Lenovo ThinkPad 15.6" 20RD005GUS-0 2020, Core i5-10210U, 8GB, 1TB HDD, Black

The Lenovo ThinkPad E15 is a budget business laptop with a great keyboard and solid build quality, but the 1TB HDD and 8GB of RAM make it feel slow by modern standards. It's fine for basic office work, but the lack of an SSD is a major drawback. Look for a config with an SSD or buy it only at a steep discount.

The Core i5-10210U is a quad-core chip from 2019, and in our database it lands near the bottom of the pack for CPU performance, around the 11th percentile. That means it's slower than the vast majority of laptops we've tested. For Word docs, spreadsheets, email, and web browsing, it's fine. You won't feel pain until you start multitasking hard or opening a dozen Chrome tabs while a Zoom call runs in the background.

The 8GB of RAM is the bigger problem. It sits at the 13th percentile, which is rough for a machine sold as a productivity tool. Windows 10 Pro will run, but you'll feel the squeeze if you keep Slack, a browser, and a few Office apps open at once. The 1TB HDD is spacious but slow. Boot times and app launches will feel sluggish compared to any SSD-based laptop, and this is the single biggest reason the machine feels dated. The integrated Intel UHD Graphics are fine for video playback and basic photo work, but gaming is essentially off the table. Our gaming score for this config is 11.3 out of 100, which is about as low as it gets.

Stacked against something like the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7th Edition, the ThinkPad E15 looks ancient. The Surface has a modern ARM chip, an SSD, and a much better display, though it costs more. The Apple MacBook Pro M4 Pro is in a completely different universe performance-wise, and the price reflects that. The ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 and HP OMEN Transcend 14 are gaming machines that crush this ThinkPad in every performance metric, but they're also heavier, hotter, and aimed at a different buyer.

The MSI Raider is another gaming laptop that makes the E15's integrated graphics look like a calculator. But none of those machines are trying to be a cheap business laptop. The real competition for the E15 is other budget ThinkPads, used Dell Latitudes, or refurbished HP EliteBooks. In that crowd, the E15 holds its own on build quality but loses on storage speed and RAM.

Value is tricky here because the price varies so much by region. In Canada at 1,299 CAD, this feels overpriced for what you get. You can find laptops with SSDs and 16GB of RAM for less. In Japan and Mexico, the story is similar. The ThinkPad name carries weight, and the build quality is real, but you're paying a premium for a machine with a spinning hard drive and a processor that was mid-range four years ago. If you can find this on sale for significantly less than the listed prices, it becomes more interesting. At full price, it's a tough sell.

The Lenovo ThinkPad E15 is a business laptop aimed at small offices and students who need a dependable machine without flashy extras. This particular config, model 20RD005GUS, pairs a 10th Gen Intel Core i5-10210U with 8GB of RAM and a 1TB hard drive. It's a Windows 10 Pro machine with a 15.6 inch 1080p IPS display, and it's built around the classic ThinkPad promise of reliability over raw speed.

People searching for a budget ThinkPad usually ask two things: is it good for everyday work, and will it last? The answer to the first is yes, mostly. The answer to the second is a solid probably, because ThinkPads have a reputation for surviving coffee spills and backpack abuse. But this config has some real compromises, and the biggest one is the storage.

At the time of writing, pricing varies a lot by region. We're seeing it around 1,299 CAD in Canada, roughly 231,669 JPY in Japan, and about 49,290 MXN in Mexico. That puts it in the affordable business laptop bracket, but you'll want to read the performance section before assuming it's a bargain.

Skip this if you do any kind of creative work, gaming, or heavy multitasking. Video editors, programmers running virtual machines, and anyone who keeps 20 browser tabs open will hate the 8GB RAM and slow HDD. Also skip it if you're buying new at full price, because the value just isn't there. Instead, look at a used ThinkPad T480 or T490 with an SSD and 16GB of RAM, or a new budget laptop from Acer or ASUS that includes an SSD. If you need Windows 10 Pro specifically for work, a refurbished Dell Latitude or HP EliteBook will often give you better specs for less money.

Should you buy this? If you need a cheap, durable laptop for basic office work and you can live with slow boot times, maybe. The ThinkPad keyboard is genuinely great, the build quality is solid, and the 1TB HDD means you won't run out of space for documents and photos. But the lack of an SSD is a dealbreaker for most people in 2024. You'll spend a lot of time staring at loading screens.

If you can find this config at a steep discount, or if you're comfortable swapping in an SSD yourself, it's a reasonable budget business machine. Otherwise, look for a ThinkPad E15 with an SSD already installed, or consider a used ThinkPad T series. The T series gives you better build quality and often better specs for similar money on the used market.