Lenovo ThinkPad Z16 Gen 1
A strong performer with a gorgeous 16in screen and striking design, but battery life is mediocre
“With a speedy 1TB SSD, capable of 6,643MB/sec reads and 4,991MB/sec writes, Windows 11 Pro flies along”
SCORE PRICE £2,081 (£2,497 inc VAT) from box.co.uk
The Z16 is the big brother to the Z13 ( see issue 338, p56), with both laptops treading a new path for ThinkPad design: a silver lid, shiny metal trim and sleek dimensions make this 16in laptop stand out.
As does the screen itself, with eye-catching OLED in our review sample (part code 21D4-001EUK). You can choose between three panel specs if you customise the Z16 at lenovo. com, but I would stick with this touchscreen version. It’s a glossy panel, but the anti-reflection coating is quite effective.
It’s packed with colour, covering 99% of the DCI-P3 gamut with an average Delta E of 0.39. Peak brightness of 397cd/m2 may not sound spectacular, but you will have no problem viewing this panel outside. Whites are clean, with a measured colour temperature of 6467K not far off the 6500K ideal.
Then there’s the keyboard, which is manna from typing heaven. It lacks the deep travel of some ThinkPads, but there’s still a crisp, satisfying action and Lenovo’s usual attention to detail. This extends to the clearly labelled function keys, which you can customise via Lenovo’s excellent Vantage software.
As with the Z13, I’m not a fan of the haptic touchpad. I’m sure I would get used to it if using the Z16 every day, but I miss the feel of a “real” touchpad. The red trackpoint is still there, though, and serves a hidden purpose: double-click it and a collection of shortcuts appears, including a way to add voice notes, adjust volume and control the 1080p webcam. This, incidentally, is excellent, capturing clear images that are packed with detail, and the audio pickup from the mic array is just as good.
Rather than include a number pad, Lenovo places meaty speakers on either side of the keyboard. Vocals come through clearly, you can hear detail such as plucked strings, and the only negative is a lack of bass.
Even here, though, it’s better than most laptop speakers.
One of Lenovo’s braver decisions is to stick with USB-C ports rather than USB-A. Two support USB 4, with the other (marked as the power input) stuck on USB 3.2 Gen 2. That’s it for outputs, unless you count the 3.5mm jack, with a full-size SD card slot and a SIM slot to take advantage of the integrated 4G (not 5G) connection.
Lenovo chooses AMD rather than Intel as its processing partner, with the powerful Ryzen 9 Pro 6950H in our model. It’s an excellent choice for demanding users, with eight performance cores and 16 threads powering Geekbench 5 to 8,249 in the multicore section and a comfortable 6,614 in PCMark 10. With a speedy 1TB SSD, capable of 6,643MB/sec reads and 4,991MB/sec writes, Windows 11 Pro flies along. It helps to have 32GB of
LPDDR5 memory, too, even if it’s soldered on.
AMD’s RX 6500M graphics is a cut above integrated offerings, as revealed by its 4,591 return in 3DMark Time Spy. You’ll need Low settings to get playable frame rates on recent games at the panel’s native resolution, but at 1080p High it averaged 95fps in F1 2022, 69fps in Shadow of the Tomb Raider and 47fps in Metro Exodus.
I would also draw your attention to the excellent three-year warranty, and the fleet of security tools built in here. AMD’s Ryzen Pro chips add similar management and protection to Intel’s vPro, and there’s a fingerprint reader and facial recognition, too. It’s also great to see EPEAT Gold and TCO certification for this laptop.
There’s only one amber warning, and that regards battery life. I’ve come to expect a minimum of eight hours from professional laptops in our light-use tests, but the
72Wh battery inside this 1.9kg machine only lasted for around six hours. And that’s with the panel at 150cd/m2 rather than its full glory. Lenovo has done its best to minimise the size of its
135W power supply, but it’s still going to add half a kilo to your bag.
This weakness robs the ThinkPad
Z16 Gen 1 of a Recommended award, but if you’re looking for a powerful, bigscreened, business laptop – and you don’t wish to go down the route of Apple’s 16in MacBook Pro – then it’s an excellent choice. TIM DANTON
SPECIFICATIONS
8-core/16-thread AMD Ryzen 9 Pro 6950H processor 32GB LPDDR5-6400 RAM AMD Radeon RX 6500M graphics
16in 3,840 x 2,400 60Hz OLED touchscreen 1TB M.2 PCI-E Gen4 SSD 1080p webcam 4G broadband Wi-Fi 6E Bluetooth 5.1 2 x USB-C 4 USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 SD card reader 3.5mm combo jack 72Wh battery Windows 11 Pro 354 x 237 x 15.8mm (WDH) 1.9kg 3yr Premier Support warranty