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

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

#41

Post by tallanvor »

Aardwolf wrote: post #14

Does anyone know if it's possible to buy thinkpads with a US keyboard layout in Europe? Any thinkpad with a layout that's not the non-qwerty local variant of my country takes more than 6 weeks to deliver, and that is to get UK layout, not the US layout with different enter key, which I can't even find available at all

Yes, I've been able to get them. You should be able to find an International English or US English Euro layout. --This is the standard keyboard used in The Netherlands, by the way.

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

#42

Post by tallanvor »

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.

That's a UK English keyboard. The International English keyboard uses the US layout.

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

#43

Post by the_third_wave »

throw0101c wrote: post #33
MrRolleyes wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)?

Autonomy - walk to the loo and your laptop continues doing it's thing instead of stalling due to the phone getting out of reach. It also makes the phone battery last a bit longer. Performance will be better as well. If you only use mobile data on the device every now and then a tethered phone is fine, if you use it all the time a built-in connection is preferable.

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

#44

Post by leononame »

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 thought I was the only one. I was excited to get a Thinkpad because just about every nerd praises them all the time and I thought the AMD one would be a great experience, but it was terribly slow. Additionally, the trackpad, the screen and the camera broke independently of each other and needed to be replaced which makes me really doubt the build quality (though having a technician come to your home tk repair it is great).

All in all, it was a bad experience and didn't even last 2 years for me. I don't think I'll be buying another Thinkpad soon.

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

#45

Post by jefc1111 »

soziawa wrote: post #12

Can you put linux on one of these without any issues?

I run Manjaro Linux with i3wm on a T14s gen3. I connect to two 2560x1440 external monitors via thunderbolt 3 dock.

I wish I could say it is 100% stable. It's close, and close enough for me to rely on it. Occasionally when I plug in to the dock the external monitors do not activate. Also if I plug in power while suspended, it powers on. I have face unlock working, which is nice. I have problems with connecting my Samsung bluetooth earbuds, but I haven't tried very hard to make that work well.

Idles at around 5 watts, which is nice. Real world use is around 6-8 hours battery, which is just about good enough for me. I had an X1 Extreme gen 3 before and it was the battery life that made me change. Before that a P51s which I do miss because of the clunky docking station and numeric keypad. It was too heavy though, and battery only just ok, even with two batteries including extended at the rear.

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

#46

Post by cptnapalm »

leononame wrote: post #44
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 thought I was the only one. I was excited to get a Thinkpad because just about every nerd praises them all the time and I thought the AMD one would be a great experience, but it was terribly slow. Additionally, the trackpad, the screen and the camera broke independently of each other and needed to be replaced which makes me really doubt the build quality (though having a technician come to your home tk repair it is…

I have an AMD L14. The damn keyboard has a hardware fault. I have to close and open the lid so it suspends then wakes up to get it working again. Not a great experience, obviously.

The Thinkpad I had previously had some wonky wifi chipset. Got it working, but it was a pain.

I'm not buying anything else from Lenovo.

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

#47

Post by gramakri2 »

Seems like I lost access to my old account, so had to create a new one.

I just bought this a couple of days ago. I went with the ryzen, OLED version and 32GB RAM. I ordered without an OS and run Ubuntu on it. The decision was between T14 , the carbon x1 and the framework.

My previous laptop was a x1 gen 3. The laptop hinge broke :/ I absolute love this machine.

Impressions so far:

* Ubuntu 23.04 and Gnome runs so good that we even setup a donation on behalf of our company to the Gnome foundation. Ubuntu 22 will keep locking up.

* Everything works - camera, video recording, qualcomm wifi, all function keys etc. Even fingerprint login works!

* Gnome tweak tool is your friend. Especially to adjust those font sizes. I switched to noto from the default ubuntu.

* Keyboard is great but x1 carbon is still the best :-)

* Maybe my eyesight is failing me but I find no great difference between the FHD of x1 carbon gen 3 and OLED with 3 times more resolution.

* Batter is like 5 hours of so when I am working full time. I suspect OLED has something to do with this low battery life.

* Love that the camera has a physical switch

Some other tips:

* When you order be sure to not order the computer vision camera. This doesn't work on linux and there is a post on LKML saying it won't work for the next 2 years atleast.

* I am based in berlin, so ordered from Germany. You can order the "Beleuchtete Tastatur, schwarz – Englisch (EU)" keyboard for the US keyboard. Only practical change is euro sign instead of dollar in number 4 key.

* In the penultimate order screen, lenovo will sneak in a support option. But there's actually a basic support option which will save you some money. I think only difference is you might have to mail in your laptop for fixes, not sure.

AMA.

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

#48

Post by scrlk »

leononame wrote: post #44
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 thought I was the only one. I was excited to get a Thinkpad because just about every nerd praises them all the time and I thought the AMD one would be a great experience, but it was terribly slow. Additionally, the trackpad, the screen and the camera broke independently of each other and needed to be replaced which makes me really doubt the build quality (though having a technician come to your home tk repair it is…

ThinkPads are coasting off the reputation that was built up under IBM ownership. If you're not married to the trackpoint, then a Dell Latitude/Precision or HP EliteBook/ZBook is equally as good.

Lenovo went down the route of trying to chase the MacBook Pro crowd and ended up compromising on durability, repairability (soldered components) and keyboard quality (traditionally the USP of ThinkPads).

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

#49

Post by guappa »

Justin_K wrote: post #40
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.

I hate dells. Not being able to open the screen that much was a major annoyance.

I actually refused a new dell to remain with an older thinkpad just because how uncomfortable they are.

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