Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 3 review – fantastic efficiency

The ThinkPad E-series has been one of the best-selling business laptops out there. It has a very competitive price while remaining pretty capable in terms of both performance and versatility. This particular model is the ThinkPad E14 Gen 3, and it comes equipped with Ryzen 5000U processors.

This includes some rebranded Zen 2 CPUs, as well as the brand new Zen 3 devices. Of course, this will change when the Zen 3+ processors hit the market. However, this laptop is not all about performance, as the main target group is the office worker. With that said, Lenovo needed to make the laptop a bargain for the corporate world, where companies buy their staff secure devices.

And security it has, with Lenovo’s plethora of software and firmware solutions. Our interest, however, is taken by the fingerprint reader and the optional IR face recognition scanner. Both of these technological advancements seem to be making their way into all kinds of laptops.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/lenovo-thinkpad-e14-gen-3-amd/

Contents


Specs Sheet

Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 3 (AMD) - Specs

  • LG LP140WFH-SPP2 (LGD070B)
  • Color accuracy  5.2  4.2
  • HDD/SSD
  • up to 2000GB SSD
  • M.2 Slot
  • 1x 2242 M.2 PCIe x4 + 1x 2280 M.2 PCIe x4  See photo
  • RAM
  • up to 40GB
  • OS
  • Windows 10 Pro, Windows 11 Pro, Windows 11 Home, Windows 10 Home
  • Battery
  • 45Wh, 3-cell, 43Wh, 3-cell, 45Wh
  • Body material
  • Plastic / Polycarbonate, Aluminum
  • Dimensions
  • 324 x 220.7 x 17.9 ~ 20.9 mm (12.76" x 8.69" x 0.70")
  • Weight
  • 1.64 kg (3.6 lbs)
  • Ports and connectivity
  • 1x USB Type-A
  • 2.0
  • 1x USB Type-A
  • 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
  • 1x USB Type-C
  • 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps), Power Delivery (PD), DisplayPort
  • HDMI
  • 1.4b
  • Card reader
  • Ethernet LAN
  • 10, 100, 1000 Mbit/s
  • Wi-Fi
  • 802.11ax
  • Bluetooth
  • 5.0
  • Audio jack
  • 3.5mm Combo Jack
  • Features
  • Fingerprint reader
  • optional
  • Web camera
  • HD
  • Backlit keyboard
  • optional
  • Microphone
  • Dual Array Microphone
  • Speakers
  • 2x 2W, Dolby Audio
  • Optical drive
  • Security Lock slot
  • Kensington Lock Slot

All Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 3 (AMD) configurations

#CommissionsEarned

What’s in the box?

Inside the box, we found nothing but the standard paperwork and a 65W USB Type-C power adapter.


Design and construction

Once again, Lenovo sells this laptop in two configuration options – either a plastic body or an aluminum body. The former has a profile of 20.9mm and weighs 1.69 kg. Respectively, the metal one is both thinner (17.9mm) and lighter (1.64 kg). We, ourselves, have the aluminum one, and it shows good resistance to flex, both from its base, and lid.

Speaking of which, the lid can’t be opened with a single hand. Traditionally, the E14 has come with thin side bezels, a medium-sized top one, and a bulky chin. Well, this year, there are no deviations from the pattern, as we see the same. Thankfully, though, the top one features an HD Web camera with a privacy shutter, and an IR face recognition sensor.

As expected, the keyboard here is nothing short of incredible. Not only is it spill-resistant, but it has a backlight, a long key travel, and clicky feedback. All of this results in a very comfortable typing experience. Moreover, the power button is separated from the rest of the board and offers an optional fingerprint reader embedded right on top of it.

The more nostalgic of you will be happy to hear, that there is a TrackPoint in the middle of the keyboard, and it comes paired with a set of buttons right above the touchpad. On the other hand, the latter is a bit small, compared to other 14-inch notebooks’ solutions. Nevertheless, its Mylar surface offers a smooth gliding experience, while the clicking mechanism feels a bit tight.

At the bottom panel, you will see the speaker cutouts, as well as the ventilation grill. Hot air, respectively, gets exhausted through a slot in the back of the device.

Ports

On the left side of the device, there is a USB Type-C 3.2 (Gen. 1) port used for charging, a USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) port, an HDMI 1.4b connector, and an audio jack. Then, on the right, you get a Kensington lock slot, a LAN port, and a USB Type-A 2.0 port. Interestingly, the USB Type-C port here supports output to 4K displays at 60Hz.


Disassembly, upgrade options and maintenance

To take this notebook apart, you need to undo all 7 captive Phillips-head screws. After that, pry the bottom panel with a plastic tool, starting from the front two corners.

Inside, we see a 57Wh battery. It lasted us for nearly 14 hours of either Web browsing or video playback. To continue, unplug the battery connector. Then, undo all 5 Phillips-head screws. This will let you remove the battery from the chassis.

Here, we see either 4 or 8GB of soldered memory. In addition to that, there is one SODIMM RAM slot. Storage-wise, there are two M.2 slots. One of them fits 42mm drives, while the other holds 80mm ones.

As you can see, the cooling comprises two heat pipes, a heat sink, and a medium-sized fan.


Display quality

Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 3 has a touchscreen Full HD IPS display, model number LG LP140WFH-SPP2 (LGD070B). Its diagonal is 14″ (35.56 cm), and the resolution – 1920 х 1080. Additionally, the screen ratio is 16:9, the pixel density – 157 ppi, their pitch – 0.161 x 0.161 mm. The screen can be considered Retina when viewed from at least 56 cm (from this distance, the average human eye can’t see the individual pixels).

Its viewing angles are excellent. We have provided images at 45 degrees to evaluate quality.

Also, a video with locked focus and exposure.

The maximum measured brightness is 312 nits (cd/m2) in the middle of the screen and 295 nits (cd/m2) average across the surface with a maximum deviation of 8%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen and at maximum brightness is 6240K.
In the illustration below you can see how the display performs from a uniformity perspective. The illustration below shows how matters are for operational brightness levels (approximately 140 nits) – in this particular case at 71% Brightness (White level = 143 cd/m2, Black level = 0.13 cd/m2).
Values of dE2000 over 4.0 should not occur, and this parameter is one of the first you should check if you intend to use the laptop for color-sensitive work (a maximum tolerance of 2.0 ). The contrast ratio is good – 1080:1.

To make sure we are on the same page, we would like to give you a little introduction to the sRGB color gamut and the Adobe RGB. To start, there’s the CIE 1976 Uniform Chromaticity Diagram that represents the visible specter of colors by the human eye, giving you a better perception of the color gamut coverage and the color accuracy.

Inside the black triangle, you will see the standard color gamut (sRGB) that is being used by millions of people on HDTV and on the web. As for the Adobe RGB, this is used in professional cameras, monitors, etc for printing. Colors inside the black triangle are used by everyone and this is an essential part of the color quality and color accuracy of a mainstream notebook.

Still, we’ve included other color spaces like the famous DCI-P3 standard used by movie studios, as well as the digital UHD Rec.2020 standard. Rec.2020, however, is still a thing of the future and it’s difficult for today’s displays to cover that well. We’ve also included the so-called Michael Pointer gamut, or Pointer’s gamut, which represents the colors that naturally occur around us every day.

The yellow dotted line shows Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 3’s color gamut coverage.

Its display covers just 51% of the sRGB/ITU-R BT.709 (web/HDTV standard) in CIE1976.

Our “Design and Gaming” profile delivers optimal color temperature (6500K) at 140 cd/m2 luminance and sRGB gamma mode.

We tested the accuracy of the display with 24 commonly used colors like light and dark human skin, blue sky, green grass, orange, etc. You can check out the results at factory condition and also, with the “Design and Gaming” profile.

Below you can compare the scores of Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 3 with the default settings (left), and with the “Gaming and Web design” profile (right).

The next figure shows how well the display can reproduce dark parts of an image, which is essential when watching movies or playing games in low ambient light.

The left side of the image represents the display with stock settings, while the right one is with the “Gaming and Web Design” profile activated. On the horizontal axis, you will find the grayscale, and on the vertical axis – the luminance of the display. On the two graphs below you can easily check for yourself how your display handles the darkest nuances but keep in mind that this also depends on the settings of your current display, the calibration, the viewing angle, and the surrounding light conditions.

Response time (Gaming capabilities)

We test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “black-to-white” and “white-to-black” method from 10% to 90% and vice versa.

We recorded Fall Time + Rise Time = 23 ms

After that, we test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “Gray-to-Gray” method from 50% White to 80% White and vice versa between 10% and 90% of the amplitude.


Health impact – PWM / Blue Light

PWM (Screen flickering)

Pulse-width modulation (PWM) is an easy way to control monitor brightness. When you lower the brightness, the light intensity of the backlight is not lowered, but instead turned off and on by the electronics with a frequency indistinguishable to the human eye. In these light impulses, the light/no-light time ratio varies, while brightness remains unchanged, which is harmful to your eyes. You can read more about that in our dedicated article on PWM.

Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 3’s backlight doesn’t use PWM for brightness adjustment. This makes the display comfortable for long hours of work and safe for your eyes in this aspect.

Blue light emissions

Installing our Health-Guard profile not only eliminates PWM but also reduces the harmful Blue Light emissions while keeping the colors of the screen perceptually accurate. If you’re not familiar with the Blue light, the TL;DR version is – emissions that negatively affect your eyes, skin, and your whole body. You can find more information about that in our dedicated article on Blue Light.

Buy our profiles

Since our profiles are tailored for each display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 3 configurations with 14.0″ LG LP140WFH-SPP2 (LGD070B) (FHD, 1920 × 1080) IPS panel.

*Should you have problems with downloading the purchased file, try using a different browser to open the link you’ll receive via e-mail. If the download target is a .php file instead of an archive, change the file extension to .zip or contact us at [email protected].

Read more about the profiles HERE.

In addition to receiving efficient and health-friendly profiles, by buying LaptopMedia's products you also support the development of our labs, where we test devices in order to produce the most objective reviews possible.

Office Work

Office Work should be used mostly by users who spend most of the time looking at pieces of text, tables or just surfing. This profile aims to deliver better distinctness and clarity by keeping a flat gamma curve (2.20), native color temperature and perceptually accurate colors.

Design and Gaming

This profile is aimed at designers who work with colors professionally, and for games and movies as well. Design and Gaming takes display panels to their limits, making them as accurate as possible in the sRGB IEC61966-2-1 standard for Web and HDTV, at white point D65.

Health-Guard

Health-Guard eliminates the harmful Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) and reduces the negative Blue Light which affects our eyes and body. Since it’s custom tailored for every panel, it manages to keep the colors perceptually accurate. Health-Guard simulates paper so the pressure on the eyes is greatly reduced.

Get all 3 profiles with 33% discount


Sound

Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 3’s speakers produce a sound of good quality. Its low, mid, and high tones are clear of deviations.


Drivers

All drivers and utilities for this notebook can be found here: https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/us/en/products/laptops-and-netbooks/thinkpad-edge-laptops/thinkpad-e14-gen-3/downloads/driver-list

Battery

Now, we conduct the battery tests with Windows Better performance setting turned on, screen brightness adjusted to 120 nits and all other programs turned off except for the one we are testing the notebook with. This laptop’s 57Wh battery lasted us for 13 hours and 45 minutes of Web browsing, or 13 hours and 31 minutes of video playback.


CPU options

This device comes with a ton of processor options. You can choose from the Ryzen 3 5300U, Ryzen 5 5500U, Ryzen 5 5600U, Ryzen 5 PRO 5650U, Ryzen 7 5700U, or Ryzen 7 5800U.

Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 3 (AMD) CPU variants

Here you can see an approximate comparison between the CPUs that can be found in the Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 3 (AMD) models on the market. This way you can decide for yourself which Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 3 (AMD) model is the best bang for your buck.

Note: The chart shows the cheapest different CPU configurations so you should check what the other specifications of these laptops are by clicking on the laptop’s name / CPU.


GPU options

On the other hand, you basically don’t have a choice in terms of graphics, since you only get the integrated solutions.

Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 3 (AMD) GPU variants

Here you can see an approximate comparison between the GPUs that can be found in the Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 3 (AMD) models on the market. This way you can decide for yourself which Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 3 (AMD) model is the best bang for your buck.

Note: The chart shows the cheapest different GPU configurations so you should check what the other specifications of these laptops are by clicking on the laptop’s name / GPU.


Gaming tests

cs-go-benchmarks

CS:GOHD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Medium (Check settings)HD 1080p, MAX (Check settings)
Average FPS110 fps65 fps44 fps

DOTA 2HD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Normal (Check settings)HD 1080p, High (Check settings)
Average FPS110 fps66 fps35 fps

Temperatures and comfort

Max CPU load

In this test we use 100% on the CPU cores, monitoring their frequencies and chip temperature. The first column shows a computer’s reaction to a short load (2-10 seconds), the second column simulates a serious task (between 15 and 30 seconds), and the third column is a good indicator of how good the laptop is for long loads such as video rendering.

Average core frequency (base frequency + X); CPU temp.

AMD Ryzen 3 5300U (15W TDP)0:02 – 0:10 sec0:15 – 0:30 sec10:00 – 15:00 min
Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 33.55 GHz (B+37%) @ 66°C @ 30W3.50 GHz (B+35%) @ 77°C @ 30W3.47 GHz (B+33%) @ 95°C @ 30W
HP 255 G83.55 GHz (B+37%) @ 66°C @ 29W3.24 GHz (B+25%) @ 70°C @ 23W2.91 GHz (B+12%) @ 66°C @ 15W
Lenovo IdeaPad 3 Gen 6 (14″)3.30 GHz (B+27%) @ 68°C @ 25W3.12 GHz (B+20%) @ 75°C @ 22W2.97 GHz (B+14%) @ 72°C @ 18W

It’s good to see that Lenovo lets you run the processor to extremely high frequencies.

Comfort during full load

Interestingly, this doesn’t result in too high temperatures or loud noise levels from the fan.


Verdict

Now, this is impressive. Even the lowest spec version of this laptop is capable of outperforming devices equipped with the Core i7-1165G7. That’s what quad-core CPUs built on a 7nm architecture are capable of. And if you add a memory stick in the free slot inside, the graphics performance becomes pretty competitive as well.

We were also happy with the battery life. Our unit was equipped with the larger 57Wh package, which lasted us for nearly 14 hours of either Web browsing, or video playback. Not bad, considering the unsatisfactory result of the Intel-shod ThinkPad E14 Gen 2.

Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 3’s IPS panel has a Full HD resolution, comfortable viewing angles, and a good contrast ratio. Thankfully, it doesn’t use PWM for brightness adjustment. On the other hand, the color coverage is limited, which results in a rather dull-looking image.

In addition to the single memory slot inside, there are two storage slots. One fits 80mm drives, while the other can hold SSDs up to 42mm in length. On the other hand, the external port situation is not that great. You don’t get an SD card reader, and one of the two USB Type-As works at 2.0 speeds.

We guess that you do need to make compromises if you want to stay on a tight budget. Despite that, you get some positive tradeoffs, like the inclusion of a privacy shutter and an optional fingerprint reader. Not only that, but you get an IR face recognition sensor.

To be honest, the device is decent. Especially for its business purposes. It still has one of the best keyboards on the market – one that also features spill resistance. And a really smart choice would be going for the Ryzen 3 5300U since it has both power efficiency and performance.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/lenovo-thinkpad-e14-gen-3-amd/

Pros

  • Its keyboard is backlit, spill-resistant and great for typing
  • Optional fingerprint reader and IR face recognition
  • Good contrast ratio and comfortable viewing angles (LG LP140WFH-SPP2)
  • Supports dual PCIe x4 SSDs, and some models feature a WiFi 6 card
  • Doesn’t use PWM (LG LP140WFH-SPP2)
  • Charges via USB Type-C
  • Great battery life


Cons

  • Covers only 51% of sRGB (LG LP140WFH-SPP2)
  • Lacks an SD card reader

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