Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 6 showdown: Ryzen power or Lunar Lake mobility?

When buying a new PC with an x86 CPU, buyers have had a familiar choice for many, many years: Either Team Red, which means AMD CPUs, or Team Blue, Intel.

For Lenovo ThinkPad laptops, historically, you only could choose Intel. That changed in the last decade or so, with AMD being added as a fixed choice to the roster, especially for the classic T series ThinkPads.

We tested both: The Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 6 Intel last year, and its AMD-equipped counterpart recently. Of course, both have many similarities, as they are both based on the same basic design. But there are some important differences, too. Most importantly, of course, the different CPUs.

ThinkPad T14 Gen 6 AMD vs. ThinkPad T14 Gen 6 Intel: The main differences

In our comprehensive review, the ThinkPad T14 Gen 6 AMD beat the version of the T14 Gen 6 with Intel Lunar Lake by roughly 11 percent in overall CPU performance. The difference is even bigger when looking just at multicore performance: The T14 Gen 6 AMD is by about 30 percent faster than the Lunar Lake T14. This means that for tasks like CPU rendering and compiling, the AMD Ryzen model will do much better.

While that is a positive for the AMD version, Intel has some strengths, too: The Intel ARC 140V iGPU is around 75 percent faster in games, and battery life is 41 percent besser on the Lunar Lake variant. Overall, for mobility and graphics intensive tasks, the Intel model is preferred.

Certainly though, the AMD model wins on upgradeability, as the Lunar Lake T14 Gen 6 has soldered RAM, while the T14 Gen 6 AMD can be upgraded to up to 64 GB. On the other hand, the Intel model has Intel Wi-Fi, which is seen a superior by many compared to the Wi-Fi solution on the AMD ThinkPad that is provided by Mediatek.

Overall, there are valid reasons to choose either one. Which team are you on - Blue or Red?