Lenovo ThinkPad T14 G3 review: Business laptop is better with AMD Ryzen Pro

Although it is a new case, Lenovo has not changed the fundamental design and so the new T14 G3 is immediately recognizable as a ThinkPad. Yet there are two big differences to the predecessor: The case is now more anthracite-colored, i.e. a little brighter than before, so you can see the contrast to the black input devices. Moreover, the thinner screen edges are immediately noticeable; the very wide bottom edge in particular is now a thing of the past. Compared to contemporary consumer laptops, the edges are still quite wide at 8 mm on the sides and 14 mm above and below the panel, but the device now looks much more modern overall. In addition to the black/anthracite color variant, Lenovo also offers a silver variant with silver input devices. 

A mix of materials are used for the case. For example, a fiberglass/magnesium combination is used for the baseplate and carbon/glass-fiber reinforced plastic for the lid. Surfaces feel minimally roughened or velvety, but a positive aspect is that we had considerably fewer problems with fingerprints during our review than in many other ThinkPads. 

The stability of the base unit is good, but not outstanding. The center keyboard area can be visibly pressed in with a little force, but this does not translate to limitations in practice, even for very energetic typists. Slight creaking noises were heard when subjecting the base unit to torsional stress. The two hinges provide very good stability and effectively prevent the screen from teetering, but they are also very tight - changing the opening angle (max. 180 degrees) with just one hand is hardly possible, let alone opening the lid with one hand. The stability of the lid itself is excellent because it can hardly be bent (no creaking noises were registered here) and we were unable to elicit any image errors even with selective applications of pressure on the back.

Compared to the predecessor, the new ThinkPad T14 G3 has become a bit slimmer, but at the same time, the 16:10 screen has not resulted in a deeper case. The weight is also slightly lower at just over 1.4 kg. Interestingly, Lenovo also offers a version with a smaller 3-cell battery that is around 100 grams lighter. The familiar 65-watt power adapter weighs around 350 grams and is also used for the Intel versions, even for the model with the dedicated GeForce MX550, which came as a strong surprise to us. 

The ThinkPad T14 G3 offers a variety of ports, including normal USB-A ports, an HDMI output and a Gigabit Ethernet port. However, the omission of USB 4 is puzzling, since the two USB-C ports on the left support only the 3.2 Gen.2 standard. This is incomprehensible and, in our opinion, an unnecessary limitation, as Lenovo offers USB 4 support in the consumer models with the AMD CPUs. There is also an optional SmartCard reader on the front right. You'll also have to do without a card reader.

Lenovo installs a 1080p webcam with a mechanical shutter in the upper screen bezel, which offers a better image quality compared to the old 720p sensors. An IR camera for facial recognition via Windows Hello has also been installed.

Our panel comes from LG (LP140WU1-SPB2) and performs well in practically all areas, considering the intended use. Despite the matte surface, bright surfaces don't appear grainy at all, content is sufficiently sharp despite the normal FHD resolution, and colors also look vivid. A look at the measured values also shows why this is the case. The contrast ratio is more than 2100:1, which is extremely good for an IPS panel. The specified brightness of 400 cd/m² is also exceeded by our review sample with an average of 432 cd/m². At the same time, the black value of 0.21 is very low. There are only minimal halos at maximum brightness and no PWM flickering was detected. Furthermore, the viewing angle stability of the IPS screen is very good.

In terms of configuration, there are big differences between the AMD and Intel versions of the ThinkPad T14 G3. While the AMD model offers a choice between the two latest Ryzen Pro models with extended security features and fast iGPUs, the Intel version is much more complicated. Lenovo offers both the current Alder Lake U and P processors (vPro only for a surcharge), either with the respective iGPUs or a dedicated Nvidia GeForce MX550. Some technical documents even list the GeForce RTX 2050, but we were unable to find any corresponding configurations here, and in view of the high TGP rating (starting at 35 watts), an RTX 2050 in the T14 G3 would also surprise us.

Unlike other Lenovo laptops, the power settings of the ThinkPad models have been directly linked to the regular Windows power settings for some time now, which proves to be very convenient in everyday use. We performed the following benchmarks and measurements in Best Performance mode, where the TDP values are 30 watts for short-term load and 25 watts for permanent load. In Better Performance mode, this amounts to 26/22 watts, and drops even further to 14 watts with the More Battery Efficiency setting activated. These limits are significantly lower than the current Alder Lake CPUs, where the U-series chips can easily consume more than 50 watts during peak loads.

The AMD Ryzen 7 Pro 6850U is principally the same as the well-known Ryzen 7 6800U, but the Pro version offers additional management and security features similar to Intel's vPro CPUs. The Ryzen 7 Pro thus offers 8 modern Zen3+ cores, which are manufactured using a modern 6 nm process. The maximum clock of the 8 cores (16 threads) is 4.7 GHz. We have already analyzed the normal Ryzen 7 6800U in detail and therefore refer to our special article for further details. 

Basically, we can say that Intel's current Alder Lake CPUs offer more single-core performance with their hybrid architecture (applies to both Alder Lake-U and Alder Lake-P), but single-core power consumption is also higher. In terms of single-core efficiency, the Alder Lake-U chips are roughly on par, depending on the TDP setting. In the multi-core tests, on the other hand, Intel's mobile processors are only really competitive at very high consumption rates (40 watts or more), but then they are no longer particularly efficient.

At a TDP configuration of 30/25 watts, the ThinkPad T14 G3 with the Ryzen 7 Pro 6850U only experiences a minimal drop in performance (stable at ~1,650 points) under sustained load, and in our Cinebench R15 loop, the Ryzen 7 Pro is beaten only by the Ryzen 9 Pro 6950HS in the HP EliteBook 845 G9, albeit with a higher consumption of 40 watts. The Intel Alder Lake P processors can usually keep up in the multi-core tests under short load, which is evident from the Core i7-1260P in the Huawei MateBook X Pro. It achieves ~1,400 points at 30 watts and just over 1,200 points at 25 watts, which correspond to our AMD review sample. Therefore, at comparable power consumption, the Alder Lake P chip is around 25% slower when all cores are under load. The Core i7-1255U also only achieves around 1,150 points with 23 watts. Intel's fastest mobile processor, the Core i7-1280P with four additional performance cores, is also beaten at 23 watts in the ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen.2.

If we assume comparable TDP values for the Intel CPUs, the surcharges for the faster chips are actually not worth it, because even the Core i7-1280P at 23 watts is not faster than the Core i7-1255U at 23 watts, despite the four additional performance cores.

In the other two performance modes, the Ryzen 7 Pro 6850U is still very competitive with ~1,570 points at 22 watts and ~1,220 points at 14 watts and is also fast enough in everyday use, while you also benefit from a much quieter fan.

Performance is not reduced in battery mode because there are no extremely high power limits compared to the Intel CPUs. More CPU benchmarks are available in our tech section.

The ThinkPad T14 G3 is a very responsive laptop and we did not observe any jerks, hangs or other problems in our tests. This is further confirmed by good results in the synthetic benchmarks. Our review device was shipped with Windows 10 Professional, but it is also possible to switch to Windows 11 Pro without any problems.