The Lenovo ThinkPad E14 AMD is the best E ThinkPad till now

In the ThinkPad family, the E series has been kind of the unwanted step-child since its inception as "ThinkPad Edge" in 2010. Not real ThinkPads, according to the critics. And they had a point: With their extremely cheap plastic designs, the E ThinkPads were far away from the classic black business laptops. And their looks also did not fit, with rounded corners, silver edges and colorful lids on early models.

Since 2018, Lenovo seems to have changed strategy with the E series though: The design has moved a little bit closer to the classic ThinkPad since the ThinkPad E480. And the quality has improved, too. The E series is still in the low-end area, but not in the lowest of the low class anymore.

With the recent model, the Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 2, we see the high-point of this development so far. In our comprehensive review, it turned out to be the best package in the history of the E series.

Lenovo hit the bullseye with the decision to use AMD Ryzen 4000 exclusively. It also had the right priorities when redesigning the chassis: Reducing the screen bezel instead of the thickness. At the same time, the obsolete 2.5 inch bay was abandoned in favor of two M.2 SSD slots. Also, Lenovo added soldered RAM in addition to the RAM slot, enabling dual-channel mode again. This means that the integrated Radeon GPU is at its fastest.

Of course, some typical weaknesses of the low-end series are still in place, like the very disappointing screen or the cost-cut port selection. Still: The ThinkPad input-devices, the more compact chassis and the good performance make the ThinkPad E14 AMD the best E ThinkPad so far.