Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 6 2024, Ryzen 5 7535U, 16GB, 256GB SSD, Black

The ThinkPad E14 Gen 6 nails ports and reliability, ranking at the 83rd and 82nd percentiles respectively. But the 256GB SSD at the 24th percentile is a real letdown, and the display is just average. It's a fine office laptop if you can snag it near USD 979, but the storage will haunt you.

The Ryzen 5 7535U is a 6-core, 2.9GHz chip that sits at the 54th percentile in our database. That's about average. It'll chew through browser tabs, Office apps, and light coding without breaking a sweat. The 16GB of DDR5 helps, though that's also just middle of the pack at the 55th percentile. The integrated Radeon 660M is at the 59th percentile, which means it's fine for video playback and very light gaming, but don't expect much beyond that. The gaming score of 18.1 out of 100 tells the real story. This is not a gaming machine.

The real bottleneck is storage. 256GB NVMe SSD at the 24th percentile is rough. Windows 11 Pro alone eats a chunk of that, and you'll be juggling files before you know it. The good news is the port situation is strong. Two USB-C, three USB-A, HDMI 2.1, Ethernet, and Wi-Fi 6. That's a workstation-level selection at the 83rd percentile. You won't need dongles for most setups.

Stacked against the Apple MacBook Air M4, this ThinkPad gets embarrassed on display quality, battery life, and raw performance. The Air's screen and efficiency are in a different league. But the ThinkPad fights back with ports. Ethernet, three USB-A, and HDMI 2.1 are things the Air simply doesn't offer. Against the ASUS ROG Flow Z13 or HP OMEN Transcend 14, the E14 Gen 6 looks like a office drone at a LAN party. Those machines have discrete GPUs and high-refresh displays. The ThinkPad's gaming score of 18.1 is a joke next to them. But if you need a reliable workhorse with real connectivity, the ThinkPad holds its own. The MSI Raider and Dell Premium are also in different categories entirely, aimed at power users and premium buyers. The E14 Gen 6 is a budget business laptop trying to punch up.

Pricing is all over the place depending on where you look. In the US, listings range from USD 979 to USD 1,123 across 4 vendors. That's a USD 144 spread for the exact same machine. Shop around and you can save real money. The affordability score sits at the 45th percentile, which means it's not a bargain, but it's not outrageous either. In Canada, the spread is even wider at CAD 371, from CAD 1,368 to CAD 1,739 across 3 listings. For what you get, the lower end of those ranges is defensible. The higher end is harder to justify when you're getting a 256GB drive and a dim display.

The Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 6 lands in a weird spot. It's got a Ryzen 5 7535U, 16GB of DDR5, and a 14-inch 1920x1200 display, but the storage is a paltry 256GB. That's the kind of spec sheet that makes you squint and wonder who exactly this is for. Our database puts the storage at the 24th percentile, which is a polite way of saying it's one of the weakest configs we've seen in a modern laptop. But the port selection is a genuine bright spot at the 83rd percentile, and reliability sits at the 82nd. So it's not all bad news.

At 1.44kg (3.17 lbs), this thing is genuinely portable. The compact score lands at the 78th percentile, which tracks. It's thin enough to toss in a bag and forget about. But that 47Wh battery paired with a 300-nit display that only covers 45% NTSC means you're not getting a premium experience. The screen is middle of the pack at the 66th percentile. Fine for spreadsheets, rough for anything creative.

Skip this if you need storage, screen quality, or any kind of gaming performance. The 256GB SSD at the 24th percentile is a constant annoyance, and the 300-nit, 45% NTSC display is underwhelming for anything beyond basic productivity. If you're a student juggling large files, a creative who needs color accuracy, or anyone who wants to game even casually, look elsewhere. The gaming score of 18.1 out of 100 should be all the warning you need.

The ThinkPad E14 Gen 6 is a solid but unspectacular business laptop. The port selection and reliability are the real selling points, and the 16GB of RAM keeps things smooth. But that 256GB SSD is a dealbreaker for a lot of people, and the display is just okay. If you can find it at the lower end of the USD 979 range, it's a reasonable buy for office work and travel. Pay much more than that and you're overpaying for what you get.