Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E545 review

ThinkPad Edge E545 — a 2012 budget-ThinkPad whose measured scores read as floor

The Edge E545 was Lenovo's entry-minded ThinkPad line from 2012, built around the AMD A8-4500M. Today it trades at around $157, well under the $297 business-class median. Its measured profile, though, sits at the absolute bottom of the catalog: overall performance reads 0 against a category median of 41.5, and both CPU and graphics scores register as zero — not because the silicon is absent, but because a 2012 AMD APU falls below every measurement threshold the pipeline uses. Treat those zeros as a data floor, not a literal reading: this is a machine that booted Windows 8 comfortably a decade ago and does little more today.

What it can still do

Realistically: single-tab browsing, a document, email. The A8-4500M was a low-power quad APU even when new, and its 2012-era CPU cores trail the class by a margin no amount of RAM can repair. Nothing in its highlight set points upward — the honest summary is that every axis a buyer cares about reads below median.

The trade-offs, stated plainly

Beyond performance, the Edge line cut costs in chassis and display quality versus mainstream ThinkPads of the same year. Buyers at $157 today are paying for a working keyboard and a licence to tinker — not for speed, not for battery health in a 13-year-old pack, and not for any gaming beyond browser titles. The watch-out list is effectively the whole spec sheet.

Price trajectory

From a $1,300 launch position it has shed value at about 5.95% per year, landing at $157 with a further drift toward roughly $139 expected over two years. At this price the depreciation curve has flattened into rounding-error territory — the remaining risk is obsolescence, not resale value.

Against its neighbors

The comparison band puts it among other ultra-budget business machines: an HP ProBook 455 G2 at $174 and an EliteBook 745 G4 at $172 above, a Dell Vostro 3555 at $137 and an HP EliteBook 725 G3 at $145 below. Within a ~$40 spread the differences are marginal — several of those neighbors carry newer CPUs for similar money, which is worth a look before committing.

Bottom line

The E545 is a floor-priced, floor-performing ThinkPad. It suits a buyer who needs any functioning laptop for light duties and values the classic keyboard above all else. For anything compute-adjacent — multitasking, media, gaming — the data says look elsewhere; even within its own price band there are newer-silicon options a few dollars apart.