Copyright XDA Developers
Lenovo's ThinkPad lineup has always been at the top of the enterprise laptop food chain and for good reason. While the X1 Carbon tends to be the ultimate in light and thin work laptops, the ThinkPad T-series is a favorite for IT departments for good reason. Lenovo's T-series laptops are more upgradeable and repairable than standard enterprise laptops, which makes them perfect for an IT fleet. The ThinkPad T14 Gen 6 is the latest model featuring AMD's Ryzen AI PRO series APU and Copilot+ AI features. And unlike the X1 Carbon, it's affordable enough so you can grab one for use in your home office or lab without paying a hefty enterprise laptop tax for increased security. Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 6 (AMD) pricing and availability What's under the hood of this AMD business machine? The base model of the ThinkPad T14 Gen 6 (AMD) officially retails for $1,224 and comes with an AMD Ryzen AI 5 PRO 340 APU with integrated Radeon 840M graphics and an XDNA 2.0 NPU rated to 45 TOPS of AI performance. This model also features 16GB RAM, a 256GB SSD, and a 14-inch, 1920x1200, IPS display. This model is currently on sale for just $1,064 through Lenovo directly, and Lenovo laptops tend to be on sale frequently, so the price fluctuates a lot. Upgrading to a 512GB SSD brings the price of the T14 Gen 6 up to $1,399 ($1,139 on sale). Our review model featured an APU upgrade to the Ryzen AI 7 PRO 350 chipset with built-in Radeon 860M graphics, 16GB RAM, a 256GB SSD, and 14-inch, 1920x1200, IPS display. The full retail price on our review model is $1,489, but this model is currently on sale for $1,209. Of course, this is enterprise pricing, so the sales tend to be pretty persistent on Lenovo's site and purchasing the ThinkPad T14 Gen 6 in bulk as part of an IT fleet comes with special business pricing. However, if you were looking to purchase the ThinkPad T14 Gen 6 for your own personal use, the best discount you'll get is the published 13–18% off the various available models. ThinkPad redesign Small changes give the ThinkPad T14 Gen 6 a new lease on life The ThinkPad design has been relatively stable for generations going back to the old IBM days, including the TrackPoint pointing stick which first debuted in 1992. So, every time Lenovo refreshes the ThinkPad design with a new feature, I feel like it's practically a revelation. While the T14 Gen 6 keeps the same ThinkPad black coated aluminum chassis as the rest of the lineup, it does have a few differences. The T14 Gen 6 has Lenovo's new camera bar at the top of the chassis. This adds a nice little oval bump to the top cover lid, and features the model number (T14) on the front side. With the lid open, this bump houses the camera, light sensors, microphone, and camera shutter. It's a small, modern touch that helps bring the ThinkPad T14 into the current era, even if the keyboard still features the TrackPoint pointing stick and discrete touchpad buttons. While I'd be happy to ditch the TrackPoint and classic ThinkPad touchpad buttons, there are plenty of fierce defenders of this aesthetic who will be pleased to see it stick around for at least another generation. And while I'd rather be without the two, they're hardly the worst additions to a laptop. Functionally, you don't need to use them either if you don't like them, so I tend to just ignore those features when using the T14. The modernized camera hub at least gives the T14 a bit of a visual overhaul. And that doesn't come at the cost of durability. As usual, the ThinkPad T14 Gen 6 is certified to the MIL-STD-810H standards for durability, so your files will be safe whether you're working from the summit of Mount Everest, the depths of the Sahara desert, or inside the Amazon rainforest. Beyond the aesthetics of the ThinkPad, the T14 Gen 6 is a worthy business companion. Its display is bright, rated to 400 nits, and has an anti-glare coating that can keep up with glare from indoor lighting or indirect sunlight. It's not great for video streams or content creation as the colors are a bit muted, but the contrast and brightness are certainly good enough for spreadsheet work or word processing, and that makes perfect sense for a business laptop. You don't exactly want your accounting department to be watching the new season of Spartacus. T-series upgradeability Right-to-repair for business Lenovo's ThinkPad series has often been among the most repairable laptops on the market, and that's only gotten easier with the new ThinkPad T-series. Lenovo now markets the T-series with user-replaceable parts, making them a better choice for IT departments deploying a new fleet of laptops. After all, replacement parts help extend the lifespan of a laptop, which is ideal for IT departments. However, even small businesses or solo customers can benefit from the new T-series laptops. After all, being able to upgrade or repair your laptop and extend its lifecycle is great for everyday users and businesses alike. The T14 Gen 6 has upgradeable RAM and SSD slots, and a user-replaceable battery and keyboard. You can also replace or upgrade the WWAN module, though the antenna needs to be configured at the time of purchase. The T14 Gen 6 has just 6 screws on the backplate of the laptop, and the cover is easy to remove if you start near the hinges. Because there are only a few screws on the back side of the T14, a lot of the laptop cover is held in place with catches that are easy to remove but slightly finnicky to replace. Definitely take your time on putting the T14 Gen 6 back together, since missing any of those catches will make it much harder to get the retaining screws in place. AMD Ryzen AI Pro performance Can AI give you an edge over the competition? With the Ryzen AI 7 Pro 350 APU, the ThinkPad T14 Gen 6 is on the more powerful side for a lightweight enterprise machine. While not the top-end Ryzen SKU, the Ryzen AI 7 Pro 350 has 8 powerful CPU cores, a powerful Radeon 860M graphics card, and an XDNA 2 NPU with 45 TOPS of AI power. Whether it's spreadsheet management, word processing, presentation creation, or email jockeying, the ThinkPad T14 Gen 6 has the raw power to keep up with demanding workflows. To determine how well the ThinkPad T14 Gen 6 handles compared to other business laptops, we ran the T14 through a series of synthetic performance benchmarks. When compared to similar laptops like the Dell Pro 14 Premium (Intel Core Ultra 7 268V), HP EliteBook Ultra G1q (Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite XIE-78-100), and Asus Zenbook S 14 (Intel Core Ultra 7 268V), the ThinkPad held its own. The EliteBook Ultra was the most powerful of the four laptops, but it also had 4 extra CPU cores compared to the Intel Core Ultra 7 and Ryzen AI 7 Pro CPUs, which does account for quite a bit of the power differential. Despite the HP EliteBook Ultra's lead on multicore performance, the EliteBook is somewhat hamstrung on the other benchmarks due to the limitations of its Arm-based CPU. While Windows on Arm's app compatibility issues are getting better by the day, it's hard to justify a business laptop that may not be able to run all of your business software. Thankfully, the ThinkPad T14 doesn't have that issue. Its Ryzen AI 7 PRO CPU runs the full x86 version of Windows, so you've got access to all the business software you're used to. And it's got extra built-in security thanks to its TPM 2.0 module, advanced encryption, AMD Memory Guard, and AMD Secure Processor support. So you're getting extra hardware-based security alongside the reliability and app support of an AMD Ryzen CPU, which is a worthy investment. And unlike the Dell Pro 14 or Asus Zenbook S 14, the ThinkPad T14 is a bit more affordable because it doesn't go overboard with premium features most users don't really need. Unfortunately, the main weakness of the ThinkPad's Ryzen AI 7 PRO 350 APU is that it gets all that extra power and security at the expense of battery life. While Strix Point APUs are more power efficient than their Hawk Point predecessors, they're not quite at Lunar Lake or Snapdragon X Elite levels. You'll still get a full 9+ hours of work out of the ThinkPad T14, so if you forget your charger at home, you'll be able to get through a whole day at the office without needing a charge. But you won't be able to go multiple days between laptop charges. Should you buy the Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 6? Is this a ThinkPad worth your time? You should buy the Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 6 if: You need a powerful, secure business machine You need to outfit an IT fleet of hundreds of laptops You want a laptop that's easy to upgrade and repair You should NOT buy the Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 6 if: You need to stay on a tight budget You're buying a laptop for your small business While the ThinkPad is a durable, secure business laptop, if you're looking to purchase just one or two laptops for your small business, the inflated price of the ThinkPad is a serious deterrent. There are more affordable Lenovo business laptops available that have similar power and performance, though they may be a bit less upgradeable than the ThinkPad T14 Gen 4. You could also use a non-business laptop if you don't need the extra security of a Microsoft Trusted Platform Module or the Ryzen AI Pro chip-based security features.
