Can you go two full work days without charging your laptop? Probably not, but the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 could change that.
It might look like any other ThinkPad on the outside, but the ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 is surprisingly powerful. In fact, it broke Laptop Mag‘s battery life record with a truly incredible score. If you’re in the market for a new laptop for work or travel, this one should definitely be on your shortlist.
Here’s a look at the record-breaking ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 and a few crucial reasons it should be your next business laptop.
Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6: The new battery life king
Battery life is important for any laptop, but it’s especially crucial for business laptops. After all, you can’t have your laptop dying on you halfway through the workday or in the middle of a layover. So, it’s not surprising that Lenovo prioritized battery life in the ThinkPad T14s Gen 6. What is surprising is how impressive the battery life is.
The ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 lasted over 21 hours on the Laptop Mag battery life test.
That’s not only an incredible score but it’s also record-breaking. The Dell XPS 13 previously held the “best battery life” title with a time of 19 hours and 1 minute. That’s a full two hours less than the ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 lasted.
It’s worth noting that both laptops feature Snapdragon X Elite processors, which may help explain their incredible battery life results. These chips are built for efficiency and it’s paying off. The ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 is the closest we’ve seen to a full 24-hour battery life, which is truly incredible.
I noticed this in my testing, as well. I used the ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 as my main work device for several days while I was reviewing it. I could go two full work days between charges. Of course, tasks like gaming drain the battery faster, but if you’re just doing lightweight tasks like word processing or a bit of video streaming, you probably won’t need to worry about plugging in this laptop every night.
Is this the top business laptop you can buy?
Don’t judge a book by its cover, or, in this case, don’t judge a laptop by its chassis. I wasn’t expecting the ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 to impress me as much as it did. After all, it looks like any other ThinkPad, with the characteristic, dated black plastic design. It’s the Snapdragon X Elite processor on the inside that counts, though.
This laptop offers stellar battery life and it performed well on our performance benchmarks. It also features a wealth of security tools and a fantastic keyboard. For the cherry on top, it’s lighter than it looks, at just 2.7 pounds. Those are the makings of a top-tier business laptop.
So, the question is: could the ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 be the best business laptop you can buy? It’s certainly in the running if you ask me. Of course, it has its flaws, like an underwhelming display, but that pales in comparison to its uniquely business-focused strengths. After all, if you want a device built for getting work done, traits like graphics performance or display quality are probably lower on your list of priorities than battery life and overall performance.
The only factor that may legitimately throw a wrench in things is app compatibility on the Qualcomm processor. The first wave of laptops with Qualcomm CPUs launched earlier this year, so they’re still relatively new. They use a different architecture (ARM) compared with Intel and AMD processors, which means some apps aren’t natively compatible with these laptops.
At least, not yet. I firmly believe Snapdragon-powered laptops will catch up on app compatibility over time. It’s just a matter of how quickly app developers can roll out Qualcomm versions of their apps. So, I wouldn’t worry too much about this in the long term, but it is worth checking if your most important apps are compatible with Qualcomm-powered Windows laptops. Our sister site TechRadar has a fairly comprehensive list of compatible apps you can use as a starting point.
If you want to see how the ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 compares to its rivals, take a look at our guide to the best business laptops and the best laptops for battery life. The ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 may soon earn a spot in the rankings, although it may have some competition from Apple‘s new M4 MacBook Pro.
