Lenovo offers ThinkPad A, E, L, P, T, X, and Yoga models micro-targeted at different audiences.
Some are familiar, but others are less clear.
One page on Lenovo's site describes the ThinkPad L machines as affordable notebooks for the enterprise, another as "our most green business laptops." The 15.6-inch ThinkPad L580 (starts at $770; $989 as tested) will certainly save you some green; it's a desktop-replacement that limbos under the thousand-dollar line, yet is packed with ThinkPad goodness, from fine fit and finish to a fabulous keyboard.
All those niceties earn it our midrange desktop-replacement Editors' Choice award.
Honest, Objective Reviews
Daxdi.com is a leading authority on technology, delivering Labs-based, independent reviews of the latest products and services.
Our expert industry analysis and practical solutions help you make better buying decisions and get more from technology.
Hot-Rodders Need Not Apply
The $770 base model combines an eighth-generation Core i3 processor with 4GB of memory, a 500GB hard drive, and a 1,366-by-768 display, which is a poor resolution for any laptop nowadays and downright ridiculous at the 15.6-inch size.
Fortunately, the $989 L580 offers a handsome 1,920-by-1,080 IPS screen, along with a Core i5-8250U CPU, 8GB of RAM, and a 256GB NVMe SSD.
You can configure a model up to the Core i5-8350U chip with vPro plus 32GB of memory, but no Core i7 option is available.
The L580 is every inch a ThinkPad, a matte black slab with diagonal logos in the corners of the lid and palm rest and substantial rather than fashionably slim bezels around the screen.
The webcam above the panel doesn't offer face recognition, though Windows Hello is supported by a fingerprint reader below the keyboard cursor arrows.
The camera captures slightly dim but adequately detailed and grain-free images.
At 4.46 pounds, the L580 is reasonably light for a desktop-replacement—not the world's lightest, with the Dell XPS 15 and 15-inch Apple MacBook Pro at 4 pounds apiece and the LG gram 15 at 2.41 pounds, but it's easier to tote than the 5.27-pound Acer Aspire E 15.
It's fractionally larger than its peers at 0.9 by 14.8 by 10 inches (HWD).
Compare the Dell at 0.66 by 14.1 by 9.3 inches or the Apple at 0.61 by 13.8 by 9.5 inches.
Port selection is good, though there's no VGA port for the oldest projectors or Thunderbolt 3 port for the newest docks and storage arrays.
On the system's left side are two USB-C ports (the rearmost one for use with the supplied charger), a USB 3.0 port, an HDMI video output, a micro SD card slot, and an Ethernet port.
An audio jack, a second USB 3.0 port, and a security lock slot are on the right.
Bluetooth and 2x2 802.11ac Wi-Fi handle wireless communications.
That Excellent ThinkPad Keyboard
The backlit keyboard, with a numeric keypad on the right, follows the standard ThinkPad layout, with Home and End keys on the top row and PgUp and PgDn keys at the lower right by the cursor arrows.
An Fn Lock lets you choose whether the top-row keys perform F1, F2, and so on or system functions such as adjusting volume and brightness, while the provided Lenovo Vantage utility lets you swap the Fn and Ctrl keys in the lower left corner.
The keyboard not only looks but also feels like a ThinkPad T series, which is to say it's excellent, with deep travel and a quiet but lively response.
I thoroughly enjoyed using it except for one quirk—its infrequent habit of beeping during fast typing or when my fingers pressed two keys at once.
It happened rarely, only a dozen or so times during my testing, but isn't something I've noticed when reviewing other laptops, and proved annoying enough that I dialed the audio volume down so it was less obtrusive.
Cursor-control devotees can choose between the smooth but slightly undersized touchpad and the TrackPoint nubbin at the intersection of the G, H, and B keys.
Both work flawlessly, with the touchpad's lower corners requiring just the right amount of pressure to perform mouse clicks.
The L580 can easily fill a medium-sized room when the volume is cranked up, but its bottom-mounted speakers are disappointing—all instruments and vocals are present and accounted for, but the overall sound is hollow and subdued.
Overriding the automatic Dolby settings to manually select music, movie, gaming, or other modes makes a trivial difference.
The ThinkPad's full HD screen is clear and crisp, with vivid colors and good contrast.
Viewing angles are sufficiently broad for a small audience to gather around, but brightness is only average—a couple of clicks beyond the top backlight setting would have been welcome.
Price/Performance Prowess
Considering it was the least expensive laptop (and the only Core i5) in the test set, the ThinkPad L580 did just fine in our performance benchmarks—not winning any events, but posting competitive results.
In the PCMark 8 office productivity test, for instance, the system scored more than 300 points above the 3,000 that we consider excellent, and it finished in the middle of the pack in the Cinebench CPU benchmark and Handbrake video-editing exercise.
Neither the L580 nor any of the other notebooks with integrated graphics did very well in our graphics and gaming simulations, which were dominated by the HP Spectre x360 15 ($1,169.99 at HP) with its Nvidia GeForce MX150 and the Apple MacBook ( at Amazon) with its AMD Radeon Pro 560.
You can amuse yourself playing casual or solitaire games on the ThinkPad, but not the latest A-list titles.
See How We Test Laptops
Battery life was more than acceptable at 10 hours and 48 minutes in our video rundown test, even if it trailed the MacBook Pro's 15 hours and the gram 15's ($1,999.11 at Amazon) 16 hours.
The L580 will get you through a workday with time to spare for a Netflix movie.
A Reliable Desktop Replacement
All told, the ThinkPad L580 slides into a nice niche below the ThinkPad T series as a wallet-friendly model that doesn't entail making a lot of sacrifices.
You're the best judge of how important things like Thunderbolt 3 or an available Core i7 CPU are to your business—though I'm guessing it's not a lot—and how tempting the prospect of an unglamorous but genuine ThinkPad is.
Despite that darn keyboard beep, it earns an Editors' Choice award as our top midrange desktop-replacement.
Pros
Affordable price.
Immaculate design.
First-class keyboard.
The Bottom Line
The 15.6-inch Lenovo ThinkPad L580 is one of the most appealing office desktop-replacement laptops you can find for less than $1,000.
Want a ThinkPad? Good luck choosing.
Lenovo offers ThinkPad A, E, L, P, T, X, and Yoga models micro-targeted at different audiences.
Some are familiar, but others are less clear.
One page on Lenovo's site describes the ThinkPad L machines as affordable notebooks for the enterprise, another as "our most green business laptops." The 15.6-inch ThinkPad L580 (starts at $770; $989 as tested) will certainly save you some green; it's a desktop-replacement that limbos under the thousand-dollar line, yet is packed with ThinkPad goodness, from fine fit and finish to a fabulous keyboard.
All those niceties earn it our midrange desktop-replacement Editors' Choice award.
Honest, Objective Reviews
Daxdi.com is a leading authority on technology, delivering Labs-based, independent reviews of the latest products and services.
Our expert industry analysis and practical solutions help you make better buying decisions and get more from technology.
Hot-Rodders Need Not Apply
The $770 base model combines an eighth-generation Core i3 processor with 4GB of memory, a 500GB hard drive, and a 1,366-by-768 display, which is a poor resolution for any laptop nowadays and downright ridiculous at the 15.6-inch size.
Fortunately, the $989 L580 offers a handsome 1,920-by-1,080 IPS screen, along with a Core i5-8250U CPU, 8GB of RAM, and a 256GB NVMe SSD.
You can configure a model up to the Core i5-8350U chip with vPro plus 32GB of memory, but no Core i7 option is available.
The L580 is every inch a ThinkPad, a matte black slab with diagonal logos in the corners of the lid and palm rest and substantial rather than fashionably slim bezels around the screen.
The webcam above the panel doesn't offer face recognition, though Windows Hello is supported by a fingerprint reader below the keyboard cursor arrows.
The camera captures slightly dim but adequately detailed and grain-free images.
At 4.46 pounds, the L580 is reasonably light for a desktop-replacement—not the world's lightest, with the Dell XPS 15 and 15-inch Apple MacBook Pro at 4 pounds apiece and the LG gram 15 at 2.41 pounds, but it's easier to tote than the 5.27-pound Acer Aspire E 15.
It's fractionally larger than its peers at 0.9 by 14.8 by 10 inches (HWD).
Compare the Dell at 0.66 by 14.1 by 9.3 inches or the Apple at 0.61 by 13.8 by 9.5 inches.
Port selection is good, though there's no VGA port for the oldest projectors or Thunderbolt 3 port for the newest docks and storage arrays.
On the system's left side are two USB-C ports (the rearmost one for use with the supplied charger), a USB 3.0 port, an HDMI video output, a micro SD card slot, and an Ethernet port.
An audio jack, a second USB 3.0 port, and a security lock slot are on the right.
Bluetooth and 2x2 802.11ac Wi-Fi handle wireless communications.
That Excellent ThinkPad Keyboard
The backlit keyboard, with a numeric keypad on the right, follows the standard ThinkPad layout, with Home and End keys on the top row and PgUp and PgDn keys at the lower right by the cursor arrows.
An Fn Lock lets you choose whether the top-row keys perform F1, F2, and so on or system functions such as adjusting volume and brightness, while the provided Lenovo Vantage utility lets you swap the Fn and Ctrl keys in the lower left corner.
The keyboard not only looks but also feels like a ThinkPad T series, which is to say it's excellent, with deep travel and a quiet but lively response.
I thoroughly enjoyed using it except for one quirk—its infrequent habit of beeping during fast typing or when my fingers pressed two keys at once.
It happened rarely, only a dozen or so times during my testing, but isn't something I've noticed when reviewing other laptops, and proved annoying enough that I dialed the audio volume down so it was less obtrusive.
Cursor-control devotees can choose between the smooth but slightly undersized touchpad and the TrackPoint nubbin at the intersection of the G, H, and B keys.
Both work flawlessly, with the touchpad's lower corners requiring just the right amount of pressure to perform mouse clicks.
The L580 can easily fill a medium-sized room when the volume is cranked up, but its bottom-mounted speakers are disappointing—all instruments and vocals are present and accounted for, but the overall sound is hollow and subdued.
Overriding the automatic Dolby settings to manually select music, movie, gaming, or other modes makes a trivial difference.
The ThinkPad's full HD screen is clear and crisp, with vivid colors and good contrast.
Viewing angles are sufficiently broad for a small audience to gather around, but brightness is only average—a couple of clicks beyond the top backlight setting would have been welcome.
Price/Performance Prowess
Considering it was the least expensive laptop (and the only Core i5) in the test set, the ThinkPad L580 did just fine in our performance benchmarks—not winning any events, but posting competitive results.
In the PCMark 8 office productivity test, for instance, the system scored more than 300 points above the 3,000 that we consider excellent, and it finished in the middle of the pack in the Cinebench CPU benchmark and Handbrake video-editing exercise.
Neither the L580 nor any of the other notebooks with integrated graphics did very well in our graphics and gaming simulations, which were dominated by the HP Spectre x360 15 ($1,169.99 at HP) with its Nvidia GeForce MX150 and the Apple MacBook ( at Amazon) with its AMD Radeon Pro 560.
You can amuse yourself playing casual or solitaire games on the ThinkPad, but not the latest A-list titles.
See How We Test Laptops
Battery life was more than acceptable at 10 hours and 48 minutes in our video rundown test, even if it trailed the MacBook Pro's 15 hours and the gram 15's ($1,999.11 at Amazon) 16 hours.
The L580 will get you through a workday with time to spare for a Netflix movie.
A Reliable Desktop Replacement
All told, the ThinkPad L580 slides into a nice niche below the ThinkPad T series as a wallet-friendly model that doesn't entail making a lot of sacrifices.
You're the best judge of how important things like Thunderbolt 3 or an available Core i7 CPU are to your business—though I'm guessing it's not a lot—and how tempting the prospect of an unglamorous but genuine ThinkPad is.
Despite that darn keyboard beep, it earns an Editors' Choice award as our top midrange desktop-replacement.
Pros
Affordable price.
Immaculate design.
First-class keyboard.
The Bottom Line
The 15.6-inch Lenovo ThinkPad L580 is one of the most appealing office desktop-replacement laptops you can find for less than $1,000.
