[Video Review] Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 3 – business laptop with great screen


Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 3 (Intel) in-depth review

Lenovo is paving the way to a more sustainable and powerful business experience. The center of attention is the ThinkPad T-series, with the ThinkPad T14 Gen 3 being the star of today's review.According to the manufacturer, this laptop does not only offer more than enough performance for the daily work of all kinds of enterprise employees. It also uses post-consumer content, like plastic and other natural materials for some components. This includes the speaker enclosure, the battery shell, and the power adapter.In addition to that, the packaging material is also being recycled. All of[...]

Pros

  • Its keyboard is backlit and spill-resistant
  • Optional fingerprint reader and IR face recognition
  • SIM card slot with LTE support
  • 1x SODIMM + 1x M.2 PCIe x4 Gen 4
  • Covers 96% of sRGB + accurate colors with our profiles (AUO B140UAN02.1 (LEN403A))
  • No PWM (AUO B140UAN02.1 (LEN403A))
  • Charges via Thunderbolt 4
  • Quiet and reasonable performance

Cons

  • Average battery life
  • Less powerful in long loads

Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 3 (Intel) - Specs

  • AUO B140UAN02.1
  • Color accuracy  5.7  1.4
  • HDD/SSD
  • up to 2000GB SSD
  • RAM
  • up to 48GB
  • OS
  • Windows 10 Pro, Windows 11 Pro, Windows 11 Home, Windows 10 Home
  • Battery
  • 52.5Wh, 4-cell, 52.5Wh, 52.5Wh , 52.5Wh, 3-cell
  • Body material
  • Plastic / Polycarbonate, Aluminum, Glass Fiber
  • Dimensions
  • 317.7 x 227.36 x 17.9 mm (12.51" x 8.95" x 0.70")
  • Weight
  • 1.21 kg (2.7 lbs)
  • Ports and connectivity
  • 1x USB Type-A
  • 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
  • 1x USB Type-A
  • 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps), Sleep and Charge
  • 2x USB Type-C
  • 4.0, Thunderbolt 4, Power Delivery (PD), DisplayPort
  • HDMI
  • 2.0b
  • Card reader
  • Ethernet LAN
  • 10, 100, 1000 Mbit/s
  • Wi-Fi
  • 802.11ax
  • Bluetooth
  • 5.2
  • Audio jack
  • 3.5mm Combo Jack
  • Features
  • Fingerprint reader
  • Web camera
  • HD / FHD / IR
  • Backlit keyboard
  • Microphone
  • Dual Array Microphone, far-field, Dolby Voice
  • Speakers
  • 2x 2W Stereo Speakers, Dolby Audio
  • Optical drive
  • Security Lock slot
  • Kensington Nano Lock

All Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 3 (Intel) configurations

#CommissionsEarned

Sustainability is becoming important, so when a big player like Lenovo embraces it, you know that it’s getting serious. The company sells so many ThinkPads every year, so imagine all the good they can do for the environment by implementing more recycled materials. You don’t have to imagine anymore, as the ThinkPad T14 Gen 3 is here. It brings the winds of change while staying true to its heritage of delivering a powerful business experience.

[Intro]

The eco-friendly nature of the laptop is seen with the recycled packaging, the speaker, and battery enclosures, as well as the power adapter. The ThinkPad is made from plastic, while the Grey-colored models come with an aluminum lid. Here we have the Black device, which weighs 1.32 kg and has a profile of 17.9 mm. Battery size also affects the weight, as the smaller 39.3Wh unit drops to 1.33 kg for the Grey model and 1.21 kg for the Black model. Durability-wise, the laptop is alright, as while there are some twists from the lid and base, it’s nothing to worry about.

[Input devices]

What’s more important is that the lid doesn’t open with one hand, so you would have to support the base when opening it up. Still, you’re exposed to a packed base, with a keyboard, touchpad, speaker grills, and a TrackPoint with three physical buttons. All of these work really well, but the touchpad is a bit unreliable, as sometimes it works like a charm, but other times it’s not as responsive as we would like.

[Ports]

Going to the sides, we can see that they’re full of ports. On the left, there’s an optional SmartCard reader and a full-sized 5-gigabit USB port. On the back, there’s an optional NanoSIM slot. Lastly, on the right, we have a LAN port, two Thunderbolt 4 ports, an HDMI 2.0b port, one more 5-gigabit full-sized USB port, and an audio jack.

[Display]

Opening the lid also shows the display, with three resolution options, an FHD+ display, a 2.2K display, and a 4K UHD display. We have the FHD+ display, which comes with a peak brightness of 396 nits and a super high contrast ratio of 1830:1. The panel covers 96% of the sRGB color gamut while reaching good accuracy with our Design and Gaming profile, with a dE value of 1.6.

[Battery]

With the FHD+ display, you’re also sparing some battery life, as there are fewer pixels to power. This results in 8 hours and 37 minutes of Web browsing, or 6 hours and 11 minutes of video playback on a single charge in our test.

[Performance]

These results were achieved with the Core i7-1260P, while the Alder Lake U-series is available as well. There’s also the more powerful Core i7-1280P, with extra two performance cores.

The 1260P does fairly well, outscoring many of its business competitors, most of which are powered by the Alder Lake U-series. While you can stick with the integrated graphics, you can also get the MX 550 from NVIDIA, which will increase the ability of the device to be used for more serious work like video rendering and any type of graphics calculations. Keep in mind that you also retain the iGPU and with Intel’s Quick Sync you can delegate tasks between the discrete and the integrated graphics, speeding up your overall rendering times.

In between work, you can do a bit of gaming, as the Witcher 3 runs smoothly, reaching 60 FPS at medium settings.

[Cooling]

The laptop is cooled by a single heat pipe and one fan, a setup that delivers good results. The Core i7-1260P is fantastic for short tasks, which is ideal for 90% of the user base. Clock speeds are dialed back in the later stages of the stress test, while the temperatures remain low.

Comfort is great, with the base heating up to 40°C, which is practically nothing. Noise isn’t an issue as well, with only one fan.

[Teardown and upgradeability]

Despite the small stature of the device, you get decent upgradeability. There is up to 16GB of soldered DDR4 memory, along with one SODIMM slot. The storage is accessible via a single M.2 slot.

[Verdict]

The Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 3 is a portable machine that has the skills, power, and features to outfight and outlast its competitors. With the P-series CPU and the good display, Creator work is definitely in the picture. On top of that, Lenovo flexes its sustainability efforts, so buying one feels even better.

For a more detailed look at the ThinkPad T14 Gen 3, check out the written review on our website.

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