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Lenovo ThinkPad T14s G4 review: Business laptop is better with AMD Zen4

notebookcheck.net

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Re: Lenovo ThinkPad T14s G4 review: Business laptop is better with AMD Zen4

#31

Post by WarOnPrivacy »

Thinkpad shill here. Before buying Thinkpads, I recommend a quick search of threads about existing units (and immediate predecessors) for overheating issues. Lenovo prioritizes performance (good!) but in the past has overestimated the cooling/manufacture.

Lenovo learns tho; the trend is that issue-y lines are followed by stable lines. ex:Some early X1 gens had a small % with issues and later were fine. ex:We just redid the thermal compound on a 2yo P15 this week (thermal shutdowns). Ours seemed to be an outlier and was clean + lightly used.

Lenovo absolutely honors warranties tho and will even allow purchasing an extended after expiration (tho w/ a 30day 'cooling' period).

Re: Lenovo ThinkPad T14s G4 review: Business laptop is better with AMD Zen4

#32

Post by 0xbadcafebee »

ndiddy wrote: post #24

Frustrating that the laptop has 8 GB of RAM soldered, it means that no matter how much RAM you put in it, you'll only get 16 GB in dual channel.

According to the spec sheet, they come in models up to 32GB soldered: https://psref.lenovo.com/syspool/Sys/PDF/ThinkPad/ThinkPad_T...

Re: Lenovo ThinkPad T14s G4 review: Business laptop is better with AMD Zen4

#33

Post by throw0101c »

MrRolleyes wrote: post #8
wbeckler wrote: post #2

I feel like the MacBook is the elephant in the room here

MacBook doesn't have an LTE modem.

What does an in-built modem give over a separate hotspot or smartphone tethering (which most people always have with them)?

Re: Lenovo ThinkPad T14s G4 review: Business laptop is better with AMD Zen4

#34

Post by formerly_proven »

scarface_74 wrote: post #20
MrRolleyes wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MacBook doesn't have an LTE modem.

I have mixed feelings about the need for a cellular modem. I can already easily tether to either my iPhone or iPad without paying for a separate line. Also as an x86 based anything, the battery life is already going to be poor and the fan is going to make noise. Using the modem is going to make it worse. And it’s only LTE in 2023? But on the other hand, I do always buy the cellular version of iPads even though I coul…

> Also as an x86 based anything, the battery life is already going to be poor and the fan is going to make noise.

You can compare it to Apple laptops quite easily e.g.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/index.php?id=127065&specs[]=34...

Re: Lenovo ThinkPad T14s G4 review: Business laptop is better with AMD Zen4

#35

Post by the_third_wave »

j7ake wrote: post #27
fweimer wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't the English (EU) layout close enough? I think it's basically the US layout with a Euro sign somewhere, but the physical key layout should be the same as a regular US keyboard.

Definitely not close enough for a programmer who uses symbols and touch typing. For starters the return key are different widths, which is a deal breaker if you’re a touchtyper used to wider return keys. Programming also uses tilde and other symbols that are different between the two. Overall they’re similar for typing alphabets, but symbols and enter key are different.

Just map the character set you want to the keyboard and start using it. It'll take some getting used to but if you're a touch typist it mostly comes natural. Living in Sweden, using a P50 with a UK layout which I switch between US-intl and Swedish layouts there isn't always that much relation between what's on the keys and what appears on the screen but by now I'm used to it. As a bonus it makes shoulder surfing passwords an exercise in futility...

Re: Lenovo ThinkPad T14s G4 review: Business laptop is better with AMD Zen4

#37

Post by ggpsv »

bkovacev wrote: post #13
oaiey wrote: post #4

Framework should be a listed contender here. Same CPU but better maintainability.

I have two framework laptops with Intel CPU. I unfortunately would not recommend framework with Intel - they can't handle any development workload through docker without the risk of launching to the moon from the fans spinning. I hope that AMD ones are better.

As a counterpoint, I've had a 12-gen Framework (i7, 32GB RAM) for almost a year and half now. I use Docker on a daily basis (using Windows and WSL2) and it works fine for my development workloads.

Like other Intel laptops I've had, the fans do come on occasionally but not very often. I do have some qualms about this laptop but I'm happy with it and the tradeoffs I chose.

Re: Lenovo ThinkPad T14s G4 review: Business laptop is better with AMD Zen4

#38

Post by ww520 »

The last AMD based Thinkpad T14 I got was horrible. It had great numbers on paper and benchmarks, but horrible performance in real usage. Switching between programs was very slow. Even switching between tabs in browser was slow. It tended to overheat which throttled down the cpu. It had really bad idle power management for background tasks. This had never happened before on any older T14’s with Intel cpu. I won’t get another laptop with AMD again.

Re: Lenovo ThinkPad T14s G4 review: Business laptop is better with AMD Zen4

#39

Post by magnio »

TLDR (though do try to read the review: Notebookcheck is one of the most trustworthy and methodical tech review sites)

The main competitors here is the HP EliteBook 845 G10 and the MacBook Pro 14 M2 Pro.

- Design: classic ThinkPad look, a bit brutalist. Lighter than MacBook Pro 14 since it uses carbon fiber instead of metal.

- Networking, keyboard: great

- Display: 16:10 Full HD IPS, 400 nits with very good contrast ratio 1800:1, though the MacBook Pro and laptop with OLED screens will still have the edge here

- Performance: Ryzen 7 7840U is currently the flagship low-power laptop CPU from AMD. Comparable to the i7-1370P and the M2 Pro 12-core, especially in terms of multi-core and efficiency. It completely slaughters any U-variant from Intel. The iGPU Radeon 780M is currently the fastest iGPU in the x86 world, leading Intel's Iris Xe Graphics G7 by around 50% in most games and tests.

- Emission: fan noise and heat are no issue, around the same as MacBook Pro 14.

- Battery: same as MacBook Pro 14, i.e., really good.

In short, a true Windows alternative to the MacBook Pro. The main factor for this is the stellar Ryzen 7 7840U and its Radeon 780M. Ever since it appears in Windows handheld gaming consoles, it has shown to be a capable balance between performance and power consumption, asymptomatic to the M2 Pro. The only problem is AMD not making it available widely enough, with laptop options trickling down quite slowly compared to Intel. (There was rumor laptop makers have to restrict the use of the 7840U since its iGPU means a cut to their gaming segment.)

I used a ThinkPad X1 Carbon G9 before, and while it's great, the Intel CPU really handicapped it. Now I'm on a MacBook Air M1, but damn the Windows offerings are more and more attractive now (thanks to macOS ruining an otherwise good laptop).

Re: Lenovo ThinkPad T14s G4 review: Business laptop is better with AMD Zen4

#40

Post by Justin_K »

ww520 wrote: post #38

The last AMD based Thinkpad T14 I got was horrible. It had great numbers on paper and benchmarks, but horrible performance in real usage. Switching between programs was very slow. Even switching between tabs in browser was slow. It tended to overheat which throttled down the cpu. It had really bad idle power management for background tasks. This had never happened before on any older T14’s with Intel cpu. I won’t get…

I had the same problems with Lenovo Intel chips. Constantly getting thermally throttled.

Switched to Dell and couldn't be happier.

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