Lenovo ThinkCentre Edge 71 review

Lenovo’s ThinkCentre Edge 71 is available in a number of configurations: our review sample had a 3.1GHz Intel Core i3-2100 CPU, 500GB hard disk (a partitioned area of the disk contains system recovery data) and only 2GB of RAM. When you consider that Windows 7 Professional was preinstalled, this isn’t a generous provision of memory.

Otherwise, this is a well-made PC. The tower case is made of metal, with a hard plastic front panel and carry handle. It looks and feels like a quality product: touches such as the rubberised carry handle show how much care has gone into its construction. Although it’s a tower PC, the ThinkCentre Edge 71 doesn’t take up too much space: it’s a slim 160mm. Lenovo also supplies a full-sized keyboard and mouse.

The front-mounted ports are high up on the panel and easily to hand. Beneath the power button is a DVD writer, below which are two USB 2 ports, headphone and mic jacks and an SD card reader. While a multi-card reader is more useful, many electronics products now use SD cards.

Around the back of the Edge 71 are VGA, DVI, Ethernet, serial, parallel and four USB 2 ports, along with audio and microphone jacks. The lack of HDMI and USB 3 ports means the ThinkCentre Edge 71 isn’t particularly future-proofed.

In operation, the ThinkCentre Edge 71 makes little noise, and general ICT applications will run smoothly. The limited RAM will affect more demanding programs, although this wasn’t reflected in the benchmark score of 0.76. The PC comes with only a one-year warranty, although it is on-site.

Overall, we like the ThinkCentre Edge 71 for its build quality, good design and performance, but we’d recommend doubling the amount of RAM from 2GB to 4GB at the time of purchase.