Last year, Lenovo attempted to shake up the business notebook market by introducing its SMB-oriented ThinkPad SL Series notebooks. These budget systems had the famous build quality, keyboard, and trackpoint of a typical ThinkPad, but bargain prices and stylish design touches meant they weren’t exactly your father’s ThinkPad. The ThinkPad SL510, as the new 15-inch member of the line (starting at $529; $1,024 as reviewed), offers key changes, such as a lighter chassis and a 16:9 screen. This laptop is a bit on the bulky side, and we would opt for a slower processor to save money, but it remains a compelling choice for small-to-medium companies.
Design
At 15.0 x 9.8 x 1.5 inches and 5.6 pounds, the ThinkPad SL510 is a bit bulky to carry, though it’s lighter than many other 15-inch notebooks. In terms of style, the system has the familiar black plastic ThinkPad design theme. Its black keyboard has a light blue Enter key, as well as the familiar red trackpoint nub in the middle. Status lights and the power button appear to the right of the keyboard, while the volume buttons sit on the left.
Those who liked the more radical look of the original SL Series will be disappointed with this highly-conservative, no-frills design. While the original ThinkPad SL400 and SL500 had shiny, high-gloss lids, the SL510 is made entirely from matte plastic. Where the original SLs had highly-tapered edges, the sides of the SL510 taper so slightly that you might not notice. Even the status lights are more plain; on the original many were adorned on the outside of the chassis, while here only the battery and sleep lights are visible with the lid closed.
Unfortunately, the change in tapering has done nothing to address the problem present in earlier SL models: two of the USB ports are located in a compartment with very little vertical clearance. If you have a thick USB device, such as a USB broadband modem, it may not fit into either of the ports on the right side.
Keyboard and Touchpad
The SL510’s keyboard provides the kind of strong tactile feedback we’ve come to expect from ThinkPads. While the keys aren’t as springy as those found on the ThinkPad T400s (which has the best we’ve ever used), they have the same comfortable feel as those on the previous SL models and the ThinkPad T400. Using the Ten Thumbs typing test (www.tenthumbstypingtutor.com), we were able to achieve a strong score of 80 words per minute, with a low 1 percent error rate.
Another nice feature for business customers is that the keyboard is spill-resistant. The layout protects the SL510’s internal components by funneling liquid to a drain hole in the bottom of the machine.
Like other ThinkPads, the SL510 includes both a trackpoint and a touchpad. While not everyone likes to navigate with a trackpoint, we love the increased accuracy it provides, along with the ability to move around the desktop without lifting our fingers off of the home row.
For those who don’t like the trackpoint, there’s also a very responsive touchpad. Like the T400s, the SL510’s touchpad has a pleasant matte surface that makes it easy to move around the desktop without overshooting targets. The pad also supports several multitouch gestures; we were able to zoom in/out of photos and Web pages by pinching, reorient pictures by rotating two fingers, and scroll up and down Web pages by swiping.
Display and Audio
The system’s 15.6-inch, LED-backlit screen is available in either glossy VibrantView or Antiglare matte varieties. Our review unit came with the matte screen that produced sharp images, but colors were muted, and viewing angles were poor. Even from 45 degrees, colors washed out significantly. When the screen is tilted down slightly—as you might have to do if you’re looking across a conference table at someone—the color change is even more dramatic. To be fair, the system is probably too large to fit on a tray table in the first place.
A lesser issue than the color quality/viewing angles is the relatively low screen resolution. Though the previous generation of SLs was available with native resolutions of 1280 x 800 and 1680 x 1050 (for the SL500), at present the SL510 is only available in 1366 x 768, which provides less vertical real estate than its predecessor. Though the wider screen should eliminate black bars on some movies, it means less visible content and more scrolling when performing everyday tasks like viewing Web pages, reading e-mail, or editing documents.
You can comfortably watch a movie on the SL510. Video was smooth, visual noise was minimal, and colors were true, both when we watched a DVD of Dark City and when streaming a 720p episode of Fringe from Fox.com. The SL510 is available with a Blu-ray drive, though our review system did not come with one installed.
While its audio quality is definitely good enough and more than loud enough to watch movies, we don’t recommend using the SL510 as a personal stereo. When streaming music from our Napster account, drums sounded tinny and unpleasant.
Ports and Webcam
The SL510 comes with a standard array of ports, including VGA, HDMI, audio in/out, Ethernet, ExpressCard/34, and four USB ports, one of which that doubles as an eSATA connection. A 7-in-1 memory card reader also allows you to get data from cameras and other devices.
The 2.0-megapixel webcam provides workable, but unremarkable image quality. When we used it to make a Skype call from our office, the smooth video was accented with somewhat muted colors.
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