Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 laptop review: Snapdragon X Elite enables epic battery life

Note: We have recently updated our rating system and the results of version 8 are not comparable with the results of version 7. More information is available here .

Despite the higher Gen-count: On the outside, the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 5 and the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 look like identical twins. Lenovo transfers most of the design of the Intel model that matches the ThinkPad X1 Carbon in terms of looks more than ever before. The screen bezels are much smaller now, and the wide bar-hinge has been used on the X1 since 2021 as well. Like that device, the ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 is mostly made out of lightweight metal alloys, namely Magnesium and Aluminum for the base-unit. The screen cover is made out of Carbon fiber reinforced plastic. Workmanship and stability are excellent. The haptic feel of the T14s G6 is "typical ThinkPad": All surfaces, except for the rough plastic screen bezel, are painted with a matte black coating that feels slightly rubberized. This gives a comfortable feel when resting the palms on the laptop, but the materials also can get dirty easily. Cleaning is not optional with this device. 

Also of interest is the comparison with the Lenovo ThinkPad X13s. Lenovo did experiment a bit with its first ARM ThinkPad and its design back in the day. One of these experiments, the webcam bump, made it into the ThinkPad T14s Gen 6. Others like the more rounded sides or the hinges with an opening angle of just 135 degrees did not make the cut. The T14s Gen 6 has a more standard hinge design for a ThinkPad, that allows an opening angle of 180 degrees. One-handed opening is not possible, though the screen at least does not wobble either.

If the ARM based laptops HP EliteBook Ultra G1q and Apple MacBook Air M3 are put against the T14s Gen 6, it quickly becomes apparent that in this case, thickness takes a backseat to weight. The ThinkPad laptop is much thicker at 19 mm - more than what Lenovo tells us - but weights the same as the MacBook Air at 1.2 kg. It even beats the EliteBook, as that machine is 100 g heavier.

One of the advantages of the higher thickness: There is more room for ports. Different from the older Snapdragon ThinkPad X13s or the Apple MacBook Air, the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 has two USB A ports and HDMI. Those legacy ports are especially useful for corporate users, but also great to have for consumers. A small annoyance is the port-placement: Having both Thunderbolt ports on the left and both USB A ports on the right side takes away user flexibility. Having one of each on both sides would have been the much better choice.

Since this is a Qualcomm platform, the Wi-Fi solution obviously is also made by said company. In our review, the module that supports the newest Wi-Fi 7 standard, worked flawlessly, delivering high transfer rates.

Different from the old ThinkPad X13s, the T14s Gen 6 lacks WWAN and also the ability to upgrade it after the fact. Models with 5G are planned for a later date.

Despite the fact that the webcam is limited to a 1080p resolution, it still delivers usable results. This is probably the result of the Qualcomm platform coming with a dedicated Image Processor, enabling the ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 to get more out of the camera than comparable x86 units.

Security is an important consideration for laptops in the enterprise sector. The Lenovo ThinkPad T14s G6 offers quite a bit in this sector: There is a dedicated TPM security chip, a Kensington Lock slot for theft prevention and a mechanical webcam privacy shutter called "ThinkShutter". Not present anymore is a smart card reader, the Lenovo T14s Gen 5 has this feature. The infrared camera for Windows Hello is present on both T14s generations, but only the T14s Gen 6 offers Human Presence detection.

Included in the box with the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 is only a 65 W USB C GaN charger.

Lenovo uses recylced materials for the chassis. The amount ranges from 50 to 90 percent. The packaging of the T14s G6 is also eco-friendly, as it is completely compostable. As a business device, the ThinkPad has parts and driver updates available for many years.

Like most premium ThinkPads, the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 has a three-year warranty. In this case, this means a bring-in service, which can be upgraded to on-site for a fee. For the first year, the on-side service is included for free. It is also possible to prolong the warranty to up to five years. The warranty applies when traveling as well, as it is an international warranty. When traveling, on site service is not available.

The ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 only uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite X1E-78-100; the GPU is the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Adreno X1-85. There is more choice when it comes to the RAM, as the T14s G6 is available with 16, 32 or 64 GB. Lenovo solders down fast LPDDR5X-8448 memory, RAM is non-upgradeable. The same can not be said about the M.2 2242 SSD, Lenovo offers up to one terabyte. 

The power consumption of the Snapdragon X Elite can not be analyzed with the usual solutions. Based on our power consumption measurements for the entire system, we estimate that the ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 has a maximum power consumption of 60 W for the processor and 25 W when the CPU is put under continuous load.

Another complication of the Windows on ARM platform: Many of the benchmarks we use are not available as a native ARM version. The performance is worse off due to the emulation, depending on the test. Since many apps for end users are also emulated, the emulated scores are still relevant for everyday use.

Among the Snapdragon X Elite variants, the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite X1E-78-100 is the weakest. The clock rates reach 3.4 GHz. Different from the models X1E-80-100 and X1E-82-100, this model has no additional dualcore boost. For more comprehensive comparisons with other CPUs, our CPU benchmark list can be used.

To measure the pure CPU performance of the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6, we use the Cinebench 2024, which is available as a native ARM version. Here, the Qualcomm ThinkPad is roughly 33 percent faster than the Intel based ThinkPad T14s Gen 5. Broken down to multicore and singlecore, the difference comes to 56 (multi) and 19 (single) percent. The ThinkPad T14s Gen 4 AMD with the Ryzen 7 Pro 7840U is also beaten, though the advantage in this matchup is smaller (multi: 22 percent, single: 10 percent). Only the Apple MacBook Air M3 is faster than the T14s Gen 6, but only when it comes to single core. Apple has an advantage of 31 percent here. With all cores under load, the Qualcomm CPU is 30 percent better.

Aside from the pure performance, we also want to look at efficiency. In this regard, the T14s Gen 6 with Qualcomm CPU gains a huge lead over the T14s Gen 5 with Intel Core Ultra Series 1. Depending on whether it is singlecore or multicore load, the Snapdragon ThinkPad is 63 to 75 percent more efficient. Even better is the Apple MacBook Air, as the M3 is 23 percent more efficient in multicore and 75 percent more efficient in singlecore.

Sustained load is simulated with the Cinebench R15, an emulated test for the Snapdragon chip. Accordingly, performance of the T14s G4 with its Zen4 APU is above the T14s Gen 6 here. Still, it is noteworthy that we do detect some throttling here when you compare boost performance with the sustained one.

In the additional, mainly emulated CPU benchmarks, the progress of the Snapdragon X Elite in comparison with the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 of the ThinkPad X13s is clear. In Cinebench R23 singlecore, the X Elite is nearly twice as fast, with the multicore performance being better by 3 times.

There was no CPU throttling when using the device on battery power.

Our regular benchmark for the system performance, the PCMark10, is not available for Windows on ARM yet. Crossmark works as well as the different browser based tests. Here, the Lenovo T14s Gen 6 achieves good results. In everyday use, we did not see any hiccups, the ThinkPad was always fast and smooth.