The ThinkPad series is one of Lenovo‘s attractive laptop series. The ThinkPad T series has always been considered Lenovo’s high-end business laptop. It has always been stylish, gorgeous, and premium. While the Lenovo ThinkPad T14 is stylish and attractive, it is also sturdy and has a lot of durable professional tools. These tools have been developed specifically to meet the needs of business and corporate users. Not long ago, we reviewed the ThinkPad X13 Gen 2 and the ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 6. If you’re interested, check out the links.
There are several models of this laptop, but we are currently reviewing the Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 2 Ryzen edition. Everyone is currently anticipating the performance of this laptop, as it features the AMD Ryzen PRO 5000 series of mobile processors, which were released just a few months ago. Well, you don’t have to look any further; We have prepared a detailed review for you here.
Specifications
| Screen | 14.0″ FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS, anti-glare, low power, 400 nits, NE140FHM-N61 |
| Processor | AMD Ryzen™ 7 Pro 5850U Processor (1.90 GHz, up to 4.4 GHz Max Boost, 8 Cores, 16 Threads, 16 MB Cache) |
| Wireless Connection | WiFi 6 802.11 AX (2 x 2), Bluetooth 5.2, Optional WWAN: 4G LTE, CAT12 |
| Graphics card | Integrated AMD Radeon™ Graphics |
| Memory | 16 GB DDR4 3200MHz (Soldered) |
| Storage | 512 GB PCIe SSD |
| Camera | HD 720p |
| Ports | 2 x USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 (1 always on) 2 x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 HDMI 2.0 Headphone/mic combo Optional: Smart card reader MicroSD card reader Optional: SIM card slot RJ45 |
| Battery | 50Wh (MM18) with fast charge technology |
| OS | Windows 10 Pro |
| Weight | 1.47 kg |
Design and Appearance
The ThinkPad T14 Gen 2 Ryzen Edition retains the same design as its predecessor, maintaining a simple and elegant appearance. There are no fancy trims, except for the iconic ‘ThinkPad’ logo in the top left corner of the back cover. The ThinkPad logo is written in white, while the rest of the back cover is black. The back cover feels rough to the touch, more like a matte finish. Those who are accustomed to a smooth design may find this device too rough to handle in the first few weeks.
Display
The laptop has a 14-inch LCD screen with a 1920 x 1080 resolution and a 16:9 display ratio. The model number of this LCD screen is BOE NE140FHM-N61, and this screen is also used in the T14 Gen 1. It doesn’t seem that the company’s 16:5 display ratio on the Legion series will be featured in the ThinkPad series, at least not yet. The display on this device is no stranger to Lenovo. It’s a low-power LCD screen, and the company has been using the ThinkPad for several generations.
In terms of display, the laptop hasn’t changed much compared to the ThinkPad T14 Gen 1. However, the company removed the TN HD option (1366 x 768).
The device has a high contrast ratio of 1500:1 and excellent color reproduction, which is commendable for an LCD laptop. The device also supports 93% sRGB, which is good enough for basic image editing. Of course, this is a business and academic laptop, so it should be sufficient.
The laptop has an IR camera with a physical switch on the top bezel. When the camera is not in use, users can protect their privacy on a physical level by swiping to cover the camera. In addition, since these are infrared cameras, users can also log in by swiping their faces, just like they would with their phones. This eliminates the need for a password or fingerprint sensor.
Keyboard
The keyboard on this laptop continues the ThinkPad style. The iconic Little Red nob replaces most mouse actions. This makes it easy for users to achieve positioning, selection, and other control functions without leaving the keyboard area. The 1.8mm key travel makes rebound more comfortable.
The keycaps have a special curved design that fits your fingertips perfectly. The design of this keyboard makes typing with this device much easier and also significantly reduces typing fatigue. The keyboard supports backlighting and is also spill-resistant. If you accidentally spill water or a cup of coffee on this keyboard, a quick removal of the liquid is enough to prevent damage to the keyboard.
Ports
The ThinkPad T14 Gen 2 Ryzen Edition’s ports are located on the left, right, and rear sides of the device. However, most of the ports are on the left side. On the left side, there are two USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 ports, a USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 port, an HDMI port, a headphone/microphone jack, and a MicroSD card reader.
The left side has an RJ45 jack, a USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 port, an optional smart card reader, and a Kensington lock slot. Most of the space on the right side is taken up by air vents. There is only one optional SIM card slot on the back.
Hardware and Performance
Can AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5850U meet our business needs? Let’s find out through the following tests.
Before we get started, let’s take a look at the main configuration of the ThinkPad T14 Gen 2 Ryzen Edition. The laptop comes with an AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5850U processor and an AMD Radeon Graphics GPU. It also uses 16GB DDR4 3200MHz RAM and a 1TB Samsung SSD. The processor is designed with eight cores and sixteen threads, built on a 7nm process, and its maximum boost frequency reaches 4.4GHz. The chip also supports 12 MB of L3 cache. With a design power consumption of only 10-25W, it is ideal for use in laptops.
We also tested with PCMark 10 Extended mode, got an average overall score of 4,482. Additionally, it scored 9,645 for common basic operations, 7,650 for productivity, 5,336 for digital content creation, and 2,785 for gaming. This score distribution is in line with expectations. In terms of basic operations, productivity, and digital content creation, the ThinkPad T14 Gen 2 Ryzen Edition delivers the performance of a high-performance notebook. In terms of gaming, its performance is average. Of course, that’s what we’re expecting, as it’s not a gaming laptop.
Using CPU-Z’s benchmarks, the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5850U processor achieves a single-core score of 568 and a multi-core score of 3,898. Laptops with an Intel 11th-generation Core i7-1165G7 processor have a single-core score of 563 and a multi-core score of 2,150. It can be seen that there is little loss in single-core performance, but it is 39.5% ahead in multi-core performance.
In the Cinebench R15 test, the laptop got a single-core score of 232 and a multi-core score of 1,257. The Cinebench R20 test results are a single-core score of 550 points and a multi-core score of 2,907 points. In the Cinebench R23 test, the results are a single-core score of 1,408 and a multi-core score of 7,399.
We compared the Cinebench R14 results for the Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 2, which features an Intel 11th Gen Core i7-1165G7 processor. The laptop has a single-core of 563 and a multi-core of 2150. It was 2.5% behind in single-core results but 35% ahead in multi-core results. As expected, it still maintains a strong lead in the multi-core test.
In the 7-Zip benchmark, the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5850U scored 5845 MIPS in single-threaded and 53,381 MIPS in multi-threaded.
In the X264 FHD benchmark, the device scored 36.95 fps, while in the X265 HD benchmark, it scored 23.75 fps.
GPU and SSD Performance
This AMD Radeon graphics card is also built on a 7nm process and has 512 stream processors, 512MB DDR4 video memory, and 128-bit video memory bandwidth. Although the GPU test results do not compare favorably with many products on the market, they are sufficient for those who need this laptop for business or academic purposes.
In the 3DMark test, Time Spy scored 1336, Fire Strike scored 3219, and ThinkPad T14 Gen 2 Ryzen Edition scored 5955 and 16519, respectively.
We also used the AS SSD Benchmark to test the 512GB Samsung SSD on this laptop. To avoid affecting the disk read and write test results, we conducted the test with as much free space as possible on the hard drive. The test results showed sequential read speeds of 2966.78 MB/s, write speeds of 1718.36 MB/s, 4K read speeds of 51.76 MB/s, and write speeds of 135.23 MB/s. This speed is quite good, and it guarantees that when running various tasks, it will not be slowed down by the read and write speed of the SSD.
Temperature and heat dissipation
We all know that cooling performance is not as important for business laptops as it is for gaming laptops. However, no one needs a laptop that overheats at the slightest operation. Let’s also test the cooling performance of this laptop.
We used AIDA64 and FurMark to test the cooling performance of this laptop. The tests also used a thermal imager to check surface temperatures. The room temperature was 26°C, and after 30 minutes of using the device, the average CPU temperature stabilized at 65.2°C, and the GPU temperature stabilized at around 64°C.
At these temperatures, the keyboard and palm rest remained cool, and the surface temperature stayed around 40°C. This means that in very extreme cases, the surface temperature is only a little higher than our body temperature, which is imperceptible and does not cause discomfort.
The temperature control is still good, and we can see that the ThinkPad T14 Gen 2 Ryzen Edition is stable at 23W in extremely high-use environments. This low power consumption also guarantees its battery life.
According to the images taken by the thermal imager, the heat is mainly concentrated near the air vents on the right side of the T14 Gen 2 Ryzen version. This is a very good design because when using this laptop, the left palm is located on the far left side, while the right palm is just near the center of the keyboard. This means that there is a considerable distance between the palm and the area where the heat is most concentrated. This ensures that the user does not feel any discomfort due to heat dissipation.
Battery Life
The PCMark 8 test came in at 7 hours and 20 minutes, which isn’t the best, but it is a result that most laptops struggle to achieve. Its actual battery life is much longer than the test results. In some tests, the battery life was as high as 13 hours. That said, I’m not sure if it will last two working days, but a full working day is not a problem.
The battery capacity remains at 50Wh, as its predecessor. Thanks to the fast charging technology, the laptop can be fully charged in 2 hours and 20 minutes.
Also Read: Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Disassembly (RAM, M.2 SSD, 4G, 5G upgrade options)
Conclusion
The Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 2 Ryzen Edition is still the king in the office notebook segment. However, we don’t want to compare this laptop to other gaming and high-powered laptops, and it still has a long way to go. Coupled with the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5850U, which has a power consumption of just 15W, it offers powerful computing capabilities comparable to a standard processor while ensuring excellent durability. This means we can leave work earlier, fix bugs earlier, and easily demonstrate our value in our work.
Hello David, you noted the power consumption is as follows: “We can see that the ThinkPad T14 Gen 2 Ryzen Edition stabilizes at a power consumption of 15W + 13W under an extremely high-usage environment.”
What exactly do these numbers mean? Are these numbers plugged in, in Windows “performance” mode? If you compare this generation to last, looking at Notebookcheck’s review, you can see the 4750U T14 sustained a power level of 23W, with bursts up to 25W: https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-ThinkPad-T14-AMD-Review-Best-Business-Laptop-you-can-buy.504298.0.html
How does this generation’s power limit compare to last generation’s power limit? From what I can tell so far, it seems the T14 Gen 2 may have a lower power limit, which is discouraging.
Sorry, there was an error while writing this article. In the 30-minute stress test of AIDA64 FPU, this Ryzen 7 PRO 5850U stabilized at 23W.
On what planet is an average temperature of 65 degrees Celsius considered good? This is scalding hot and unusable as far as I’m concerned. For comparison, the average temperature of the HP EliteBook x360 1040 G7 was about 28 degrees Celsius. This is excellent as the average laptop gets about 30 degrees Celsius. 65 Celsius is unacceptable in a laptop.
David, are you trolling? The average temperature in this review is when the CPU is stressed, UNDER LOAD.
There is absolutely no way the EliteBook x360 can reach 28 degrees Celsius under a full core load. You must be high.
I love the ThinkPad design, but for the same price as other brands like Asus, we can get an OLED display and a 5800H CPU, which is better than this ThinkPad. I don’t know why Lenovo stays with an LCD display. It’s very suck.
I have a lot of issues with my T14 G2 when charging.
The heat comes partially from the CPU (right side), but the laptop produces enormous heat from the left side during charging. The palm rest makes my hands sweat and hurt.
My $300$ low-end old Acer is far fresher. I also have a 2018 Dell, but it’s sadly too slow now for my job.
I can use T14 just with an external keyboard and external monitor. I bought a docking station with a fan, but it’s impossible to write code on it while charging.
I bought it at the Mexican Lenovo online store and asked for an RMA. After 2 hours, they denied it to me because the “box was open.”I have to keep it.
I’ll try to sell it in a few months, and I will go for a usable laptop.