Lenovo gave its ThinkPad line a bit of a shakeup at CES 2022, unveiling Z13 and Z16 models with a more modern design than some of the longer-running stables. I tested the original 16-inch model and was mostly on board with the new look, and Lenovo has now sent me a second-gen refresh to test. The design and features haven't really changed compared to the first generation, with Lenovo focusing mainly on a bump to performance.

My review unit of the ThinkPad Z16 (Gen 2) is built to a rather high-end spec, with a Ryzen 9 Pro CPU and discrete Radeon RX 6550M mobile GPU. While performance is snappy as expected when running on AC power, there's a serious drop-off as soon as you unplug. Even SSD speeds are cut nearly in half on DC power, making this a less mobile option than you might expect.

It's nevertheless a feature-laden laptop that should cater to professionals with more demanding workloads, and the 16-inch display is great for multitasking. It's secure, durable, and fun to use. It's just not going to be enough of a refresh to warrant an upgrade, for most people, over the first-gen model. Let's take a close look at what makes this laptop a winner and where it has room to improve.

About this review: Lenovo sent XDA a review unit of the ThinkPad Z16 (Gen 2). It had no input on the contents of this article.

Pricing and availability

The ThinkPad Z16 (Gen 2) is available primarily from Lenovo's official website. You'll find the broadest configuration options and frequent promotions that often knock 40% or more off Lenovo's "suggested" pricing. Lenovo likes to introduce laptops with massive price tags only to offer huge discounts upon release. You rarely want to buy a high-end Lenovo laptop at its full price.

At the time of writing, a ThinkPad Z16 (Gen 2) model with AMD Ryzen 5 Pro 7640HS CPU, integrated graphics, 16GB of RAM, 512GB SSD, and FHD+ non-touch display is down to $1,362. That's 40% off the suggested price of $2,269.

My review unit has an AMD Ryzen 9 Pro 7940HS CPU, 64GB of RAM, 1TB SSD, discrete Radeon RX 6500M mobile GPU, and UHD+ OLED display. This configuration regularly costs about $4,259, but at the time of writing, it is down to about $2,556. Configuring a model to its limit, with an AMD Ryzen 9 Pro 7940HS CPU, discrete AMD Radeon RX 6550M GPU with 4GB of VRAM, 64GB of RAM, 2TB SSD, and UHD+ OLED touch display, raises the regular price to $4,586. Again, it's discounted by 40% to about $2,752 at the time of writing. B&H has the laptop listed, but so far, it's only available for pre-order with a starting price of about $2,059.

Design and features

Aluminum design hasn't changed since the first generation

The ThinkPad Z16 (Gen 2) has top and bottom portions made from aluminum, and Lenovo has moved to using recycled materials throughout. The top uses 75% recycled aluminum, the bottom 55%, and there's 90% recycled plastic in the speaker enclosure, battery pack, and AC adapter. The bottom chassis is accented with polished flat edges, and you still get a two-tone colorway with an Arctic Grey lid and black base. There's no distinguishable physical difference between the first- and second-gen models.

The laptop is put together well. The lines come together nicely, and the chassis is solid enough that it doesn't creak when twisted. In fact, it doesn't really twist at all. You'll have to be comfortable with some extra weight from the all-metal design — models with OLED display are the lightest at 3.99 pounds (1.81kg), climbing to 4.28 pounds (1.94kg) for the FHD+ touch display — but for a 16-inch laptop, it's hard to complain.

The camera's features are plentiful, but the 1080p resolution falls behind even some consumer laptops in 2024.

Along the top of the display is a reverse notch that houses the webcam and sensors required for Mirametrix Glance and its additional features. The notch also makes it easier to open the laptop's lid. Glance, handled through Lenovo's View app, adds many video enhancements and tools. Looking at privacy features, you can set up the camera to watch for people looking over your shoulder, going so far as to blur the screen entirely until they depart. Enhancement are also available for standard video conferencing.

While there is an IR sensor for Windows Hello facial recognition, it doesn't look like there's an option to have your laptop automatically lock and unlock when you depart or approach. Two 360° far-field microphones with Dolby Voice support are embedded into the reverse notch as well, and they do a great job of picking up my voice without adding a bunch of background noise.

My biggest issue here is the 1080p camera resolution. We recently reviewed the HP Spectre x360 14, a consumer laptop with a 9MP webcam. An FHD resolution does a good enough job. Still, a laptop this expensive should probably work on upgrading its main camera, especially now that consumer laptops are putting such a heavy focus on the camera.

The laptop includes two USB4 ports (the next best thing to Thunderbolt, which isn't usually available on the AMD platform), one USB-C 3.2 (Gen 2), a 3.5mm audio jack, and a UHS-II SD card reader. I love the addition of the card reader, which is becoming something of a rarity on modern laptops. If you're a photographer or simply often use removable storage, this will save you from having to reach for a dongle. Remember that you can still get most of the benefits of a powerful Thunderbolt 4 dock if connected to this laptop.

A 2W speaker is located on either side of the keyboard, covered by a pinhole grille. Dolby Audio settings in the Lenovo Vantage app let you change between popular presets, and Dolby Atmos is included for improved spatial audio. Music sounds great, with plenty of bass and treble. The speakers are loud without distortion, and the aluminum body gives a solid foundation. Whether you're talking to colleagues or enjoying some tunes, you won't be disappointed with the audio hardware.

Wireless connectivity is handled by Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3. Whereas the first-gen Z16 had the option for 5G/4G LTE connectivity, this feature seems to have disappeared for the second generation.

Keyboard and touchpad

The TrackPoint nub is more useful than ever

The biggest departures from the ThinkPad standard are the keyboard and Sensel touchpad. In our ThinkPad Z16 (Gen 1) review, XDA Editor-in-Chief Rich Woods said, "[...] it's a big part of modernizing what makes a ThinkPad a ThinkPad."

This laptop looks a lot like what the XPS 15 — now reconfigured as the XPS 16 for 2024 — used to look like, with speakers flanking the keyboard and smooth palmrests with sizable touchpad. ThinkPad diehards will notice the lack of physical TrackPoint buttons, usually arranged along the top of the touchpad. They're still there, only they're incorporated seamlessly into the rest of the touchpad for a cleaner look. Haptic feedback nevertheless provides a satisfying "click" when pressed.

The TrackPoint's new quick menu is more useful than I expected, giving the pointer new purpose more than 30 years after its introduction.

The red pointing nub, the other half of the TrackPoint duo, remains at the center of the keyboard. It has a new trick, giving it a bit of purpose even for those who would otherwise only ever use the touchpad. A firm double-tap on the pointer brings up a menu with a bunch of handy shortcuts. There's space for four on the immediate menu; by default, it has a microphone, voice typing, battery, and speaker settings showing. However, you can swap any of them out with Dolby noise suppression settings, input lock for cleaning, and camera controls. You also get a shortcut to the Sensel haptic touchpad settings. It's a more useful addition than I was expecting.

Keys have about 1.35mm of key travel, which is the norm for a bunch of the more modern, high-end ThinkPads. You can still get 1.5mm of travel or more on other models, but this is a decent compromise. Typing is smooth, if a bit mushy, and I was able to type thousands of words without any problems during my time testing and using the Z16 (Gen 2). Testing the first-gen model's touchpad a couple of years ago, I found that there were occasional ghost touches that would bounce my cursor around the screen when I wasn't intending to move it. This seems to be remedied, whether on the Lenovo or Sensel side. Next to the arrow keys is a built-in fingerprint reader to be used as an alternative to facial recognition through Windows Hello.

Display

Nothing new for Gen 2

Lenovo is offering the same displays as in the first-gen Z16, so anyone hoping for a higher refresh rate than 60Hz will have to look elsewhere. There are three display options available. The most basic has a 1920x1200 (FHD+) resolution, 16:10 aspect ratio, about 400 nits brightness, anti-glare finish, and non-touch panel. It focuses on delivering 100% sRGB coverage. There's also an FHD+ version with touch and an anti-reflective and anti-smudge finish to better suit the touch functionality. This, too, focuses on delivering 100% sRGB color.

My review unit has the high-end touch option with 3840x2400 (UHD+) resolution, OLED panel, anti-reflective finish, DisplayHDR 400 and Dolby Vision support, and broader color reproduction. In my testing, the display hit 100% sRGB, 96% AdobeRGB, and 100% DCI-P3 color, all excellent results. Brightness dropped to just 5 nits, great for working late hours, and it peaked at 393 nits.

The OLED display is pretty much perfect, save for the refresh rate. We're now seeing high-end 16-inch laptops ship with high-refresh displays — the new XPS 16 for 2024 has FHD+ at 120Hz or UHD+ at 90Hz — and Lenovo not at least bumping the FHD+ models up to 120Hz seems like a missed opportunity to add some comfort and potentially pull in graphics designers.

Performance

Significant slowdown on DC power

Lenovo's Z-series is centered around the AMD platform with no Intel options. The Ryzen Pro chips are AMD's answer to Intel vPro, offering extra security and manageability features for a professional life. My review unit is equipped with the high-end Ryzen 9 Pro 7940HS, with eight cores, 16 threads, and a base TDP of 35W.

Integrated Radeon graphics come standard, but you can upgrade to a discrete Radeon RX 6500M mobile GPU with 4GB of VRAM. The RDNA2 GPU is about as powerful as a Nvidia RTX 3050, so don't expect astounding performance. It will handle some lighter gaming, but don't buy it with the expectation that it will perform as well with games as it will with productivity tasks. And if you need robust GPU performance for specialized work, this isn't what you want.

The ThinkPad Z16 (Gen 2) offers robust security, starting with the CPU and expanding out to the many user features.

The Zen 4 HS-series chips in the Z16 (Gen 2) bring a performance increase over the Gen 1's Zen 3+ hardware. Is it enough to warrant an upgrade from the first-gen Z16 to the second-gen Z16? Probably not. Considering how little has changed outside the performance hardware, those with a first-gen model will be hard-pressed to spend big again.

I put together the following table to show how the second-gen Z16 compares to other laptops we've recently tested.

It's interesting to see how closely the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H compares in these tests. Even its integrated graphics, which were seriously buffed, aren't that far off from the discrete RX 6500M GPU. In our Spectre x360 14 (2024) review, XDA Editor-in-Chief Rich Woods noted that it "[...] allows you to do more with your PC than you could before." Comparing Ryzen Pro to the mighty M3 Max CPU available in the MacBook Pro 16 we reviewed, it's clear that Apple still has the strong upper hand. That's even more true when we look at performance differences between AC and DC power.

Working regularly on the Z16 (Gen 2), I often noticed a slowdown when using DC power. This affected everything from app launch times to web browsing, where scrolling became choppy enough to be an annoyance. It seemed like AMD had previously solved its DC performance slowdown, but it's back with a vengeance here. Even the SSD has its performance cut nearly in half when you unplug the AC adapter.

Having a laptop this expensive struggle with basic tasks like web browsing and light photo editing on DC power is a letdown. When it's plugged in, you'll love the snappy performance, but that's only half the story. And battery life isn't really impressive, either, at least with the high-end 4K OLED and Ryzen 9 Pro unit. Using PCMark 10's modern office rundown, I saw just four hours and 42 minutes with Windows 11 set to "Best performance" and brightness set to about 200 nits.

With the "Balanced" Windows 11 profile, the laptop managed about six hours and 21 minutes. Real-world battery life will differ, but I regularly noticed the battery dip below one-third by about noon. I expected much better battery life, especially with such a performance dip on DC power. To maximize battery life, stick with integrated graphics and an FHD+ display.

Should you buy the ThinkPad Z16 (Gen 2)?

You should buy the ThinkPad Z16 (Gen 2) if:

• You love the ThinkPad brand but want something with a more modern design
• You're a fan of the AMD platform
• You want to keep your data safe with many layers of security

You should not buy the ThinkPad Z16 (Gen 2) if:

• You want long battery life
• You want a PC that doesn't struggle on DC power
• You want strong GPU performance
• You need a display with 120Hz refresh rate
• You're the owner of a first-gen ThinkPad Z16

The ThinkPad Z16 (Gen 2) didn't see a big refresh, receiving new AMD performance hardware in an otherwise identical chassis. It's going to have a hard time competing with the high-end 16-inch laptops already expected this year, and it's almost certainly not enough of an upgrade to warrant a re-buy for those with a first-gen Z16. It suffers from a notable performance decline on DC power, and battery life isn't remarkable enough to make up for it.

I like the design, and the features in place make it a fun laptop to use. It has an IR camera with a bunch of add-on features, like privacy alerts and smart enhancements, but the main camera is stuck at 1080p. That looked great a couple of years ago, but it should be considered basic in 2024. The dual top-firing speakers put out quality audio, and I love the new TrackPoint quick menu that makes the centered nub useful for even those who primarily use the touchpad.

There are a lot of great ThinkPads out there, and beyond that, we're seeing a lot of our overall favorite laptops get a big upgrade for 2024. If you're not particularly concerned about display refresh rate or performance on battery power, the Z16 (Gen 2) is a fun and secure laptop to use. But if you're a current owner of a first-gen Z16 or want to maximize mobile performance, there are better options on the market.