Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 Snapdragon Review

The ThinkPad T14s successfully blends Lenovo’s most prestigious product line with the powerful and efficient Snapdragon X hardware platform. It’s the best business-class Copilot+ PC you can buy today.

Design

ThinkPad has a well-deserved reputation for quality. Its iconic black designs are instantly recognizable, and its lightweight and premium materials, best-in-class keyboards, and TrackPoint dual-pointing functionality are all prized by customers, many of whom never stray outside the brand.

The ThinkPad T14s delivers all that and more, with a traditional ThinkPad look and feel in Eclipse Black and all the expected red accents, from the TrackPoint nubbin in the center of its nearly perfect keyboard to the red dots on the “i” in the laptop’s logos.

It’s elegant to the eyes, and obviously premium, though it’s relatively low price will surprise some. The T14s is also magically light at just 2.72 pounds, a hair more than the equally ethereal HP EliteBook 1040 G11. This, too, is all by the ThinkPad playbook: The laptop frame is aluminum, giving it the rigidity it needs, and the top and bottom covers are a mix of aluminum and carbon fiber. The display lid is carbon fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP), lowering the weight.

This design is incredibly durable, Lenovo claims: The T14s meets or exceeds MIL-STD 810H durability standards and an astonishingly long list of internal standards, procedures, and quality checks related to extreme temperatures and conditions, pressure, vibration, and more.

And … Sure. I can’t speak to that, and I’m certainly not going to start hurling the laptop around my condo to see what happens. All I can say is that it looks and feels premium and of high quality. And having always been a fan of ThinkPads, that I love it.

There are small touches everywhere. The perfectly sized and spaced speaker grills to either side of the keyboard. The round power button that doubles as a fingerprint reader, with a small pinpoint light above it to indicate it’s on. The elegant bump of the communications bar above the display that holds the webcam, microphones, and some sensors but also provides a convenient grip for opening the lid. The subtle red accent on two of the TrackPoint buttons. The angled ThinkPad logos, one on the wrist rest and one on the outside of the display lid.

Like previous ThinkPads, the T14s has issues with skin oil collection marring the laptop’s wrist area over time. But it was even more of a problem on the display lid, for some reason.

Finally, the dot on the “i” in the ThinkPad logo on the display lid can is a red light that indicates power when the laptop’s in use, which seems pointless since you can’t see it when you’re using it. But it pulsates that red light on and off when it’s asleep. And that can be distracting in a dark room, especially if you’re trying to sleep. More than once I found myself slipping out of bed and flipping it upside down. There should be a way to disable this, if only in firmware, but I never found one.

Display

I like that Lenovo offers different display choices with the T14s. There are three, and each is a 14-inch panel with a 16:10 aspect ratio and an anti-glare coating that emits 400 nits of brightness.

The review unit came with the base display, a 60 Hz Full HD+ (1920 x 1200) low-power IPS non-touch panel with an 800:1 contrast ratio.

But you can upgrade to a touch version of that panel with 100 percent sRGB coverage and a 1000:1 contrast ratio, or to a 120 Hz 2.8K (2800 x 1400) OLED panel with anti-reflect, anti-smudge, low blue light, and Dolby Vision and True Black HDR500 capabilities that provides 100 percent DCI-P3 coverage and a crazy 100,000:1 contrast ratio.

The base display meets my needs: I don’t want touch, and I prefer matte, non-glossy displays for work. Full HD+ is arguably the bare minimum resolution at 14-inches, but I never had any issues, or noticed any jaggy fonts or graphics. The viewing angles are wide, with little in the way of reflections. And it gets plenty bright indoors, even in our bright sun-fed living room at midday.

The display bezels are small on the sides, but a bit bigger on the top and bottom, and of course the communication bar, which has emerged as a key new ThinkPad branding cue, adds a bit of height as well. (Lenovo reports that the display to body ratio is 87.5 percent overall.) The display corners are squared off. There will be no rounded corner whimsy in this laptop, thank you very much.

And thanks to the terrific hinge, the display can lay perfectly flat.

Internal components

The Copilot+ PCs I’ve reviewed all offer nearly identical internal components, and the ThinkPad T14s continues that trend. There’s only one processor on offer, the suddenly common base Snapdragon Elite X X1E78100, with its 3.4 GHz 12-core CPU (and no dual-core boost), 3.8 TFLOPS GPU, and 45 TOPS NPU. But you can configure the laptop with 16, 32, or 64 GB of LPDDR5x 8448 MHz dual-channel RAM and 256 GB, 512 GB, or 1 TB of M.2 PCIe Gen 4×4 SSD storage. Note that the RAM is soldered and non-upgradeable, which is standard on Copilot+ PCs.

It’s been two months since the first Copilot+ PCs launched, and the ThinkPad T14s is the fourth Copilot+ PC that I’ve reviewed in that time. Little has changed, but that’s great news: The performance is as effortless and reliable as has been the case with the other Snapdragon X-powered laptops I’ve used, and compatibility–with apps and hardware peripherals–remains a non-event. I used this laptop with my standard array of productivity apps–Microsoft Edge, Typora, Notion, Affinity Photo 2, Slack, and so on–and spent an inordinate amount of time in Visual Studio 2022 Preview–often with multiple instances–working through various issues for my .NETpad app modernization project. It never once paused, glitched, or hung. There was no drama at all.

The T14s did, however, emit a near constant whisper of fan sound, usually not audible or nearly so. And when I could hear it, it was very low, never a jet engine blast like we see on the x64 side of the fence. This is non-scientific, but I feel like the T14s fan is on more than is the case with the other Copilot+ PCs I’ve tested, not that it matters too much. As noted, I rarely even noticed it. (I found myself dropping my head down to the keyboard a lot to see whether it was running.)

There are firmware and software controls for this behavior, but they’re light: The Lenovo Commercial Vantage app, for example, explains how you can configure Intelligent Cooling–which impacts fan speed, performance, and battery life–by using the familiar Balanced, Best power efficiency, and Best performance power modes in Windows 11. And you can make it even quieter by choosing Best power efficiency with a commensurate reduction in performance. But I left it on the default Balanced mode and never thought about it again.

The T14s never got overly warm, let alone hot. But I did place it on a hard surface, like my iPad Air in its case, when I wanted to use it on the bed, so I wouldn’t block the air intake vents on its bottom.

Connectivity

Connectivity is modern as can be, with Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.3. And while there’s no cellular data option today, that will change in the future, Lenovo says. When it does, customers will be able to add a 5G Sub-6 GHz M.2 radio card with embedded eSIM functionality if needed.

Ports and expansion

Given its business focus, the T14s delivers the expected combination of modern and legacy ports. That’s fine, but I prefer seeing USB-C ports on both sides of a laptop. And there are no smart card or SD card slots.

You will find two identical USB4 Type-C ports (40 Gbps, Power Delivery 3.0, and DisplayPort 1.4a), one full-sized HDMI 2.1 port, and a microphone/headphone combo jack on the left.

The right side delivers two full-sized USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports (5 Gbps, the rearmost with always-on), plus a Kensington nano security slot (and, in the future, an optional nano-SIM slot).

In keeping with the minimalist ThinkPad aesthetic, Lenovo doesn’t mark up the laptop’s sides with little labels describing each port’s function, with one exception: The rearmost USB-A port on the right is accompanied by a little battery label indicating its always-on charging capabilities. That’s a nice touch.

Audio and video

The T14s has two upward-firing 2-watt speakers under the speaker grill dots on either side of the keyboard, and they support Dolby Atmos immersive sound capabilities.

It’s competent enough for what it is: The speakers don’t distort even at full volume, which is loud enough. And the sound quality is decent, with good stereo separation but a bit less bass than I’d like. Movies like 6 Underground, which is most notable for its overly rich HDR-like picture, don’t sound particularly immersive despite the Dolby Atmos soundtrack. No one buys into ThinkPad with this use case in mind, but it’s still a solid experience.

There’s not much to it, but you can configure the sound with the bundled Dolby Access app. It does support a Dynamic mode that will autoconfigure for different use cases, so I stuck with that.

Hybrid work

Lenovo gives ThinkPad T14s buyers solid hybrid work functionality via a high-quality Full HD webcam and dual-array microphones. Thanks to the PC’s powerful NPU, both are augmented with the full range of Windows Studio Effects, including the rare Microsoft Voice Focus effect that highlights your voice and reduces background noise.

The webcam supports 1920 x 1080 video, which works out to about 2.1 MP, at 30 FPS. And it works well, delivering reasonable detail, even in low-light. But there’s no real camera configuration beyond enabling the Windows Studio Effects you like, and you get the full meal deal: Automatic framing, Portrait light, Eye contact with Standard and Teleprompter modes, Standard and Portrait blur background effects, and the Illustrated, Water color, and Animated creative filters.

The webcam supports Windows Hello ESS facial recognition, and it’s augmented with presence sensing capabilities for the fastest and most seamless possible experience. There’s a manual privacy shutter if you want to make sure the camera isn’t secretly recording you, but it displays a small white light when activated, and there’s no way for hackers or others to disable that.

The microphones are pretty much standard issue, but Microsoft Voice Focus puts them over the top. To test an approximation of a busy workplace or coffee shop, I played music loudly from my phone while I did my voice tests with Sound Recorder. With Voice Focus disabled, that noise came through loud and clear. But when I enabled it, I couldn’t hear a thing in the recording but my voice. This is impressive stuff.

Keyboard and touchpad

You expect a top-notch typing experience with ThinkPad and the T14s delivers, with a full-sized, 6-row, and spill resistant keyboard that’s just about perfect. It has terrific key feel, provides snappy key throws with good feedback, and isn’t overly loud.

There are two levels of backlighting but no automatic mode, the Ctrl and Fn keys in the correct locations, finally, and Lenovo ups the quality with subtle touches like the small tactile ridges on the Enter, Insert, and Down arrow keys (in addition to the more common F and J keys). This makes it easy to find your place, even in a dark room.

The only issue is the tiny PgUp and PgDn keys located around the arrow keys. Being a sloppy typist, I routinely hit one or the other mistakenly, annoyingly sending the document I was working on flying up or down.

Like most ThinkPads, the T14s includes the traditional dual-pointing system with a TrackPoint “nubbin” and its three hardware buttons in addition to a delightfully small glass-like Mylar multitouch touchpad. I stuck mostly to the touchpad, which is accurate and reliable enough that I never needed to disable three- and four-finger gestures.

The TrackPoint nubbin does include an interesting extra feature for the uninitiated: You can double-click it to display a TrackPoint menu–really a floating pane–with microphone, audio, and voice typing options. But I rarely use this interface, and I ended up disabling it.

Security and privacy

Unique among the Copilot+ PCs I’ve reviewed so far, the ThinkPad T14s provides a Windows Hello-compatible fingerprint reader in addition to facial recognition. Both were eventually fast and reliable, though in each case I ended up improving recognition to get there. (With the fingerprint reader, that meant re-enrolling the same finger as if it were another digit.)

Lenovo augments Windows Hello with presence sensing capabilities that turn off the display when you walk away and wake it up when you return, for the fastest-possible authentication experience. And thanks to the stringent requirements of its Windows Hello Enhanced Sign-In Security underpinnings, this is as secure as a PC gets.

I like that the fingerprint reader is integrated into the round power button, which is ideally sized and shaped to find in the dark. I’m coming around to the reality of manual webcam privacy switches: As with most laptops that offer this feature, it’s a small slider about the webcam on the display bezel, and it’s ridged so you can find that easily as well. And there’s a function key for toggling the microphones, of course.

Sustainability

The right to repair movement has been nothing but positive in the PC market, and you can really see its impact in the ThinkPad T14s. This is Lenovo’s most sustainable ThinkPad yet, with 90 percent recycled magnesium in the keyboard frame, 55 percent recycled aluminum in the bottom cover, 50 percent recycled carbon fiber reinforced polymer in the top cover, 90 percent post-consumer content (PCC) recycled plastic in the speaker enclosures, 90 percent PCC recycled plastic in the battery enclosure, 90 percent PCC recycled plastic used in the power adapter, and 95 percent PCC recycled plastic in the cable holders. And the packaging is 100 percent plastic-free and fully recyclable.

The bottom cover is easily removed using five Philips screws. And aside from the RAM, which is soldered and non-upgraded, everything else in the PC is accessible, serviceable, and repairable, in some cases by the customer. The battery, Wi-Fi/Bluetooth card, and M.2 storage card can be self-serviced if desired.

Efficiency and portability

Thanks to its Snapdragon X innards, the ThinkPad 14s provides the reliable, consistent efficiency you’ve always wanted but rarely see with x64 laptops. Every day, without fail, I opened the laptop lid and the display fired on instantly, and every night, without fail, the battery discharged by just 2 to 3 percent. I could get used to this. In fact, I intend to.

Left to its default power management settings, T14s battery life was as reliable and delightful as its efficiency: I averaged just under 10 hours of battery life in real-world usage, just shy of the 10.5 hours I saw with the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x 14. You can charge its 58 watt-hour battery to 80 percent in just 60 minutes with the bundled 65-watt USB-C power adapter.

And the T14s is quite portable: The body isn’t particularly thin, but it’s compact at 0.67 x 12.35 x 8.64 inches. And it’s incredible light for a 14-inch laptop at just 2.72 pounds. It’s the ideal travel companion, and though I wasn’t able to fly with it during the review period, I did take it with me on an overnight trip.

Software

Lenovo does right by ThinkPad customers in all ways. But that’s especially when it comes to crapware: The T14s delivers none of it beyond whatever Microsoft ships in Windows 11–Pro edition in the review unit, but you can choose Home if you’d prefer–and only a handful of utilities with no cruft. You get Lenovo Commercial Vantage for drivers and support, of course, a pre-boot manager, and the TrackPoint Quick Menu. Plus Dolby Access for the speakers. That’s it. Bravo.

Pricing and configurations

If you purchase this ThinkPad as an individual directly from Lenovo, you will pay as little as $1280 for a configuration with 32 GB of RAM, 256 GB of storage, and the base non-touch display (at the time of this writing; Lenovo’s prices can fluctuate wildly). Upgrading to 64 GB will set you back almost $200 more, while the 512 GB and 1 TB storage upgrades are an additional $180 and $490 (!), respectively. The multitouch display is an additional $125, and hardly seems worth it, but the OLED upgrade will set you back $315. Oddly, those include Windows 11 Home, but an upgrade to Pro is only $60.

In the review configuration–32 GB of RAM, 1 TB of storage, with the base display–the ThinkPad 14S would cost about $1600. A fully maxed-out model is just under $2000. Were I buying one for myself, I’d choose 32 GB, 512 GB, the base display, and Windows 11 Pro for about $1435.

These are premium prices, to be sure, but reasonably for a T-series ThinkPad.

Recommendations and conclusions

The Lenovo ThinkPad T14s has emerged as my new favorite among the Copilot+ PCs I didn’t purchase. It has everything I’m looking for in a laptop, with incredible performance, flawless instant-on and amazing battery, a nearly perfect keyboard and touchpad, and a non-reflective matte display. It’s also reasonably priced for a ThinkPad, with my ideal configuration costing less than $1500.

Yes, the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x is a better buy for most individuals, thanks to its Dolby Vision capabilities, three USB-C ports, and even lower pricing, including the reasonable component upgrades. But I very much prefer the ThinkPad for all the obvious ThinkPad reasons. It’s just more inline with my needs and design preferences.

The ThinkPad T14s Snapdragon is highly recommended without caveat. I hate having to send it back to Lenovo.

At-a-glance

Pros

• Killer battery life and efficiency, with flawless instant-on
• Effortless, near-silent performance
• Terrific keyboard and touchpad
• Good expansion and connectivity
• Iconic ThinkPad look and feel at a reasonable price
• Clean software image with no crapware

Cons

• Tiny PgUp and PgDn keys
• Surfaces get smudgy with skin oils