Lenovo ThinkPad E14: Review

The Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 2’s initial impression will hide its shortcomings. But go deeper, and you’ll uncover some mistakes. No laptop is flawless, although luxury portables (like most business laptops) are expected to be better than inexpensive ones. The Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 2 has certain advantages. It’s sturdy like a professional laptop, has a great keyboard, and has a 1080p monitor. It has superb performance, battery life, and security features business users will like. However, its major benefit is that it is cheaper than pricey corporate laptops. However, there are various ways to enhance, which should be less at this price. Is the Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 2 worthwhile? Kind of conflicted.

Lenovo ThinkPad E14  Specs

Pricing and availability

Although touted as “affordable productivity,” the Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 2’s basic model with an 11th-gen Intel Core i3 with Intel UHD graphics, 4GB RAM, and 1TB SSD costs $1,269 (approximately £870, AU$1,728). That’s expensive for a weak business laptop. Our evaluation machine, with an 11th-generation Core i5 CPU, Intel Xe graphics, and 16GB of RAM, costs $1,659 (£989, AU$2,259).

However, it is cheaper than top business laptops. The HP Elite Dragonfly G2 costs $2,900 (about £2,100, AU$3,900), while Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 8 costs $2,849 (about £2,070, AU$3,850). Lenovo is now giving big back-to-school and July discounts on this series, which is terrific. The majority of entrepreneurs don’t need a business laptop for daily tasks. They may choose a prosumer laptop like the Dell XPS 2-in-1, which is several hundred dollars or pounds less for equivalent capabilities.

Design

Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 2 business laptops provide various business-focused features. Its military-grade design makes it resistant to spills, drops, weather, and even zero gravity. It has a Kensington Lock and the Trusted Platform Module (dTPM), which encrypts sensitive data. Upgrade to an IR camera for Windows Hello login and/or a fingerprint sensor for enhanced security. The F9–F11 keys provide subfunctions for conference call shortcuts. Its ThinkPad-style keyboard has a red button between G, H, and B.

For those unfamiliar with ThinkPad keyboards, the TrackPoint may be used to smoothly navigate through documents and Web sites or magnify screen elements. This feature requires time to master due to its high learning curve. Since this is a budget business laptop, there are certain tradeoffs. It has one Thunderbolt 4 and two USB Type-A connections, and at 3.5 pounds and 17.9mm thick, it’s bulkier and heavier than we want in a laptop for business meetings and work travels. The trackpad is also bothersome. It lacks responsiveness and comfort.

Also Read- Lenovo V15 AMD: An Honest Review

Performance

We can test the Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 2’s fingerprint sensor, but not its facial recognition login. We’re confident many corporate users will like this add-on because it speeds up login and increases security. Unfortunately, it takes a few tries to recognize our fingerprint and log us in, unlike the one on our 2019 MacBook Pro 13-inch. This laptop’s performance is one of its best features, if you don’t care about style or frills. Our unit has the mid-range i5 chip, but it hasn’t slowed down when running 25 browser tabs, three of which are playing videos from three streaming platforms, Microsoft Outlook, and two word processing apps. It performs well, and while we wouldn’t use it to edit 5-minute 4K footage because it just has integrated graphics, it exceeds expectations. Another amazing youngster is the Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 2. It’s usually cool under pressure. Lenovo hasn’t specified its cooling system, but it’s effective while mixing productivity and entertainment.

Camera

We anticipated the Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 2’s HD camera to produce a crisper, more detailed image than a 720p laptop webcam. Still, there are certain shortcomings, notably compared to our 2020 MacBook Pro 13-inch, which has the same camera resolution. The ThinkPad E14 Gen 2’s camera captures darker photographs than the MacBook’s in the same lighting conditions due to its lower dynamic range and loss of information. Videos with coworkers look bad when dark shadows abound. Buying a good ring light may be wise. In addition, the image is overprocessed to smooth both stills and movies. If you like that style of editing, you might like it. If you have more sensibility and want more natural-looking photographs, choose a higher-resolution webcam.

Battery

The Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 2’s battery life is respectable but not great. TechRadar’s video playback test lasts 8 hours and 9 minutes, and PCMark 10 Battery Life lasts over 10 hours. Lenovo rates up to 11.9 hours, so that’s close. We wanted to see something close to that during testing. After all, two hours in real life make a big difference, especially if you have a hefty laptop and want to leave the charger at home. Thanks to Rapid Charge, that charger is light and charges your laptop quickly.

Conclusion

Lenovo’s inexpensive business notebook, the ThinkPad E14 Gen 2, has certain accomplishments, including rapid performance, a comfortable keyboard, and a sturdy frame. Given its price, the few missteps are impossible to overlook. The Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 2 has certain advantages. It’s sturdy, like a professional laptop, has a great keyboard, and has a 1080p monitor. It has superb performance, battery life, and security features that business users like. However, its major benefit is that it is cheaper than pricey corporate laptops.

FAQs

1. What are the Lenovo ThinkPad E14’s main specs?

Processor, RAM, storage, display, and other characteristics are the major specs of the laptop..

2. Can Lenovo ThinkPad E14 RAM and storage be upgraded?

Yes, ThinkPad notebooks support RAM and storage upgrades. Visit the user manual or contact Lenovo support for upgrading information.

3. Which OS does the Lenovo ThinkPad E14 run?

The laptop runs Windows and its version.