Lenovo ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 review: A budget business ARM laptop

Lenovo pitches the Lenovo ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 as a spending plan business laptop computer. Lots of people will certainly be enjoyed get this sort of device from their jobs. Yes, it’s not mosting likely to be optimal for pc gaming or CPU-heavy jobs, but as a 16-inch performance equipment that obtains long battery life with stylish desktop application efficiency, you could do a whole lot worse.

The Lenovo ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 has a 16-inch 1920 × 1200 IPS display. While the display is plenty large, it’s not a particularly superior display screen. The greatest trouble is the low illumination– simply 300 nits of illumination, according to Lenovo.

The aluminum chassis of the laptop feels rather light-weight in such a way, yet the laptop on the whole gets on the hefty side for a mobile company laptop computer– especially one powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus ARM hardware.

It functions with Windows Hello to sign you into the laptop computer. Like the fingerprint readers build into other modern-day laptop computers, it functions well, and I had no issue utilizing it.

I confess: My first impression was negative. I such as an excellent snappy key-board with a decent quantity of traveling. The key-board below simply doesn’t really feel anywhere near as stylish and crisp as you might find on a Lenovo ThinkPad laptop computer, for example.

It’s rather grainy and loud when you’re looking at a high-resolution video clip image, and I do really feel like it did a dramatically much better task in daytime than with basic indoor lights, so efficiency might differ depending on your lighting. I’ve seen better in several other laptop computers I have actually utilized recently.

It’s a practical selection of ports, although this is a service laptop computer so some people may desire a Ethernet port for a wired networking link. For whatever else you might desire, you can always obtain a dongle.

In general, though, this equipment provides snappy efficiency in the normal desktop computer performance applications: Internet browsers like Chrome, work environment conversation apps like Slack, performance tools like Microsoft Office, and more. If that’s what you intend on finishing with this maker, the low GPU efficiency won’t really impact you– you might not also observe it.

The Lenovo ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 incorporates a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus processor with a fast solid-state drive, so it’s not a surprise that it gives great, stylish performance in everyday jobs. However there was one huge shock: The graphics performance.

We also run 3Dmark Night Raid. This benchmark is available with an ARM native version in addition to an x86 indigenous version, so we can compare apples to apples with no emulation layers obstructing.

This budget plan business laptop provides wonderful battery life and snappy desktop application performance. Yet the screen isn’t terrific, and this is the lowest-performance Snapdragon X Plus SKU offered.

That’s because, again, the Snapdragon X1P-42-100 equipment right here is the lowest-end Snapdragon SKU currently offered. While a lot of Snapdragon X Plus and Snapdragon X Elite GPUs perform at 3.8 TFLOPS, according to Qualcomm, this equipment’s Adreno GPU runs at 1.7 TFLOPS.

Other components of the experience howl “spending plan organization laptop computer” such as the dim and not particularly impressive display. The CPU here is a little slower than the typical Snapdragon X-powered laptop computer, while the GPU is much slower.

That’s why we run Cinebench R24, which has a native variation available for Windows on ARM. This is a heavily multithreaded criteria that concentrates on overall CPU performance. It’s a fast benchmark, so cooling under prolonged work isn’t an element. Considering that it’s greatly multithreaded, CPUs with more cores have a massive advantage.

With a Cinebench R24 multithreaded score of 746, the Qualcomm Snapdragon X And also X1P-42-100 hardware in this equipment executed a little bit a lot more slowly than the Snapdragon X Plus hardware in various other equipments.

I’m not mindful of any various other 16-inch Snapdragon X-powered laptops except the Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge, which is a higher-end device that begins at a retail price of $1,450. From that viewpoint, I expect it’s excellent worth for a 16-inch Snapdragon laptop.

Of program, at 16 inches, this laptop computer is on the bigger side, so it makes feeling that it’s larger. If you want the lightest laptop, this maker isn’t the ideal selection.

Lenovo informed us that this laptop computer sells for $999. I’m not aware of any kind of other 16-inch Snapdragon X-powered laptops other than the Samsung Galaxy Book4 Side, which is a higher-end machine that starts at a retail price of $1,450. From that perspective, I mean it’s good worth for a 16-inch Snapdragon laptop.

It’s big– but not as well big– and placed a little to the left of the key-board deck so that it’s easily at hand when your fingers are relaxing in the usual area on the keyboard. As typical, I desire it was a haptic trackpad, however the majority of laptop computers still don’t provide that.

With a 3Dmark Evening Raid rating of 16518, the Lenovo ThinkBook 16 Gen 7’s graphics efficiency is nowhere close to as far behind those Intel-powered Computers. It still is much slower graphics performance than various other Snapdragon X Plus-powered systems like the Microsoft Surface Laptop Computer 7.

This 16-inch laptop is a first-generation Copilot+ computer with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X And also cpu. That’s an Arm-based cpu, which indicates it runs older Win32 applications that haven’t been recompiled for Arm equipments with Microsoft’s Prism emulation layer. Application compatibility is now pretty good, although not best.

The Lenovo ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 lasted approximately 1,314 minutes in our standard battery review test. That’s simply a hair under 22 hours. While you won’t obtain quite that long in real-world usage, this maker supplies better-than-all-day battery life. It’s an exceptional rating.

This machine has bottom-firing audio speakers, and they’re about what you would certainly expect to locate on a budget business laptop. The audio can get a little altered at the 100 percent volume level, and it executes better at reduced volume levels.

The Lenovo ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 is a 16-inch budget plan organization laptop with Qualcomm Snapdragon X And also equipment. It delivers what you ‘d wish to see from an ARM-powered Windows Computer: Virtually 22 hours of battery life in our typical examination incorporated with excellent desktop computer application efficiency.

First, we always run 3Dmark Time Spy, a visual criteria that focuses on GPU efficiency. This benchmark isn’t yet ARM-native, so it’s being run through the Prism emulation layer. It’s no surprise to see a 1,037 score, which gets on the low side– but discover that this machine is likewise a lot slower than other Qualcomm Snapdragon X systems when it involves graphics performance.

Obviously, this is created as a budget plan business laptop. Lenovo most likely expects that the average budget plan organization laptop computer customer won’t be playing numerous computer games, and they’re most likely appropriate. But some individuals might use desktop applications that require strong GPU performance. And there’s additionally been a lot of talk about the terrific GPU efficiency on these devices– so you must know that this machine and its Snapdragon X Plus SKU do not deliver the sort of GPU efficiency individuals have actually seen on higher-tier Snapdragon X Plus and Snapdragon X Elite systems.

The integrated microphone grabbed crisp, clean sound while I spoke, although there was a noisy follower producing history noise– it did a fantastic job of removing that history noise. The microphone will certainly be greater than capable for online conferences.

On the left side, this device has a HDMI 2.1 port, two USB Type-C (USB 10Gbps full feature with DisplayPort and power distribution) ports, and a combo sound jack. Keep in mind that this laptop computer costs using USB-C, so you’ll be connecting the battery charger into one of those ports.

It’s a great screen, yet simply fine. You can get laptop computers with OLED screens or even simply brighter, much more colorful, higher refresh rate IPS shows at a similar cost point.

The Lenovo ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 is a solid 16-inch laptop computer. It can be found in a “Luna Gray” style with darker vital caps. With a lot gray just broken up by the word “ThinkBook” on the cover and tiny “Lenovo” tags on the key-board tray and lid, this laptop computer will not transform any kind of heads– however it’s not designed to.

The Lenovo ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 pairs a big 84 Watt-hour battery life with a power-sipping Qualcomm Snapdragon X And also chip and a display that should not be specifically power starving. We ‘d expect to see incredible battery life with an equipment configuration such as this. And we did!

I obtained used to it. And now, keying this testimonial on the keyboard, it feels far better than I expected it to. It does not feel mushy. There is a clear activation that is very easy to get made use of to. It’s not crisp– when you push the secret down, it’s somewhat “soft.” Still, as I type the review on this key-board at high speed and with clear feedback from the secrets, I assume it’s great. However it’s something I needed to obtain used to, and individuals that are fans of crisper crucial activation (like on ThinkPads) may want to look in other places.

Lenovo pitches the Lenovo ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 as a budget plan service laptop computer. Lots of people will be enjoyed obtain this type of equipment from their jobs. Yes, it’s not going to be excellent for video gaming or CPU-heavy tasks, however as a 16-inch efficiency maker that obtains very long battery life with snappy desktop computer application efficiency, you can do a lot even worse. Then it’s a fine device, if the applications a company requires all run well on Windows on ARM– and the majority of do currently–.

Chris Hoffman is the author of Windows Knowledge, a complimentary email newsletter that brings the most recent Windows computer news, journeys, and techniques to inboxes weekly. He’s additionally the former editor-in-chief of How-To Geek and an expert technology reporter whose job has shown up in The New york city Times, PCMag, Visitor’s Digest, and various other magazines.

Do you actually require a Snapdragon-powered laptop computer? With Intel Lunar Lake-powered systems showing up, there’s swiftly becoming a lot even more competition in the productivity-laptop-with-extremely-long-battery-life arena. Eventually, laptops such as this one might cost a bit less, and at that rate factor they’ll be a lot a lot more fascinating.

The CPU below is a little slower than the average Snapdragon X-powered laptop computer, while the GPU is much slower. Lenovo pitches the Lenovo ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 as a spending plan organization laptop computer. If you want the lightest laptop, this equipment isn’t the right selection.

Since the Snapdragon X1P-42-100 equipment right here is the lowest-end Snapdragon SKU currently readily available, that’s. It rises to 3.2 GHz as opposed to 3.4 GHz– check out the official Snapdragon item graph right here for even more information.

Some components of this maker– like the lower-end CPU, a lot slower GPU, and dim-and-not-premium display offer me pause. You can get a better experience with one more Snapdragon laptop computer if you want to invest a bit more money– specifically if you can locate that other, extra costly Snapdragon laptop on sale.

To standard the battery life, we play a 4K duplicate of Tears of Steel on repeat on Windows 11 with plane setting enabled till the laptop suspends itself. This is a best-case situation for any type of laptop since regional video clip playback is so reliable, and genuine battery life in everyday use is always mosting likely to be much less than this. We established the display to 250 nits of illumination for this criteria, which indicated cranking the brightness slider method up on this device.