Lenovo ThinkPad T15g Gen 2 review

Ah, we love it when business computers offer more than simply business computing capabilities. The ThinkPad T15g Gen 2 is one such device that shares a lot more with gaming computers than with its “regular” ThinkPad cousins. However, it should not be considered as a laptop made to play games, but more of one that could help you create games.

To ensure you would have no trouble doing so, Lenovo paired its machine with some Tiger Lake CPUs, and even their Xeon iterations. Respectively, the latter options support ECC memory, which would be very helpful in every developer’s work. Okay, but what would help you make graphically-intensive software? Well, this is where the RTX 3070 and RTX 3080 come into play. The more powerful option even comes with 16GB of GDDR6 memory.

In addition to all of that, the company offers this device with a 4K OLED touchscreen panel. Unfortunately, we were “only” able to get ourselves a 1080p IPS option, which should be really good.

We are going to talk more about each feature of the ThinkPad T15g Gen 2 as we further dissect it so let’s get started with that.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/lenovo-thinkpad-t15g-gen-2/

Contents


Specs Sheet

Lenovo ThinkPad T15g Gen 2 - Specs

  • Innolux N156HCE-GN1
  • Color accuracy  2.7  0.8
  • HDD/SSD
  • up to 8000GB SSD
  • RAM
  • up to 128GB
  • OS
  • Windows 10 Pro, Windows 11 Pro, Windows 10 Home
  • Battery
  • 94Wh
  • Body material
  • Plastic / Polycarbonate, Glass Fiber
  • Dimensions
  • 375.4 x 252.3 x 24.5 ~ 32.2 mm (14.78" x 9.93" x 0.96")
  • Weight
  • 2.87 kg (6.3 lbs)
  • Ports and connectivity
  • 2x USB Type-A
  • 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
  • 1x USB Type-C
  • 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps), Power Delivery (PD), DisplayPort
  • 2x USB Type-C
  • Thunderbolt 4, Power Delivery (PD), DisplayPort
  • HDMI
  • 2.1
  • Card reader
  • SD
  • Ethernet LAN
  • 10, 100, 1000, 2500 Mbit/s
  • Wi-Fi
  • 802.11ax
  • Bluetooth
  • 5.2
  • Audio jack
  • 3.5mm Combo Jack
  • Features
  • Fingerprint reader
  • Web camera
  • HD
  • Backlit keyboard
  • Microphone
  • Dual Array Near-Field Microphone
  • Speakers
  • Stereo Speakers by Dolby Atmos
  • Optical drive
  • Security Lock slot
  • Kensington Lock Slot

All Lenovo ThinkPad T15g Gen 2 configurations

#CommissionsEarned

What’s in the box?

Inside the package, you will find the mandatory paperwork, a USB Type-C to DisplayPort dongle, as well as a 230W power adapter.


Design and construction

If it hasn’t become obvious already, you should know that the ThinkPad 15g Gen 2 is a thick boy. It weighs 2.87 kilos and has a profile of 24.5-31.45mm, both of which can grow to 3.07 kg and 25.25-32.2mm if you opt for the touch-enabled model.

On the other hand, the laptop is built like a tank. It is incredibly strong, and resistant to flex. Interestingly, its body is made out of plastic/glass fiber composite, which should be a pretty light material. On the other hand, the design feels a bit outdated, especially if you look at the shiny side of the lid.

Speaking of which, the lid can be opened with a single hand. Above the matte display, you will find an HD camera with a privacy shutter, and an optional IR face recognition sensor. Here, the bezels are extremely thick, which is the main reason for the dated look of the laptop.

Now, moving to the keyboard, we see the speaker grill, placed right above the keyboard. By the way, this board is once again – one of the best money can buy. It has long key travel, clicky feedback, and a NumPad. Furthermore, the TrackPoint is paired with the standard trio of buttons right above the touchpad.

Perhaps, the biggest disappointment of this notebook is its touchpad. It has a small overall area, while its surface is not very smooth. We’ve seen a lot better from a lot less expensive devices. On the bright side, there is a fingerprint reader, located on the palm rest area.

Since the speakers are firing towards the user, the bottom panel is left only for the ventilation grill. After it’s done its job, the hot air is exhausted through a total of four vents – two on the back, and one on each side.

Ports

On the left side, there is an HDMI 2.1/2.0 connector, a USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) port, a SIM card tray, and an аudio jack. Then, on the right, you get a Kensington lock slot, a USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) port, an SD card reader, and an optional Smart Card reader. In addition, there is a LAN port, a charging plug, two Thunderbolt 4 connectors, and a USB Type-C 3.2 (Gen. 2) port on the back.


Disassembly, upgrade options, and maintenance

Upgrading this laptop is pretty easy. First, on the bottom panel, you will find a service lid. Undo its single Phillips-head captive screw, and pry it with a plastic tool. This will reveal two SODIMM ports for memory expansion, and two M.2 slots for storage.

To continue, you need to undo a couple more screws, which will set the keyboard loose. Then, turn the device around, open the lid, and slide the entire keyboard upwards. After that, pull it away together with the secondary touchpad buttons. Be careful, as there are two ribbon cables that you need to unplug.

Then, you will see a metal cover, held in place by three Phillips-head screws. Undo them, and slide the cover upwards to remove it.

Ultimately, this leads to the rest of the upgrade options. Here, you have two more SODIMM slots, that combined with the two on the other side, support up to 128GB of DDR4 RAM. Also, you can see a third M.2 slot for storage.

If you want to continue with the teardown, and take a look at the cooling, you need to remove the entire bottom panel. After you undo all of the visible screws, remove the SIM card tray, using an ejection tool. Then, pry the bottom panel with a plastic tool and lift it away from the device.

The battery inside has a capacity of 94Wh. It lasts for 10 hours and 30 minutes of Web browsing, or nearly 8 hours of video playback. To remove it, unplug the connector from the motherboard, and unscrew all three Phillips-head screws.

As far as the cooling goes, there is one huge heat pipe cooling the CPU, while another one is shared between the processor and the GPU. The graphics card also gets two more heat pipes. As you can see, there are four heat sinks, and two fans, as well as a couple of heat spreaders, meant for the graphics memory and the VRMs.


Display quality

Lenovo ThinkPad T15g Gen 2 in the configuration we tested has a Full HD 60Hz IPS panel with a model number Innolux N156HCE-GN1 (LEN4183). Its diagonal is 15.6″ (39.62 cm), and the resolution is 1920 х 1080 pixels. The screen ratio is 16:9, and we are looking at a pixel density of – 142 ppi, and a pitch of 0.18 х 0.18 mm. The screen turns into Retina when viewed at distance equal to or greater than 60cm (24″) (from this distance one’s eye stops differentiating the separate pixels, and it is normal for looking at a laptop).

Viewing angles are excellent. We offer images at 45° to evaluate image quality.

Also, a video with locked focus and exposure.

We measured a maximum brightness of 507 nits in the middle of the screen and 478 nits as an average for the whole area, with a maximum deviation of 10%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen is 7510K – colder than the optimal for the sRGB standard of 6500K.
In the illustration below you can see how the display performs from a uniformity perspective. In other words, the leakage of light from the light source.

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. The contrast ratio is good – 1330:1.

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. Basically, colors inside the black triangle are used by everyone and this is the 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 T15g Gen 2’s color gamut coverage.

Its display covers 96% 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 T15g Gen 2 with the default settings (left), and with the “Gaming and Web design” profile (right).

The next figure shows how well the display is able to reproduce really 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 = 19 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.


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 T15g Gen 2’s display backlight doesn’t use PWM for brightness adjustment only above 128 nits. Below that, the frequency of the flickers is really high, which reduces the negative effect.

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 individual display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for Lenovo ThinkPad T15g Gen 2 configurations with 15.6″ FHD IPS Innolux N156HCE-GN1 (LEN4183).

*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 T15g Gen 2’s Dolby Atmos speakers produce a sound of very 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-t-series-laptops/thinkpad-t15g-gen-2-type-20ys-20yt/downloads/driver-list

Battery

Now, we conduct the battery tests with the 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 94Wh battery pack lasts for 10 hours and 33 minutes of Web browsing, or 7 hours and 40 minutes of video playback.


CPU options

There is a big pool of CPUs that come with this device. This includes two 6-core processors – Core i5-11500H, and the Xeon W-11855M, as well as four 8-core CPUs – Core i7-11800H, Core i7-11850H, Core i9-11950H, and Xeon W-11955M. Respectively, the Xeon processors offer ECC memory support.


GPU options

Your graphics choices are more limited but still impressive. You can pick between the RTX 3070 (8GB GDDR6) and the RTX 3080 (16GB GDDR6), both of which come with 90W TGPs. However, according to the NVIDIA driver, itself, the TGP of the RTX 3080 is 110W.

Lenovo ThinkPad T15g Gen 2 GPU variants

Here you can see an approximate comparison between the GPUs that can be found in the Lenovo ThinkPad T15g Gen 2 models on the market. This way you can decide for yourself which Lenovo ThinkPad T15g Gen 2 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

Metro ExodusFull HD, Low (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Extreme (Check settings)
Average FPS132 fps85 fps42 fps

Borderlands 3Full HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Badass (Check settings)
Average fps106 fps94 fps81 fps

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon WildlandsFull HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Very High (Check settings)Full HD, Ultra (Check settings)
Average116 fps102 fps70 fps

Shadow of the Tomb Raider (2018)Full HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Highest (Check settings)
Average125 fps121 fps88 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.

Intel Core i7-11800H (45W TDP)0:02 – 0:10 sec0:15 – 0:30 sec10:00 – 15:00 minMax Fans
Lenovo ThinkPad T15g Gen 23.15 GHz (B+37%) @ 99°C @ 68W3.05 GHz (B+33%) @ 99°C @ 64W2.87 GHz (B+25%) @ 99°C @ 57W
Lenovo ThinkBook 15p Gen 23.45 GHz (B+50%) @ 84°C @ 90W3.41 GHz (B+48%) @ 96°C @ 86W2.80 GHz (B+22%) @ 77°C @ 55W
HP Omen 16 (16-b0000)3.77 GHz (B+64%) @ 85°C @ 103W2.74 GHz (B+19%) @ 65°C @ 50W3.55 GHz (B+54%) @ 92°C @ 90W
HP Envy 15 (15-ep1000)3.46 GHz (B+50%) @ 96°C @ 78W3.14 GHz (B+37%) @ 96°C @ 61W2.80 GHz (B+22%) @ 95°C @ 49W
Acer Predator Helios 500 (PH517-52)3.88 GHz (B+69%) @ 99°C @ 111W3.84 GHz (B+67%) @ 99°C @ 107W3.66 GHz (B+59%) @ 99°C @ 99W3.66 GHz (B+65%) @ 99°C @ 101W
ASUS TUF Gaming F17 (FX706, 2021)3.56 GHz (B+55%) @ 92°C @ 104W3.54 GHz (B+54%) @ 94°C @ 90W3.30 GHz (B+43%) @ 89°C @ 75W
MSI Sword 153.16 GHz (B+37%) @ 94°C @ 60W3.01 GHz (B+31%) @ 95°C @ 56W2.98 GHz (B+30%) @ 95°C @ 54W
Dell XPS 15 95103.41 GHz (B+48%) @ 99°C @ 82W3.00 GHz (B+30%) @ 99°C @ 63W2.71 GHz (B+18%) @ 93°C @ 48W
Lenovo Legion 5i (17″ Intel, 2021)3.84 GHz (B+67%) @ 96°C @ 113W3.69 GHz (B+60%) @ 96°C @ 101W3.36 GHz (B+46%) @ 81°C @ 80W
Dell G15 55113.67 GHz (B+60%) @ 97°C @ 100W3.54 GHz (B+54%) @ 98°C @ 91W3.43 GHz (B+49%) @ 93°C @ 79W
Acer Predator Helios 300 (PH317-55)3.67 GHz (B+60%) @ 90°C @ 103W3.66 GHz (B+59%) @ 99°C @ 103W3.40 GHz (B+48%) @ 99°C @ 84W
ASUS ROG Zephyrus M16 GU6033.87 GHz (B+68%) @ 95°C @ 106W3.90 GHz (B+70%) @ 95°C @ 109W3.58 GHz (B+56%) @ 86°C @ 80W
MSI Creator Z16 (A11Ux)3.12 GHz (B+36%) @ 96°C @ 68W3.03 GHz (B+32%) @ 95°C @ 62W2.76 GHz (B+20%) @ 95°C @ 53W2.90 GHz (B+26%) @ 95°C @ 59W
MSI GE76 Raider (2021)3.22 GHz (B+40%) @ 95°C @ 67W3.11 GHz (B+35%) @ 94°C @ 62W3.14 GHz (B+37%) @ 94°C @ 61W3.26 GHz (B+42%) @ 94°C @ 64W
ASUS TUF F15 (FX506, 2021) (Turbo Mode)3.98 GHz (B+73%) @ 86°C @ 102W3.88 GHz (B+69%) @ 95°C @ 100W3.44 GHz (B+50%) @ 87°C @ 77W
MSI Pulse GL763.16 GHz (B+37%) @ 95°C @ 65W3.00 GHz (B+30%) @ 95°C @ 59W2.87 GHz (B+25%) @ 95°C @ 55W
MSI Pulse GL662.94 GHz (B+28%) @ 94°C @ 58W2.76 GHz (B+20%) @ 94°C @ 52W2.77 GHz (B+20%) @ 94°C @ 52W

It is highly unusual to see such a thick device struggle with temperatures. Well, the ThinkPad T15g Gen 2 is, and we think that Lenovo must implement a much more aggressive fan policy.

Real-life gaming

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 2 min)GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 30 min)GPU frequency/ Core temp (Max Fans)
Lenovo ThinkPad T15g Gen 21362 MHz @ 78°C @ 103W1349 MHz @ 82°C @ 102W
MSI Vector GP66 (12Ux)1690 MHz @ 76°C @ 149W1671 MHz @ 81°C @ 149W1698 MHz @ 75°C @ 149W
Acer Predator Helios 500 (PH517-52)1737 MHz @ 69°C @ 155W1725 MHz @ 73°C @ 156W1768 MHz @ 63°C @ 154W
MSI GE76 Raider (2021)1719 MHz @ 82°C @ 159W1670 MHz @ 87°C @ 155W1715 MHz @ 84°C @ 161W
ASUS ROG Strix G17 G7131523 MHz @ 81°C @ 129W1515 MHz @ 83°C @ 130W

Here, we have another interesting situation. In Lenovo’s official documentation, the RTX 3080 has a 90W TGP, but the NVIDIA Control Panel shows 110W. However, the specimen inside of this laptop only goes to 103W. What is going on? Well, the issue does not require a degree in rocket science – the actual TGP should be 110W as displayed by the Control Panel, but the cooling can’t maintain that value.

Gaming comfort

On the bright side, the keyboard didn’t warm too much during a high combined workload like gaming.


Verdict

Lenovo has made this machine with the creators in mind. Not only the ones that create multimedia content, but also those who develop games, programs, and 3D models. To be honest, the laptop looks like a workstation and has some features characteristic of such. After all, it has the support of ECC memory (only if you opt for the Xeon processors), four RAM slots, and three M.2 PCIe slots, one of which supports Gen 4 drives.

The external ports are not less impressive either. There are three USB Type-C ports, two of which are Thunderbolt 4s. Also, you get an SD card reader, a Smart Card reader, and more.

Lenovo ThinkPad T15g Gen 2’s IPS panel has a Full HD resolution, comfortable viewing angles, high contrast ratio, and maximum brightness. Its backlight uses PWM up until 128 nits, but the frequency is high enough not to cause trouble. Furthermore, it covers 96% of the sRGB color gamut, while maintaining a high color accuracy thanks to our Gaming and Web design profile.

Combine all of this with the golden standard for laptop keyboards, and one that is spill-resistant. We can continue listing features like the optional IR face recognition scanner, the camera privacy shutter, and the fingerprint reader. However, we have one big issue with this laptop – its cooling.

It fails to deal with both the processor and graphics card, resulting in limited performance. You see, the hardware it comes with is so powerful, that it can push through the limitations of the cooling and still deliver great performance. But wouldn’t it be better to extract the maximum out of the hardware? After all, this is a professional product, and every single drop of performance left on the table means more time taken by rendering a project for instance. And in a world where time equals money, one could not afford that.

This leaves us with no enthusiasm – something that is made a little bit better by the good battery life we got out of the laptop – 10 hours and a half of Web browsing, or nearly 8 hours of video playback.

At the end of the day, we are willing to forgive its 2015 looks, if it is going to perform as it should. Unfortunately, the behemoth ThinkPad T15g Gen 2 can be beaten by thinner and significantly less expensive gaming laptops.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/lenovo-thinkpad-t15g-gen-2/

Pros

  • Up to 128GB of RAM and 3x M.2 PCIe x4 slots with RAID support/li>
  • Very good thermals
  • IPS panel with high max brightness (Innolux N156HCE-GN1 (LEN4183))
  • No aggressive PWM (Innolux N156HCE-GN1 (LEN4183))
  • 91% of sRGB coverage and accurate colors with our Gaming and Web design profile (Innolux N156HCE-GN1 (LEN4183))
  • Comfortable spill-resistant keyboard
  • Good battery life
  • 2x Thunderbolt 4, SD card + optional IR face recognition and fingerprint reader
  • LTE support


Cons

  • Thick and heavy
  • Quite pricy
  • Low performance due to bad cooling

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