Lenovo ThinkBook 16p Gen 3 review: good, however not sufficient

Lenovo ThinkBook 16p Gen 3 review: good, however not sufficient

MSRP $2,359.00

“For a laptop of this worth, the Lenovo ThinkBook 16p Gen 3 nonetheless lacks the standout options it wants.”

Professionals

• Sturdy productiveness efficiency
• Good productiveness show
• Stable 1080p gaming
• Snug keyboard

Cons

• Inferior construct high quality
• Touchpad is small
• Costly

When you’ve an extremely large lineup of laptops, like Lenovo, it is advisable phase them in some way. The ThinkBook, for instance, is aimed narrowly at small and medium-sized companies (SMBs), trying to provide the form of aesthetics and costs that buyers search for with a number of the enhanced safety and companies that companies demand. Presumably, that’s differentiated from the ThinkPad line that’s all-business in its seems and options.

Certainly, the ThinkBook 16p Gen 3 is an attention-grabbing member of the lineup, being a 16-inch machine with high-end elements and a smattering of options that SMB patrons will admire. It’s a powerful performer, if not class-leading, however its construct high quality is suspect, and it’s fairly costly. That makes it onerous to face out from the remainder of the lineup.

Specs

The ThinkBook 16p Gen 3 begins at $2,359 for an AMD Ryzen 5 6600H CPU, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 GPU. Enhance to a Ryzen 7 5800H, and also you’ll spend $2,619. My review unit with 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD hasn’t been launched or priced but, however will probably strategy $3,000.

That makes this a surprisingly costly 16-inch laptop. Sure, it has good elements, nevertheless it’s costlier than different premium machines just like the Dell XPS 15 and XPS 17.

A contemporary design that form of works

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The ThinkBook 16p Gen 3 enjoys what’s develop into an identifiable ThinkBook aesthetic, notably on the is two-toned lid that has a daring ThinkBook emblem. That differentiates it from the remainder of Lenovo’s lineup and provides the laptop a little bit of panache. In any other case, the look is a typical enterprise laptop with a darkish gray colorway and an ordinary Lenovo chassis. The lid does join at a spot that’s set in about half an inch from the rear, which is completely different, and the keyboard is darker as effectively. The result’s a laptop that appears good and stands out simply sufficient, with out being unnecessarily glitzy for a enterprise skilled.

It’s additionally an all-metal construct, though it’s not as stable because the Dell XPS 15 or MacBook Professional 16. The lid feels bendable, and there’s some noticeable flex within the keyboard deck. At a worth of effectively over $2,000, it’s onerous to miss the shortage of rigidity. The hinge opens with one hand, however there’s a little bit of wobble throughout hardcore typing periods. Total, I used to be a bit upset with the ThinkBook 16p’s construct high quality, and that’s a knock in opposition to the machine’s suitability for its goal person.

The ThinkPad 16p has fairly small bezels, with solely a bigger decrease chin making it about an inch deeper than the XPS 15 (which has a barely smaller show). The ThinkPad X1 Excessive is nearly the identical dimension and identically thick at 0.78 inches, versus the XPS 15’s 0.73 inches. The ThinkPad 16p weighs 4.4 kilos, which makes it barely heavier than the ThinkPad X1 Excessive and barely lighter than the 4.62-pound XPS 15. It’s a big laptop for certain, however you get a 16-inch display screen in change.

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By way of different creature comforts, the ThinkPad 16p has loads to draw. The keyboard is gentle and snappy, with much less journey than the ThinkPad’s keyboard but additionally extra snug switches total. The XPS 15 has a barely higher keyboard, however many customers most likely wouldn’t discover it. The touchpad is smaller than it might be given the obtainable house, nevertheless it works effectively with a easy, responsive floor and fairly quiet button clicks. There’s no contact show possibility, which I choose to see on a premium laptop.

The webcam is 1080p and supplies a top quality picture that can please enterprise customers who want videoconferencing to get their work performed. An infrared camera supplies Home windows 11 Hi there passwordless login assist, and there’s a fingerprint reader embedded within the offset energy button for individuals who choose that methodology for logging in. Lenovo has included Look software program with person presence detection that may put the laptop to sleep when the person steps away and supplies digital wellness performance, though it was disabled on my review unit.

Lenovo’s ThinkShutter privateness display screen is there to shut off the webcam. In probably the most pertinent nod to enterprise customers, the ThinkPad 16p Gen 3 additionally incorporates Microsoft’s Safe BIOS.

Lastly, connectivity is powerful, albeit with a port configuration that you just don’t usually see outdoors of bigger gaming machines. You don’t get Thunderbolt 4 due to the AMD chipset, however every little thing else is there together with USB-C, USB-A, HDMI, and a full-size SD card reader. A few of the ports are organized alongside the again, which we don’t usually see, and it’s handy when you get used to it. There’s a proprietary energy connector matched with an enormous 230-watt energy brick, essential to preserve the high-end elements operating.

Quicker at enjoyable than it’s at work

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Simply since you’re a businessperson doesn’t imply you don’t need to play some video games. The ThinkPad 16p, with its Ryzen CPU and RTX 3060 GPU, is more proficient at play than at work. I’ll begin with its productiveness and artistic efficiency, due to course, that’s what you’re paying for, however I’ll make sure to cowl gaming as effectively. The ThinkPad’s thermal design was superb, with restricted throttling however fairly a little bit of fan noise when the CPU and GPU spun up. Lenovo’s thermal utility didn’t make an enormous distinction in any of our ordinary benchmarks, however I’ve reported these scores the place applicable.

My review unit packed in an eight-core/16-thread 45-watt AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX CPU. That’s top-of-the-line till AMD’s 7000 collection comes out, and it’s a quick CPU for certain. Even so, it fell behind our comparability group in Geekbench 5, together with machines operating Intel’s 45-watt Twelfth-gen CPUs. As ordinary, AMD’s single-core scores lagged probably the most. The ThinkPad 16 was quick in Cinebench R23 multi-core, although, and it did effectively in our Handbrake take a look at that encodes a 420MB video as H.265.

The ThinkPad 16p was a stable performer, nevertheless it didn’t fairly sustain with some newer Intel-based laptops. Within the Pugetbench Premiere Professional benchmark that runs in a dwell model of Adobe’s Premiere Professional, the ThinkPad 16p was behind laptops just like the HP Envy 16 that utilized the RTX 3060 CPU. This benchmark advantages from some Intel optimizations in Adobe apps that will or could not apply to a given workflow.

Total, the ThinkPad 16p meets the efficiency wants of probably the most demanding professionals irrespective of the enterprise dimension, and it could possibly meet the wants of creators as effectively. You’ll get higher efficiency out of Intel’s newest 45-watt Twelfth-gen CPUs, at the least in most of our benchmarks, and the Apple MacBook Professional 16 continues to dominate.

The ThinkPad 16p Gen 3 ships with Nvidia Studio drivers, which means it’s optimized for efficiency and reliability in sure demanding functions (e.g. Adobe Artistic Suite) versus gaming. Even so, the laptop carried out effectively in all our benchmarks and was sooner than another creator-focused laptops we’ve reviewed. It was notably quick in Murderer’s Creed Valhalla, and it tied for first in Cyberpunk 2077.

You’ll discover gaming laptops which are sooner, however for a non-gaming machine, the outcomes had been fairly spectacular. Persist with 1080p gaming, and also you’ll get 60+ frames per second (fps) in lots of fashionable titles with graphics turned up, and also you received’t have to show them down a lot to play at 1440p.

Wrapping up

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It’s unusual to ding a laptop show that’s so brilliant at 525 nits and enjoys a distinction ratio of 1,160:1 — each are stable scores for a contemporary IPS show. An accuracy of DeltaE 1.21 can be sturdy. Nevertheless, the ThinkPad 16p’s show may solely muster 98% of sRGB and 75% of AdobeRGB. These are superb scores for productiveness duties, however demanding creators need wider colours. On condition that that is the laptop’s solely obtainable show, it limits this laptop’s enchantment to that group.

I’ll notice that it is a 165Hz show, which supplies for a smoother Home windows 11 and gaming expertise, though you’ll have to show graphics right down to hit these sorts of body charges. The upper refresh charge is actually a perk, although, and it elevates every little thing you do with the system. The audio system had been loud however sounded a bit tinny because of a scarcity of bass, making them a step beneath these on another bigger machines.

Battery life is respectable, not that great longevity ought to ever be anticipated from a laptop with a 16.0-inch 16:10 WQXGA (2,560 x 1,600) show and power-hungry elements. The ThinkPad 16p hit about 6.75 hours in our internet searching take a look at and 9 hours in our video take a look at. Each scores are lower than common in comparison with most laptops I’ve reviewed in 2022, though that’s stable sufficient for the category.

If you wish to take the laptop on the street, you then’ll need to carry that giant and heavy energy brick with you in case you want a full workday’s longevity.

Not a foul laptop, however not particular both

Some laptops are tougher than others to categorize and charge. The ThinkBook 16p Gen 3 is such a machine. Whereas Lenovo stresses its suitability for small and medium-sized companies, I didn’t discover a lot that makes the laptop really stand out for this crowd. Issues like webcam privateness options and person presence sensing exist on mainstream client laptops, as do engaging aesthetics and stable efficiency. The ThinkPad 16p even comes with a one-year guarantee, which is business normal and fewer than many true enterprise machines provide.

On the identical time, whereas efficiency was stable and battery life was higher than you’ll discover in another 16-inch laptops, construct high quality wasn’t as much as par given the excessive beginning worth of $2,359. Spend this a lot cash, and you will get a Dell XPS 15 that’s roughly as quick, constructed significantly better, and has a considerably higher show.

In evaluating the ThinkPad 16p as an appropriate machine for SMB customers, I find yourself being unconvinced this has any critical benefits. There actually isn’t that a lot there that you just received’t discover on another mainstream laptops aimed toward shoppers, and the construct doesn’t dwell as much as the value tag.

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