TL;DR
Thinkpad E585 (https://www.lenovo.com/au/en/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpad-edge/…)
15.6" IPS FHD, Ryzen 5 2500U, 8GB 2400 MHz DDR4, 256GB NVMe.
$829, or $738.57 after 12% CashBack from ShopBackThinkpad E485 (https://www.lenovo.com/au/en/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpad-edge/…)
14" IPS FHD, Ryzen 5 2500U, 8GB 2400 MHz DDR4, 128GB NVMe.
$739 (+$50 for 256GB)
Or $658.39 ($702.93 for 256GB) after 12% Cashback from ShopBack.
Considering the frequency of these promotions, they're becoming weekly or fortnightly sales (see previous deals and more for some FAQs and discussions).
Super slightly better price than the last deal ($10-20 depending on configuration, before cashbacks sites), and decided to list the E585 first as this time it has 256GB storage and even slightly better price than previous. Do note the newer Ryzen Mobile 3000 series APUs are now available, but the refresh of the ThinkPad E-series might not come until second half of the year, and it is not expected to bring huge improvements (speculated to be ~10% plus or minus 5), while likely $100-200 more.
Again, CashBacks: as the sale ends on 14th March, I recommend holding off to see if CashRewards or ShopBack will increase the cashback rate (to ~8-12% from 4%, usually happens towards the end of a promo) before buying (historically, CashRewards does an increase monthly, ShopBack did it in December and last month).
EDIT (11/03): ShopBack has increased cashback rate to 12% for one day today (as far as its email indicates), ends 11:59PM 11/03/2019 Nope still going!. Now good time to buy if you were previously interested. Thanks Wally Simmonds for the heads up.
Make sure the last click before purchase is from ShopBack AU. The winning affiliate is always the one that receives the last click. Also, please turn off any AdBlock/uBlock/Ghostery as well as Safari (mobile and/or desktop) Cross-Site Tracking.
Notes on memory upgrades (see previous deal for more detailed comments)
- If 8GB is sufficient for you —> get 4GBx2 config (included in price)
- But if you want/will use more —> get 8GBx1 config (included in price), then buy a RAM stick separately (Lenovo's prices are exorbitant)
- If 8GB is sufficient at the moment, but want to upgrade later/when needed, and happy with lower performance in the meanwhile (enough for general office, browsing and media usage, but not gaming) —> get 8GBx1 config and get RAM when you need it.
Newegg's 8GB DDR4 2400MHz SODIMM RAM single stick prices: https://www.newegg.com/global/au-en/Product/ProductList.aspx… (remember to sort by Lowest Price)
Notes on software updates:
It is recommended that you update the Chipset, and especially the Graphics drivers DIRECTLY from AMD rather than (the painfully slow) OEMs, as this fixes a lot of earlier software, driver and stability/incompatibility issues. AMD has now (since end of Feb 2019) taken over the responsibility of updating and releasing the graphics drivers from the OEMs.
Brief Specs:
Thinkpad E585
- AMD Ryzen™ 5 2500U Quad-Core (4 Cores 8 Threads, 2 GHz base frequency, 3.6 GHz boost) (+$100 to upgrade to Ryzen 7 2700U, 4C/8T, 2.2 GHz base 3.8 GHz boost, Integrated Vega 10 graphics)
- Integrated AMD Radeon™ Vega 8 Graphics
- 15.6" FHD IPS (1920x1080) AntiGlare Display
- 8GB DDR4 2400MHz Memory
- 256GB Solid State Drive PCIe OPAL2.0 M.2 2242
- Windows 10 Home 64-bit
- WiFi Qualcomm QCNFA435AC, 1x1 + Bluetooth 4.1
- Internal 2.5" bay (7mm) available for storage expansion. (See this comment here for a video link that shows how to access the internal 2.5 SATA3 bay)
- 2 x USB 3.1 (1 x AlwaysOn), 1 x USB 2.0, 1 x USB 3.1 Type-C, 1x HDMI, Ethernet (RJ45), MicroSD, Combo audio/mic jack
- Dimensions (W x D x H) 369 x 252 x 19.95 mm
- Starting at 2.1 kg
- 45W 3-pin USB-C AC Power Adaptor
Thinkpad E485 shares same basic spec as above, except for:
- AMD Ryzen™ 5 2500U Quad-Core (4 Cores 8 Threads, 2 GHz base frequency, 3.6 GHz boost) (Ryzen 7 upgrade option not worthwhile for the E485)
- 14.0" FHD IPS (1920x1080) AntiGlare Display
- 128GB SSD M.2 PCIe NVMe Opal2 (+$50 to upgrade to 256GB NVMe storage)
- 2 x USB 3.1 (1 x AlwaysOn), 1 x USB 2.0, 1 x USB 3.1 Type-C, 1x HDMI, Ethernet (RJ45), MicroSD, Combo audio/mic jack
- Dimensions (W x D x H) 329 x 242 x 21.9 mm
- Starting at 1.75 kg
excellent work for the detailed listing..