Lenovo ThinkPad L15 Gen 2 in review: Compelling AMD laptop for under 1,000 Euros

Lenovo uses a sturdy plastic construction for the ThinkPad L15, which is supposed to protect the laptop from bumps and splashing water. Workmanship is of high quality, and we aren't able to detect any defects. The lid is also stable and resistant to torsion, and it can be folded back by up to 180 degrees. The hinges hold the display firmly in position at all times.

In terms of connectivity, the manufacturer has taken its cue from the ThinkPad L15 Gen 1, providing the same basic configuration as in the predecessor with a docking port and a USB-C charging port. If you need to use Thunderbolt 4, however, you have to opt for the Intel model.

The NanoSIM slot for the built-in WWAN is located above the microSD card reader. The corresponding antennas for this purpose are already installed inside the laptop, which is why you only need to insert an LTE module into the free slot. The second RAM slot, which was free in our test configuration, offers further maintenance options. The SSD and the WLAN module can also be replaced.

With our AV Pro V60 reference memory card, the memory card reader itself achieves good read and write speeds that are on par with our test field. Although wireless connections are supported with Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1, the ThinkPad L15 with the AMD processor only achieves average speeds that are at the lower end of our test field with our Netgear Nighthawk AX12 reference router.

The webcam only offers the widely spread but still very low 0.9 MP resolution, with which our test images show a correspondingly moderate picture quality. It's also compatible with Windows Hello and can be closed with a mechanical shutter.

The Lenovo ThinkPad L15 is a comparatively affordable business laptop, and it's suitable for diverse office applications. While our test configuration provides enough performance for moderate requirements, a stronger CPU and a modified memory configuration are also available at an additional cost.

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600U installed here is a hexa-core processor that can handle up to 12 tasks simultaneously. Its clock rates are between 2.3 and 4.2 GHz, but the actual performance also depends on the cooling system and the TDP configuration. The latter can be defined by the manufacturer between 10 and 25 watts, and Lenovo has opted for the lower limit of 10 watts.

In our Cinebench R15 endurance test, the ThinkPad L15 Gen 2 can consequently maintain its performance at a constant level over a prolonged period of time. The rates achieved are about 9% lower than those of the AMD Ryzen 7 Pro 4750U in the ThinkPad L15 Gen 1. If more performance is required, the ThinkPad L15 Gen 2 is also available with the AMD Ryzen 7 Pro 5850U for an additional 80 Euros (~$94).

In the individual disciplines, the Ryzen 5 5600U can place itself at the top of our test field especially because of its good single-core performance. In contrast, devices like the Asus VivoBook S15 or the ThinkPad L15 Gen 1 with the Ryzen 7 Pro 4750U perform slightly better when it comes to multi-core performance.

The Lenovo ThinkPad L15 Gen 2 achieves a very good overall score in the PCMark 10 benchmark for evaluating the system performance, allowing it to lead our test field. In the individual disciplines, only the Asus VivoBook S15 scores slightly better in the "Digital Content Creation" category. The Lenovo laptop delivers a very smooth system operation and applications that launch quickly in everyday use. We didn't notice any micro stuttering or the like during the test period.

The performance that can be expected from other laptops in comparison can be found in our CPU Benchmarks article.

Lenovo equips our test configuration of the ThinkPad L15 Gen 2 with a 512 GB SSD from SK Hynix. It achieves very good read and write rates in the storage benchmarks, and it's one of the fastest models in our test field.

Our HDD/SSD Benchmarks article shows the performance that can be expected from other mass storage devices.

The ThinkPad L15 Gen 2's AMD Radeon RX Vega 7 integrated graphics unit is suitable for applications with low graphics performance requirements. In the 3DMark benchmarks, performance is slightly above the level of most other devices in our test field. Therefore, simple image-editing tasks are also possible, but there's not enough performance for demanding 3D applications.

The AMD RX Vega 7, however, benefits from using a dual-channel configuration for the RAM, which is why an improvement can still be achieved by installing a second RAM module. The performance offered by other graphics cards in comparison can be found in our GPU Benchmarks article.

According to our measurements, the ThinkPad L15 G2 reaches a noise level of up to 36 dB(A). Although the fan is audible, it's by no means loud, and it produces a uniform noise. When office applications and the Internet browser are used, Lenovo's laptop can be operated almost silently.

We didn't detect any other background noise in our test device, such as coil whine or the like.