Another day, another AI PC. This time, Lenovo’s getting into the act with the ThinkPad T14s Gen 6, a 14-inch workhorse that’s as powerful as it is portable. The Lenovo flagship is another feather in Qualcomm’s cap, as the notebook can do a little bit of everything – photo editing, complex spreadsheets, coding, even gaming to some extent. Armed with one of Qualcomm’s X Elite processors, the laptop deals equal doses of power and endurance with an uber-comfortable keyboard and surprisingly powerful performance.

However, since the T14s only has one of the entry-level X Elite chips, it’s not the most powerful 14-inch laptop on the block. The screen could also be brighter. But pound-for-pound, the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 is perfect for mobile professionals or anyone looking for a powerful laptop that can go the distance.

Pricing and availability

For now, it seems that the ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 is a one-of-one, meaning there aren’t any other models or configurations of the system available – Snapdragon or otherwise. The notebook costs $1,760 on Lenovo’s site, and slightly less on other sites. The laptop has a 3.42-GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite X1E-78-100 processor with 32GB of LPDDR5x 8448MHz soldered RAM, 1TB M.2 PCIe Gen 4x4 SSD, an integrated Qualcomm Adreno GPU, and a 14-inch, WUXGA (1920 x 1200) IPS non-touch display.

Design and ports

The T14s rocks the typical ThinkPad uniform. You’ve got a slim chassis dripping with carbon fiber, aluminum, and magnesium in what Lenovo calls Eclipse Black. To the company’s credit, a good amount of the materials are recycled. The lid has the usual adornments – a small metal Lenovo tag in the bottom left corner and a prominent ThinkPad logo in the top-right, complete with a glowing red dot for the “i,” harkening back to its IBM days. The metal housing for the FHD camera and its accompanying system protrude slightly at the top center of the lid, making it easy to open the notebook.

You’ll want to keep a microfiber cloth and some cleaner handy, as the matte finish is a major fingerprint magnet. Either that, or my hands are oilier than the average person. While the chassis might be susceptible to oily hands, the same can’t be said for drops, shocks, extreme temperatures, or altitudes as the notebook has MIL-STD 810H certification.

The notebook’s interior is also inky black with another ThinkPad emblem engraved into the right side of the palm rest. The middle is dominated by the touchpad with its three-button clickpad which sits right below the keyboard. Just like everything ThinkPad, a cheeky red nub sits betwixt the “G, H, and B” keys for folks who want to keep their trackpad interactions to a minimum. The keyboard has a slim speaker grille on either side, with the power button/fingerprint reader positioned above the right side grille.

There’s not much to see on the laptop’s undercarriage. You’ve got five screws, six rows of vents, three rubber feet (two short, one long), and the pinhole used to hard reset the system in case of an emergency.

Lenovo gives you just enough ports to support most of your peripherals. However, you’ll still need to invest in a dock or an SD card reader as it’s the one slot the laptop lacks. But you do get a pair of USB-A ports, two Thunderbolt 4 ports, an HDMI 2.1 port, a headset jack, and a Kensington Nano Security lock slot.

The T14s is a wee thing. Its 12.4 x 8.6 x 0.67-inch frame weighs only 2.7 pounds. That’s lighter than the HP EliteBook Ultra (2.97 pounds, 12.3 x 8.8 x 0.33-0.57 inches) and the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED (2024) (2.8 pounds, 12.3 x 8.7 x 0.59 inches). However, the Dell XPS 13 9345 (11.6 x 7.8 x 0.6 inches) proved to be the lightest of this cohort at 2.6 pounds.

Display, webcam, and audio

We meet again matte display. Although I wish the 14-inch, non-glare, panel was brighter than the 400 nits Lenovo states, it’s fairly color accurate, at least on the sRGB gamut, where it hit 99% on my colorimeter. Adobe sRGB, DCI-P3 and NTSC were further from the mark at 79% for the two former gamuts and 74% for the latter.

I saw vibrant colors during the trailer for “The Forge.” Actor Aspen Kennedy’s golden brown skin gleamed against his teal cap and green t-shirt. The orange and yellow safety vests worn by the factory workers drew my eyes to the fine mesh stitching I could see clearly in the close-up shots.

I was more impressed by the attention to detail during my webcam test shots. The 1080p shooter captured the fine lines in my powder pink dress. Granted, there’s only so much a webcam can do, as the fur on some of my plushies looked like clumps of amorphous mosaics. From my dress, to the fading color of some of my locs, to my stuffed animals, the color was spot on. Throw on some AI background video conferencing effects and the T14s’ shooter will be great for video conferencing. And when you’re done, just slide that physical shutter over the lens to keep any prying eyes at bay.

Lenovo gave this ThinkPad a pair of 2W speakers that come out of left field with the level of volume they serve. Are they going to outperform a pair of desktop speakers or even a good Bluetooth speaker? No, but they sound great for a business laptop, where good audio is usually a nice-to-have feature rather than a necessity. When I listened to Stevie Wonder’s “Easy Goin’ Everything (My Mama’s Call)" the harmonica took center stage, bolstered by a keyboard. My favorite thing was how clear the cymbals sounded. Tracks with a heavier bassline, like Vince Staples’ “Slide” or Lil Nas X’s “Montero” will leave you looking for the aforementioned lows, but again, audio quality is a nice to have.

You can tweak the audio quality somewhat with the Dolby Access presets, which these days I prefer to DTS:X’s latest offering.

Keyboard and touchpad

Remember kids, smile-shaped keys mean happy fingers. At least that’s the case on most Lenovo laptops, particularly ThinkPads. My fingers bounced from key to key on the island-style keyboard, reaching a nice 82 words per minute on the MonkeyType typing test with 97% percent accuracy. That’s much better than the 70 wpm I hit on my home keyboard.

You don’t really appreciate a feature like spill-proof keys until one of your Cane Corso puppies with their derpy, boundless energy comes crashing into you for mastiff-sized cuddles, spilling half a glass of water across the keyboard. After the initial shock of the drooly assault wore off, I calmly wiped the system down, petted my dog, and got right back to work. No harm, no foul.

The keyboard backlighting is my only gripe as it could have been brighter. But I could still read all the lettering in the dark cave that is my basement with all the black velvet curtains which block out most light.

The Mylar TrackPad is smooth and grants fast and responsive inputs. I had no difficulties navigating web pages, zooming in on photos, or switching between alternate desktops. The bottom corners and each button on the Clickpad provide ample feedback with audible clicks. And while I understand the use case for the TrackPoint, and it performs its functionality well, I can’t get into it. But hey, there are plenty of consumers who like having the raised textured nub at their fingertips.

Performance

The ThinkPad T14s has a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite X1E-78-100 CPU with 32GB of RAM. It’s the lowest tier of Qualcomm’s X Elite chips, lacking dual-core boost, but it can still be a formidable productivity machine. I put the T14s through its paces. Not only did I write this very review on the laptop, I did some light photo editing including resizing large batches of images, I also watched a few Twitch streams, and fell down a deep Poppy’s Playtime theory hole. I also had my routine of at least 70 tabs open in Google Chrome and the T14s took it all like a champ.

Despite its lower-tier status, the T14s held its own on most of the synthetic benchmarking. The laptop had a strong showing in each test. However, the Dell XPS 13 (9430) with its Snapdragon X Elite X1E-80-100 processor proved to be the proverbial thorn in the T14s' side time after time. Let’s start with Geekbench 6 (single and multi) where the Lenovo bested both the Zenbook 14 (OLED) with its Intel Core 7 155H processor and the EliteBook Ultra which has the same CPU as the T14s. However, the Dell came out on top by a noticeable margin.

Moving on to the Cinebench 2024 test, the ThinkPad would have been the victor if not for the Dell, as it easily sailed past the Zenbook 14 and Elitebook Ultra. It was a similar story on the Crossmark benchmark. But when I ran the 3DMark Time Spy and Time Spy Extreme tests, the T14s came within striking distance of the XPS 13, even surpassing it on the latter benchmark. Meanwhile, the Zenbook 14 dusted the competitors with a strong score of 3,601. The Ultra fell short with a meager result of 1,793.

As with most integrated graphics chips, the ThinkPad’s Adreno GPU really isn’t cut out for heavy-duty gaming. There are always exceptions to the rule, however, as you can get away with older AAA titles and indie titles from developers such as Supergiant Studios. That’s why I can do run after run on Hades II in seamless, beautiful Technicolor and why Dragon’s Dogma 2 was a stuttering waste of time.

Since it’s an ARM machine, a lot of Windows programs aren’t optimized to run on this ThinkPad. Or they may not even run at all. But according to Lenovo, 175 premium apps are currently supported on the operating system. Otherwise, you’ll have to rely on the Windows on ARM Prism emulator. As far as AI goes, the T14s’ integrated NPU handles most of the heavy lifting. But that’s not saying much, as a lot of that fancy AI stuff is done in the cloud.

The T14s doesn’t have the longest battery life, but it’s definitely up there. It took 14 hours and 25 minutes at full brightness before I got the low power warning on the laptop’s 58 Whr battery. And this was after playing a couple of runthroughs of Hades II. The notebook has Rapid Charge, which should recharge the notebook to 80% in an hour.

Should you buy the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6?

You should buy the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 if:

• You want a lightweight, highly durable laptop
• You want a laptop that’s a portable powerhouse
• You want a laptop with some serious endurance
• You want a laptop with one of the best keyboards on the market

You shouldn’t buy the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s if:

• You want a more powerful system, Qualcomm or otherwise
• You want a laptop with a brighter display

The Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 has all the trappings befitting a flagship business laptop. Qualcomm continues to prove that it can hang with or even surpass Intel without sacrificing endurance. It’s a portable powerhouse that can handle most productivity tasks along with content creation and coding. Typing is a breeze with Lenovo’s world-renowned keyboard and a potent set of speakers. A webcam with accurate color and sharp details just sweetens the pot.

But since the T14s doesn’t have the most powerful Qualcomm chipset, if you want more performance, you’ll want to check out the Dell XPS 13 (9430). In addition to the processor, the XPS 13 has a brighter screen and comparable battery life, but it lacks durability and the abundance of ports. Overall, the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 is one of the best business AI PCs of the year.