The AMD version is finally up to date: Why this Lenovo laptop is better than the ThinkPad E14

Back in 2022, the Lenovo ThinkPad L14 Gen 3 replaced the ThinkPad L14 Gen 2. Notably, the AMD variant of the Gen 2 features the Ryzen 5000 CPUs - and the same was true for the Gen 3 model. Since then, the ThinkPad L series laptops were stuck on outdated AMD Zen3 and Zen3+ CPUs. The ThinkPad L14 Gen 4 used the AMD Ryzen 7x30 series, which were just renamed Ryzen 5000 chips, and the ThinkPad L14 Gen 5 AMD simply updated it to AMD Ryzen 7x35 - renamed Ryzen 6000 CPUs.

With the Lenovo ThinkPad L14 Gen 6 AMD, Lenovo finally gives customers who want a more affordable AMD model an option with modern CPUs: This ThinkPad business laptop, which we recently reviewed, contains the AMD Ryzen AI 300 CPUs of the Krackan Point series, with Zen5 as the base. The advantage is clear: The Lenovo ThinkPad L14 Gen 6 AMD is far ahead of the previous model in this series in terms of efficiency and performance.

This also means that the L series, which is usually a less popular choice, gains an advantage over the more popular ThinkPad E series. The E series, even cheaper than the already affordable L series ThinkPad laptops, is still stuck on Zen4. This means: If you want the most recent AMD CPUs, you can not get them in the ThinkPad E14 Gen 7 (available on Amazon) - but you can in the ThinkPad L14 Gen 6. The E14 is still a bit cheaper, but the difference is not nearly as big when compared to the ThinkPad T14.