Lenovo ThinkPad T16 G2 in review: Quiet office laptop with long battery life

The newest incarnation of the business classic bets on an established platform: Externally and internally, there are barely any changes compared with its predecessor ThinkPad T16 G1 . Pretty much only the CPU is updated, from Alder Lake to Raptor Lake. The competitors are laptops like the Acer TravelMate P4 , the Samsung Galaxy Book3 Pro 16 and the HP EliteBook 865 G9 .

Information regarding the chassis, connectivity and input devices can be found in the review of the ThinkPad T16 G1 . Lenovo puts a matte 16:10 low power display (16 inch, 1,920 x 1,200) into the ThinkPad T16 Gen 2. On the plus side for this panel, there is no PWM, it has a good contrast ratio and a comparatively high screen brightness.

There are four screen options for the T16 G2. Most interesting seems the available OLED screen, which offers a higher resolution (3,840 x 2,160), better black value and a larger color gamut cover than the other displays. The screen shows a good color accuracy ex factory: With a deltaE of just 1.

5, the panel is well below the critical mark (deltaE < 3). A calibration lowers the value to 1 and creates more balanced grey scale values. The panel pretty much covers the sRGB gamut, but not the wider AdobeRGB or DCI P3 gamuts.

The same is true for most of the competitors. Only the OLED panel of the Galaxy Book3 Pro covers the DCI P3 color gamut. The color profile we created is available for download for free.

A link is available in the grey box above. The IPS panel offers viewing angle stability. Using it in the outdoors is certainly possible, if the sun does not shine directly onto the screen.

Lenovo continues to drive double tracked and still offers both Intel (Raptor Lake) and AMD (Ryzen 7000) CPUs in the ThinkPad T16 G2 – we are reviewing an Intel model. The available Intel models cost between €1,380 and €2,200 in Germany. The reviewed variant roughly costs €1,850, a mid range model.

Instead of their own energy profiles, Lenovo ThinkPads use the Windows profiles. Depending on the chosen profile, the CPU/GPU performance varies widely. The profiles “best performance” (for benchmarks) and “balanced” (battery life) were used.

The Core i7-1355U (Raptor Lake) use two performance cores (hyperthreading, 1. 7 to 5 GHz) and eight efficiency cores (no hyperthreading, 1. 2 to 3.

7 GHz). In total, there are 10 CPU cores with 12 threads. The three energy profiles have a strong impact on the available multi core performance, while the single core performance that impacts every day usage is less effected.

“Balanced” delivers below average (multi) or exactly average (single) performance. “Best Performance” delivers above average results. The CPU pretty much performs identical in battery or plugged-in usage.

Only when the profile “Best Performance” is selected does the battery life impact the performance, as the Power Limit 1 is set to just 27 W. The CB15 loop test shows: sustained load results in the Power Limit 1 – as well as the clock rates – decreasing from the first to the seventh iteration. Afterwards, the performance is steady.

“Balanced” only uses the CPU boost performance for a very short time, with the CPU basically reverting to base clocks for most of the test. The system works without stuttering, providing enough performance for office and web-browsing and older games (low settings). For sustained load, the cooling system of the laptop is not powerful enough.

Also, Lenovo wastes some performance potential, as the memory (16 GB, DDR5-5200) only runs in single-channel mode. By putting in a memory module to achieve dual-channel mode, performance can be enhanced. The standardized LatencyMon test (browsing, 4K video, Prime95 CPU load) showed some DPC latency issues.

The system seems to struggle with real time audio. Future software updates may solve this issue or make it worse. A Union Memory SSD with a capacity of 1 TB (PCIe 4, M.

2 2280) serves as system storage. It is fast, but not among the fastest SSDs. Positive: We did not detect any thermal throttling under sustained load.

The ThinkPad T16 does not offer a slot for a second SSD. The Iris Xe G7 iGPU offers 96 Execution Units and reaches a peak clock rate of 1,3 GHz. This clock rate can be held indefinitely during the Witcher 3 load test (“Best performance”).

With the “Balanced” profile, the the GPU is limited to 1 GHz. The GPU allows for playing less demanding games with lower settings. The ThinkPad T16 is no gaming laptop.

The benchmark results are average (“Best performance”) or below average (“Balanced”). In any case, the GPU performance is limited due to the single-channel RAM. Thus, it can be improved by upgrading the system with a second RAM module.

The Lenovo ThinkPad T16 has a low noise output, just like its predecessor. The fan is often standing still or, if it is working, very quiet. Even in quiet surroundings, it is barely audible.

“Best performance” combined with the stress test leads to a noise output of 38. 6 dB(a). The laptop gets only moderately warm.

The highest temperature hot spots (43 to 46 degrees Celsius / 109 to 115 F) were measured during the load tests (stress test, Witcher 3). In everyday use, the ThinkPad laptop stays cool. The stress test (Prime95 and FurMark for one hour) is an extreme scenario to asses system stability under load.

CPU (P cores: 3. 2 GHz; E cores: 2. 5 to 2.

6 GHz) and GPU (1. 3 GHz) start out with high clock rates, which decrease during the test. The stereo speakers produce an acceptable sound, which does lack base though.

We did not detect any unexpected behavior in terms of power management. Stress test and Witcher 3 test show a decreasing power consumption during the test. The supplied charger (65 W) is sufficient for the maximum consumption.

The 16 inch laptop reaches 11:30 h in the WiFi test (simulated web browsing) and 13:44 h in the video test (Big Buck Bunny, H. 264, FHD, looped). Both tests are performed in the “Balanced” mode with special energy saver modes off and a screen brightness of 150 cd/m².

For the video test, the WiFi modules are turned off. Overall, the Lenovo ThinkPad T16 G2 delivers great battery life numbers that even beat out its predecessor – despite the lower capacity battery of this variant (52. 5 Wh vs.

86 Wh). This 86 Wh is optional for the T16 G2. Thanks to the 76 Wh battery, the EliteBook 865 G9 delivers even better battery life numbers.

The combination of the Core i7-1355U and 16 GB RAM (running in single channel mode) has no trouble with office tasks and web-browsing. In any case, it is recommended to upgrade the memory by putting in a second RAM module to unlock the full performance of the laptop. Lenovo is mostly just maintaining the existing platform with the ThinkPad T16 G2: Alder Lake gets swapped out for Raptor Lake – not many other features are changed compared with the predecessor.

A relatively low weight of ca. 1. 7 kg, a compact chassis and great battery life (WiFi: 11:34 h) – the T16 is without a doubt a very mobile laptop.

Positive: Two USB C ports with Thunderbolt 4 enable both PD charging and an easy integration into existing work-setups. Also, the newest incarnation of the ThinkPad T16 scores points with its low emissions. The large 16 inch laptop (1,920 x 1,200, IPS, sRGB, low power) in the work-friendly 16:10 format has left a good impression.

If users have needs of higher contrast ratios and better color gamut coverage, a T16 model with OLED (3,840 x 2,400) is available. A viable alternative to the ThinkPad is the HP EliteBook 865 G9 . It offers more computing performance, a much brighter screen and even better battery life.

It also has an LTE modem and is not very expensive. The review variant of the Lenovo ThinkPad T16 G2 costs €1,849 or €1,669 (education pricing) from Campuspoint. de.

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