Upon evaluating the laptop's performance, I must express my disappointment with the product. As someone who has had previous positive experiences with other laptops, this particular model falls short of expectations. Regrettably, I found myself in a disheartening situation, shedding tears of frustration while facing the issues of excessive power throttling and constant overheating, undoubtedly caused by what can only be described as a poorly executed design.

It is disheartening to encounter such challenges in a device that has seemingly received high praise from other sources. The discrepancy between my experience and the apparent accolades awarded to this laptop inevitably casts doubts on the credibility of the article's author. One cannot help but question the validity of the positive review, given the glaring shortcomings evident in my personal usage.

As a consumer who values honesty and reliability in product reviews, it is essential to convey an accurate portrayal of the laptop's performance. With this unfortunate encounter, I can only hope that my feedback will serve as a cautionary tale to others seeking a reliable and efficient computing device. It is essential to remain vigilant and discerning when considering the credibility of any product evaluation, especially in light of contrasting experiences such as this.

I believe  the biggest issue here is the thermal throttling problem. The super low operating  frequency  of cpu and gpu at 50 to 60c is totally ridiculous.  That makes those purchase the  i7 and mx 250 card totally a gool by Lenovo!

Hi! Thanks for the, as usual, incredibly thorough review. Your site is an absolute gem.

Now that the 4k screen is available on the T590 would you consider reviewing a model with that screen? I would especially like to see the brightness and color reproduction, as well as the impact it has on battery life.

Thanks!

QuoteBecause of the numpad however, some keys of the main keyboard part are smaller, such as the keys to the right of the Spacebar or the keys to the left of the Return-key. This means that the smaller Lenovo ThinkPad T490 has a full-size keyboard, while the bigger ThinkPad T590 has a shrunken down keyboard, thanks to the numpad. Lenovo should rather put in a shrunken-down version of the numpad than a shrunken down keyboard overall.

This problem exists for German market, probably. On most other markets there are no such a problem. Here in Russia, all keys with letters are the same size.

On Lenovo's website there are pictures of this model, where all keys are the same size as well. Honestly, it was in this review that I first saw this model with shrunken down keyboard, I haven't seen this anywhere else.

Quote8 GB soldered + 8 GB SO-DIMM, max. 40 GB

It shame for this price too!

Just 2 weeks ago, I bought a DDR4 2666 MHz dimm for $31 with a 5 year warranty without any problems!

At this price, 16GB  soldered +16GB in the slot should be here!

Dear nootbookcheck! How did you set for  this  89% with such a shameful screen?!

In a 1800 euro (!) Laptop, the costs shipped with cheap IPS with color space  <60% sRGB!

Lenovo, what are you doing ???!  >:( How you canI install such an ugliness in a laptop for 1800 euros??!

According to your idiot marketers, are people taking such laptops not needing normal color space or brightness of 300 nits? On It's even impossible to look at the photos from a smartphones, because the screen of a $100 smartphone is much better than this shamed IPS in T590!

For such a price you are obliged to install there only 4k screens and nothing more! Retail price for 4k 15.6 IPS panels - $150 maximum!

the obsession with light&thin should come to an end.
screens are crappy everywhere
60hz 20yo standard
16/9 ONLY
no bigger than 17
dim, bad colors, 6-bit.
noise is a problem too. everywhere.
but theyre light and thin
thank you anti-consumer media bots

Any news on when the 4K screens will hit the market? I'm in the market for a good 15" business laptop with a numeric keypad and a dock but these are hard to find.

@anon,
the strange thing here is the battery life of the T580, not the battery life of the T590. I reviewed both of them and the T580 just depleted its batteries incredibly fast. I suspect there was some sort of firmware issue with the T580 that lead to a very high power consumption.  Note our US team reviewed another configuration of the T580 and it also performed awful in terms of battery life.

@IG Pro,
no, I disagree. We are rating these exactly as all other business laptops. If we would give ThinkPads without PowerBridge a special rating penalty, it would not be fair at all. Dell & HP dropped external batteries on their business devices long ago and never have they received such a penalty either.

It is also not our job to convince Lenovo that it was wrong to drop PowerBridge. We have mentioned it in the negatives, but in the end, the only people who could convince them that they are wrong are the customers.

Quote from: IG Pro on July 12, 2019, 03:10:09
you guys should be ashamed you rate these new Lenovo laptops this high without a powerbridge. You basically endorse it at this point. Goodbye to modularity and hello to inflated rigid hardware.

The T590 stays on longer than a T580 with 105Wh, the giant cylinder battery, so my first impression is that your argument is bunk.

However, I agree that we should encourage modularity--although, I seriously wonder why this newer internal battery outlasts one nearly twice the capacity.

For one thing, THE MATH DOES NOT ADD UP between the power consumption and battery runtime. I calculate the expected runtime using the "load average" power consumption and battery capacities, and compare to the actual runtimes:

T580 calculated runtime: ((105 W*hr) / 58.3 W) * 60 min/hr = 108 minutes
T580 actual runtime: 158 minutes

T590 calculated runtime: ((57 W*hr) / 61.6 W) * 60 min/hr = 56 minutes
T590 actual runtime: 209 minutes !!

At some point we just have to question these measurements because they are absolutely contradictory.

At the same time I believe the "actual" runtimes because a stopwatch is more foolproof than a power meter, and so I still think that as long as the runtimes on the T590's internal battery are longer than the T580 with the largest possible external battery pack that it is fine to say goodbye to the power bridge.

Lenovo has lost their way some time ago with their T series.  These are supposed to be Business Computers, not competing with the hipsters for the thinnest and lightest appearance.  The T560 chassis size and space, and its better keyboard, was the last 'proper' T-series IMO, despite its shortcomings of the time.  Ever since then they've been shrinking the chassis and with it compromising heat management, keyboard stroke and space, battery capacity, internal space for options and upgrades.  Now no power bridge, no SD card reader, no 2.5" slot and soldered modules.  Lenovo makes LOTS of different types of laptop lines, why compromise the functionality of their flagship original T-series when they have so many other models to make "thinner and lighter"??

you guys should be ashamed you rate these new Lenovo laptops this high without a powerbridge. You basically endorse it at this point. Goodbye to modularity and hello to inflated rigid hardware.

I adore ThinkPads in theory but can't pull the trigger because the screens are universally slow response or poor color reproduction. It really is the Achilles' heel of this line, except it's more like an Achilles' face.

Your site helped me find that for 15.6" 144Hz screens with at least 90% sRGB coverage we're looking at a LGD05C0 or B156HAN07.1 as found on the Gigabyte Aero 15X v8 (and Schenker SMG Neo and Tongfang laptops) and Asus Zephyrus M GM501 or a LQ156M1JW03  240Hz  from the Razer Blade 15 Advanced.

Are these or any similar panels swappable into these ThinkPads?

That is a lot of empty internal space.  They could have put in an extra sodimm slot or bigger speakers.