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The Lenovo V145 (81MT0015UK) is a business themed laptop built around a 15.6-inch full HD display. It’s not as trim as the company’s ThinkPad X1 Carbon, but it’s far less expensive and includes a 256GB solid-state drive. Plus, it includes a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) software that will keep your business data safe. The TPM platform is more reason to like this machine over affordable options around, including Chromebooks that are becoming popular among business executives.
A bright 1080p display, a classic ThinkPad keyboard and available security options make it an attractive buy for business and home users alike. How does the Lenovo V145 compete with existing, and sometimes much affordable, 15-inch notebooks around?
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Design
Lenovo packs the V145 in a case similar to what they used on the Lenovo IdeaPad 320, only that this one has a matte black color on the lid, back and keyboard deck. The plastic material feels sturdy, and you’ll definitely love the kind of stability this notebook offers. If you’re used to the brushed silver laptops, this one is a black unit with surfaces clad in a linen texture.
The laptop does offer a DVD drive, unlike its predecessor that had a dummy in the drive bay. For connectivity, it comes with two USB 3.1 ports, an HDMI output and a Gigabit Ethernet port. You also get a memory card reader, in case you need to copy files to/from a smartphone, camera or tablet. If you won’t be using a cable connection, you have the option of Intel 802.1ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.1.
Keyboard and Touchpad
Keyboard and TouchpadLenovo makes great keyboards. Whether you’re buying the budget Lenovo V145 (81MT0015UK) or the more expensive Lenovo ThinkPad E590, whichever case, you’re getting a comfortable full keyboard with a numpad. The V145 keyboard has short strokes and a precise pressure point, something that you’ll find ideal for everyday use.
Below the keyboard is a 4.1 x 2.7 multi-touch ClickPad that offers enough space to utilize the gesture control. It’s a smooth touch space for your fingers to glide on, and responds to inputs even at the corners.
Display
DisplayOn the Lenovo V145 (81MT0015UK), the company uses a 15.6-inch display with a native resolution of 1920×1080 pixels. The display brightness maxes at 225.1cd/m2 and a contrast of 453:1, which is acceptable for daily use. As a general use laptop, the display is acceptable for simple productivity tasks like web browsing and processing documents. It’s bright enough due to lack of gloss-related reflections, and you won’t be distracted by the screen while watching videos.
Sound is just okay as well, with enough volume to fill a small office and a favorable lack of distortion when pumped all the way up. It lacks bass, though, and while it is well set for the usual YouTube video, you’ll need a headphone for movies and music.
Performance
Lenovo equips the V145 with AMD’s A9-9425 (Stoney Ridge) APU, that was designed to compete with Intel’s Duo Core processors. It doesn’t readily offer high levels of computing power, but is still a good choice for simple office tasks, media consumption and browsing the Internet. The CPU part of the APU is made up of a dual-core processor with base clock speed of 3.1 GHz, but increases to 3.7 GHz in Turbo mode.
With the Lenovo V145 (81MT0015UK), the company is offering a basic 15.6-inch business laptop, with enough processing power for office and Internet applications. The AMD Radeon 530 graphics card doesn’t suffice for modern gaming. Nonetheless, it allows you play some basic games like Farming Simulator 19 and Team Fortress 2. Still, you’ll have to keep everything on the low, that means low resolutions and low-quality settings.
Battery Life
The Lenovo V145 (81MT0015UK), only packs in 30 watt-hours of battery in its chassis, which is pedestrian for a notebook with a larger display. Yes, the Stoney Ridge processor is considered to be energy efficient, and the 1080p display is not power-sipping, but such battery life won’t excite. It is an underwhelming performer, lasting just over four and half hours. That’s significantly less than the Aspire E5-576-392H’s 10 hours of battery life.
The Lenovo V145 (81MT0015UK) is a budget business laptop that offers plenty of durability for daily commute, conservative but good looks, and decent enough performance for the usual office productivity tasks. It holds its own in business data security software, but its battery life isn’t the best around.
Is there a better alternative?
The first challenger is Lenovo’s very own IdeaPad 330, which is also affordable at an Intel Core i5-8250U processor, 8GB RAM, 1TB HDD + 16GB Intel Optane Memory. Another alternative is the Acer Aspire E15 with a core i5-8250U, 8GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD and a discrete Nvidia MX150 GPU.
Should you buy it?
Yes. For as long as you can do with the short battery life on the Lenovo V145 (81MT0015UK), then you’re getting an affordable, performant laptop that’s a pleasure to use in the office.
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