Lenovo ThinkPad Z16 Gen 2 assessment: late to the sport

Lenovo shook up the ThinkPad lineup with the ThinkPad Z16, a extra trendy tackle the venerable traditional. When the primary era arrived, I discovered it to be an incredible new addition to the household, providing modern styling to go together with the same old ThinkPad high quality and toughness.

The second era is now right here, and it updates the CPU and GPU whereas conserving all the pieces else the identical. IT departments will prefer it, but it surely’s not fairly as a lot of a standout laptop computer in comparison with the big selection of 16-inch opponents in late 2023.

Specs and configurations

As traditional, Lenovo provides a slew of configuration choices for the ThinkPad Z16 Gen 2, and its value adjustments usually. As this assessment is being written, the entry-level machine prices $1,588 for an AMD Ryzen 5 Professional 7640HS CPU, 16GB of RAM, at 512GB SSD, a 16.0-inch WUXGA IPS show, and built-in AMD Radeon graphics. Probably the most you’ll spend is $3,210 for a Ryzen 9 Professional 7940HS, 64GB of RAM, a 2TB SSD, a 16.0-inch WUXGA OLED show, and an AMD Radeon RX 6550M GPU. My assessment unit is priced at $2,680 with the identical high-end parts aside from a 1TB SSD.

That makes the ThinkPad Z16 Gen 2 a distinctly premium laptop computer and fairly costly when totally configured. The Dell XPS 15 is equally as costly, though for round $3,200, you get a quicker CPU and GPU with Dell’s machine.

The identical trendy tackle the ThinkPad design

The ThinkPad Z16 Gen 2 takes on the identical design as its predecessor, which launched a extra trendy look to the ThinkPad lineup. It’s sleeker than the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon with its extra old-school aesthetic, and as a substitute opts for a much less angular and extra elegant look that’s harking back to the Apple MacBook Professional. The lid is darkish grey and the chassis edges are chrome, whereas the palm relaxation and keyboard retain the lineup’s iconic black-on-black coloration scheme. It’s nonetheless recognizable as a ThinkPad, however I discover it fairly a bit extra enticing.

The show bezels are slim, giving the ThinkPad Z16 Gen 2 a contemporary look. Lenovo utilized its reverse notch to slot in the 1080p webcam and infrared digicam for Home windows 11 Good day facial recognition. I discover {that a} extra affordable strategy than Apple’s show notch, and there’s additionally one thing to grip when opening the lid – which may be achieved with one hand because of the sleek hinge that holds the show firmly in place.

The aluminum chassis and lid are inflexible and subjected to military-grade checks for robustness. The MacBook Professional nonetheless feels extra strong, however no one can complain concerning the ThinkPad Z16 Gen 2’s construct high quality. The ThinkPad is skinny at 0.62 inches and light-weight at 3.99 kilos, each wonderful numbers for a 16-inch laptop computer.

The keyboard may be very ThinkPad-like with its sculpted keycaps boasting substantial journey. I discovered the switches lighter than on some ThinkPads, which I appreciated. I don’t like stiff keyboards. The keycap dimension and spacing are each wonderful, and in contrast to on another ThinkPads, the Ctrl and Fn keys aren’t reversed. That, too, makes higher sense to me.

The haptic touchpad was smaller than on the MacBook Professional 16, with more room above the keyboard, and I discovered it barely much less comfy to make use of. The ThinkPad Z16 Gen 2’s touchpad would typically maintain onto digital clicks too lengthy, inflicting me to inadvertently transfer the mouse cursor, whereas Apple’s model is extra exact. Maybe that’s one thing Lenovo can repair with a firmware replace. When you favor Lenovo’s TrackPoint nubbin, you’ll discover it in the course of the keyboard. It really works in addition to at all times.

One criticism I had whereas utilizing the ThinkPad Z16 Gen 2 to kind this assessment copy was that the palm relaxation was ridiculously clean. My wrists slid throughout whereas I used to be typing, and I needed to make a aware effort to maintain my fingers positioned on the keys. It slowed me down, and I can’t bear in mind one other laptop computer the place I had the identical criticism.

Connectivity is sweet, with each trendy and legacy ports. I’d have most well-liked a full-size SD Card reader, and there’s no Thunderbolt four due to the AMD chipset. Wi-fi connectivity is updated.

Along with facial recognition, you should use the fingerprint reader on the keyboard to log in with out a password. Each choices had been quick and dependable. The ThinkPad Z16 Gen 2 retains the same old ThinkPad safety features corresponding to a match-on-chip sensor within the fingerprint reader and a self-healing BIOS that may get better the machine within the case of a malicious assault. The ThinkPad Z16 Gen 2 provides an AMD Ryzen Professional processor that may plug into enterprise safety and administration programs.

A bit quicker, loads much less long-lasting

The ThinkPad Z16 Gen 2 makes use of AMD Ryzen Professional 7040 CPUs, that are geared toward organizations that may make the most of their enhanced safety and manageability options. By way of efficiency, they’re equal to their non-Professional siblings, and I reviewed the ThinkPad with the Ryzen 9 Professional 7940HS. That’s an 8-core/16-thread CPU working at as much as 5.2GHz and drawing between 35 watts and 54 watts. It ought to compete most immediately with Intel’s 45-watt Core processors. My assessment unit additionally included the entry-level AMD Radeon RX 6550M discrete GPU.

In our suite of efficiency checks, the ThinkPad’s efficiency was combined. It scored very low in Geekbench 5, nicely under the Ryzen 9 7940HS within the Acer Swift X 16 and the Core i7-13700H and Core i9-13900H. It managed a stronger rating in our Handbrake check that encodes a 420MB video as H.265, in addition to within the Cinebench R23 benchmark. Lenovo integrates its efficiency administration performance into the Home windows efficiency slider, and I noticed minimal influence when switching to efficiency mode. The followers did get a bit louder, however the efficiency was virtually the identical. The chassis and keyboard by no means obtained greater than heat throughout benchmarking.

The ThinkPad Z16 Gen 2 wasn’t as fast because the comparability group within the PugetBench Premiere Professional benchmark, which runs in a reside model of Adobe’s Premiere Professional and makes use of discrete GPUs to hurry up numerous duties. That’s seemingly right down to the Radeon RX 6550M GPU, which was slower than the Nvidia GeForce RTX GPUs. In line with the 3DMark Time Spy check, the RX 6550M falls within the center between Intel built-in Iris Xe graphics and the entry-level RTX 4050.

These outcomes make the ThinkPad Z16 Gen 2 a quick sufficient machine to deal with demanding productiveness duties, however not quick sufficient for something greater than minimal creativity workflows. When you’re a creator, you’ll wish to take into account a 16-inch laptop computer with a quicker mixture of CPU and GPU. Players who wish to run trendy titles may also have to look elsewhere.

I reviewed the first-gen ThinkPad Z16 with the previous-generation AMD Ryzen 7 Professional 6850H CPU and a low-power 1,920 x 1,200 IPS non-touch show, and it achieved wonderful battery life at 12 hours in our web-browsing check and 23 hours in our video-looping check. I didn’t count on the ThinkPad Z16 Gen 2 with the Ryzen 9 Professional 7940HS and a 4K+ OLED show to final as lengthy, however the outcomes had been worse than I anticipated.

The ThinkPad Z16 Gen 2 managed simply six hours within the web-browsing check and eight hours within the video-looping check. That’s round half the battery life with the identical 72 watt-hour battery. Not like the earlier mannequin, I wasn’t capable of get a lot previous lunch utilizing the laptop computer for my typical productiveness work. Most customers might want to carry the massive energy brick round with them, which negatively impacts the laptop computer’s portability. The earlier mannequin was aggressive with the class-leader MacBook Professional that lasts 18 hours in our benchmarks, however the brand new model is nicely under it.

An OLED show that’s behind the curve

I reviewed the ThinkPad Z16 Gen 2 with its high-end show choice, a 16.0-inch 16:10 4K+ (3,840 x 2,400) OLED show working at 60Hz. These are good specs aside from one factor: many OLED shows are working at 90Hz or 120Hz, placing the ThinkPad’s panel a step behind. It was beautiful out of the field, with loads of brightness, coloration, and inky blacks, however for those who discover variations in refresh charges, then it gained’t present as clean of an expertise in Home windows 11.

In line with my colorimeter, the ThinkPad Z16 Gen 2’s show provides the same old high-quality OLED picture. Colours had been large at 100% of sRGB, 97% of AdobeRGB, and 100% of DCI-P3, and so they had been extremely correct at a DeltaE of 0.72 (lower than 1.Zero is indistinguishable to the human eye). The brightness was excellent at 397, nicely above our threshold of 300 nits, however not as shiny as Apple’s Mini-LED shows on MacBook Professionals. And naturally, the distinction was extremely excessive with excellent blacks.

All of that mixes to make for a show that anybody will love, together with media shoppers and creators. The show supplied wonderful excessive dynamic vary (HDR) by way of Dolby Imaginative and prescient, which is supported by streaming providers like Netflix and makes for a chic viewing expertise. As talked about, the one knock towards the ThinkPad Z16 Gen 2’s show is its mundane 60Hz refresh charge.

The audio is supplied by two upward-firing audio system flanking the keyboard, and it was simply OK. The amount was loud sufficient to fill my small residence workplace, however there was appreciable distortion at full quantity. Mids and highs had been clear, however there was surprisingly little bass. I’ve come to count on extra on bigger laptops, with the Dell XPS 15 and the MacBook Professional offering significantly better audio high quality.

A brand new addition to the ThinkPad lineup that doesn’t shine fairly as shiny

Perhaps it was the introduction of so many different 16-inch laptops in 2023, however I wasn’t as impressed with the ThinkPad Z16 Gen 2 as I used to be with the unique mannequin. Its aesthetic, whereas very good, didn’t impress me as a lot, its slippery palm relaxation bugged me, and its battery life wasn’t excellent. Even its efficiency was center of the pack, particularly when spending this type of cash.

That’s to not say it’s not a strong choice for anybody aside from creators. Particularly, bigger corporations that use complicated safety and administration programs will prefer it loads. This time round, although, my advice is simply lukewarm reasonably than purple sizzling because it was the primary time.

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