Lenovo B590 review

Lenovo B590 — a $100 2012 workhorse at the end of its service life

The B590 was Lenovo's no-frills 15-inch business laptop from 2012: a Pentium 2020M, an entry GeForce GT 720M, and 16GB of RAM in this configuration. At $100 today it sits in ultra-budget territory against a $248 class median. Its most telling number is reliability at 3 versus a median of 54 — a 94% shortfall that reflects a machine deep into its second decade, not a spec you can shop around.

What still works

The Pentium 2020M and GT 720M were both bottom-shelf parts in 2012. The 16GB of RAM is the one generous line item — enough memory that light multitasking never hits a swap wall. But the measured game bars close the door on any play: minimum settings for Grand Theft Auto V, Far Cry 5, and Metro Exodus all read as failures, with Far Cry 5 and Metro Exodus far below the playable floor. This is a browsing-and-documents machine, full stop.

The trade-offs, stated plainly

CPU at 7.9 and graphics at 2.2 against class medians near 59 and 27 place the B590 in the bottom decile of the catalog. Reliability at 3 is the number that matters most: hinges, battery cells, and keyboard wear on a 13-year-old chassis are all past their design life. Whatever you buy at $100 in this class, you are buying remaining runtime, not capability.

Price trajectory

From a $900 launch price it has declined at about 6.4% per year to $100 today, with a further slide toward roughly $88 expected over two years. The curve is nearly flat in absolute terms — a $12 loss over two years — because there is almost no value left to lose.

Against its neighbors

Neighbors bracket it tightly: an HP Pavilion G6 at $108 and a Lenovo IdeaPad V580c at $110 above, a ThinkPad SL500 at $88 and a Lenovo G550 at $95 below. All are vintage ultra-budget machines; the V580c at $110 is the only one with a meaningfully newer CPU generation in that window, worth checking before settling.

Bottom line

The B590 is an honest $100 utility laptop for someone who needs a functioning typing-and-browsing machine and accepts that gaming, heavy multitasking, and longevity are all off the table. The reliability score of 3 is the headline: buy it as a disposable spare, not a primary machine.