Lenovo Thinkpad Z16 and Z13

[kuro68k]

After being previewed back in January, these two laptops are now available.

 

Ryzen 6000 series CPU

IGPU or Radeon 6000

32GB RAM max, soldered

The Z16 has 2x NVMe slots

LCD or OLED screen

USB-C only, but does support USB 4.0

23 hours battery life with video playback

 

Not many reviews out there, but the ones that are available seem pretty impressive. Anyone got one? Anyone tried Thunderbolt docks with the USB 4 port?

 

I'd love to see LTT do a review.

[dizmo]

All the RAM is soldered?
Disappointing.

[kuro68k]

Yeah, it's the only real let down with this laptop. Still, 32GB is decent. A 64GB option would be nice.

 

Well, that and I can't seem to order it with a Japanese keyboard from the UK.

[powertoys]

4 hours ago, dizmo said:

All the RAM is soldered?
Disappointing.

LPDDR RAM is only available in soldered form. It's a lot faster and runs on much lower voltage compared to standard SO-DIMM sticks, so I can definitely understand the tradeoff here.

[kuro68k]

9 hours ago, unnerfed cthun said:

LPDDR RAM is only available in soldered form. It's a lot faster and runs on much lower voltage compared to standard SO-DIMM sticks, so I can definitely understand the tradeoff here.

True, but I think it's time someone made some LPDDR modules. In fact, didn't Dell make some for their XPS line? Proprietary but still...

[Darkseth]

17 hours ago, kuro68k said:

23 hours battery life with video playback

Batterylife numbers on Windows Devices are usually very unrealistic

 

Notebookcheck got 11:55 hours: https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-ThinkPad-Z16-G1-laptop-review-Powerful-AMD-flagship-with-a-hickup.658764.0.html#toc-7

They used decent 150 nits Brightness, which is even too dark for a usual bright Day with alot of Daylight in your Room.

Those 11:55 hours also were probably a Videofile, not an online Video streaming.

 

Matthew Moniz claims 19 hours over the 3D Mark Modern office Benchmark. But take this with a grain of salt. This Benchmark could contain Idle Times too, and not 1^9 hours non stop working.
Could be 8-9 hours nonstop working with 10 hours idle inbetween, to simulate mixed usage. But well, he doesn't seem to "test" it by himself, but relies on a Benchmark with no comparison to any other Laptop. I personally would trust Notebookcheck more. Sorry Matthew.

He also claims, the Trackpad is nearly on Macbook level. Both Z-Models use a haptic touch trackpad with sensor recognition, similar to Macbook.

JustJosh had the Z13, and in his opinion, the Trackpad was very challenging to use. He did not like it. But he also doesn't like the Trackpoint (me neither), so he criticized that Mousebutton area.

However, his Batterytest seems accurate. a TINY little bit below the Macbook Air M2, same Result as Notebookcheck had (Z13 lasts for a tiny bit shorter than MBA M2).
 

Andrew Marc David claims 9-10 hours~ usage. Not sure, how his Test methology was.

 

So yea. 23 hours seem more fiction than the new Lord of the Rings series. Expect 8-11 hours maybe, depending on Workflow, how intense you're using it, background Applications, Displaybrightness etc - only counting in light workloads of course. Full Load is probably <2-3 hours as with most laptops.

 

I personally think, it's an interesting new fresh Wind in the Thinkpad Lineup. Good Webcam, GREAT CPU Choice for Z13 and Z16, USB 4 so you have basicly Thunderbolt (3 or 4 doesn't matter, both can do 40 gbit/s).

Soldered Ram is a bummer, but it has advantages. Buy as much as you need, and problem solved. It will most likely never break anyway.

I don't know why they kept the Trackpoint without "real" Mousebuttons.

 

Not having 64gb Ram is porbably their product strategy. Most of the Target audience won't need more than 32gb (most will be fine with 16). Anyone who needs 64gb Ram will probably chose a Workstation labled Model.

[kuro68k]

21 minutes ago, Darkseth said:

Batterylife numbers on Windows Devices are usually very unrealistic

 

Notebookcheck got 11:55 hours: https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-ThinkPad-Z16-G1-laptop-review-Powerful-AMD-flagship-with-a-hickup.658764.0.html#toc-7

They used decent 150 nits Brightness, which is even too dark for a usual bright Day with alot of Daylight in your Room.

Those 11:55 hours also were probably a Videofile, not an online Video streaming.

 

Matthew Moniz claims 19 hours over the 3D Mark Modern office Benchmark. But take this with a grain of salt. This Benchmark could contain Idle Times too, and not 1^9 hours non stop working.
Could be 8-9 hours nonstop working with 10 hours idle inbetween, to simulate mixed usage. But well, he doesn't seem to "test" it by himself, but relies on a Benchmark with no comparison to any other Laptop. I personally would trust Notebookcheck more. Sorry Matthew.

He also claims, the Trackpad is nearly on Macbook level. Both Z-Models use a haptic touch trackpad with sensor recognition, similar to Macbook.

 

In the same review they did say 11 or 12 hours for web browsing. Just shows of efficient the GPU's video decoding is. I can't remember what the screen brightness was but I prefer it not too bright anyway. I use a computer for work so don't want a bright light shining in my face all day, and make sure my monitor is positioned so sunlight doesn't fall directly on the screen.

 

Anyway, even 11 hours is way more than I need. If they offered a smaller battery I'd probably take it, just to decrease the weight.

 

21 minutes ago, Darkseth said:

JustJosh had the Z13, and in his opinion, the Trackpad was very challenging to use. He did not like it. But he also doesn't like the Trackpoint (me neither), so he criticized that Mousebutton area.

 

It's one of the new haptic ones, i.e. no click buttons but it has a vibration motor that simulates the feel of a tactile switch. Some people say it takes a bit of getting used to, some people say it needs the force adjusting in the settings. Personally I usually bring a mouse with me, unless it's a Thinkpad in which case the... uh... clit mouse, whatever they call it, is my preferred option.

 

21 minutes ago, Darkseth said:

I personally think, it's an interesting new fresh Wind in the Thinkpad Lineup. Good Webcam, GREAT CPU Choice for Z13 and Z16, USB 4 so you have basicly Thunderbolt (3 or 4 doesn't matter, both can do 40 gbit/s).

 

Yeah, and it's not like there is much competition at the moment. Not enough Ryzen 6000 laptops, and Intel ones all suffer from high power consumption and heat. It ticks all the boxes for me, you can save money by buying it without an OS... The only things I miss are 64GB of RAM and no USB A ports.

 

Well, NFC would be nice. And a Japanese keyboard. And the option to buy it without an SSD.

 

21 minutes ago, Darkseth said:

Not having 64gb Ram is porbably their product strategy. Most of the Target audience won't need more than 32gb (most will be fine with 16). Anyone who needs 64gb Ram will probably chose a Workstation labled Model.

 

Yeah, I looked at their workstations, but aside form mostly being Intel based they are a bit on the heavy side. Long long ago back in 2012 I bought an NEC laptop with 4GB of RAM, which was the maximum that mobile Intel chips supported at the time. It's been okay but is basically a Chromebook these days, because if you try to run more than a web browser it has issues.

 

I'm hoping that 32GB of RAM is enough. 4GB was low even back then, where as 32GB is decent today. Also with NVMe SSDs offering gigabytes per second of bandwidth it should make hitting virtual memory less of an issue. My current desktop has 32GB and it's been more than adequate, although I anticipate doing a bit more video editing and using VMs more regularly (primarily WSL) than I do today.

 

There is an option to get a Radeon 6000 mobile discrete GPU with 4GB of RAM, but I wasn't planning to. Maybe I should reconsider, but I was thinking I'll get a Thunderbolt dock with an eGPU, probably one of those cheap Intel ones because they have good video encoding. The on board GPU would only be used for travelling when I don't do really heavy stuff. Just concerned about Intel's drivers and OpenGL support, as I do CAD and DTP that use it.