Lenovo T580 Review: The Biggest Model in the T-Series

Lenovo T580: At First Glance

Lenovo’s previous 14-inch T-series had the T480 as its base model and the T480s as its premium model. Meanwhile, the T-series also has a bigger-sized laptop – the 15-inch Lenovo T580 – which I will review in this article.

You might have read our review of the ThinkPad L390 – a member of the Lenovo L-series. However, you should be aware that the T-series is a more powerful lineup than the L-series.

Therefore, with more power comes a higher price tag. Speaking of which, the price of the Lenovo T580 ranges from $1,119.00 to $1,689.99 (price valid as of April 2022, when I wrote this review).

Now, you may ask, does the Lenovo T580’s performance worth its price tag? Let’s find out from the remaining sections of the Lenovo T580 review.

Lenovo T580: Design, Dimension, and Weight

The Lenovo T580 look reminds me of old toolboxes, which are known for their sturdiness. In short, when you think of solidly built laptops, you should think of the Lenovo ThinkPads.

The chassis is a plastic material with glass-fiber reinforcement. Although it’s not metal, this plastic chassis is very strong.

Thanks to its solid build, the laptop can withstand high humidity, low temperatures, and exposure to sand. As for color, the case has a shadow-black color.

Despite its toughness, you’ll experience some flexing when you press the lid with direct pressure.

Furthermore, like every other ThinkPad, this model also has the white “ThinkPad” lettering on the top left corner of the lid.

While the case is all-plastic, the two hinges carrying the lid are metal. This actually is a fortification by Lenovo against destructive pulls and falls.

Interestingly, these hinges can rotate backward up to 180 degrees. Thus, while the Lenovo T580 is not a convertible, you can still adjust the display to a reasonable angle.

Now, when you open the lid, you will be more impressed than disappointed. That is because you’ll likely admire the resolutions of the laptop’s 15.6-inch display.

Regarding the display resolution, this laptop has two options for you. The display can either be an FHD (1920 x 1080) resolution or a UHD (3840 x 2160) resolution.

First, I will tell you what the two display options have in common and then their differences.

To start with, the two display options have wide viewing angles of up to 170 degrees. Therefore, someone sitting by your side will see the display clearly without you needing to tilt the laptop.

Furthermore, both display options have a superb 16:9 (widescreen) aspect ratio. With this feature, you’ll be able to view every aspect of a video or picture with no portion cropped off.

Thus, this display will be ideal for the analysis and presentation of business charts and graphs, unlike a fullscreen view display. Additionally, both display options have an anti-glare coating on their surface.

For better understanding, anti-glare is just a matte coating on the screen that solves the problem of light reflection in well-lit areas.

Having talked about their similarities, both display options still maintain a few differences. Majorly, these differences are in terms of their brightness and contrast ratio.

To aid your understanding, let me first explain some of these terms.

The brightness level of a display refers to how many lights per square meter your screen can emit. The display brightness (measured in nits) is very important as it can determine whether the display will remain clear outdoors or not.

On the other hand, the contrast ratio is all about how well the display can differentiate black colors from white colors. Thus, a higher ratio makes the contents of the display more crisp, and vivid, and it improves the appearance of black colors.

Believing you understood the explanations, let us proceed to the displays’ differences.

For a start, the FHD resolution display has a max brightness level of 250 nits which is fairly good. In fact, this indicates that the display won’t look dim in bright areas.

Also, this display has a contrast ratio of 700:1 which is not high enough and, as such, will make black colors a bit grayish.

Turning to the second display option, it is brighter and even crisper which results in better image quality than the first display option. Specifically, it has 300 nits max brightness level and a 1000:1 contrast ratio.

Therefore, it is more suitable for use in bright areas. Also, because of its better contrast ratio, this display option will produce deeper blacks than the first display option.

However, while this display option doesn’t support touchscreen, only the FHD resolution option does.

That’s it for the Lenovo T580 display options.

Moving on, the bezels surrounding this display are pretty wide. However, at the center of the top bezel is a 720p webcam.

Under normal lighting conditions, this camera captures bright images, which in turn are not very sharp. On a better note, this camera has a shutter that Lenovo calls ThinkShutter.

With ThinkShutter, you can slide the aperture away to the right, blocking the camera lens. This protects you from any form of webcam spying.

Now, let’s move down to the base of this laptop.

On the laptop’s base, one of the major points of attraction is the well-engineered keyboard. This keyboard is full-sized with concave key surfaces and a pleasant backlight.

With key travel of 1.7 mm, you will press the keys, and they will bounce back in a springy way once you release your fingers. In case you’re wondering what key travel is, it is just how deep the keys can get depressed.

Moreover, if you are conversant with ThinkPads, there is a red knob you’ll always see between the G, H, and B keyboard buttons. This knob is a highly responsive TrackPoint for mouse navigation and it is present on the Lenovo T580’s keyboard as well.

More on that, this TrackPoint has its own input buttons right below the space key.

Meanwhile, below these buttons is a small touchpad with a clickable surface. Despite being small, this touchpad supports Windows 10 gestures such as right-clicking with a two-finger tap, three-finger zooming, and so on.

Furthermore, while the power button is above the keyboard to the right, the fingerprint reader is below it, close to the touchpad.

Moving on, the Lenovo T580 has two stereo speakers that give a perfect mix of guitar and drum bass rhythm. Still, the volume can get so high that you’ll be the one turning it down yourself.

The speakers’ rich sound output is due to the Dolby Audio Premium sound formatting app preloaded by Lenovo. Moreover, these speakers are down-firing, and they lay right below the palm rest.

Moving on, this Lenovo T580 design review will not be complete if I fail to discuss its ports and connectivity.

In regards to the connection ports, there’re enough ports to admire on this laptop. Most of these ports are located on the right-hand side of the laptop.

Starting from the right-hand side, there’s a  Kensington slot, one Ethernet port, and two USB 3.1 ports. One of these two USB ports is a PowerShare USB, with which you can charge your phone even when the laptop is off.

In addition to the two USBs, you will also see a media card reader slot and a 3.5mm audio jack. Turning to the left side, you’ll find two USB Type-C ports (one used as a charging port, and the other supports Thunderbolt 3).

To top it up, there is also a Smart Card reader on the same side (but only on some configurations of this laptop). Considering all the ports available on this laptop, it seems that no modern port is missing.

However, to my surprise, I found this laptop wanting in the area of wireless connectivity. That is because the Lenovo T580 only has WiFi 802.11b/g/n but no Bluetooth.

Nonetheless, the absence of Bluetooth shouldn’t be a deal-breaker after all; the faster WiFi is now becoming the choice for most users. Thankfully, the WiFi card can transmit at a frequency up to 5 GHz.

To round up this section, I’ll quickly tell you about this laptop’s dimensions and weight.

Regarding its dimension, the Lenovo Lenovo T580 measures 365.8 x 252.8 x 19.95 mm (W x D x H). Please note that the thickness can vary from the 19.95 mm stated above to 20.2 mm.

Meanwhile, for its weight, it weighs 1970 g.

In comparison, the Dell Latitude 5590 measures 376 x 250.7 x 20.6 mm (W x D x H) and weighs 1880 g.

This implies that the Lenovo T580 is slightly smaller but heavier than the latitude 5590.

Also, the HP EliteBook 850 G4 is bigger than the two laptops above, but the Lenovo T580 is still heavier. The HP EliteBook 850 measures 383.6 x 257.7 x 20.8 mm (W x D x H) and weighs 1883 g.

In conclusion, this laptop packs lots of features that are tailored to meet many work demands. It has an impressive display and an assortment of ports.

However, it is heavier than the two competitors I checked it against. Considering all that, I will rate this laptop an eight out of ten in this section of the Lenovo T580 review.

Lenovo T580: Processor (CPU) Performance

The Lenovo T580 has got a powerful Intel Core i7-8650U CPU. This CPU has four cores and 8 MB of cache memory.

By CPU cores, I mean separate sections of the processor, each of which can read program instructions and execute them. Meanwhile, a cache is a small component of the CPU that stores data so that the CPU can access them faster during program execution.

With its multiple cores and cache, this CPU runs at an impressive base frequency of 1.90 GHz and a maximum frequency of 4.20 GHz. No doubt, this CPU will run almost any software with ease.

To see exactly how well the processor can perform, let’s take a look at its Cinebench R15 test result. Before we do that, you should be aware that Cinebench R15 is a test that measures a CPU’s performance.

The Cinebench R15 test works by using the processor cores to carry out some difficult tasks.

Consequently, a resultant value is assigned to the CPU according to its performance in the test. The higher this value is, the better the performance of the CPU.

Moreover, this resultant value could be for a single-core test or for a multi-core test.

On a single-core test, only one processor core is used to execute these difficult tasks. Meanwhile, in the multi-core test, all the processor cores are utilized.

That said, the Lenovo T580 recorded 166 points in the single-core test and 605 points in the multi-core test. In comparison, the Dell Latitude 5590 got a single-core score of 145 points and a multi-core score of 696 points.

Thus, you can see that the Lenovo T580 does better in the single-core test, while the Latitude 5590 does better in the multi-core test. For a better perspective, the Dell Lattitude uses a less powerful Intel Core i5-8250U processor.

Considering all I have said in this section, I will rate this laptop an eight out of ten in this section of the Lenovo T580 review.

Lenovo T580: Memory (RAM) Performance

The type of RAM used by the Lenovo T580 RAM is a DDR4 which has a frequency of 2400 MHz. There are two RAM slots on this laptop, and it comes with an 8 GB RAM stick on one of the slots.

However, you can easily upgrade the laptop’s RAM to a maximum of 32 GB, thanks to its two slots.

No doubt, such an upgrade will be a performance enhancer even though the laptop is originally powerful. Note that the T580 model reviewed here has 16 GB RAM, which should multitask efficiently.

Speaking of multitasking ability, this laptop is capable of opening up to 30 Chrome tabs simultaneously. In addition to the opened tabs, the laptop can still stream an HD video on YouTube without lagging.

At this point, let’s look at the laptop’s results in a PCMark 8 benchmark test. For your information, PCMark 8 is used to evaluate the overall performance of a computer, of which the RAM is an important factor.

As expected, a higher score on the test indicates better performance.

In this test, the Lenovo T580 scored 5038 points. In comparison, the Latitude 5590 recorded 4670 points while the EliteBook 850 G4 got 4330 points.

Clearly, the Lenovo T580 outperformed its counterparts with lots of performance gaps. Therefore, a rating of nine out of ten here won’t be too much in this section of the Lenovo T580 review.

Lenovo T580: Storage Options and Performance

Lenovo equips the Lenovo T580 with any of the following storage types – SATA HDD or PCIe SSD. You might be curious if it matters which storage option you go for; well, the simple answer is yes.

The reason it matters is that SSD storages have a faster speed than HDDs. However, SSDs are usually more expensive.

Back to the storage specifications of this laptop, it supports a maximum storage capacity of 2 TB for the HDD but just 1 TB for the SSD.

Furthermore, this laptop also has a 4-in-1 SD card reader for SD, SDXC, SDHC, and MMC cards. As for the main storage, the model I’m reviewing has 512 GB of SSD storage.

To see how it performs, I’ll highlight its CrystalDiskMark test result.

For a brief insight into CrystalDiskMark, this test measures the read and write speeds of a storage drive. For clarity, the read and write speeds are just how fast a storage drive can open and save files respectively.

Thus, a higher read or write speed is an indication of better storage performance.

In the test, the Lenovo T580 gave a sequential read speed of 1453.55 MB/s. It also gave a sequential write speed of 1324.07 MB/s.

In comparison, the Dell Latitude 5590 with 128 GB SSD gave a read speed of 498.8 MB/s and a write speed of 436.4 MB/s. It’s very clear that the Lenovo ThinkPad T580’s storage is leading with many gaps.

In the same fashion, the Lenovo T580 also surpassed the HP EliteBook G4. Precisely, the HP EliteBook G4 gave a read speed of 1245 MB/s and a write speed of 298.6 MB/s.

As a result of that, I will rate this laptop a nine out of ten in this section of the Lenovo T580 review.

Lenovo T580: Graphics Card Performance

Coming to the GPU, the Lenovo T580 is available in two options.

The GPU could be an integrated Intel UHD Graphics 620. Also, it could be a dedicated NVIDIA GeForce MX150 graphics card.

The Intel UHD Graphics 620 has an integrated interface making it unfit for playing high-end games. The reason for this is that it has limited memory for handling graphics tasks because it shares memory with the CPU.

As for speed, the Intel UHD Graphics 620 has a base clock speed of 300 MHz and a boost speed of 1150 MHz.

Meanwhile, the NVIDIA GeForce MX150 has a dedicated interface with 2 GB GDDR5 VRAM (Video RAM). Its base frequency is 1469 MHz, while the boost frequency is 1532 MHz.

Thus, if you’d be switching between business computations and gaming occasionally, you should get the second GPU configuration. However, for performance evaluation, we will focus on a model of this laptop with the Intel UHD Graphics 620,

For the evaluation, let’s look into this laptop’s 3DMark 11 test result. 3DMark is a simulated gaming test that evaluates how well a computer can render 3D graphics.

Therefore, achieving a high score on this test indicates better GPU performance.

In the test, the Lenovo T580 did well, scoring a total of 1802 points. On the other hand, the HP EliteBook 850 G4 scored 1417 points.

Meanwhile, you should not forget that this result was obtained from the Lenovo T580 with an Intel UHD Graphics 620. Therefore, one should expect even more impressive performance from the NVIDIA GeForce MX150 model of this laptop.

Based on the test result, I choose to rate this laptop a nine out of ten in this section of the Lenovo T580 review.

Lenovo T580: Battery Life And Performance

Despite not having a detachable lid, the Lenovo T580 supports a dual battery configuration. It packs a 32 Wh Li-Ion battery (internal) and another 72 Wh battery (external).

According to Lenovo, these batteries together should power this laptop for 27 hours. That’s an amazing 1 day and 3 hours of battery life for a laptop.

Furthermore, Lenovo said that this laptop doesn’t support batteries that are not genuine, Lenovo-made, or authorized. According to Lenovo, such a battery can only boot this laptop but can’t be charged on it.

Now, let’s find out if this laptop’s battery life is really that great. To do that, we’ll be using a battery rundown test carried out by notebookcheck.net.

However, this test was done using the minimum battery configuration (a single 32 Wh battery). The test involved surfing the internet via a WiFi connection until the laptop shuts down.

Unfortunately, the battery lasted for just 4 hours and 12 minutes in this test which makes it behind the Dell Latitude 5590. Specifically, the Dell Latitude 5590 lasted 7 hours and 24 minutes in the same test.

Meanwhile, you should not forget that the 4 hours and 12 minutes battery life gotten from the test was from a model with a single battery. Therefore, models with the additional 72 Wh battery should give two and a quarter times that of the 32 Wh battery.

This will amount to additional 9 hours 45 minutes when combined with the first, which will give us 13 hours 57 minutes. So, the battery life of the ThinkPad T580’s dual battery configuration is quite appreciable despite falling short of Lenovo’s initial claim.

Thus, in this section of the Lenovo T580 review, I will rate this laptop an eight out of ten.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

No laptop is perfect, but in this Lenovo T580 review, this laptop has proven to be near perfect. Its combination of much powerful hardware gives it the exceptional ability of gaming laptops though it’s not meant for gaming.

As a business laptop which it is, the Intel Core i7 CPU, 32 GB RAM, up to 1 TB SSD, and a dedicated GPU are remarkable. Yes, you can enjoy all these features of the laptop and decide to overlook its absence of Bluetooth.

In conclusion, although the Lenovo T580 is quite pricey, I think it’s really worth its price tag.

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