Lenovo ThinkPad T14s: A Mostly Spectacular Success

The ThinkPad T series has been Lenovo’s quintessential bread-and-butter business laptop for years, offered in both Intel and AMD flavors in models landing both above and below the 3-pound mark.

- ERIC GREVSTAD

At 2.8 pounds, the new ThinkPad T14s is one of the lightweight variants, splitting the difference between the 3.2-pound ThinkPad T14 and 2.4-pound ThinkPad X1 Carbon ultraportable. It lacks the cachet of the Carbon, but the eight-core AMD Ryzen 7 Pro processor of the T14s seen here might make it the best price and performance pick on Lenovo’s 14-inch business menu.

NEW FOR 2020: A SIMPLER THINKPAD NAMING SCHEME

Unlike last year, when they were designated with different T490s and T495s model numbers, the current Intel and AMD slim lines are both called T14s. The Intel version starts $246 higher and has a Thunderbolt 3 port, whereas today’s T14s tester has only USB-C ports. Intel fans can also opt for a 4K (3,840-by-2,160-pixel) screen, but AMD buyers have a choice of just four full HD (1,920-by-1,080-pixel) panels. These are 250-nit, 400-nit low power, 300-nit touch, and 500-nit touch panels. The last is equipped with Lenovo’s Privacy Guard to frustrate nosy airline seatmates.

The base price of the AMD-powered ThinkPad T14s ($917 ) buys a six-core Ryzen 5 Pro CPU, 8GB of memory, and an inadequate 128GB solid-state drive. My review unit, $1,695.99 from CDW, steps up to the 1.7GHz (4.1GHz turbo) Ryzen 7 Pro 4750U with AMD Radeon integrated graphics, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB NVMe SSD, Windows 10 Pro, and the 300-nit touch screen. The memory and storage ceilings are 32GB and 1TB, respectively.

Lenovo ThinkPad T14s

PROS Potent eight-core Ryzen Pro processor. Exemplary keyboard. Usual sterling ThinkPad build quality.

CONS No 4K screen option. No Thunderbolt 3 port. So-so webcam quality.