Finally with AMD Zen 4 processors, but still one gen behind: Lenovo's ThinkPad E14 Gen 7 AMD better than ever

Always one generation behind: When it comes to the Lenovo ThinkPad E series with AMD CPUs, the manufacturer always uses older CPUs. Moreover, for a few years, the ThinkPad E series with AMD Ryzen CPUs got stuck on AMD's Zen 3 generation: The Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 3 AMD, the Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 4 AMD and the Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 5 AMD all were based on the 2021 AMD CPUs - despite the last one, the E14 G5, coming out in 2023.

Only with last year's ThinkPad E14 Gen 6 AMD (available on Amazon), Lenovo finally moved over to Zen 3+ - and with the new Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 7 AMD, which we extensively reviewed recently, has Lenovo adopted the Zen 4 generation at last.

In our testing, the new model does not disappoint, as Zen 4 brings some big performance gains. The new ThinkPad E14 G7 AMD is roughly 20 percent faster overall in CPU benchmarks compared with the E14 G6 AMD, 24 percent compared with the E14 G5 AMD.

Of course, Zen 4 still is not the newest available CPU generation from AMD - but for most users, it will probably still be a very enjoyable experience. The newer AMD Ryzen processor is one of the key reasons why the Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 7 AMD achieved a good rating of 85 percent in our review, despite just being an affordable office laptop.