Lenovo ThinkPad T14 & T14s Owners Thread

You start being scary... I have the exact same machine, only with 8B Ram as my Linux-Box.

As for the Numpad, I see that people need them, I just wonder how much sense it makes on a Laptop geared towards gamers. I once bought a cheap Lenovo Laptop 14" (can't remember it's specific name), a true plastic bomber but it sports a quadcore Pentium Silver low voltage chip. It's a flimsy chip and the screen is horrid but for what it was, the performance was plenty. Surfing the web, doing text documents, watching youtube, it did everything right. It had like 37 Wh battery and because everything was so low spec it ran 13 hours!!

What I try to say is, back in the day of the MacBook Air you KNEW you were trading performance for portability but since the thin and light craze took over everything people want to cram powerful chips into small chassis, just because it looks good in PR. "Thinkpad T14s with 8-core CPU" - WOW. Only it's as hot as a microwave and can't run to it's potential. I wonder what would actually be the max the T14s chassis and cooling solution could use. Probably not more than a quadcore Ryzen at 15W TDP at most.

I wouldn't mind lugging around something as thick as a P-series in a 14 inch formfactor only to have that 4750 Ryzen thing properly cooled and let it fly.

I still remember my feeling when I unpacked the T14s. "That's all?" - it's really tiny and while sturdy also flimsy in a way. It's just "too thin to be taken seriously". If it was price like 990 with an ultra low voltage CPU and geared only towards business people doing presentations and spreadsheats or sales people, yes, I guess then it would make sense.

 

L14 with AMD chip and better screens, I wouldn't mind the heft...

 

If it spends most of its time on a desk hooked up to a monitor, does the weight/size really matter?

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Here's a quick unboxing of the T14 with the Ryzen 7 Pro. Temps seem ok to me.



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Played a small amount of LoL on medium (and medium power settings on the laptop), and average temps were around 64C, fan was audible but still quiet, FPS hovered around 90-110.

 

Ur screen is FHD, and by medium u mean u played the game in 720p? That wouldn't stress the iGPU. 1080p may.

 

Weight, kg:
T14s 1.27* / 1.35
T14 1.46* / 1.55
L14 1.61+
E14 1.59~1.64
* - with Low Power or Privacy Guard screens

Regarding better screens - everyone has different criteria. (= I personally hate PWM, while Lenovo evidently thinks business users don't care about eye fatique, equipping most Thinkpad configurations with PWM-dimmed screens while using much better quality PWM-free displays on many of their otherwise disappointing consumer models.

 

No, 1080p at medium settings.

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I recently bought a Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 (4800U, 16GB) to replace my 2015 MacBook 13" 8GB i5. The raw performance of that devices is astonishing. But there are quite a few small problems, which when added up together become a deal-breaker.
My issues with the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7
- The display is only 300 nits, and noticeable darker than my MacBook (which is also 300 nits).
- The keyboard backlight is very bright, which becomes a strain on my eyes in darker environments (you can disable it of course, but then you can't see the keys).
- The display has a glass panel (only option in my country) which is very reflective.
And last but not least: my unit had 3 stuck and 2 dead pixels. I contacted support about this but they couldn't offer me a replacement model because it is sold out, so the only option is to live with it (hell no) or get a full refund.
At this point I figured I might as well take the full refund and look for a better alternative.

Unfortunately there aren't many Ryzen 4000 laptops available with a brighter screen. I could wait for the rumoured surface laptop 4, but it's probably outside my budget and the port selection is probably abysmal as well.
The T14 and T14s do have the option for a 400 nits screen (and the 500 nits privacy screen, but I've been told that it's actually dimmer than the others because of the filter).
They also have a better port selection and ThinkPads are known for their great keyboards. Furthermore the display of the T14 is specced as 'Anti-glare' which I assume is better than whatever mirror they put in the Yoga Slim 7 (Glass display).

In my country there's following options available:
1 - (Not configurable) Ryzen 7 PRO 4750U 16GB 512GB for € 1.143,20
1a - I think this is single channel, though I am not sure.
2 - (Configurable) Ryzen 5 PRO 4650U 16GB 128GB for € 899,20
2a - Single channel as well, for € 5 more I can make it double channel.
2b - I choose the cheapest SSD because I am going to swap it anyway. Either with a 970 Evo (adds € 70) or a 970 Evo Plus (adds € 100)
2c - I could also pick the 512GB upgrade from Lenovo, though I believe those perform worse than the Samsung's. This would change the price to € 955,20, but is cheaper than manually replacing the drive (and having one SSD drive left over).

A few notes:
- Option 2 has Windows Home instead of Pro, this is actually preferable because I can get Pro for free through my university.
- The prices might seem odd because the student discount is applied.
- I could add a 4GB or 8GB DDR4 stick to the single-channel devices to make it (partially) dual channel. This does increase the cost though, and I really don't need more than 16GB ram on my laptop.
- I could also look at the T14s, but I don't care about the slight decrease in size/weight and apparently it has slightly worse cooling. It also costs more and doesn't leave much room for upgrades down the road.

Alright, now to my actual questions.
1 - Is the 4750U worth the ~ €200 price hike? I plan on using the device mainly for development (web, embedded, desktop, pretty much all kinds of development) and some occasional gaming (think Stardew Valley and a round of League once in a while).
2 - I case I opt for the 2nd option (configurable), should I go with the Lenovo SSD upgrade (slightly cheaper) or go with the cheapest option (128GB) and manually upgrade the SSD afterwards (this is slightly more expensive, but I also end up with a spare SSD).

Sorry for the wall of text, and I hope this is the right place to ask.
I am also open for other laptop suggestions, but so far the T14 looks promising.

 

I'd definitely do this - your demands may increase over time. And go with Ryzen 7 for very same reason.