-l/578843-edge-420s-review-jjjrmy.html

I'm here with a follow up review.

Keyboard
The keyboard itself is still great and feels awesome still. Like I said in my last review, I was originally worried about the FN and Control button swap, but it's actually fine. Now, I've ran into a few problems with the keyboard. Sometimes they keys get stuck and won't go down, but I think this is due to crumbs getting under the keys. The worst part is that the actual keyboard is moved / slanted. Part of the keyboard is actually going under the body of the laptop and is starting to pop out on one side.

Screen
The screen can get pretty bright which is awesome, but the glare is really just horrible.

Touchpad and Trackpoint
The multi-touch gestures are are just okay, not as good as an Apple laptop. Everything else about it though is still fine.

Sound
The sound is extremely low. It isn't loud at all, even at full blast.

Battery
The battery is just okay. I find myself having to charge it once or twice a day. This might be because I'm using Windows 8, but I don't know. The battery just isn't that awesome.

Graphics
The graphics are just okay. It can't play Counter Strike : Global Offensive and can only play some really low end games.

Boot Time
The boot is still pretty fast. And that's even with a BIOS password, GRUB/BURG. But then again, I have Windows 8 and that boots up like crazy.

Laptop Body
This laptop body may be sexy, but I've had horrible problems. The screws in the bottom just randomly fell out, I don't even know how this happened. The rubberized coating / paint on the body is just rubbing right off, it looks horrible now. The outer trim is also falling off.

Things I Wish They Added
USB 3.0
Display Port
Matte Screen

Other Thoughts
If anyone is considering this laptop and wants something that lasts, don't get this! Get something that is in the T series. This laptop is falling apart and it's only been a year.

 

Here is my 1 year review.

Keyboard
Best Keyboard on any laptop or any keyboard I have ever used.

Screen
Horrible screen, poor color, poor contrast, low resolution, hurts my eyes, this is the main reason that I am upgrading in the nest few months.

Touchpad and Trackpoint
Do not use trackpoint. Touchpad is really bad, I always use a mouse.

Sound
Sound is good, if you download bootleg torrent vids, blame the torrents. The speakers (on good quality videos and mp3) is good and loud. Use VLC media player, play with the equalizer, turn up the db.

Battery
Horrible battery life, I am down to ~35 watts, I get about 2 hours under normal use, maybe 4 hours, if I really try really hard.

Graphics
This is the other main reason I need a new laptop, I am getting a Dedicated GPU for sure.

Boot Time
Horrible, a minute and ten seconds. And that is with the Momentus XT with the 4gb ssd.

Laptop Body
Mine has been perfect, this thing is a brick, with no physical issues.

Things I Wish They Added
High res screen
Dedicated GPU

Other Thoughts
14 inch is too small a screen size for me, I am no longer in college and want something much more powerful.

 

Are you sure you guy get the same laptop.

jjjrmy,
Can you post picture of the condition after one year of use on the e420s, love to how well the edge series take abuse.

 

35W?! That's ridiculously high for idle power usage. When plugged in, my T500 uses about ~14W on idle, and when stretching for battery life when unplugged, I can get it down to around ~9W on idle.

Are you using it on Maximal Performance all the time?

 

Sorry, the battery is a 48whr unit, it has degraded down to ~35whr.
As for usage, I leave it in max perfomance these days, but I also have it plugged in most of the time because the poor battery life. As far as how many watts it uses at a given time, I have seen it go from 6, to 25.

 

Ah, that makes much more sense. Personally, I would recommend Balanced for the same speed but cooler operation when on idle, though.

You can do a battery reset in Power Manager every once in a (long) while to recalibrate the battery. You may find that the battery actually has more charge than it's reporting (my T500's 9-cell total capacity jumped by more than 15% after I did its first reset last month).

 

I have an E420 for about two years and have used it everyday for my side business, sometimes brought it to work and have taken it on two long trips overseas. Today it is still like new, everything still works, booting up in less than 30 secs.