If you're in the market for a quality business laptop, the choice might be between a Lenovo ThinkPad or a ThinkBook. We reviewed the Lenovo ThinkBook 16 G7 earlier this year, and found it to be exactly that: a quality business laptop with notable compromises that helped Lenovo hit a competitive price point. Now, there's a new ThinkBook 16 G7 with a more premium design, a new Snapdagon X Plus processor, and a significantly more expensive price tag.

This laptop isn't particularly bad on its own, but I'm worried it's stuck in an unfortunate middle ground. It's only marginally better than the Intel version of the ThinkBook 16 G7 despite costing over $500 more. Additionally, it doesn't do much to stand out amid a competitive lineup of Snapdragon X Plus laptops. For those that wanted a ThinkBook 16 G7 with a Snapdragon chip inside, this computer is finally here. But for people with a bit more flexibility in their choice of laptop, there might be a better-value machine out there.

About this review: Lenovo loaned us a ThinkBook 16 G7 for the purposes of this review. The company had no input in this article, and did not see its contents before publishing.

Pricing, specs, and availability

Lenovo's ThinkBook G7 now comes in Intel, AMD, and Snapdragon flavors. The model I reviewed includes a Snapdragon X Plus processor, 32GB of RAM, and 1TB of SSD storage. However, the base model starts with 16GB memory and 512GB storage at $1,430. It's available on Lenovo's website, and some ThinkBook G7 configurations are available from third-party retailers.

Design and ports

The chip isn't the only thing that's changed on this ThinkBook 16 G7

From afar, you might think that the Snapdragon flavor of the ThinkBook 16 G7 is the exact same as its Intel and AMD counterparts, but that isn't the case. Almost everything is the same, from the sleek and boxy professional aesthetic to the display panel and keyboard layout. However, the differences come from the laptop's port selection. A few ports are moved around, and the Snapdragon X Plus version of the ThinkBook 16 G7. The 14.03 x 9.78 x 0.66-inch dimensions of the 16-inch ThinkBook G7 are close to those of the Intel model, with the Snapdragon version being slightly thinner. Starting at just over four pounds, this laptop is somewhat light for its size.

The collapsible Ethernet port is a significant loss, and people who need that functionality will need to use a dongle or buy another laptop. As far as the rest of the ports are concerned, there's a pretty good selection. You get two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports, both of which are always-on. Then, there are two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C ports that support both DisplayPort Alt Mode and power delivery. There's an HDMI 2.1 port, a full-size SD card reader, and a 3.5mm combo jack. Unlike some other laptops, all the Type-A and Type-C ports have the same respective specifications, which is great for consistency.

Nothing about the design is unique, save for the two-tone finish that is now synonymous with the ThinkBook brand. Of course, that's by design. They're supposed to blend in, feel right at home in business environments, and feature limited changes between models so that they can be swapped in and out of enterprise deployments seamlessly. And to Lenovo's credit, the Snapdragon variant of the ThinkBook 16 G7 still does all of those things well.

Keyboard and touchpad

Lenovo's keyboard is solid as usual, and so was the touchpad ... except for a minor issue

The build quality of the ThinkBook 16 G7 is top-notch, from the military-grade durability certification, to the all-metal chassis, and yes, to the keyboard. Consistency is a theme of the ThinkBook lineup, and that's true of the keyboard. There's a good amount of travel, Lenovo's classic keycap shape, a numpad, full-size arrow keys, and a versatile function row. Oh, and there's a Copilot key, if you ever want to use Microsoft's AI chatbot. I've always felt familiar and comfortable on Lenovo keyboards, and this one is no exception.

Now, the touchpad is an entirely different story. This one felt off from the minute I started using the ThinkBook 16 G7, and initially, I just thought there was a problem with my settings. I turned my touchpad sensitivity up and turned off tap-to-click, not thinking much of it.

Only later would I find out that the top one-third portion of my ThinkBook 16 G7 touchpad doesn't click properly. Sure, I could click it, but it required so much force and strange positioning that doing so would cause the entire keyboard deck to flex significantly. I'm not sure how many people really use that area of the touchpad, but I do quite often when I want to quickly click with my pointer finger while typing. All this is to say that the ThinkBook 16 G7 touchpad is leagues behind the ones you'd get on a MacBook Pro or even a Surface Laptop 7.

Display

A rare miss from Lenovo in terms of color accuracy

The heart of the Lenovo ThinkBook 16 G7 is a 16-inch, IPS display panel with an anti-glare matte covering. It's limited to 60Hz, which is fine for a productivity laptop. There is a resolution of 1920x1200, and a 300-nit brightness rating. In other words, this is a very mediocre display, and it appears to be the exact same panel we reviewed in the Intel version of the ThinkBook 16 G7. That's significant, because it performed horribly in our color accuracy display testing. Did anything turn out differently this time around?

No, not at all. This display covered 66% of the sRGB color gamut, a result that isn't great at a time when nearly all laptops offer complete sRGB coverage. The screen also covers less than half of each of the NTSC, AdobeRGB, and DCI-P3 color spaces. Lenovo claims that the ThinkBook 16 G7 can cover 45% of the NTSC gamut, so my test results were actually better than expected. That sums up how poor the ThinkBook 16 G7's color accuracy is.

The brightness tests yielded better results, with my review unit hitting about 320 nits of peak brightness. That's a bit above the advertised value of 300 nits, and I'd say it's passable for most users. While the matte display covering may make the display quality slightly worse, it will help reduce glare and keep your screen's contents visible even in direct sunlight.

Really, the problem with the ThinkBook 16 G7's display is that it doesn't match the laptop's price. When the ThinkBook 16 G7 was shipping with Intel and AMD processors for less than $1,000, it was easy to excuse the poor color accuracy. Now, the Snapdragon X Plus model of the ThinkBook 16 G7 is priced closer to $1,500. You can't get away with the same things at that price point, especially when there are other laptops available with far better screens.

Performance

Good, but maybe not good enough to justify the price

The laptop's performance seems to follow the same theme, at least on paper. With a low-end Snapdragon X Plus (X1P-42-100) system-on-a-chip, the ThinkBook 16 G7 has the same Snapdragon X SKU as the Dell Inspiron 14. While the ThinkBook 16 G7 retails for around $1,430, the Dell Inspiron 14 sells for $850. In our testing, the ThinkBook 16 G7 performs slightly better than the Inspiron 14, despite the two machines having the same chip inside. Lenovo's option is also more business-friendly, with a bigger screen and more ports. But is that enough to make buyers want to pay over $500 more for the ThinkBook 16 G7?

After putting the ThinkBook 16 G7 and a set of reference devices through their paces in benchmarks, I'm having a hard time seeing why you'd want to buy it over the competition. It's better than the Intel version of the ThinkBook 16 G7, but the difference in speed and performance is only really noticeable in multi-core and graphics-heavy workloads. It's also slightly better than the Inspiron 14 Plus. However, it'll lose out to Snapdragon X Elite systems entirely. The crazy thing is, you can buy a Surface Laptop 7 with Snapdragon X Elite for less than a ThinkBook 16 G7.

That creates a tricky situation for the Lenovo ThinkBook 16 G7. There's a cheaper model of the same laptop with Intel processors that performs fine, a cheaper model of a different laptop with the same Snapdragon X Plus processor that performs well, and a competing laptop around the same price with a better Snapdragon X Elite chip that's undeniably faster. When you consider all this, the only reason why it'd make sense to buy Lenovo's business offering is if you need a ThinkBook and Snapdragon, and you absolutely must have them both together.

It's important to remember that this is a Snapdragon X laptop running Windows on Arm. What does that mean? Essentially, it means that while most of your apps should run natively like you're used to, not all of them will. The rest are emulated x86 apps, which perform worse due to the speed lost in the emulation layer. Additionally, some programs might not run at all for various reasons, like games. Generally, the things most people use a laptop for in 2024 should work perfectly fine with Windows on Arm.

That compatibility tradeoff gives you a quicker, more powerful laptop that's extremely efficient. Battery life is excellent on all Snapdragon X laptops, including the Lenovo ThinkBook 16 G7. I get all-day battery life with this thing, and an hour of intensive work (in my case, web-based apps and photo editing) drains about 10 to 15% of the laptop's battery. So, if you like your ThinkBook but wish it lasted longer, this one is for you.

Should you buy the Lenovo ThinkBook 16 G7?

You should buy the Lenovo ThinkBook 16 G7 if:

• You want a ThinkBook with a Snapdragon X Plus processor
• You value battery life above all else
• You need a 16-inch laptop

You should NOT buy the Lenovo ThinkBook 16 G7 if:

• You'd be fine with a cheaper Intel or Snapdragon laptop
• You want the extra performance of the Snapdragon X Elite for the same price
• You need a better display

If Lenovo had changed more with the ThinkBook 16 G7, improving the screen and design, perhaps it would be easier to justify the price increase from the Intel to Snapdragon models. However, the Snapdragon X Plus chip alone isn't worth the extra cost, especially when there are Snapdragon X Elite laptops out there for the same price. There are some business customers who are locked into ThinkBook, and for those customers, the Snapdragon X Plus laptop will be solid. It'll also be slightly overpriced, because both of those things can be true at the same time.

The good news is that the ThinkBook 16 G7 is sure to go on sale, with enticing offers for enterprise buyers. At the time of publishing, we're already seeing some configurations of the ThinkBook 16 G7 (although not the exact configuration reviewed) get price cuts, bringing it closer to the $1,000 mark. That's more like what this laptop is worth. If you can get a deal, the ThinkBook 16 G7 isn't a bad buy.