Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 4 First Impressions

The Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 4 is a premium business-class Ultrabook with exceptional looks, connectivity, and portability. It’s available in both Intel and AMD variants—I’m reviewing an Intel model—and can be had with 5G cellular connectivity if desired. Best of all, the T14s is reasonably priced for a ThinkPad, given Lenovo’s rolling sales.

Whether you find ThinkPads to be familiar or perhaps overly familiar is a matter of taste, I suppose. But I’ve always loved the look and feel of these PCs, with their unique combination of carbon fiber, magnesium, and aluminum as found in the Deep Black review unit. But those who prefer something a little different can always opt for an all-aluminum Storm Grey version instead.

I’m also a fan of the PC’s Lenovo and ThinkPad branding, the latter appearing on the outside of the display lid and on the wrist rest, with the former sporting a light-up red dot on the “i” when the PC is powered on.

Indeed, everything about the T14s screams “classic ThinkPad,” including the familiar and lightly-clacky scalloped keyboard, the dual pointing system, the small but rock-solid metal hinges, and, yes, the inverted “Fn” (function) and Ctrl keys that I will never understand. There is no mistaking a ThinkPad.

There are several 14-inch touch and non-touch 16:10 display choices, most of which are IPS panels and offer a WUXGA (1920 x 1200) resolution. But there are two more impressive choices, too, a 2.2K (2240 x 1400) IPS panel with anti-glare, non-touch, and 100 percent sRGB coverage, and a 2.8K (2880 x 1800) OLED panel with anti-reflection, non-touch, HDR500 capabilities, and 100 percent DCI-P3 coverage. The review unit has one of the more pedestrian displays—WUXGA (1920 x 1200) IPS, touch, anti-glare, 45 percent NTSC, 300 nits—but it’s almost perfect for my needs (I’d go non-touch if possible).

Inside the T14s you’ll find a 15-watt 13th Gen Intel Core U series processor—an i7-1365U with 2 Performance cores and 8 Efficient cores in the review unit—integrated Intel Iris X3 graphics, 16 or 32 GB of fast but soldered LPDDR5 RAM, and 256 GB, 512 GB, 1 TB or 2 TB of PCIe Gen4 TCL Opal SSD storage. (The review unit is a 16 GB/512 GB configuration.) These are standard productivity-class parts and I expected the T14s to deliver strong performance for my usual workflows.

Connectivity looks solid, with Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.1, and optional 4G LTE or 5G cellular connectivity, though neither appears in the review unit.

Expansion is decent, though the ports are heavily biased to the left side of the PC. There, you’ll find two USB-C ports with Thunderbolt 4 capabilities, one full-sized HDMI 2.1 video-out port, one full-sized USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 port, and a combination headphone/microphone port.

By comparison, the right side is a bit light, with a Kensington nano security slot, a large heat exhaust port, one full-sized USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 port, and, if configured, a smart card reader. All of the USB ports support always-on charging for connected devices.

The power supply is a standard issue Lenovo 65-watt USB-C power adapter that Lenovo says can charge the T14s’s 57-watt-hour battery to 80 percent in 60 minutes. (You can also enable a smart charge feature for overnight charging that can help extend the battery’s life.)  Battery life is “all day,” which is about a vague a claim as one can make, so we’ll see what that looks like in real-world use.

The T14s is the full meal deal from a security perspective, with Windows Hello fingerprint and facial recognition capabilities, plus a key-based microphone mute, a manual web cam privacy shutter, and a Lenovo WiFi Security service you can enable to help protect against suspicious Wi-Fi connections. The fingerprint reader is built into the round power button above the right side of the keyboard.

The hybrid work features look solid, with a Full HD (1080p) or 5 MP/IR webcam with Lenovo View video enhancements, two user-facing microphones, and Dolby Audio and Dolby Voice capabilities.

There are two speakers at the top of the keyboard.

And here’s one area where Lenovo clearly gets it: The ThinkPad 14s is devoid of crapware, not to mention superfluous multiple utilities. There are only two Lenovo utilities in the Start menu—Vantage and View—plus three Intel utilities, Dolby Access, Glance by Mirametrix, Pre-boot Manager, and Realtek Audio Console. It’s worth spending some time exploring the options in Vantage, in particular.

Finally, the ThinkPad T14s weighs just 2.69 pounds, which is terrific for a 14-inch Ultrabook, and it starts just above $1100 on sale. I’m looking forward to carrying this laptop, and only this laptop, during my trip to Seattle next week.

More soon.