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 value, the Lenovo ThinkBook 16p Gen 3 nonetheless lacks the standout options it wants.”

Execs

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

Cons

• Inferior construct high quality
• Touchpad is small
• Costly

When you will have an extremely huge lineup of laptops, like Lenovo, you’ll want to phase them in some way. The ThinkBook, for instance, is aimed narrowly at small and medium-sized companies (SMBs), trying to supply the form of aesthetics and costs that buyers search for with a number of the enhanced safety and providers that companies demand. Presumably, that’s differentiated from the ThinkPad line that’s all-business in its appears to be like and options.

Certainly, the ThinkBook 16p Gen 3 is an fascinating member of the lineup, being a 16-inch machine with high-end parts and a smattering of options that SMB consumers will admire. It’s a robust performer, if not class-leading, however its construct high quality is suspect, and it’s fairly costly. That makes it exhausting 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. Improve 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 doubtless method $3,000.

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

A contemporary design that kind of works

Mark Coppock/Digital Developments

The ThinkBook 16p Gen 3 enjoys what’s grow to be an identifiable ThinkBook aesthetic, significantly on the is two-toned lid that has a daring ThinkBook emblem. That differentiates it from the remainder of Lenovo’s lineup and offers the laptop a little bit of panache. In any other case, the look is a typical enterprise laptop with a darkish gray colorway and a typical Lenovo chassis. The lid does join at a spot that’s set in about half an inch from the rear, which is totally 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 value of effectively over $2,000, it’s exhausting to miss the shortage of rigidity. The hinge opens with one hand, however there’s a little bit of wobble throughout hardcore typing classes. Total, I used to be a bit disenchanted with the ThinkBook 16p’s construct high quality, and that’s a knock towards the machine’s suitability for its goal consumer.

The ThinkBook 16p has moderately 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 sort of the identical dimension and identically thick at 0.78 inches, versus the XPS 15’s 0.73 inches. The ThinkBook 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 alternate.

Mark Coppock/Digital Developments

When it comes to different creature comforts, the ThinkBook 16p has loads to draw. The keyboard is mild 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, but it surely works effectively with a clean, responsive floor and fairly quiet button clicks. There’s no contact show possibility, which I favor to see on a premium laptop.

The webcam is 1080p and supplies a high quality picture that may please enterprise customers who want videoconferencing to get their work performed. An infrared camera supplies Home windows 11 Howdy passwordless login help, and there’s a fingerprint reader embedded within the offset energy button for many who favor that methodology for logging in. Lenovo has included Look software program with consumer presence detection that may put the laptop to sleep when the consumer 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 ThinkBook 16p Gen 3 additionally incorporates Microsoft’s Safe BIOS.

Lastly, connectivity is powerful, albeit with a port configuration that you simply 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. Among 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 maintain the high-end parts operating.

Sooner at enjoyable than it’s at work

Mark Coppock/Digital Developments

Simply since you’re a businessperson doesn’t imply you don’t need to play some video games. The ThinkBook 16p, with its Ryzen CPU and RTX 3060 GPU, is more proficient at play than at work. I’ll begin with its productiveness and inventive efficiency, due to course, that’s what you’re paying for, however I’ll make sure you cowl gaming as effectively. The ThinkBook’s thermal design was positive, 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 normal 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 normal, AMD’s single-core scores lagged probably the most. The ThinkBook 16 was quick in Cinebench R23 multi-core, although, and it did effectively in our Handbrake check that encodes a 420MB video as H.265.

The ThinkBook 16p was a stable performer, but it surely 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 ThinkBook 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 which will or could not apply to a given workflow.

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

The ThinkBook 16p Gen 3 ships with Nvidia Studio drivers, that 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 quicker than another creator-focused laptops we’ve reviewed. It was significantly quick in Murderer’s Creed Valhalla, and it tied for first in Cyberpunk 2077.

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

Wrapping up

Mark Coppock/Digital Developments

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 robust. Nevertheless, the ThinkBook 16p’s show may solely muster 98% of sRGB and 75% of AdobeRGB. These are positive 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 attraction to that group.

I’ll word 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 definitely 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 on account of a scarcity of bass, making them a step under these on another bigger machines.

Battery life is first rate, not that super 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 parts. The ThinkBook 16p hit about 6.75 hours in our internet looking check and 9 hours in our video check. 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, then you definitely’ll need to carry that enormous and heavy energy brick with you if you happen to 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 actually stand out for this crowd. Issues like webcam privateness options and consumer presence sensing exist on mainstream client laptops, as do enticing aesthetics and stable efficiency. The ThinkBook 16p even comes with a one-year guarantee, which is trade commonplace and fewer than many true enterprise machines supply.

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 value 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 ThinkBook 16p as an acceptable machine for SMB customers, I find yourself being unconvinced this has any severe benefits. There actually isn’t that a lot there that you simply gained’t discover on another mainstream laptops aimed toward shoppers, and the construct doesn’t dwell as much as the value tag.

Editors’ Suggestions