Initial Impressions from a T480s user: Lenovo Thinkpad T14 Gen 5 (AMD)

Seeing as the Thinkpad T14 Gen 5 has just recently launched, reviews and early impressions are hard to come by and I wanted to contribute my T14 G5 impressions here for the community and hope it helps those who are considering getting one. This post will only cover non technical impressions of my device for now. A full review with an overview of its performance, thermals, Linux experience and more will be in a separate post down the line when I have the time.

Background:

  • Bought the T14 G5 via Lenovo's website with my own money.
  • The device is purely meant for my personal use and will accompany me for work trips alongside my work laptop, a ThinkPad T480s (due for an upgrade by IT, but I delayed it as I love the T480s).
  • Previously used a Razer laptop but it is showing signs of failings (stuttering, BSOD). The Razer is not portable given the chunky power brick and poor battery life.

Specifications:

  • Processor: Ryzen 7 Pro 8840U (selected upgrade)
  • RAM: 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR5 5600MHZ (selected upgrade)
  • Storage: 1 TB SSD M.2 2280 PCIe Gen 4 (selected upgrade)
  • Display: 14' WUXGA (1920 x 1200) IPS, Anti Glare, Non-Touch, 100%sRGB, 60Hz, Low Power, Low Blue Light (selected upgrade)
  • Battery: 52.5 Wh
  • Further upgrades: 5mp RGB+IR with microphone comms bar, human detection, fingerprint reader, backlit keyboard & 65W USB-C Slim Adapter
  • Excludes: WWAN card and NFC reader
  • Warranty: 3 year depot + accidental international protection
  • Free gifts: 1 x Thinkpad Bluetooth Silent Mouse & 1 Thinkpad Essential Plus 15.6 backpack (Eco)

Purchase experience:

  • Bought via Lenovo's website. While brand new and recently launched, price listed was as I expected.
  • Lenovo holds a gamified spin & win voucher promo game with the maximum voucher code providing $299 off a $2k PC purchase (~15% discount). Reading through the terms and conditions of the game, the 299 voucher is made available only for purchases worth 2k and above. It is likely you will need to select a configuration above this amount for a chance to get the discount.
  • If your spec if under $2k, you will easily obtain the 8% discount or $100 off discount from just playing the promo game. If you receive a 5% discount voucher like 5OFFXX, simply change it to 8OFFXX and you might get the 8% version of it. Only the $299 voucher code seems to not play by the same rules, at least from what I had tried.
  • Understanding that Lenovo themselves are keen to make the sale as much as I wanted to purchase it, I reached out to the sales team via the chat function to ask if they can just give me the $299 voucher. After some back and forth and a 1-business day wait as my 'unusual' request was passed to sales management for some reason, they approved my request. I gave them my cart ID and they replied with a quote along with the discount I requested. I maxed out everything until I reached the minimum 2k minimum qualifying amount. Outside of warranty purchases, my device with the spec below was about $1.4k.
  • After converting the quote to order, my order was made in Hefei City and shipped from China via UPS. My free gift arrived 2 days earlier than my laptop. I received my laptop after about 1 week+.

Unboxing:

  • The silent mouse comes with a AA battery, is light and reminds me of the Apple Magic Mouse. It is slim and portable and will be in my work briefcase or backpack. I like how silent it is but the ergonomics of the mouse is subpar. I still prefer my Logitech MX Master 3 with its good support for my palm to rest on. Overall, it is functional but not my first choice.
  • The Thinkpad Essential Plus backpack is a pleasant surprise, at least functionally. The bag is comfortable to use, very light but has very little padding. External seams are good but internally you can see some shortcuts that Targus, the bag manufacturer has made (exposed threads that can be pulled, for instance). The bag has 4 compartments, 2 at the front (1 above for light peripherals and 1 below with more pockets), the main compartment and finally the laptop section. Visually, it is kinda fugly. They went overboard with the red ascent for the bag, giving it a rather gamer vibes compared to a professional looking bag that I can bring to the office. I will use the bag for gym or shorter trips instead.
  • Unboxing-wise, it came with a no nonsense box, just the laptop and paperwork, alongside the slim charging adapter.

Impressions:

  • Design: Compared to my T480s, the display has this nice and thin display barring the inverted notch that houses the 5mp camera (Windows Hello capable). The notch actually grew on me as I initially did not love how it looks to begin with. The notch also allows me to easily open the laptop display, which is handy given that the display case is rather thick and top heavy. I like the design, it does not deviate too far from older Thinkpad but has some modern elements that it really needs today.
  • Built quality: The laptop is made of PC +20% CF for both top and bottom parts. There's zero flex on the keyboard or when flexing the display (which can travel lower (close to 180 degrees). The hinge is solid, reminds me of older thinkpads and the display does not wobble. However, the display seems thick and this means one-handed opening is definitely a no-go. On the bottom half of the laptop, there are little to no flex on the keyboard section or palm rest area. If you hold it from the sides however, it seems to be less rigid and have some softness to it. Comparing it to my T480s, which is rigid and confidence inspiring, the T14 Gen 5 is a slight downgrade. If T480s reminds you of a heavy tank, then this T14 is like a sedan. There is some hollowness to the front of the chassis around the battery / palm rest area. Overall, this is not a deal-breaker for me. I recommend holding one in stores (when it is readily available) to see if it fits your expectation. If you are looking for a solid, tank-like chassis, with zero flex when holding the laptop one-handed, then this may dissapoint you.
  • Keyboard, Touchpoint & Trackpad: Reading through reviews, I came in mentally ready for an inferior keyboard but was pleasantly surprised at how fast I got used to it (your mileage may vary). It has a more flatter keycap surface compared to older Thinkpads. Users of the older Thinkpads will notice the difference in concavity. Travel distance feels the same based on just pressing both my T14 and T480s simultaneously (however, this is unscientific, and purely based on feel). I got used to the keyboard immediately upon use and with pretty good accuracy. The keyboard I have is also backlit, with 2-levels of brightness. Trackpad feels nice to use and the nipple is functional. Ctrl and Fn placement feel weird at first but again as I use a mechanical keyboard with the right placement, I was able to quickly adapt to it. The copilot key is also here for what it's worth. It is too early to say how useful it would be, for now it is more of a nice-to-have but underutilized key for now.
  • Display: I opted for a 60hz, low power panel for better battery life as finding wall outlets especially while travelling is a pain. At 400 nitts, it is plenty bright with good and accurate colours. No complains here and of all the upgrades I made when building my T14 Gen 5, this was my first upgrade.
  • Speaker: I generally use my headphones so I personally care little about the speaker. The laptop has 2 front firing speakers on both sides and is clear and loud. As I am no audiophile, I can't comment anything other than that at normal, mid volume, the sound is clear and serviceable.
  • Fans: Speaking of sounds, fan noise is mostly silent. Other reviewers commented on the high-pitch "eek" sound, but so far, I wasn't able to reproduce that issue either via heavy load like gaming or on startup. In short, it is mostly silent and the chassis was not hot when in heavy load. This is a huge step up from the hand warmer on my T480s which is just hot to use, especially on the right side of that laptop. (1/10 Update: The high pitch “eek” sound is appearing intermittently now. While still rare, it is regular enough to be noticeable. Not sure what the cause is but it usually happens during startup or on load).
  • Ports: Good selection of ports. Left: 2 USB-C (Thunderbolt 4 / USBC 4 40Gps), full size HDMI and a headphone jack. Right: 2 x USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 and Ethernet port. No complains here.
  • Performance: I will divide this into two halves, one on lighter use cases and another on heavier use cases like gaming. For the former, it is pretty good and I was able to open up my usual applications with ease. Browser experience with multiple tabs on Chrome is also fast and snappy. As it has both the latest Hawk Point processor and 32GB of RAM, the difference is noticeable compared to my older Thinkpad with 16GB. On heavier loads like gaming, I used Ghost of Tsushima and Dota 2 as a quick benchmark, one a demanding title (GoT) and another a gaming staple (Dota 2). GoT on high auto setting was about 30 fps while Dota 2 was around 90 fps. Both games were played while plugged to the wall outlet with performance battery profile. As the iGPU is the venerable AMD Radeon 780M, playing latest games at low-medium setting is perfectly playable.
  • Battery: So far, I could last the whole day (about 6-8 hours) with a mix of light to heavy use throughout the day. I am satisfied with its performance so far, at least for my day-to-day use case.
  • Repairability: I can foresee the T14 Gen 5 being relevant for years to come, seeing as customer replacement units (CRU) will be made available for users to install on their own. Inspirations were clearly taken from Framework and should be celebrated. I really like how RAMs can be upgraded again in dual channel SODIMM slots, M.2 SSD replacement can be a breeze and cables and screws are labelled by Lenovo for users to understand. Battery replacement is finally relatively easier to perform compared to the previous gen. For a full view of the repairability of the T14 Gen 5, do check out the iFixit repairability snapshot. Just be aware of some downsides inherent to most modern laptops, to which the T14 Gen 5 is no exception. Both USB-C ports and the wireless module are soldered to the motherboard and is a huge bummer. On a balance of things, this is still a W in my books.

Conclusion:

  • Personally, I am loving the value behind this T14 Gen 5 (AMD). It has the modern features I needed while in a slim form factor. I can even fit this laptop inside the Uniq Vienna laptop sleeve that was meant for an Apple Macbook. Battery life is very good, it has a tall aspect ratio with a nice, low powered display and the keyboard takes little time to adapt. I can also do light gaming on the go. Longetivity wise, it is also both upgradeable and repairable. It is however, not a perfect upgrade. I do miss the concavity of the older keyboard, the chassis is not as sturdy and some parts are soldered to the motherboard. I will be keeping this laptop and will share a full review when I have the time to do so and with enough time spent with this laptop.

This initial impression was written entirely using the featured laptop. Had a great time typing on this keyboard and happy to take some questions if I have the answers to it here. Hope this help you with your research for the T14 Gen 5